We had a Bebilith encounter that definitely wasn't part of the 'tour'.
We have that critical hit deck and decided that only enemies with names can draw from it. Fortunately this monster which sliced my monk in twain was not named. He(she?) got away. We fought it later and it got some nasty hits on us again and we were wondering if we should give this monster a name.
Those encounters that are not part of 'the tour' shake things up. Even though we don't know all that is going on, we can guess. For example, we had been playing the Charlie the Unicorn youtube video and guess what appeared in the woods! :D I guess the game was supposed to have a unicorn, just not THAT one. It was a way to lighten the mood and a way for us to remember a past event.
I have a chart full of 'signs of' encounters.
Given that someone in the party always has a decent perception score, it's a little jarring to just stumble into situations. There's also the fact that given the relative rarity of a lot of the things typically in random encounter tables, it starts to feel like a surplus of coincidence.
I'm revising my chart since the party leveled recently, but I like to have monster tracks, abandoned wagons, fresh kills, old bones, dropped items, chances to spot nests/burrows, and those sorts of things. It makes it a more immersive world than just saying you run into a X. It helps set the stage for why you're running into an X. If of course you chose to go find it/stay in the area long enough for it to find you/fail to escape it as it tracks and runs you down.
It also helps keep random encounters from being mandatory time sinks. If the players are really into the quest, they hustle along and try to avoid the X. If they want a change of pace, they go investigate. If they're intrigued but are prioritizing, they make a note to come back and check it out later.
Seconded. Random encounter charts I make also involve random events, random sights and random resources. If the party is moving through the woods and constantly running into things to murder, they'll think of the forest as a megadungeon. If however they encounter a patch of Sweetflower Gourds whose flesh is not just tasty but can grant a +1 to Perception in regards to seeing in darkened conditions, now its a fantasy forest.
I think on top of everyone's comments for random encounters to "make sense" and such, it should also be noted that in my experience the good ones also spur the players into action other than "attack...loot...repeat."
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I'm revising my chart since the party leveled recently, but I like to have monster tracks, abandoned wagons, fresh kills, old bones, dropped items, chances to spot nests/burrows, and those sorts of things. It makes it a more immersive world than just saying you run into a X. It helps set the stage for why you're running into an X. If of course you chose to go find it/stay in the area long enough for it to find you/fail to escape it as it tracks and runs you down.
This. SO this.
I tended to take the random encounter table from Kingmaker and redesign them into random pre-written encounters >.> Owlbear became 'owlbear catching and attacking a nixie" encounter, who later acted on the PCs' behalf in dealing with some of the locals.
A certain aberration became a guardian of a nearby cairn.
A group of bandits became a group of 'travelers' who were 'just passing through to the trading post', and were later found dead on the walls after they were caught trying to raid.
A faerie dragon became 'Black Tom, the vengeful spirit of a highwayman' that invisibly guarded a particular road in the Narlmarches and demanded tributes from travelers lest they incur his curse. He puts on a nasty show, but he settles for tributes of copper, and his feelings get hurt when people aren't afraid of him. He has a brother that devotes his time to 'fighting evil' and 'rescuing princesses', but he has too short an attention span for long quests.
For Example:
The recent module had the group traveling overland to the mountains, over the mountain pass, then trough the woods on the other side. Module had a random rolled chance for weather, non-combat encounters, and attacks.
I do not roll while we are playing then say, “For the 3rd time a giant stag beetle rushes out of the bushes at your supply cart.”
I decide ok, the first 3 days there won’t be any monster attacks (maybe they will start thinking they are safe).
Just weird/confusing people encounters (maybe they will switch out their combat spells for things like detect thoughts).
But the weather will suck – foggy in the morning, windy all night, drizzle light rain the whole time, constantly getting colder.
Then as they get into the mountains there will be some monster attacks. One on the 4th day, 2 on the 6th day (no one expects 2 in a day outdoors), 1 on the 7th, 0 on 8th, then probably out of the mountains unless moving real slow.
I will pick things because they are interesting, problematical, or amusing (to me) not because of any extreme danger. So this rabid griffon tries to kill several horses. Druid sends a cloud of locust to eat all their food stuffs on the supply wagon. Ethereal Filcher steals some stuff. Hiding treant throws big globs of mud to put out their fires at night. Shadowy figure is watching all their fights from a distance.
Now they are into ‘civilized lands’ so back off on the ‘monster’ attacks. For a couple of days.
However, now there is a really big thunder storm (nothing attacks then because they will be expecting it). The storm washes away the bridge. Now they have to figure out how to get the caravan over the river.
While crossing and spread out, the angry druid (who has been following them) attacks again. Dragon flies try to pick up a couple of small/light figures as they cross. Anyone in or near the water gets attacked by an alligator that will try to drag them under water. His treant friend will try to throw people into the water. And the druid will start casting stone call and summon swarm on anyone that looks like they are organizing a defense.
