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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5535465" data-attributes="member: 61155">I've used them in some scenarios, but not quite in the classic fashion. I've typically tied them into an extended exploration skill challenge.  For example: The PCs have discovered that a cult of Yuan-ti are tied to an epic plague sweeping the world. They have discovered the Yuan-ti temple in which a ritual causing this is being performed, and they know they can't find all the snakefolk at once.  So they begin a skill challenge, interspersed by encounters. Essentially, each time they try to move between one location in the temple and another, they need a certain number of successes or they run in trouble (either stumble into enemies, or guards track them down, etc) - at which point they roll on the random encounter table.  This ended up being more entertaining than actually challenging, since they were usually successful at sneaking around. They also had to do so after each combat to find a safe place to rest (rather than hang out in the high priest's room healing up, only for a patrol to wander in and find them covered in their leader's blood). The one time they botched the roll - right after one of the really big fights, with half the party still in single digit hp and hurting... ...they rolled the easiest possible result on the random encounter table, leading to some minions carting around gold statues just wandering into their midst and being butchered.  I used a similar system in one or two other scenarios - I don't think I would use it as a general rule, just because there isn't always time for lots of random fights, and having them happen in the middle of nowhere doesn't serve much purpose. But this felt like a good way to work them into the overall challenge of exploring the temple, and in this case, provided an amusing anecdote from the campaign.</blockquote>

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