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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 7195770" data-attributes="member: 6778044">For one, when an NPC is with the party, then they are also subject to any random encounters that the party is. But I actually do roll random results, and occasionally "encounters" for NPCs. In my campaign there are a lot of NPCs going about their business. So if the NPC happens to be a villain, and they have an ongoing scheme that the PCs may or may not have engaged with, I will often have to determine what has happened to those schemes between sessions many months apart. And in that process I will often roll random results, and it has occasionally been a random encounter related to other known things going on in the area. But really, my point was just that whether we actually roll for the NPCs or not, it doesn't mean that NPCs don't encounter the same sort of things that the PCs do, with the same probabilities designed within the encounter tables. The PCs aren't necessarily "special" in that regard within the game world. They just happen to be the ones we're focused on at the time.Yes, but that's not the point. The point is that what they represent is consistent across the game world. And should we choose to focus on those particular people at a certain point in time, then they would be subject to the random encounter tables.I was just being a smartass. And yes, it's imperfect, but the intention is to be consistent and as "realistic" as we care to make it. To our game, but that doesn't make them "special" just special to us. In most of our campaigns, it would be the equivalent of the cops on Law and Order. Which ones? There were a lot over the seasons. The point is, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter, they are just another pair of cops. In the context of the story of some particular characters, to the players who played those characters, their characters and their story is special. But the world doesn't inherently function differently for them.You can (and seem to be saying) that it does, since we (the DM and players) are working out their story within the context of the game rules. But from my perspective as a DM, all of the NPCs should have a story that fits the same structure. They follow the same in-world rules, and they should also be able to be created and achieve their place in the story using the rules of the game. Not everybody agrees with that, obviously, or probably even cares. But each NPC I create, with whatever spells or abilities, etc., is written to explain any new effects in game terms. Something that the PCs could conceivably do under the right circumstances. I prefer that sort of consistency within the game world. Yep, and I don't entirely like the Adventures in Middle Earth approach, although I certainly think it would do the trick for a lot of folks here. And I might run an adventure using those RAW simply because the rules themselves actually work together really well to get the feel they are looking for. It's really well done, and I'm hoping if I run some games, others might pick it up.Yes. Adventurers would be more prone than farmers to encounters. Unless the farmers are adventurers, wandering in the sort of places adventurers wander. In other words, at least in my campaign, it probably doesn't matter who you are. It's more a question of when and where. But there will be some circumstances where the who matters too.</blockquote>

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