transcendation
First Post
I've been running RPG campaigns for decades. If you have any questions on how to keep your players entertained by running really fun game sessions and campaigns, fire away.
Here's a tip:
Don't use random encounter tables initially. Instead, custom design all encounters before your sessions, and tie them into the current adventure or campaign (they make fantastic tie-ins to future adventures). Or ad lib the encounters, making them up as you go. Roll the dice, of course, and pretend to look at the tables in the book. Note that many dungeons will have denizens that go out hunting or on patrol, so use those guys if it makes sense. But if that isn't appropriate and your brain is blank and you can't think of anything, then and only then, generate encounters using the random encounter tables!
Why? Because random encounters tend to be boring, often don't make any sense, and they are usually less entertaining than the adventure itself (especially if you are running a custom adventure that you designed yourself. Encounters take time, and steal precious gaming time away from the adventure. Custom encounters on the other hand tend to be much higher in quality, and more fun to roleplay. I highly recommend you go custom.
Sample custom encounter:
The characters have just passed through or are leaving a village. Not far down the road is a stream with a bridge over it. Next to the bridge is an urn with a sign scrawled on it: "pay toll to cross." Someone has crossed out toll, and placed "troll" underneath it. (FYI: The troll is under the bridge, as is a medium-sized bell). If the characters each toss a coin into the urn, nothing happens (though they will see the troll if they look under the bridge, and may smell him as they cross). If someone does not pay, then the troll will come out from under the bridge and block the way, explaining menacingly "Excuse me, but it costs to cross this bridge. I built it." (Trolls can't help but appear or behave menacing, it's their very nature. They always drool, and look hungry as well).
If the characters attack the troll or try to force their way across, he will push them back or throw them into the creek. If he is overpowered, he'll start screaming for help, and will jump back down under the bridge where he'll ring a church bell hanging down there. Within moments, the village folk will come running down the road with pitchforks, butcher knives, and the odd rusty sword, yelling "Fred's in trouble! They're trying to hurt Fred! We've got to save Fred!"
Things are not always what they appear.
The players soon discover that the troll is just a poor guy named Fred who was turned into a troll by a passing (25th-level) wizard, for insults given during a drunken stupor. He hasn't had anything to drink since, and is now very polite to everyone he meets. But the village folk couldn't stand his body odor, and so he couldn't live or work in the village itself. So he built and now lives under this bridge, which also provides a meager living. (Unbeknownst to Fred and the villagefolk, the transmuter who cursed poor Fred is a serial curser, transmuting anybody and everybody that he gets annoyed with into various creatures (and never the same type). The players may very well run into more of his victims on their journeys).
How do you like that for a future adventure tie-in?
Other victims include:
A satyr living in a brothel.
A thief turned kobold, now the chief of his own colony (small kobold lairs are called nests, while large kobold lairs are called colonies because of their small intertwining and criss-crossing tunnels). The leader has acquired a Ring of Mammal Control, and he and his tribe are extorting a town low on protection while the local nobles wage a war against each other.
A talking cat captured by a travelling circus, and put on display and forced to read poetry. Their main attraction. Before this she was a milk maid.
A prince turned into a frog, living in a pond. (And no, a kiss won't turn him back).
Have fun.
transcendation
Here's a tip:
Don't use random encounter tables initially. Instead, custom design all encounters before your sessions, and tie them into the current adventure or campaign (they make fantastic tie-ins to future adventures). Or ad lib the encounters, making them up as you go. Roll the dice, of course, and pretend to look at the tables in the book. Note that many dungeons will have denizens that go out hunting or on patrol, so use those guys if it makes sense. But if that isn't appropriate and your brain is blank and you can't think of anything, then and only then, generate encounters using the random encounter tables!
Why? Because random encounters tend to be boring, often don't make any sense, and they are usually less entertaining than the adventure itself (especially if you are running a custom adventure that you designed yourself. Encounters take time, and steal precious gaming time away from the adventure. Custom encounters on the other hand tend to be much higher in quality, and more fun to roleplay. I highly recommend you go custom.
Sample custom encounter:
The characters have just passed through or are leaving a village. Not far down the road is a stream with a bridge over it. Next to the bridge is an urn with a sign scrawled on it: "pay toll to cross." Someone has crossed out toll, and placed "troll" underneath it. (FYI: The troll is under the bridge, as is a medium-sized bell). If the characters each toss a coin into the urn, nothing happens (though they will see the troll if they look under the bridge, and may smell him as they cross). If someone does not pay, then the troll will come out from under the bridge and block the way, explaining menacingly "Excuse me, but it costs to cross this bridge. I built it." (Trolls can't help but appear or behave menacing, it's their very nature. They always drool, and look hungry as well).
If the characters attack the troll or try to force their way across, he will push them back or throw them into the creek. If he is overpowered, he'll start screaming for help, and will jump back down under the bridge where he'll ring a church bell hanging down there. Within moments, the village folk will come running down the road with pitchforks, butcher knives, and the odd rusty sword, yelling "Fred's in trouble! They're trying to hurt Fred! We've got to save Fred!"
Things are not always what they appear.
The players soon discover that the troll is just a poor guy named Fred who was turned into a troll by a passing (25th-level) wizard, for insults given during a drunken stupor. He hasn't had anything to drink since, and is now very polite to everyone he meets. But the village folk couldn't stand his body odor, and so he couldn't live or work in the village itself. So he built and now lives under this bridge, which also provides a meager living. (Unbeknownst to Fred and the villagefolk, the transmuter who cursed poor Fred is a serial curser, transmuting anybody and everybody that he gets annoyed with into various creatures (and never the same type). The players may very well run into more of his victims on their journeys).
How do you like that for a future adventure tie-in?
Other victims include:
A satyr living in a brothel.
A thief turned kobold, now the chief of his own colony (small kobold lairs are called nests, while large kobold lairs are called colonies because of their small intertwining and criss-crossing tunnels). The leader has acquired a Ring of Mammal Control, and he and his tribe are extorting a town low on protection while the local nobles wage a war against each other.
A talking cat captured by a travelling circus, and put on display and forced to read poetry. Their main attraction. Before this she was a milk maid.
A prince turned into a frog, living in a pond. (And no, a kiss won't turn him back).
Have fun.
transcendation
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