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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 5839806" data-attributes="member: 92511">A hearty yes for the &quot;return&quot; (&quot;continued use&quot;, from my perspective) of Random Encounters/Wandering Monsters.However, as several have already stated, there needs to be a bit of DM judgement in the mix. i.e. they should &quot;make sense&quot; to what's going on (the &quot;no vamp's in the daytime&quot; for example) and where the party is.A vast swamp or wilderness several days out of town is rife for the possibility of encountering something, in or out of its lair. An orcish mine/outpost might be a bit more restricted: a patrol of orcs, an ogre who lives nearby and trades with them from time to time, some random wild beast that considers the region its hunting territory, etc.So, as Radiating Gnome said, it's more a &quot;planned randomness.&quot; Like,a &quot;Random CHANCE for an encounter that makes sense&quot; moreso than an actual &quot;Random Encounter.&quot;If the party is several levels of caverns underground and I rolled a &quot;couatl&quot; or &quot;air elemental&quot; chances are I'm going to say/think &quot;Forget it. Doesn't make sense...no encounter.&quot;I generally come up with 4 or 6 possible &quot;random encounters&quot; for a partcualr area. Then, if the party is lingering overlong in the middle of nowhere or, quite by accident, runs across an empty lair/cave, I'll roll to see IF an encounter happens...then choose from the creatures/encounters I've pre-determined for that area. Obviously, this is all, also, at the whims of things like &quot;time&quot; and &quot;preparation&quot;...so a &quot;random encounter&quot; is not necessarily going to come up in every session or even every adventure.Besides, after a while, if things are moving slowly/people are getting bored, it's really not so difficult to come up with something on the fly...not strictly a &quot;random encounter&quot;, since there's no rolling or anything involved, but not something that is necessarily pre-planned or &quot;story important&quot; (though could easily lead to some side adventure/interlude) while still being &quot;realistically relevant&quot; to where the party is. But, yes. Random tables for the less experienced DM (or the more experienced who don't have the time to come up with their own all of the time) would be a welcome, limited amount of space, in an appendix or something in the DMG.--SD</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 5839806, member: 92511"] A hearty yes for the "return" ("continued use", from my perspective) of Random Encounters/Wandering Monsters. However, as several have already stated, there needs to be a bit of DM judgement in the mix. i.e. they should "make sense" to what's going on (the "no vamp's in the daytime" for example) and where the party is. A vast swamp or wilderness several days out of town is rife for the possibility of encountering something, in or out of its lair. An orcish mine/outpost might be a bit more restricted: a patrol of orcs, an ogre who lives nearby and trades with them from time to time, some random wild beast that considers the region its hunting territory, etc. So, as Radiating Gnome said, it's more a "planned randomness." Like,a "Random CHANCE for an encounter that makes sense" moreso than an actual "Random Encounter." If the party is several levels of caverns underground and I rolled a "couatl" or "air elemental" chances are I'm going to say/think "Forget it. Doesn't make sense...no encounter." I generally come up with 4 or 6 possible "random encounters" for a partcualr area. Then, if the party is lingering overlong in the middle of nowhere or, quite by accident, runs across an empty lair/cave, I'll roll to see IF an encounter happens...then choose from the creatures/encounters I've pre-determined for that area. Obviously, this is all, also, at the whims of things like "time" and "preparation"...so a "random encounter" is not necessarily going to come up in every session or even every adventure. Besides, after a while, if things are moving slowly/people are getting bored, it's really not so difficult to come up with something on the fly...not strictly a "random encounter", since there's no rolling or anything involved, but not something that is necessarily pre-planned or "story important" (though could easily lead to some side adventure/interlude) while still being "realistically relevant" to where the party is. But, yes. Random tables for the less experienced DM (or the more experienced who don't have the time to come up with their own all of the time) would be a welcome, limited amount of space, in an appendix or something in the DMG. --SD [/QUOTE]

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