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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4446873" data-attributes="member: 467">Excellent post and a really important distinction between "procedural" and "random".  Even with something as simple as a wandering monster table, there's a degree of intent and consistency that goes into its creation, starting with something as basic as the terrain and climate type.  Roll up a Frost Worm while the PCs are travelling through a saharan desert and you've just blown their suspension of disbelief (or you better have something cool up your sleeve).If I create a random encounter chart and put orcs on it, say, I usually take the time to add a sub table -- maybe just a d6 roll -- to determine which orc warband/tribe/whatever they are from.  Having different orc groups fleshes out the world a little bit, which is good, but it also also suggestive during play.  If the same group keeps coming up, it suggests that this group is strong and maybe even making incursions into the area.  if a different group comes up every time, it suggests maybe an alliance or perhaps even an area contested by orcs.  Why would different orc tribes want this rotten stretch of badlands?  The wheels start turning and it doesn't take long for an idea to drop out of the sky that leads to a whole adventure, perhaps even an entire campaign.  That idea isn't random, but it was inspired by random events and therefore not likely to have occurred to me if I just sat down and tried to think up adventure ideas.This is why I like a strong element of the random in play: simple inspiration, not just for me but for the players too.  In the above example, it would be just as likely that a player would be the first one to say, "Why do all these orc tribes want this stretch of dirt?"  And if they say it and I run with it, they feel like they've either a) figured it out (if my sleight of hand about random rolls was good enough) or b) that they have added to the compaign in a significant way because I ran with something they thought up.  Both immerse and invest the players in the campaign far more than any predetermined order of events ever could.</blockquote>

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