Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 5483368" data-attributes="member: 38357">I seem to have misread the title of the thread as &quot;random encounters&quot; instead of &quot;wandering monsters&quot;... and I don't really feel like a well-written encounter table is truly random. True, there's die-rolling involved, and the timing is going to be unpredictable, but those encounters exist for a purpose and where set in (potential) motion with a reason. OTOH I've seen quite a few truly random encounters that didn't involve any die-rolling...I think you're talking about a different kind of &quot;not appropriate&quot;.This type of encounter, for instance, I don't think is inappropriate. The issue is: how much does anybody at the table care? (I'm giving the players credit for caring at least somewhat about &quot;what are these orcs doing here?&quot; or whatever...) When the players have no goal beyond seeing &quot;what's behind that door?&quot;, then wandering monsters play right into that. When they have some other goal, wandering monsters can still be useful and appropriate, as a complication to be avoided or overcome.The issue for me is that it can be difficult to really inspire a strong goal or motivation in the players. I've seen many instances where the players seem to latch onto such an objective, but only because they see the macguffin and want to be &quot;good players&quot; (or for whatever other reasons) and play along with the adventure. The problem then is that they are likely to fixate on whatever shows up before them (as it where) in the game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kaomera, post: 5483368, member: 38357"] I seem to have misread the title of the thread as "random encounters" instead of "wandering monsters"... and I don't really feel like a well-written encounter table is truly random. True, there's die-rolling involved, and the timing is going to be unpredictable, but those encounters exist for a purpose and where set in (potential) motion with a reason. OTOH I've seen quite a few truly random encounters that didn't involve any die-rolling... I think you're talking about a different kind of "not appropriate". This type of encounter, for instance, I don't think is inappropriate. The issue is: how much does anybody at the table care? (I'm giving the players credit for caring at least somewhat about "what are these orcs doing here?" or whatever...) When the players have no goal beyond seeing "what's behind that door?", then wandering monsters play right into that. When they have some other goal, wandering monsters can still be useful and appropriate, as a complication to be avoided or overcome. The issue for me is that it can be difficult to really inspire a strong goal or motivation in the players. I've seen many instances where the players seem to latch onto such an objective, but only because they see the macguffin and want to be "good players" (or for whatever other reasons) and play along with the adventure. The problem then is that they are likely to fixate on whatever shows up before them (as it where) in the game. [/QUOTE]

Verification