Does Your Game Have Random Encounters?

[CleverNickName]

I was reading a thread about narrative choices in tabletop games, and it made me curious about a particular type of narrative choice: the random encounter. Do you use them in your game? Are you comfortable letting the dice decide the party's conflicts and challenges for the day? Do you scipt and carefully balance every combat scene? Some mix of the two?

Vote for the option that best fits your table, and add any clarification or nuance in the comments.

EDIT: typo in that second-to-last poll option. It should read, "No, we don't use random encounters, I use different mechanics for unscripted encounters."

 

[CleverNickName]

For my part, I voted "Mostly." I'm a big fan of @SlyFlourish 's techniques and random generation tables in The Lazy DM series of books.

Due to work, life, and home constraints, I don't have the time to fully script out every combat scene...I prefer to work with a story outline, a handful of generic maps, and a handful of random tables, and then improvise as needed. Random Encounter tables, random treasure tables, random shop inventory tables, etc., are great for this.

 

[The Soloist]

For group play, the encounters are scripted by player actions along the campaign concept we agreed upon. There are no random encounters.

 

[Agamon]

I've flipped and flopped on this over the years. I like how randomness can be used creatively, but I prefer potential combat scenes to be meaningful, so I use it sparingly.

 

[CleverNickName]

@Cadence @BigJackBrass I'm bummed that I messed that option up, because it was the one I was most interested in hearing feedback from. We hear a lot of banter about "scripted vs. random," but not much else.

If neither Scripted nor Random, what do you use instead?

 

[overgeeked]

The poll and question seems to be asking two unconnected questions.

Scripted assumes both tightly balanced and predetermined vs entirely randomly generated on a roll table.

There are more options between those two ends. Predetermined but not tightly balanced. Various levels of balance. Unbalanced. Etc.

No fights I run are scripted in the sense of predetermined outcomes.

No fights I run are meticulously balanced.

About half of my encounters are randomly generated as in what, how many, how far away, disposition, etc.

The other half are a result of the players interacting with the world (they picked on the wrong person who’s now gathering friends to fight the PCs, etc) or are a result of the NPCs’ actions (following their goals, etc).

 

[zarionofarabel]

@Cadence @BigJackBrass I'm bummed that I messed that option up, because it was the one I was most interested in hearing feedback from. We hear a lot of banter about "scripted vs. random," but not much else.

If neither Scripted nor Random, what do you use instead?

Non-random unscripted combat.

 

[CleverNickName]

Non-random unscripted combat.

I mean, I get that. I'm just trying to imagine what that looks like at the table.

 

[CleverNickName]

The poll and question seems to be asking two unconnected questions.

Scripted assumes both tightly balanced and predetermined vs entirely randomly generated on a roll table.

That wasn't my intent. I believe that random encounter lists can (and maybe should) be carefully curated and balanced by the DM to match the party and the setting. As much as balance can be, anyway.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

@Cadence @BigJackBrass I'm bummed that I messed that option up, because it was the one I was most interested in hearing feedback from. We hear a lot of banter about "scripted vs. random," but not much else.

If neither Scripted nor Random, what do you use instead?

Not any of the called out but while I occasionally use random encounter table, I mostly play using VTT and I sometimes use Quantum Ogres. In that the party may be searching an area and I would create a list of events that could occur and pop them in in response to party actions, successes and failures.
IT is not map and key but closer to @SlyFlourish's secrets and clues but applied to encounters.