Random Encounters

[Shadowslayer]

I haven't heard of Wildscape, I'll have to check that out. Too bad you don't know what those cards are called, I'd also like to see those.

You may be thinking of the Deck of Encounters. It was put out by TSR in the 2e days, about the same time they did spell cards. It was kinda neat.

I owned them, but alas...15 years and many housecleanings later...sigh.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

IIRC it was a recent D20 version.. I will have to check around somewhere... If anyone lets has an idea, let us know!

 

[The_Gneech]

The concept of a random encounter hearkens back to the dungeon-based model of adventuring ... i.e., there's a town here and a dungeon there, and you'll probably go back and forth between them quite a bit, so who knows what you'll run into along the way? (Or, you're camping in the dungeon, and who knows what local inhabitant might come wandering by?)

In that context, they make perfect sense and I think they work well.

If you're running a more story-oriented type of game, on the other hand, nothing is ever really "random" even if it may seem to be, so there's no reason to use them.

In my own case, I don't often use them, but that's mostly because I don't often use the "go loot the local dungeon for fun and profit" adventure model. There are exceptions, however.

-The Gneech

 

[Arnwyn]

Do random encounters (for you) necessarily mean that it has to be a potential monster or NPC fight or does it just mean something out of the ordinary happens during the PC's treck across the forest or dungeon?

For us, it's both (though my players like combat, so we get a lot of that).

If it's a random encounter that isn't a type of battle, do you give XP for still overcoming the encounter?

Yes, if it's some sort of "challenge" to the PCs.

 

[BWP]

Mother of All Encounter Tables you say...

Where would I find such a thing?

It's published by Necromancer Games.

http://www.necromancergames.com/previews/moaet.html

I find it useful to generate ideas for encounters, rather than generating the encounters themselves, if you see what I mean.

 

[genshou]

If you'rer rolling for random encounters, technically weather is not one of them. There's a table in the DMG (bah, no one uses 3E anymore so I won't even list the page number) which you roll on for the day's weather. Encounters are unexpected confrontations with danger or risk of some type, not another reason to complain about mucky Waterdhavian roads. It's not like the PCs will be free of meeting anything except for that 10% of the time. There are always rabbits, and birds, and travelers passing by. What an encounter, whether randomly generated or not, entails, is something which presents a problem of some sort that the PCs need to solve to earn XP, and entails some sort of reward/punishment factor. Sometimes that challenge is merely a group of peasants out for a hunt, who can be milked for information with a good skill check. Other times, it's a hungry bulette. Me, I don't roll randomly for encounter type, but I do for having the encounter happen in the first place. Then, I open the DMG and look at the monster-by-terrain charts, and then hand-pick a CR-appropriate and climate-appropriate monster from it.

 

[Tiberius]

I'm afraid this must be done. I refer you to the Order of the Stick for the defining work of Random Monster Theory.

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript?SK=145

 

[TheGM]

I've done both - abused them, even build dungeons around them, and not used them at all.

In the end, I now use them to forward the story or contribute to it, never as purely random.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I don't use random encounters at all anymore. I havn't even looked at a random encounter table in years and years (since 2E).

 

[Shadowslayer]

IIRC it was a recent D20 version.. I will have to check around somewhere... If anyone lets has an idea, let us know!

Yeah, Im kind of keen to know too. I only remember the 2e one, but I'd consider them for the current ed. Let us know what you find out.

Trev