Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AaronOfBarbaria" data-source="post: 7022379" data-attributes="member: 6701872">I use random encounters, though I expect that my definition of "encounter" includes your definition of "event" because my random encounters do not assume a particular sort of response from either side.When not using published material that includes random encounter lists, which I use when available, I don't really formalize a list of things that can happen. I just check for an encounter (I've adopted the 5th edition roll 1d20, encounter occurs on 18+ method) and then insert whatever comes to mind that makes sense to me for the current circumstances and seems interesting, and let the players set the tone of the encounter by their making the first interaction - I'll describe what they see up ahead, but not put any particular bent to it if I can avoid doing so.For a probably not completely great example: The player characters were on the road traveling across a nation in which political climate was building to war between the current government, and the remnants of the imperial establishment that was relatively recently removed from power. So it made sense in their travels that the characters saw troop movements, scouting parties, and the like. So for one encounter is specific, I set up the scene roughly as, "While you are stopped along the road, preparing your mid-day meal, a handful of figures crest a nearby hill. They stop atop the hill, seeing you, and you can see that they are dressed in imperial uniform, and mounted on the dire wolves that are typical of imperial cavalry. The leader among their unit is highly decorated. What do you do?"The set up explaining to the characters what they see, but not presuming context of how the encounter will play out. The players will indicate to me, with their answers to my question of what they do, what kind of encounter they want for this one to be. If they ready against attack, they are saying they expect this to be tense if not outright conflict. If they attack, that's obviously saying they want combat. If they issue polite greetings, they are saying they'd like to at least start with some conversation.It's actually rather difficult for me to explain the "process" I use, because I don't actually think about it much - I just improvise at the table, with the only set piece of the puzzle being that I pre-determine for the area the characters are in how often the 18+ on a d20 encounter check is made.</blockquote>

Verification