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<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7526570" data-attributes="member: 12377"><p>There are ways to make random encounters meaningful. For example,</p><p></p><p>1. Have enough factions and villains running around that nearly any random encounter winds up being connected with the plot, somehow. E.g., the party has pissed off the Pirate King Blackhook, so when you roll up a "pirates" encounter, of course it's a ship loyal to Blackhook... and what is this strange cargo they're transporting?</p><p></p><p>2. Make them learn something. E.g. the party fights a random encounter against sahaguin who wear red seashells, and one of them has a red trident with a nasty poison. Later, when the party encounters those guys again, they will ALL have red tridents...</p><p></p><p>3. Get clues. E.g., inside the stomach of the dire-shark is a glass bottle with a letter in it. But it's in a code! And it's written in dwarven...?</p><p></p><p>4. Introduce a dilemma. E.g., the Red Shell sahaguin are attacking a ship loyal to Pirate King Blackhook! Who does the party hate more? Is there an opportunity to earn favors with one faction?</p><p></p><p>5. Foreshadow the random encounter. E.g., the salty dogs down at the tavern are always going on about the Giant Two-Headed Octopus and how they narrowly escaped it, and the Duke has put a 2,000 gp bounty on the beast (1,000 gp per head).</p><p></p><p>6. Use a not-very-difficult encounter as an opportunity for character development. E.g., when some merrow attack, the swabbie decides it's time to show her valor and charges them with a mop! Meanwhile, the bosun and the carpenter choose this moment to take their feud to the next level, engaging in fisticuffs over some tangentially-related issue (like "should we lock the deck door to keep out the merrow?"). The sketchy passenger the party took on uses the chaos of combat to finally make his move, and slinks off belowdecks suspiciously...</p><p></p><p></p><p>I recommend against using random encounters unless you can make them meaningful, the vast majority of the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="77IM, post: 7526570, member: 12377"] There are ways to make random encounters meaningful. For example, 1. Have enough factions and villains running around that nearly any random encounter winds up being connected with the plot, somehow. E.g., the party has pissed off the Pirate King Blackhook, so when you roll up a "pirates" encounter, of course it's a ship loyal to Blackhook... and what is this strange cargo they're transporting? 2. Make them learn something. E.g. the party fights a random encounter against sahaguin who wear red seashells, and one of them has a red trident with a nasty poison. Later, when the party encounters those guys again, they will ALL have red tridents... 3. Get clues. E.g., inside the stomach of the dire-shark is a glass bottle with a letter in it. But it's in a code! And it's written in dwarven...? 4. Introduce a dilemma. E.g., the Red Shell sahaguin are attacking a ship loyal to Pirate King Blackhook! Who does the party hate more? Is there an opportunity to earn favors with one faction? 5. Foreshadow the random encounter. E.g., the salty dogs down at the tavern are always going on about the Giant Two-Headed Octopus and how they narrowly escaped it, and the Duke has put a 2,000 gp bounty on the beast (1,000 gp per head). 6. Use a not-very-difficult encounter as an opportunity for character development. E.g., when some merrow attack, the swabbie decides it's time to show her valor and charges them with a mop! Meanwhile, the bosun and the carpenter choose this moment to take their feud to the next level, engaging in fisticuffs over some tangentially-related issue (like "should we lock the deck door to keep out the merrow?"). The sketchy passenger the party took on uses the chaos of combat to finally make his move, and slinks off belowdecks suspiciously... I recommend against using random encounters unless you can make them meaningful, the vast majority of the time. [/QUOTE]
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