Randomization Charts for the unprepared

Anyone who has ever had the audacity to write plot for group of role players should know that 9 times out of 10 this is a fool's errand.  I've been a part of plenty of games where our game master wrote some Shakespearean narrative, beautiful wordy descriptions of neon cities, and lush verdant rolling hills.  Then we, as players, said screw you and your plot we're going in the complete opposite direction and no one can stop us.

Totes a real conversation

GM: "You have to defeat the dragon, its the only way to save Miami."

Players: "Naw, we're going to Orlando."

GM: "You can't be serious."

Players: "Yeah screw you and screw that dragon."

Now this is not to say you shouldn't plan, you absolutely should, if you don't do some level of planning your game won't get very far.  The trick, at least in my experience, is to have enough planning done where if the the players aren't creating plot on their own you have something for them to do that feels substantial.  One the major difficulties is having something ready to roll when your players go off the rail. When they abandon the dragons and greater demons you've planned for them to fuck off to god knows what kind of silly shenanigans they dreamed up you have to have something ready to go.

One of the things I'm thinking about doing for my Apocalyptia games is designing a small program that randomizes certain events and NPCs for me.  The rule book has some charts that do this but I don't feel they provide enough variety for my style.  Bellow I've included a sample screenshot of some randomization tables for post apocalyptic suburbs.  

Enjoy.