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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dog Moon" data-source="post: 1988779" data-attributes="member: 23023">One thing which is difficult is to use pregenerated encounter tables.  If the desert contains a lot of Goblins, a normal desert encounter table might not have Goblins since they aren't normally found in deserts.  Also, even if it did, I might like Goblins, but Joe over there hates Goblins.  Unfortunately, these are basically impossible for one person to appease everyone with their own encounter table.Realism is definitely important.  Creatures of varying CRs do wander about, though higher CR creatures would roam more than lower CR creatures who use defenses/traps/etc to help them.  Thus, encounters should not always be tailored to the group.Noncombative encounters are definitely good.  If there were only hostile groups [and evil creatures aren't always hostile either], especially ones tailored to the PCs even though their level 10, then normal people would never travel anywhere to trade and whatnot.  Even something as 'Chirping birds' or 'A raccoon scurries across the trail before you.'  This also adds to realism as well.Mixed encounters are cool too, though I suppose they mainly come in these groups: Main person and mount/animal companion, main person and henchmen, main person and hirelings [hirelings more likely to turn on main person or even more likely flee], and main person and main person whose skills work together well [Or perhaps not].  This again also adds to the realism.Variety is good [Sources from say, all WOTC sources instead of just the MM, for example].  I'm not sure about the size of the encounter table since everyone has their own preferences.  Perhaps a quick list with a dozen or so encounters and also a longer list so those dozen encounters become the only encounters in the area.  Admittedly, not all areas have a long list of creatures in that area.Roleplaying options.  Not a necessecity probably, but always useful.  Allows for more variety as well because a forest creature could be found in a desert and the PCs would have to be like why is a forest creature in the desert?  Doesn't have to be long, just a line or so, and not even a necessity.Well, maybe I wrote too much, maybe not.  I was kind of thinking of what I would put in it while I typed and if I ever do write up encounter tables, this is what I'll do, so I admit, this was as much for me as for anyone else.  Perhaps more for me if they don't feel like reading all of what I wrote.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Btw, the idea of the disease in the jungle is cool.  Environmental factors could also be a nice touch.  Shows everyone there's more to fear than what you can stab before you.</blockquote>

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