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<blockquote data-quote="Ondath" data-source="post: 9125119" data-attributes="member: 7031770">On top of what [USER=6747251]@Micah Sweet[/USER] said, there are a few things that to me read like assumptions even if the actual tables themselves don't exist. Namely:These made me think like the players have absolutely no way of knowing what the tables contain or how they work besides &quot;The RNG for Road 2 has more dangerous results&quot;. When defined in this way, the tables obviously rob the players of agency - it's like doing a randomised Pokemon run - you just don't know if the patch of grass you're walking on contains a Pikachu or a Mewtwo. That's bad design, and it takes away agency. It doesn't give me an option to choose besides &quot;Try to force the RNG to get you good results&quot;, and some people are into that (people do Randomised Nuzlockes all the time, and even then the players are well versed with Pokemon stats and they try to build times through their system mastery), but I don't think it makes for good TTRPG. However, compare these to, say, the Region Encounter Tables in Level Up. There, the kind of things you might encounter are determined by the Region's type, and the system (notably through the Monstrous Menagerie book) actively encourages the DM to add more in-universe knowledge about what the encounters might involve (each monster has a Signs table for their Monstrous Menagerie entry, for instance, so that the DM can telegraph what kind of encounters populate each table). This kind of random encounter table would give the players options to strategise around, and the tables actually constrain DM fiat by being divided around Tiers - so a GM who is faithful to the tables won't drop an Adult Green Dragon on their Tier 1 party. By constraining the GM this way, the tables also increase player agency since they know the limits of what the GM can put in front of them - and strategise accordingly.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ondath, post: 9125119, member: 7031770"] On top of what [USER=6747251]@Micah Sweet[/USER] said, there are a few things that to me read like assumptions even if the actual tables themselves don't exist. Namely: These made me think like the players have absolutely no way of knowing what the tables contain or how they work besides "The RNG for Road 2 has more dangerous results". When defined in this way, the tables obviously rob the players of agency - it's like doing a randomised Pokemon run - you just don't know if the patch of grass you're walking on contains a Pikachu or a Mewtwo. That's bad design, and it takes away agency. It doesn't give me an option to choose besides "Try to force the RNG to get you good results", and some people are into that (people do Randomised Nuzlockes all the time, and even then the players are well versed with Pokemon stats and they try to build times through their system mastery), but I don't think it makes for good TTRPG. However, compare these to, say, the Region Encounter Tables in Level Up. There, the kind of things you might encounter are determined by the Region's type, and the system (notably through the Monstrous Menagerie book) actively encourages the DM to add more in-universe knowledge about what the encounters might involve (each monster has a Signs table for their Monstrous Menagerie entry, for instance, so that the DM can telegraph what kind of encounters populate each table). This kind of random encounter table would give the players options to strategise around, and the tables actually constrain DM fiat by being divided around Tiers - so a GM who is faithful to the tables won't drop an Adult Green Dragon on their Tier 1 party. By constraining the GM this way, the tables also increase player agency since they know the limits of what the GM can put in front of them - and strategise accordingly. [/QUOTE]

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