Matthew Perkins
Explorer
Hi!
I made a video a few weeks ago exploring how I felt about random encounters and how they reminded me of old Sega Genesis RPGs. My general take was that I think there's usually better uses of the table's time, but some people made some pretty good points, so I'm planning to try AD&D for the first time sometime this year, just to experience random tables as they were meant to be.
Here's the video, which I'd love your opinion on:
If you like this video — even if you disagree — I'd appreciate your support. I'll have another video coming out in a few days too!
One of my favourite points was made by YouTuber Ben from Questing Beast. Here's what he said:
I made a video a few weeks ago exploring how I felt about random encounters and how they reminded me of old Sega Genesis RPGs. My general take was that I think there's usually better uses of the table's time, but some people made some pretty good points, so I'm planning to try AD&D for the first time sometime this year, just to experience random tables as they were meant to be.
Here's the video, which I'd love your opinion on:
If you like this video — even if you disagree — I'd appreciate your support. I'll have another video coming out in a few days too!
One of my favourite points was made by YouTuber Ben from Questing Beast. Here's what he said:
Cool video! Interestingly, random encounters (or "wandering monsters" as they used to be called) existed to make players manage their time. Every 20 minutes or so of in-game time in a dungeon called for a wandering monster check, so players were incentivized to move strategically and decisively while exploring for loot (the main source of XP).
Random encounters also exist to make the environment feel like a living place, where things could happen that the DM didn't plan for. It adds verisimilitude and helps keep the players believing that the game world has internally consistent rules that they can plan for (the Goblin Guards, for example). It's part of a particular tradition of play where the story is something that emerges organically from how the players react to a living world, rather than something planned out in advance. This is especially the case when the DM is using old-school reaction tables, so the things you encounter aren't necessarily hostile. Negotiation, deceptions, and alliances end up being quite common.