Jacob Marley
Adventurer
Oh, I agree. My players surprise me from time-to-time as well. Hence, why I used "generally" in my statement.
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
The Importance of Randomness
- Thread starter JonWake
- Start date
Oh, I agree. My players surprise me from time-to-time as well. Hence, why I used "generally" in my statement.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Here's my thing: I endeavor to be, when I am a DM, as much of a prep-less DM as possible.
I don't want to spend a half hour planning out a single encounter. I don't want to spend a half minute planning out a single encounter. I don't want to have to plan.
I rely mostly on inventiveness during play, and a few easy set-ups, to fuel my games, to keep them running smoothly, and to keep everyone happy. A quick random encounter table is one of those "easy set-ups" I can use during play to give me what I need when I need it.
Usually, all that I would need on a random encounter table is WHO, WHAT, and WHY. Who is the encounter happening with, what is that creature going to do, and why what does that creature do it (e.g.: what does the creature want).
When I think about planning my D&D games, the only work that goes into it -- and the only work I WANT to put into it -- is thinking about "What awesome thing happens next?"
Random tables for everything from dungeons to NPCs to monsters to encounters to treasure can always help me fill in the gaps between where the party is now, and what happens to them next.
It's important to my playstyle that I also don't try to anticipate character action too closely. I want the players to surprise me and do whatever they want, inspired by their own idiosyncratic desires. I don't want to plan for them to go to Point A and perform Action B to get Item C and then just script it out. That's not fun for me as a DM. I can script out what characters do in fiction, I don't need to do it in my games.
Careful cultivation, to me, seems a bit over-rated. Not that I wouldn't do it on occasion for the right narrative-focused group coming to a climactic encounter with their arch-nemesis, or at a significant point of a character-focused player's personal arc, or in a few other situations that might warrant it (like if I think it's fun). Howver, every group I've played with seems to have about as much fun starting bar fights and stuffing kobolds in barrels as they do with anything I put a half hour's worth of careful consideration into. In actual play, I've found that it doesn't really matter. As a DM, I want to give my players a playground to explore, not a narrative to follow, and this means that I don't try too much to predict them. Random tables and random generation are essential tools for my playstyle to be able to help me take care of the boring numbers stuff and get to the fun roleplaying stuff.
And random doesn't mean thoughtless or lacking detail. It means that I don't know the result before I roll the dice, but that doesn't mean I don't think about the bounds I put on the possible results in the first place. The 10 different encounters I randomize in a goblin lair might all be important, relevant, goblin-type encounters, I just don't know when they'll happen, what room they'll happen in, or what the party will be like when they encounter a given critter. It's fun not knowing.
I don't want to spend a half hour planning out a single encounter. I don't want to spend a half minute planning out a single encounter. I don't want to have to plan.
I rely mostly on inventiveness during play, and a few easy set-ups, to fuel my games, to keep them running smoothly, and to keep everyone happy. A quick random encounter table is one of those "easy set-ups" I can use during play to give me what I need when I need it.
Usually, all that I would need on a random encounter table is WHO, WHAT, and WHY. Who is the encounter happening with, what is that creature going to do, and why what does that creature do it (e.g.: what does the creature want).
When I think about planning my D&D games, the only work that goes into it -- and the only work I WANT to put into it -- is thinking about "What awesome thing happens next?"
Random tables for everything from dungeons to NPCs to monsters to encounters to treasure can always help me fill in the gaps between where the party is now, and what happens to them next.
It's important to my playstyle that I also don't try to anticipate character action too closely. I want the players to surprise me and do whatever they want, inspired by their own idiosyncratic desires. I don't want to plan for them to go to Point A and perform Action B to get Item C and then just script it out. That's not fun for me as a DM. I can script out what characters do in fiction, I don't need to do it in my games.
Careful cultivation, to me, seems a bit over-rated. Not that I wouldn't do it on occasion for the right narrative-focused group coming to a climactic encounter with their arch-nemesis, or at a significant point of a character-focused player's personal arc, or in a few other situations that might warrant it (like if I think it's fun). Howver, every group I've played with seems to have about as much fun starting bar fights and stuffing kobolds in barrels as they do with anything I put a half hour's worth of careful consideration into. In actual play, I've found that it doesn't really matter. As a DM, I want to give my players a playground to explore, not a narrative to follow, and this means that I don't try too much to predict them. Random tables and random generation are essential tools for my playstyle to be able to help me take care of the boring numbers stuff and get to the fun roleplaying stuff.
