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<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 5970435" data-attributes="member: 50987">The difference between &quot;fixed&quot; and &quot;random&quot; encounters wasn't always so black and white, though.&nbsp; Random encounters weren't something that might happen; they were expected to happen...and the more dangerous the location, the more frequently they became.&nbsp; Back in the BECM days, it was not uncommon to have both:&nbsp; &quot;fixed&quot; encounters that were also randoms.&nbsp; Take one of my favorites, The Isle of Dread, for example:andAlso, it was not uncommon for traps to spawn random encounters from a table unless a password was spoken, or a riddle was answered correctly, or the characters weren't wearing certain robes, etc.&nbsp; The Rules Cyclopedia has rules for monster-spawning traps.-----I guess a lot of us grew up playing the game with random encounters, so we probably don't mind the loose, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feel that they give the game.&nbsp; But adding them back into the game wasn't a simple matter of&nbsp; creating a chart and throwing some percentile dice.When I started playing 3rd Edition, random encounters were one of the first things I noticed that was missing (and one of the first things I house-ruled back in.)&nbsp; It was a pain in the neck, and it really played havoc with the EL and CR system...to say nothing of the agonizingly slow pace of combat.&nbsp; So while they *technically* were optional, they really didn't work because the system was designed against them.&nbsp; When a typical combat session lasts 30 to 45 minutes, with most of that time spent with the players staring blankly at character sheets/minis and trying to decide which action to take, random encounters only make the grind problem worse.I want them to include random encounters in 5th Edition as an option...but more than that, I want them to have an efficient and clean combat system that can handle them if I decide to use them.&nbsp; I worry that giving each class an ever-growing list of special superpowers to choose from will make that problem worse.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 5970435, member: 50987"] The difference between "fixed" and "random" encounters wasn't always so black and white, though. Random encounters weren't something that [I]might[/I] happen; they were expected to happen...and the more dangerous the location, the more frequently they became. Back in the BECM days, it was not uncommon to have both: "fixed" encounters that were also randoms. Take one of my favorites, The Isle of Dread, for example: and Also, it was not uncommon for traps to spawn random encounters from a table unless a password was spoken, or a riddle was answered correctly, or the characters weren't wearing certain robes, etc. The Rules Cyclopedia has rules for monster-spawning traps. ----- I guess a lot of us grew up playing the game with random encounters, so we probably don't mind the loose, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feel that they give the game. But adding them back into the game wasn't a simple matter of creating a chart and throwing some percentile dice. When I started playing 3rd Edition, random encounters were one of the first things I noticed that was missing (and one of the first things I house-ruled back in.) It was a pain in the neck, and it really played havoc with the EL and CR system...to say nothing of the agonizingly slow pace of combat. So while they *technically* were optional, they really didn't work because the system was designed against them. When a typical combat session lasts 30 to 45 minutes, with most of that time spent with the players staring blankly at character sheets/minis and trying to decide which action to take, random encounters only make the grind problem worse. I want them to include random encounters in 5th Edition as an option...but more than that, I want them to have an efficient and clean combat system that can handle them if I decide to use them. I worry that giving each class an ever-growing list of special superpowers to choose from will make that problem worse. [/QUOTE]

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