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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 5840052" data-attributes="member: 1879">I think this comes down to, not a gamist vs simulationist rules system, instead sandbox vs narrative playstyle preference. If every encounter is there to drive the main plot then random encounters have no place. Personally, I hate this, becuase it brings with it the sense that the world is revolving around my PC, and it all seems like an exercise in solipsism. I hate solipsism with great passion.So one of the purposes of random (or at least story-unrelated) encounters is to allow me to feel that the world is not revolving around us PCs, that there are other beings out there pursuing their own agendas who couldn't care less about my quest for the Triangle of Zinfab. Yes, there is irony here, ces't la vie.Random encounters are never truly random. They are there to illustrate the veracity of the world and should therefore be appropriate to the place and time. And (strange as it may sound coming from me in this thread) they should not completely ignore the concept of balance. If the encounter is in no way related to the plot, then it is indeed a stupid time to kill the PCs. It might be perfectly logical for an Ancient Red Dragon who happens to be flying by to eat the PCs, but if there is no chance of survival or escape all that is happening is that the GM is allowing the dice to destroy his game. The old modules with random encounter tables were not oblivious to this. You might find a troll on the table in a module for 2nd level characters, you will not find the Tarrasque.As for the Doomstones campaign, I happen to have it sitting next to me. It contains some listings of appropriate optional encounters the PCs might come across as they travel overland in different sections of the game. The ONLY difference between this and the 'wandering monsters' sections in a D&D module is the lack of a numbered table to allow the GM to pick one if he doesn't have a preference. In both cases the module includes a short list of the sort of things the PC might encounter while in a particular section of the world. In both cases they are tailored to describe the area, and are roughly appropriate to the PCs power level. One has a table with numbers and the other does not. Aside from that, it's the same thing.</blockquote>

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