Free tables Pockets & trinkets

Trinket Table — 100 Random Trinkets for 5e, d100

A free d100 table of 100 original trinkets for 5e: small, odd objects with a hint of story, for starting kit or a pocket worth searching.

A trinket is worth nothing and says a great deal. Handed out at character creation, it's a question the player has to answer: where did your character get a wedding ring that's been cut through with shears? Found in a dead bandit's pocket, it's a find that isn't money, and sometimes it's the start of something.

Roll d100. Each result is one object and one detail. Leave the detail unexplained; let the player or the party decide what it means, and remember what they said.

The table

100 results. Roll d100.

d100	Result	What happens
1	Ring of Nail	An iron nail bent into a neat ring, with a knot of red thread tied round it.
2	Cut Seal	A wax seal showing a fox holding a key, cut carefully from a letter that's long gone.
3	Notched Needle	A bone knitting needle with thirty-one notches cut along it. The last one is fresh.
4	Pressed Leaf	A pressed oak leaf in a square of oilcloth, labelled with a date forty years ago.
5	Ferry Token	A lead token for a ferry crossing that hasn't run in a generation.
6	Wax Thimble	A brass thimble filled with sealing wax, with a small fingerprint pressed into it.
7	Carved Cork	A cork carved into the face of a grumpy old man, with a hole where his pipe would go.
8	Map Corner	The torn corner of a map, showing only sea and the word "here" in pencil.
9	Mended Spoon	A wooden spoon, cracked and mended with silver wire worth far more than the spoon.
10	Contrary Marble	A glass marble with a bubble inside that drifts the wrong way when you tilt it.
11	Prize Ribbon	A blue ribbon for "Second Best Pig", from a fair nobody here has heard of.
12	Keyhole Plate	A polished brass keyhole plate. The lock and the door it came from are gone.
13	Love Token	A copper coin hammered flat and scratched with two sets of initials. One set has been scratched out.
14	Key in Wax	A lump of red wax with the shape of a small key pressed into it. The key has been taken away.
15	Disgraced Button	A horn button stamped with the badge of a regiment that was disbanded in disgrace.
16	Bladed Hairpin	A long iron hairpin with a tiny blade folded into the head.
17	Odd Bead	A string of nine prayer beads. The ninth is a carved wooden acorn.
18	Scorched Boat	A child's carved boat with a name painted on the side and a scorch mark across the stern.
19	One Mitten	A small knitted mitten with a pocket sewn inside the cuff. The pocket is empty.
20	Second Finder	A sealed letter addressed "To whoever finds this second".
21	Gap-Toothed Comb	A comb carved from one piece of bone, with three teeth missing in a row.
22	Shopping List	A list in a neat hand: flour, lamp oil, rope, rope, more rope.
23	Closed Padlock	A tiny padlock, locked shut around nothing.
24	Painted Shell	A spiral seashell with an eye painted on the inside of its lip.
25	Bird Ring	A copper ring of the kind fixed to a messenger bird's leg, stamped with the number 7.
26	Strong Lens	A single spectacle lens, ground so strong it makes your eyes water.
27	Holed Card	A playing card, the five of cups, with a hole punched clean through the middle cup.
28	Riderless Horse	A tin horse from a toy set, missing its rider, painted in a noble house's colours.
29	Cut Ring	A thin gold wedding band, cut through with shears.
30	Burnt Recipe	A greasy card for "Gran's Fortifying Broth". The last ingredient has been burned off.
31	Old Arrowhead	A flint arrowhead far older than anyone's grandmother, on a leather thong.
32	Heather Sprig	A sprig of dried heather with a paper tag: "For luck, not for keeping."
33	Wooden Ear	A life-sized carved wooden ear, worn smooth as if it's often been held.
34	Pilgrim Badge	A pewter badge from a shrine to a god of the harvest, the pin snapped off.
35	Lavender Inkwell	A travelling inkwell, dry, that still smells of an ink nobody makes any more.
36	Southern Sundial	A brass pocket sundial set for somewhere far to the south. Here, it's always an hour wrong.
37	Holed Stone	A grey pebble with a natural hole through it. Through the hole, everything looks slightly further away.
38	Bitten Pipe	A clay pipe with tooth marks so deep they nearly go through the stem.
39	Nameless King	A cloth patch embroidered "Long Live the King", with no king's name on it.
40	Spoon Lure	A fishing lure made from a silver spoon handle, a blue feather and three hooks.
41	Funeral Notice	A printed funeral notice. In the margin, in the dead man's hand: "Not yet."
42	Winding Key	A small key for winding a clockwork toy. The toy is nowhere to be found.
43	Thumb Hymnal	A hymn book the size of a thumb, with one hymn heavily underlined.
44	Muffled Bell	A brass harness bell stuffed with wool so it can't ring.
45	Written Shell	A snail shell with writing on it too small to read without a lens.
46	Eight Knots	A plaited leather bootlace tied with eight knots, each one different.
47	Half a Tally	One half of a split tally stick, notched for a debt. Someone has the other half.
48	Last Performance	A theatre ticket for the night the theatre burned down.
49	Window Shard	A shard of blue glass from a chapel window, its edges worn smooth.
