OK, I should be doing something else but instead I'm going to write about why being open to the unpredictable in gaming is good, using my experiences running @zedecksiew's Lorn Song of the Bachelor in @NecroticGnome's Old School Essentials as an example.

In this game, @gb_steve was playing a wizard, and by gum he was a proper old-school wizard, in that he basically had only two HP. But he did have Charm Person, so he decided to go recruit some muscle in the local village.

So I roll on the random villager table, and I get a guy who's really into dire eel wrestling, equipped with spiked bracers for the purpose. I figure out which type of retainer in OSE that maps to and we're off to the races. This fellow's name is Gam Si Gam.

Now, dire eel wrestling already implies a personality here -- this is not a guy too interested in his own well-being! So he follows the party around, being tough but not super bright, and he's fine.

Until they are ready for the final showdown with ghost/crocodile-spirit The Bachelor. To get to the Bachelor's home, they have to cross a lake full of blind cave crocodiles. They have come prepped with some poisoned fish and a magic potion they bought from a witch.

This potion lets you blow freezing breath, so the cleric chugs it and just Superman breathes on the lake so the rest of the party can cross it. But the second wave of crocodiles is closing in, and Gam rushes in to protect his "best friend" from them.

Now Gam has one hit die, some spiked bracers, and a can-do attitude. His attack bonus is -1. These cave crocodiles are going to eat his lunch. But he jumps into the water and has a go, losing half his HP in the first round.

The PCs shoot at one of the crocodiles, distracting it (and it dies because it already ate some of the poisoned fish), but now *another* one piles in to attack Gam. And it just *cannot* hit him. They are pretty tough and his AC is not so great, but that's how it goes sometimes.

So as the party run away, Gam Si Gam makes his escape -- he must, we reason, be a good swimmer since after all he's a dire eel wrestler! And he lurches bleeding out of the water and the PCs get him to safety -- well, into the lair of a predator spirit which isn't safety per se.

And that's it. A random NPC, a minor background detail, and one component of a larger fight. But it was really fun and compelling, and the PCs basically decided from this point that Gam was a good dude and they liked him.

And so @JubalBarca commemorated him in song. And I think that's a really good example of how weak PCs, dire necessity, and random rolls (if the tables are good) can lead to really memorable games.