After that, ‘civilized’ lands is where the bandits have targets. So they are in the area. Etc…
Pretty much all of this was on the module’s random monster table. I just organized it as I saw fit. None of the fights were really a threat of a kill at their level, but they could be aggravating and make them work for their progress a bit.
One thing I just realized upon reading these posts, is that the randomn encounter table can be a solution to the 15 minute adventure day. If people are expecting 3-5 APL encounter (i.e. "fights"), and they can only get through them if they burn all their resources, you can only adventure for so a short time before being burnt out. But if you get to a point where each day you expect 6-10 encounters, some of which are not even fights, and and of the fights some are way below APL, then the wizard chucking rocks at the goblins instead of wasting spells makes perfect sense. It is a little harder when you are a weak character, but a wizard will only have one spell a day, and will be used to chucking rocks except in an expectionaly important circumstance.
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Part of the game is learning how to play.
I don't mean to sound like the imperious grognard I must sound like saying that.
What I mean is the game is in the playing, not the building. Thanks to 3.5 a lot of people build characters lke magic decks, as opposed to characters.
Wandering monsters and their intrinsic random goofiness helps to mitigate that, it forces people outside the 'accepted' paradigm they designed their character for and starts them on the true path of resource management, strategy and tactics.
'Oh the wizard can just...' starts to fall apart when a bullette just /POPS/ up out of the ground.
An old beautiful thing about the old approach to random encounters/wandering monsters was your chances of encountering them went up based on noisy activities, such as combat.
Having things break into the initiative count, smashing through walls like the kool-aid man, helps players to think on their toes, and inspires that wonderful 'oh crap' expression we DMs love so much. It also adds some sense of verisimilitude.
The evil wizard is plumbing the ruins of the ancient empire du jour, the party teleports in to confront him and his henchmen. Spells are lobbed, bardic music starts...and then at the top of round 2, one of the nearby wall explodes as a bullette (who just HAPPENED to be meandering through) came in to investigate.
Now both sides have to contend with an angry land shark whose sole moral interest is he's hungry. And the land shark's roaring and bashing around
Does it mess up balance? Maybe? Does it give new tactical challenges /and/ options? Yup! Is it memorable? Oh hell yeah.
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Part of the game is learning how to play.
I don't mean to sound like the imperious grognard I must sound like saying that.
What I mean is the game is in the playing, not the building. Thanks to 3.5 a lot of people build characters lke magic decks, as opposed to characters.
I disagree. To paraphrase an evil president, "character building is one game, and roleplaying the character is another".
I hate filler encounters, but I love random encounters. Filler encounters aren't always random, and random encounters aren't necessarily filler.
Good random encounters provide context for the story. They show you something about the world beyond the immediate plot. Maybe you run into refugees fleeing some destruction caused by the big bad. Maybe wild animals are restless somewhere for reasons tangentially related to what's going on. Maybe you meet travellers with interesting stories. Maybe you meet minions of the big bad.
Great random encounters become the story. Doesn't really work if there's a railroad to follow, but if the players have the freedom to choose where they go, a random encounter could develop into a major plotline. Perhaps the refugees are fleeing from some evil you didn't know about yet. Maybe the random band of brigands you meet is part of some bigger threat.
It can still happen for kingmaker. Multiple groups have got the will'o'wisp way too early.
We did. We ran into it at level 1, got slaughtered and ran away with half our party unconscious (it didn't pursue, fortunately). Then we ran into it again at level 2, and we killed it. This was clearly a serious threat to these lands, so it needed to be taken care of. Our original failure helped us prepare and get better equipment. It was very valuable to our development.
We seem to have wildly varying opinions on what a "random" encounter is.
Some people are saying "I like random encounters if they're set parts of the story that advance the plot". How is that a "random" encounter? What you're describing there is very not random - it's a preplanned set encounter.
If it's rolled on a table, it's random, even if the table is filled with plot-related stuff. These can be some of the best random encounters. It gives the impression that the world is not a static place where everybody is just waiting for the PCs to do their thing, no, NPCs, even the BBEG can move around.
I think the problem unseen is the '15 minute day'. Only one local GM I know of has kept that silly rule.
I hate filler encounters, but I love random encounters. Filler encounters aren't always random, and random encounters aren't necessarily filler.
Good random encounters provide context for the story. They show you something about the world beyond the immediate plot. Maybe you run into refugees fleeing some destruction caused by the big bad. Maybe wild animals are restless somewhere for reasons tangentially related to what's going on. Maybe you meet travellers with interesting stories. Maybe you meet minions of the big bad.
Great random encounters become the story. Doesn't really work if there's a railroad to follow, but if the players have the freedom to choose where they go, a random encounter could develop into a major plotline. Perhaps the refugees are fleeing from some evil you didn't know about yet. Maybe the random band of brigands you meet is part of some bigger threat.