50	From the Dog	A charcoal sketch of a dog, signed "with love, from the dog".
51	Stubborn Knot	A short length of rope tied in a knot nobody can undo, and nobody wants to cut.
52	Beetle Cufflink	A single silver cufflink shaped like a beetle.
53	Mouse Saddle	A tiny, beautifully stitched leather saddle, sized for a mouse.
54	Salt Twist	A paper twist of salt, labelled "For the door".
55	Reserved	A small brass plate reading "Reserved", unscrewed from a pew or a tavern table.
56	Settled Top	A wooden spinning top that always comes to rest pointing the same way.
57	Red Quill	A black quill pen, its nib stained red. It isn't ink.
58	Endless Thread	A spool of thread so fine it's nearly invisible. Nobody can find the end.
59	Tin Medal	A tin medal for bravery, its ribbon replaced with a bootlace.
60	Bread Stamp	A wooden stamp for marking loaves: three ears of wheat and a small skull.
61	Kissed Mirror	A cracked pocket mirror with a lip-paint kiss on the glass.
62	Riddle Scrap	A riddle on one side of a scrap of paper. On the back is the answer, crossed out.
63	Empty Key Ring	An iron ring with twelve labelled hooks — cellar, chapel, attic, crypt — and no keys.
64	Toy Sword	A wooden toy sword with a real crossguard, salvaged from a real sword.
65	Moth in Amber	A drop of amber with a moth inside, its wings spread.
66	Filed Signet	A signet ring with the face filed smooth, as if someone wanted to stop being who they were.
67	Worn Sun	A horse brass shaped like the sun, rubbed so often that its face has gone.
68	Seed Packet	A paper packet of seeds labelled "Do not plant near the house".
69	Clay Bird	A small glazed bird with a hole in its back. Blow into it and it trills.
70	Stitched Bandage	A neatly rolled bandage with a name stitched along the edge in red.
71	Strange Counter	A carved playing piece from a board game nobody here knows how to play.
72	Grand IOU	An IOU for 100 gold pieces, signed by someone with a very grand name, and very much unpaid.
73	Wedding Cake	A slice of very old wedding cake, hard as stone, wrapped in lace.
74	Bare Needle	A compass needle without its case.
75	Button Eye	A black button eye on a scrap of cloth, cut from a doll.
76	Toad Stone	A smooth green stone shaped like a sitting toad, said to sweat near poison. It never has.
77	For the Dark	A fire steel engraved "For when it's dark", its flint worn almost away.
78	Mourning Brooch	A black brooch with a little glass window. Behind it is a folded square of paper.
79	Star Spur	A single rusty spur with a rowel shaped like a star.
80	Scraped Portrait	A miniature portrait of a woman in a fine collar, her face scraped off.
81	Dog Collar	A small leather collar with a brass tag: "Biscuit. Bites."
82	Blue Chalk	A stub of blue chalk worn to a point, as if it's marked a great many walls.
83	Fishbone Comb	A fish bone carved into a tiny comb, too fine for any hair.
84	Petition	A petition with forty signatures demanding the mayor "explain the well".
85	Unbroken Wishbone	A dried wishbone wrapped in paper reading "Not until we're home".
86	Weathervane Cock	A tin cockerel from the top of a weathervane, one leg bent where it was wrenched off.
87	Sling Bullet	A lead sling bullet stamped with the word "DUCK".
88	Fused Hourglass	A tiny hourglass whose sand has melted solid in the neck.
89	First in Line	A clay disc stamped with a number, the kind handed out for a place in a queue. It's number 1.
90	Puzzle Box	A wooden puzzle box. Opened, it holds a smaller puzzle box. That one won't open.
91	Lightning Glass	A twisted tube of glass dug from sand where lightning struck.
92	Unsent Letter	A soldier's letter home, never sent, mostly about the food.
93	Bronzed Shoe	A single baby's shoe, coated in bronze.
94	Walnut Shrine	A walnut shell that opens to show a tiny painted saint, the paint kissed away.
95	Unfinished Sampler	A small embroidery hoop with a half-stitched sampler: "Home is where the".
96	Cut Noose	A short length of hanging rope, cut, with a note pinned to it: "Didn't take."
97	Wooden Coin	A coin carved from wood and painted gold. Good enough to fool someone once.
98	Heavy Stopper	A cut-glass decanter stopper, far too heavy to be glass.
99	Charm Bracelet	A charm bracelet with eleven charms and one empty link waiting.
100	Your Own Hand	A note in your own handwriting that you don't remember writing: "Don't trust the ferryman."

Questions

What is a trinket in 5e?

A small object with no real value and a hint of a story. Characters often start with one, and they make good loot when you want a find that isn't coin. A trinket isn't magical unless the DM decides otherwise later.

How do I use trinkets in a campaign?

Give one at character creation and ask the player where it came from; the answer is free backstory. Then, once in a while, let one matter: the ferry token fits a slot in a door, or the name on the IOU walks into the tavern. Players notice when a thing they've carried for months turns out to count.

Can I use these alongside the standard trinket table?

Yes. All hundred are new, so they won't repeat anything already on your players' character sheets. Roll on either, or let a player roll on both and keep the one they like.