What’s the progression of power - shabby, bizarre, epic and ancient with cursed and sci-fi on their own? I’m wondering what the tables mean generally. Like shabby, sci-fi I understand. Epic makes sense. Bizarre and Ancient? No idea…
I know it’s always up to the DM, but I’m curious if there’s a path to follow with these easily for quick table rolls, I feel lost looking at them. Thanks!
A decent “progression,” if there even is one, is Shabby -> Ancient (basically, standard fantasy) -> Epic.
Feel free to mix in cursed or bizarre loot as you please for flavor. I almost never use those tables, honestly.
Sci-Fi is obviously its own critter.
But, you have it right: it’s totally up to the DM. And I don’t follow a strict progression. Mostly, I sprinkle in a few ancient and maybe one epic piece of loot per session for a standard fantasy arc.
You could do a few rolls off each table to give yourself a feel for the “level” of each one. Even Cursed loot generally has some small bit of usefulness.
As an aside, don’t forget that swapping things around (Sci-fi vs Magic, for example) can make for some interesting results. You could reskin them, or not- heck, give your mecha pilot an amulet of frog summoning.
The loot table titles are meant to be evocative—a hallmark of Runehammer style—capturing the theme of the table with just one adjective, which they do. These lists do not represent a super-strict table-by-table array of power groups; one of the coolest and most useful pieces of loot in the game for a well-developed and powerful character, the Arming Jacket, is a piece of Shabby Loot! (#82, ME p. 387) As has been suggested above, spend just a few diligent minutes sampling the tables, and you’ll have a better sense of not only the themes they represent but also the within-table variability that is present.