How many "random encounters" is too much?

[Razjah]

Some of my notes on random encounters: They are not always physical or combative, some times the players just see something, like a dragon flying by, a Bigfoot on a hill top, a bear in the woods doing bear stuff.

When something like seeing a dragon once a week becomes relevant (that dragon is now attacking) those don't feel like random encounters. Sure, that dragon may have been 5% chance roll, but now it is a plot point. These foreshadowing elements aren't true random encounters to me. I view random encounters as the fights that have nothing to do with the plot. When a fight with goblins later takes on significance, it is no longer a random encounter in my mind.

I do want to say, this is an awesome idea and a great way to get random encounters to later pick up relevance any appear like a GM who had it all planned from the start.

 

[Kingreaper]

that's a clever answer, but it's also a matter of semantics. If I'm investigating the evil gang of bank robbers, and I run into a farmer with a stuck wagon while on my way to their cave, and I deduce that the farmer encounter has nothing at all to do with the bank robbers, I am going to label it a Random Encounter.

That doesn't mean that the GM didn't actually put the farmer there as a lookout for the bank robbers. merely that to the player, it appears to be unrelated and thus is "random"

But when they find out the farmer was a lookout all along, then, from then on, they're never quite sure if a Random Encounter is really a Random Encounter. It's no longer safe to ASSUME it's unrelated. And that's not a semantic difference at all; it's a psychological difference.

 

[Morrus]

But when they find out the farmer was a lookout all along, then, from then on, they're never quite sure if a Random Encounter is really a Random Encounter. It's no longer safe to ASSUME it's unrelated. And that's not a semantic difference at all; it's a psychological difference.

Agreed; that's a better version of what I was trying to say. Random encounters shouldn't obviously be random encounters; the players should be in enough doubt that they treat them all equally importantly.

 

[Razjah]

Random encounters shouldn't obviously be random encounters; the players should be in enough doubt that they treat them all equally importantly.

Awesome. This is what I would love to see more GMs using random encounters to build future plot points, or going back over random encounters to find an enemy to use for a new plot point.