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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nathan P. Mahney" data-source="post: 2157143" data-attributes="member: 29748">When there is a journey in my adventure that I know I want the PCs to take, I roll everything beforehand.  The first thing I do is figure out how long the journey will take, and then I roll up some random weather.  Then I roll for random encounters.In my last session, my players were travelling through a forest for a few days.  The third day's weather came up rain.  For random encounters, I got two groups of kobolds in quick succession on the first night, and a troll on the third day.Figuring that the two kobold gangs were encountered close together, I decided to connect them. There were two options: I could have had the first group as a vanguard for the second, but I didn't think there was much role-play opportunity in that. I made it that the second group was chasing the first.  I also decided to tie it into a larger plot I had going about a kobold queen's quest to reclaim a whole host of dragon artifacts - the first group was working for her, and had stolen one of the artifacts from the second. This encounter went well - the first kobolds stumbled into the party camp, frightened out of their wits. The PCs parleyed, and ended up defending them from the second group. The first group managed to slip away during the conflict, much to the annoyance of the PCs! They'll be back, though... The troll encounter I just played as a set-piece, combined with the terrain and the weather. With the rain and the high mountain road, it made for a pretty exciting encounter. I suppose it depends upon the style of campaign you want to run, though.  My home-brew is a pretty deadly place in terms of the wilderness, so I don't skimp on the random encounters. If you want the PCs to get where they're going quickly, don't use them much unless you can tie them into the ongoing scenario. And don't describe the wilderness too much - just a quick gloss over the major points.  If you dwell on too much detail, the PCs will probably think there's a reason, and run off on a wild goose chase.</blockquote>

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