Unearthed Arcana Into the Wild: New Unearthed Arcana Covers Wilderness Exploration

Ohh the Nentir Vale - Moon Hills example that Mearls had showed a screenshot of before. Nice.

 

[Charlaquin]

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.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

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.

I don't think the Capn is thinking about subclasses and subraces....

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't think the Capn is thinking about subclasses and subraces....

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?

 

[BookBarbarian]

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.

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.

This difficulty of communication is causing a remarkable rise in my social anxiety that I usually don't get interacting on the forums.

But we seem to have come to the heart of it. You dislike random tables. Good for you.

 

[Satyrn]

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.

Just as a little aside.

This describes my preferred way of making a dungeon, too. I love using things like the DMG's random dungeon tables because it inspires ideas I know I'd have never considered.

Letting the dice set a course of events can be so effective.

 

[MagicSN]

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.

 

[dave2008]

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 1: When I was a new DM I only ever used them when preparing an adventure (just to pick some monsters for a planned forest encounter every once in a while), never during play. I was too frightened about not knowing how to run a random encounter.

Stage 2: I stopped using them to prepare adventures and still lacked the confidence to use them in play.

Stage 3: After about 20yrs of DM experience (I'm a slow learner I 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!

I still use them sparingly as I tend to base random encounters on what i know, but I must admit that now that I have the confidence and the ability to run them effectively I get a little thrill when things go off track and I decide to whip out a random table. Actually the whole group does. I should probably use them more as everyone just gets energized when this happens.

 

[MagicSN]

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:

Alright then I answer once more after all. But in a different style (I hope ;-) ). It is interesting to hear of other people's (different) experiences.

I wonder if it is a country issue (I am from Germany). Also while I was playing D&D 1st edition as a kid, my "RPG-growingup-phase" was with the german game-system Midgard which uses very "story-based" adventures (though definitely not a storytelling-system). Random Encounters existed in printed adventures sometimes (not often), but usually we skipped them or replaced them with something more "story-based". But it's not only the people I grew up with RPG-wise - friends of my brother who I do not know personally (and who asides from the random table thing do things completely different than us) also do not use random tables. And the second group of one of our GMs also doesn't do random tables (though his influence might play a role there).

Possibly should also be mentioned we usually have 1-3 fights only per game session (but those pretty tough and long ones). To "waste" one of them to a random encounter - sounds like a waste. I know many people use more fights, of course.

Stage 3: After about 20yrs of DM experience (I'm a slow learner I 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!

No problem, if I would be player in one of the games gamemastered by me 10 years ago I probably would find it total awful gamemastering ;-) Learning is always part of being a GM I think.

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).

 

[dave2008]

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).

Me to mostly. By "planned encounters" I mean NPCs and monsters I know in x area are doing y things, etc.

Funny, it was 4e that taught me to open up and be more improvisational. Which gave me the confidence to use random encounters.

 

[Lidgar]

This UA article had me really wishing they would do a 5e Book of Lairs.

Would buy that in a heartbeat.