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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6375892" data-attributes="member: 2067">Sure. In both of those uses, it is still an encounter without an explicit predetermined in-fiction agenda. In the former case, it breaks monotony, and in the latter case, it "spices up" dull play. Sure, the major difference between your cyclopes and a truly random encounter is that you have at least a loose idea of the agenda, and you know precisely what the encounter consists of before you sit down to play. The spontaneous elements are more bounded, but they certainly can still be there.Yep. Reaction roles certainly played a key element in randomly setting the bounds for a random encounter. An agenda is certainly quickly determined from the existing context. And depth exists in how it relates to the context (part of that living, breathing world -- now you apparently have traders who hunt ferrets, and maybe the ferrets have expensive pelts, and hey presto, if the party brings the trader some pelts, they can get a reward, why not). I think you'd agree that the original idea of "assassin coming to kill the party" (or "orc coming to kill the party" or "cyclopes serving as formian guards" or even "trader looking for his friends mule which was taken by the party") would not make a lot of sense as a possible random encounter, in part, because the agenda is already present. It's not a thing you stumble on, at least without some prior context. Meanwhile, a random encounter of "assassin" or "orc" or "cyclops' would be fine, since the agenda is "blank."Which is why the specific issue is with the agenda:The talk there is about assassins with an explicit agenda, "killing the PC's in their sleep," and the idea is that this isn't a great random encounter because without some other context, it is kind of senseless. If the agenda's already present, why is it on a random encounter table? My goal was just to clarify why this kind of thing would not be a great random encounter, but rather would be better as a planned encounter (because of the pre-existing agenda). Assassins in general, of course, might be fine for a random encounter. Even one that winds up being hostile might just be practicing her skill or upset about a stolen mule or whatever else makes sense in context.</blockquote>

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