D&D General Possible or possibly terrible? wildly different approach to random encounters

[Quickleaf]

You are probably accustomed to the typical D&D random encounters approach - day by day, checking, rolling, playing it out, etc. These encounters can serve to build suspense, foreshadow things at the destination, expend resources, dispense clues/treasures relevant to the destination, or simply evoke a theme/feel.

I have a mythic desert for a 15th level game – this is soon to enter playtesting, but it's ultimately for publication (so a little different from improving it for home game). By high levels, players are probably well-versed in the usual random encounter procedure... and I have an idea to flip the script that's pretty wild. I could use some conversation to work through its shortcomings and figure out if the "juice is worth the squeeze."

Tl;dr What if... the region being traveled through saps memories so that players roll for the outcomes of the encounters their PCs had, but only have vague impressions of what happened?

Spoiler: Detailed Writeup

The deeper one travels into the mythic desert known as the Great Anvil, the more one’s memory and perception of time blur like sandstorms rolling across the dunes. Rather than rolling for random encounters and playing through each day for 240 miles – a procedure players who’ve advanced PCs to 15th level will be plenty familiar with – this journey begins with the PCs reaching their destination (the Citadel), haunted by vague impressions of what transpired, and perhaps changed in some way. During the course of exploring the Citadel, they can uncover memories of what transpired in the Great Anvil by interacting with flashback triggers, utilizing genie wishes, or magically restoring their memories.

Instead, have the party describe their approach to traversing the desert, such as: “The druid casts wind walk, and if we need to stop to rest, the ranger’s hawk scouts out a safe spout, where the wizard erects a Leomund’s tiny hut.” Use their approach to determine how many days their journey takes, and have the players roll 1d20 per day. Whether the outcome of the roll has any impact on a party will depend on their method of travel, what sort of magic (if any) they use to rest, and their unique capabilities.

For the purposes of these forgotten “encounters”, keep a running tally of damage each PC has suffered – they’ll surely have the magic to heal it all, but the magical desert has a long memory. A PC who sustains damage over the course of the journey equal to their hit points becomes haunted by desert phantoms.

It’s entirely possible the party will use magic to reach the Citadel, circumventing the desert…for now. Later during the adventure, it’s possible for the PCs to be tricked or teleported into the desert, or even to venture into the Great Anvil of their own accord.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I think it's going to depend a lot on your players' personalites if they accept simply being told the result of an encounter. Some may find this interesting and make them want to explore the surrounding story, others will see it as a gross violation of player agency.

 

[Oofta]

I never use random encounters because it can get so tedious. Especially at higher levels, the PCs are going to steamroll anything that makes sense for the locale in many cases anyway. So I typically just hand-wave it all. There were a few minor skirmishes along the way but for the most part potential monsters just kind of run away.

There may well still be fights along the way, but it will be because the enemies that have been fleeing were banding together or the group has stumbled across an exceptionally dangerous area or monster. Note that there may be times the PCs can avoid encounters through clever play or planning, but that's a different issue.

 

[Quickleaf]

I never use random encounters because it can get so tedious. Especially at higher levels, the PCs are going to steamroll anything that makes sense for the locale in many cases anyway. So I typically just hand-wave it all. There were a few minor skirmishes along the way but for the most part potential monsters just kind of run away.

There may well still be fights along the way, but it will be because the enemies that have been fleeing were banding together or the group has stumbled across an exceptionally dangerous area or monster. Note that there may be times the PCs can avoid encounters through clever play or planning, but that's a different issue.

So you'll note that my wild idea circumvents playing through random encounters.

This is not a question about the broad topic of random encounters as they typically are done - not in the way you're describing.

I want to nip that in the bud. Plenty other conversations about that.

EDIT: A better word came to me than "encounters" – these are "forgotten/obscured memories" of things that happened in the desert.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I never use random encounters because it can get so tedious. Especially at higher levels, the PCs are going to steamroll anything that makes sense for the locale in many cases anyway. So I typically just hand-wave it all. There were a few minor skirmishes along the way but for the most part potential monsters just kind of run away.

There may well still be fights along the way, but it will be because the enemies that have been fleeing were banding together or the group has stumbled across an exceptionally dangerous area or monster. Note that there may be times the PCs can avoid encounters through clever play or planning, but that's a different issue.

You may have bulldozed a response through without reading the initial post thoroughly enough.

 

[Quickleaf]

I think it's going to depend a lot on your players' personalites if they accept simply being told the result of an encounter. Some may find this interesting and make them want to explore the surrounding story, others will see it as a gross violation of player agency.

Indeed. It's the sort of thing I can see being divisive.

I know there are ways to massage it – provide good stuff along with any bad outcomes, make an effort to tie outcomes to aspects of the characters / character sheets, create "encounters" / "memories" that can be explored to add to the story of the destination rather than unintegrated drawbacks.

That's the "squeeze" of design work. At the end of the day, I don't know how much that would persuade folks opposed to "intrusion on agency" that it could be fun.

Ultimately, the idea is to avoid playing out the random encounters (for all the reasons @Oofta summarizes), and instead cut to the dungeon. That seems apropos of high-level PCs, even if they're not doing it with Teleport or Wind Walk or whatever. They don't need more "roll d20, ok 17, that's an encounter, roll d12+d8, ok 2? purple worms!"

EDIT: I originally wrote this out in classic random encounter format, then realized how it really didn't match high-level play & was kinda rote.

And it's on point thematically for my adventure both in terms of mystical desert environment & themes of regret / other possible choices / timey-wimey shenanigans / redemption.

But at least a big part of the question comes down to agency.

 

[Lanefan]

Do they still get experience points for the fights and encounters they don't remember?

 

[Quickleaf]

Do they still get experience points for the fights and encounters they don't remember?

Man, you answer a question with a question, huh?

Yes, once they regain their memories.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Due to milestone leveling and every class having the same xp totals, not to mention players being very powerful, random encounters barely matter anymore.

 

[Shiroiken]

I have a mythic desert for a 15th level game – this is soon to enter playtesting, but it's ultimately for publication (so a little different from improving it for home game). By high levels, players are probably well-versed in the usual random encounter procedure... and I have an idea to flip the script that's pretty wild. I could use some conversation to work through its shortcomings and figure out if the "juice is worth the squeeze."

The biggest question is what is the ultimate goal. If you're looking for a way to hand wave away random encounters, there's better options. If you want to have a mystical desert that drains away memories, I'd have it require the occasional save to take away actual memories the characters have. In such a place almost nothing could live long, or else be drained of all memories, thus you could ignore random encounters.