Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 2032488" data-attributes="member: 913">I like to use random encounters in some circumstances.&nbsp; If I have time to prepare beforehand, I will roll on encounter charts and use the results as inspiration for more interesting encounters.&nbsp; I don't believe that every encounter should be related to the plot, but I also don't have much time to game, and so I don't want to devote most of an evening to dealing with random encounters.&nbsp; I try to strike a balance.&nbsp; For example, the PC's in my campaign recently went on a month and a half journey across an area similar in description to the Mournlands of Eberron.&nbsp; If I had used the method of rolling once every hour, even if I had rolled before the game, it would have taken probably a year or more of real time to get across those lands.&nbsp; Instead, I only made a couple of checks for each day.&nbsp; About 1/4 of the encounters I developed into mini-adventures, 1/4 of the encounters I left as random occurences, and the rest I discarded, addressing them as &quot;you have some minor encounters with &lt;so and so&gt;, but easily prove superior or otherwise overcome the obstacle.&quot;Random encounters &quot;by the book&quot; do come in very handy in some situations, though.&nbsp; If the party is camped for the night or otherwise spending a few hours exploring someplace that I haven't prepared, I will go to the tables.&nbsp; The planar encounter tables from Manual of the Planes are useful, too.&nbsp; I haven't developed the Plane of Shadow very well, so every time they Shadowwalk, I go directly to the table.&nbsp; The twelve shadows they encountered last time helped to reinforce the dark and dangerous nature of the place, that's for sure <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Schmoe, post: 2032488, member: 913"] I like to use random encounters in some circumstances. If I have time to prepare beforehand, I will roll on encounter charts and use the results as inspiration for more interesting encounters. I don't believe that every encounter should be related to the plot, but I also don't have much time to game, and so I don't want to devote most of an evening to dealing with random encounters. I try to strike a balance. For example, the PC's in my campaign recently went on a month and a half journey across an area similar in description to the Mournlands of Eberron. If I had used the method of rolling once every hour, even if I had rolled before the game, it would have taken probably a year or more of real time to get across those lands. Instead, I only made a couple of checks for each day. About 1/4 of the encounters I developed into mini-adventures, 1/4 of the encounters I left as random occurences, and the rest I discarded, addressing them as "you have some minor encounters with <so and so>, but easily prove superior or otherwise overcome the obstacle." Random encounters "by the book" do come in very handy in some situations, though. If the party is camped for the night or otherwise spending a few hours exploring someplace that I haven't prepared, I will go to the tables. The planar encounter tables from Manual of the Planes are useful, too. I haven't developed the Plane of Shadow very well, so every time they Shadowwalk, I go directly to the table. The twelve shadows they encountered last time helped to reinforce the dark and dangerous nature of the place, that's for sure :) [/QUOTE]

Verification