And random doesn't mean thoughtless or lacking detail. It means that I don't know the result before I roll the dice, but that doesn't mean I don't think about the bounds I put on the possible results in the first place. The 10 different encounters I randomize in a goblin lair might all be important, relevant, goblin-type encounters, I just don't know when they'll happen, what room they'll happen in, or what the party will be like when they encounter a given critter. It's fun not knowing.
Last edited:
There have been times in certain campaigns where I have designed special encounters to drop in when the random die indicates. I spent time crafting these things for a purpose. Sometimes they were a triggering event to something in a plot or as a means of giving a clue to the players of upcoming plot elements, etc.
Other times I like to take what is offered by random tables and see what I can create either ahead of time to drop in or spur of the moment. None of it meaning I lack time to craft encounters, but because when I am being creative both I and my players get more involved in what results from it.
All-in-all, these just some of many ways to do things and there is nothing wrong with the methods or those using them.
PC, thanks for getting into the conversation. As a DM whose story hour and campaign technique discussions I have read, I want to say thanks for showing some great examples for how to spruce up a campaign. I also want to know when Of Sound Mind 2 is coming out.
Jacob Marley
Adventurer
Monsters and Manuals did a very good blog post a couple months ago on dynamic encounter tables - something similar to what I had been doing for some time, only I use the encounter tables in the 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide modified by the Action and Subject tables from Mythic Game Master Emulator.
The one big problem I have with the way TSR/WotC (and Paizo & others) have handled random encounter tables in the past is that their tables don't supply the DM with action or context. Instead, they rely on the DM to come up with interesting context in the moment. In my experience, this often leads to the DM defaulting to running the same basic encounter only switching up the type and quantity of monster. This often leads to boredom at the table.
An encounter table that says: 18-23 - Goblins (2d6; 20% chance in lair) doesn't really tell me anything. Who are these goblins? Why are they there? What are they doing? Dynamic encounter tables (such as the ones suggested at Monsters and Manuals) help answer these questions.
I'd hope that WotC follows Mythic in showing potential 5th Edition DMs all that can be accomplished by using random tables to push adventure.
imurphy943
First Post
But if you make every encounter by hand, how can you run an adventure except by forcing the PCs to take a certain course of action? Do you just take a quick break to craft a new encounter when they go somewhere else?
Why can't a random encounter fit into the events of the campaign? Why does every monster in the world revolve around the adventures of the PCs? Even if they're on an epic quest to save the world, they might run into an owlbear in the forest.
Why can't a random encounter fit into the events of the campaign? Why does every monster in the world revolve around the adventures of the PCs? Even if they're on an epic quest to save the world, they might run into an owlbear in the forest.
Lidgar
Gongfarmer
noisms
First Post
Thanks for linking to my post. I'm planning an OD&D campaign at the moment, and I think I'm going to ditch standard random encounter tables entirely and just use dynamic ones - at least for wilderness travel. It just seems to be an idea with so much potential (although I'm compelled to point out that I largely stole the idea from Roger the GS, who has been producing genre-specific dynamic encounter tables for months on his blog).
In any case, I too am moving more and more towards what you might call "front-heavy prep", so that essentially all prep happens before the campaign even begins (essentially, you draw up loads and loads of random tables to govern various eventualities - like the dynamic encounter tables and also random adventure generators - and do most of your mapping), allowing you to just show up each session ready to DM with minimal "homework" because everything will keep ticking over.
I also wrote a bit about this approach here too, though not so much in relation to D&D as other systems.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Personally, I do it on the fly. Whatever my failings, I am good at fast and fun improv. I'll typically have a few "floating" encounters prepped that I can sub in whenever pacing, plot or dice call for them; at other times I make stuff up on the fly. It's hard for folks to tell which is which.
Either way, I try to never railroad the PCs, who can usually address the encounter in any number of ways. More fun that way.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Ha! Thanks, you're welcome, and 5e is probably the perfect system for it. We'll see what the GSL looks like...I also want to know when Of Sound Mind 2 is coming out.
