Ohh the Nentir Vale - Moon Hills example that Mearls had showed a screenshot of before. Nice.
Think harder then, your players expect it. If needed take a 5 minute break. Then present a cool, detailed, complex new situation. This will be much better than the result of a dice roll. This would be my advice.
Wow, that is a pretty jerk move. Why insult someone who has method that apparently works for them (the DM and players). And, of course, you are not inherently correct. If this works for you great, but that doesn't mean it will work for others or that the idea sparked by a random table will not be better (and possible require harder more detailed and complex thought).
EDIT: PS - sorry for jumping into this discussion mid stream - I should have just moved on.
I probably should have left this discussion long ago.
I feel like this UA was quite underwhelming for experienced GM's and players, however for newer GM's it really provided some fun new ideas.
But I think it makes not much sense to continue this discussion. The fronts are - too hard. For me Random Tables is just something we did when we were still teens and which have no role in current RPGing anymore. Others seem to think otherwise.
I agree it doesn’t make much sense to continue the conversation. This is getting way off topic.
We have a fundamental difference in play style, but that’s ok. If it works for the group there is no right or wrong way to do it.
In my view, they still didn't get it right with this.
The problem I've had early on with my games is that tracking hour by hour, or even day by day, becomes too monotonous and becomes too much accounting. It just seems like work without much fun in return.
I really like the approach Cubicle 7 did with the One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth, and I think there's a three-step method to port some of that over to a standard 5th edition game with high magic, but you'd have to 1. make exhaustion levels more meaningful (receiving a con check for them when the navigator fails a navigation check, or when the forager fails a foraging check, etc. This is an abstraction of getting lost for a time, or not doing a good job finding enough food or water, etc.), 2. make a special "long rest in a sanctuary" that is the only way to remove exhaustion levels, and 3. abstract travel over the entire journey (whether it's 3 days, or 5 days, or 10 days) instead of trying to track day by day or hour by hour.
Perhaps some form of stamina mechanic (combining exhaustion and hp loss from environmental hazards) that measured your ability to withstand travel might work. That way, the effect of things like being lost, starved, caught in the rain, attacked by mosquitos, or chilled to the bone) could sap your strength. Resting at a non-dangerous place (like an inn or residence) could recover them. Seems like it would be another complicated system to track.
Talk about third rate content.
How about using UA to shore up the core game instead?
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I couldn’t disagree more. This is the kind of content I wish we’d see more of in UA instead of a bunch of Subclasses and Subraces I’ll never use. Remember when D&D Next was all about modular design? That sure didn’t happen, but at least Mike Mearls is occasionally giving us rules modules in UA.
That’s 90% of what we’ve been seeing in UA though. If this subsystem is third rate, what’s the basis for comparison if not the subclasses and subraces we have otherwise been seeing?I don't think the Capn is thinking about subclasses and subraces....
Then why you don't just let the party arrive at that grove, without the dice-roll about 5 miles randomness? If it is a cool situation, by all means - bring it.
Just as a little aside.My play-style is such that I like random encounters and random events. I find that if I try to derive everything from my own internal concept of the story, I tend to fall into the same tropes and situations I'm used to and comfortable with. Sometimes the dice present situations I would never think of on my own.
BookBarbarian said:Ugh. Once again you've quoted me within the middle of a post also quoting others, but have removed my name from the quote thus making it very difficult to know that someone is talking to me.
Was not meant in any offensive way. Apologies if it was perceived as such. And for me the whole thread also caused a lot of "social anxiety". For my own "RPG experience" I don't know anyone in RL who uses random tables in their games, so I was quite surprised people/groups here do it different. If I would have suspected this would be even an argument, I would have stayed quiet.
That's it for me at least, regarding this discussion.
It is interesting that their use is not seen in your area (in your experience at least). My experience is different than yours. You seem to suggest that you and the people you know grew out of them, but as I have become a better DM I have grown into them more. Here is my random table usage growth:
Stage 3: After about 20yrs of DM experience (I'm a slow learnerI have the confidence to use them again, but this time only in game play, never for planned encounters. I have the wits and ability to roll with whatever comes up and make it not only fun for my players, but me too!
Planned encounters are pretty rare in our gamesyle BTW. I use them sometimes as a "start of session" - to throw everybody directly into action, but not at all asides from that. I plan NPCs and how they would react on certain actions by the PCs. If this will be an encounter depends on the players a lot. But I know it depends a lot on gamestyle (and game system, in 4e for example you probably had to use planned encounters).