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<blockquote data-quote="Ralif Redhammer" data-source="post: 7952936" data-attributes="member: 30438">I think it's best to have some planned and some random elements. Too much of one or the other and it starts to feel like the PCs are just along for the ride. I routinely include sections in my adventures that I have no idea what's going to happen or how the PCs are going to solve it. And when I'm in a pinch for ideas, I will absolutely grab a book with some random tables and use it in the middle of a session.One of my favorite DMing stories from the old days was when 2e was still in the progress of coming out. We had the 2e PHB, but the rest was still 1e. I decided to run a completely random dungeon crawl with the 1e DMG's appendix A (I think). It ended with a memorable encounter with a lich that ended up being a recurring foe for the campaign.The experience made me feel in a lot of ways like I was a player alongside them. I did not know what was coming next, and only had scant seconds from dice roll to implementation to come up with something.All that being said, I think the main problem with Appendix A is that, depending on the dice rolls, you could end up with a whole lot of &quot;nothing happens.&quot; Or worse &quot;Ah, yeah, sorry, the dungeon is just a single straight corridor going on forever.&quot; What I want from random generation these days is something that sparks ideas, like The Dungeon Alphabet.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ralif Redhammer, post: 7952936, member: 30438"] I think it's best to have some planned and some random elements. Too much of one or the other and it starts to feel like the PCs are just along for the ride. I routinely include sections in my adventures that I have no idea what's going to happen or how the PCs are going to solve it. And when I'm in a pinch for ideas, I will absolutely grab a book with some random tables and use it in the middle of a session. One of my favorite DMing stories from the old days was when 2e was still in the progress of coming out. We had the 2e PHB, but the rest was still 1e. I decided to run a completely random dungeon crawl with the 1e DMG's appendix A (I think). It ended with a memorable encounter with a lich that ended up being a recurring foe for the campaign. The experience made me feel in a lot of ways like I was a player alongside them. I did not know what was coming next, and only had scant seconds from dice roll to implementation to come up with something. All that being said, I think the main problem with Appendix A is that, depending on the dice rolls, you could end up with a whole lot of "nothing happens." Or worse "Ah, yeah, sorry, the dungeon is just a single straight corridor going on forever." What I want from random generation these days is something that[I] sparks ideas[/I], like The Dungeon Alphabet. [/QUOTE]

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