Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="thedungeondelver" data-source="post: 5824167" data-attributes="member: 34865">There is a fellow who posts (not sure if he's on this forum) as OldGeezer on various forums.&nbsp; He was lucky enough to game with the original Lake Geneva group back in the day.&nbsp; He said this about random encounters (nee wandering monsters):&quot;Mike commented that that's why he likes random charts: they help tell a&nbsp; story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate.&quot;You can read the entire experience about gaming with him <a href="http://blogofholding.com/?series=mornard" target="_blank">here</a>, I recommend it highly.&nbsp; But that paraphrase pretty much says it all: they help tell a story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate.When you roll to-hit, aren't you doing the same thing?&nbsp; When you roll your hit points, aren't you doing the same thing?&nbsp; Moment to moment, the story unfolds.&nbsp; The DM should never, ever feel conscripted to only set-piece (ugh) &quot;encounters&quot;.&nbsp; An adventuring area is a living, breathing place.&nbsp; Some unlucky orcs might have been tasked with hunting down the rat wearing the jeweled collar.&nbsp; The monsters that dwell above it all dead, a neo-otyugh might have decided to slurp on down the hall towards better pickings.&nbsp; A flock of stirges, driven by hunger, might be flapping through a cavern.&nbsp; A Dryad could be out communing with her kin - there's no end of things that can just &quot;happen&quot;.&nbsp; These things &quot;...help tell a story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="thedungeondelver, post: 5824167, member: 34865"] [FONT=Century Gothic]There is a fellow who posts (not sure if he's on this forum) as [B]OldGeezer[/B] on various forums. He was lucky enough to game with the original Lake Geneva group back in the day. He said this about random encounters (nee [I]wandering monsters[/I]): "Mike commented that that's why he likes random charts: they help tell a story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate.[/FONT]" [FONT=Century Gothic]You can read the entire experience about gaming with him [url=http://blogofholding.com/?series=mornard][b]here[/b][/url], I recommend it highly. But that paraphrase pretty much says it all: [B]they help tell a story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate[/B]. When you roll to-hit, aren't you doing the same thing? When you roll your hit points, aren't you doing the same thing? Moment to moment, the story unfolds. The DM should never, ever feel conscripted to only set-piece (ugh) "encounters". An adventuring area is a living, breathing place. Some unlucky orcs might have been tasked with hunting down the rat wearing the jeweled collar. The monsters that dwell above it all dead, a neo-otyugh might have decided to slurp on down the hall towards better pickings. A flock of stirges, driven by hunger, might be flapping through a cavern. A Dryad could be out communing with her kin - there's no end of things that can just "happen". These things "...help tell a story that neither the DM nor the players can anticipate." [/FONT] [/QUOTE]

Verification