It can still happen for kingmaker. Multiple groups have got the will'o'wisp way too early.We did. We ran into it at level 1, got slaughtered and ran away with half our party unconscious (it didn't pursue, fortunately). Then we ran into it again at level 2, and we killed it. This was clearly a serious threat to these lands, so it needed to be taken care of. Our original failure helped us prepare and get better equipment. It was very valuable to our development.
We took that wisp at level 1, almost everyone died. The dm really held back, he was a new dm and didn't understand it was OP for us.
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Even a railroad has things like switchbacks, alternate tracks and such. In short; everyone likes a curve. Random encounters provide that.
They don't always have to be an encounter. Many of us use tracks in the wild, random scents on a dungeon breeze, etc to simulate "random encounters". The old 1e DM's Guide had these charts in the back for random dungeon dressing.
These went further than odd bits found in a room. They had smells, types of breezes, inocuous molds and fungi. All manner of thought-provoking immersion to make the dungeon more real. This is just as much a random encounter chart then the chart a couple pages before with monsters on it.
If you dislike and reject random encounters that's fine. If however you're interested in them at all, think of them less as time-sink fights and more like opportunities. They give your players the chance to explore some aspect of the adventure you think is cool but isn't otherwise an obvious part of the game.
For example if you have some cool backstory element or social agenda; if there's a moral you want to drive home; if you just want to reinforce local lore on a place. All of these might be reasons for a random encounter.
I for one have a city that a forest overgrew by magic. Now sections of the city are still tangled up in it. I've told the players its a bad place to be, but those are just words.
Their first adventure takes them into this "dungeon forest" for a few miles to get to a ruined tower. There they have ascend the ruin to read the glyphs atop it and confirm the origin of the tower. If I've made the forest such a focal point of legend lore I'd like the opportunity to show off how Bad A33 it is, so I might throw in an encounter on the way there, or perhaps if they make a base camp to retreat to that would incur an encounter.
Said "encounter" may only be some heavy branches knocked down out of the canopy. Looking them over as well as the surrounding area reveals that there was some kind of downdraft from above; other branches indicate something very large perched there recently. This coupled with a goat carcass killed by a pickled stab wound and gnawed upon indicates a wyvern passed through this way.
If the party's REALLY interested they can try and follow it's trail of perches through the wood and find its lair. Or they can continue on their mission and file this away in the "for later" bin. Either way, this helps illustrate that you don't just go for strolls through the woods and pull a Walden at a nearby pond.
We took that wisp at level 1, almost everyone died. The dm really held back, he was a new dm and didn't understand it was OP for us.It can still happen for kingmaker. Multiple groups have got the will'o'wisp way too early.We did. We ran into it at level 1, got slaughtered and ran away with half our party unconscious (it didn't pursue, fortunately). Then we ran into it again at level 2, and we killed it. This was clearly a serious threat to these lands, so it needed to be taken care of. Our original failure helped us prepare and get better equipment. It was very valuable to our development.
It's a good example of how random encounters can either rock or suck. Random encounters don't have to be combat encounters. A will o'wisp can be great as a mysterious thing you see floating through the forest from a distance. No fight necessary. Our GM had it withdraw after it knocked two people out. We had no idea what it was or wanted. Maybe it wanted to test us? Maybe we were bothering it somehow and it was happy with us fleeing?
A brush with an overpowered encounter can be a great story tool. But you do need a GM and players that are able to recognize what it is. An inexperienced GM can f~#& anything up. That's not a problem; that's why GMs get better after a while. It's a serious skill. Being able to craft a unique story out of unbalanced random encounters is part of that skill.
We took that wisp at level 1, almost everyone died. The dm really held back, he was a new dm and didn't understand it was OP for us.It can still happen for kingmaker. Multiple groups have got the will'o'wisp way too early.We did. We ran into it at level 1, got slaughtered and ran away with half our party unconscious (it didn't pursue, fortunately). Then we ran into it again at level 2, and we killed it. This was clearly a serious threat to these lands, so it needed to be taken care of. Our original failure helped us prepare and get better equipment. It was very valuable to our development.It's a good example of how random encounters can either rock or suck. Random encounters don't have to be combat encounters. A will o'wisp can be great as a mysterious thing you see floating through the forest from a distance. No fight necessary. Our GM had it withdraw after it knocked two people out. We had no idea what it was or wanted. Maybe it wanted to test us? Maybe we were bothering it somehow and it was happy with us fleeing?
A brush with an overpowered encounter can be a great story tool. But you do need a GM and players that are able to recognize what it is. An inexperienced GM can f+%! anything up. That's not a problem; that's why GMs get better after a while. It's a serious skill. Being able to craft a unique story out of unbalanced random encounters is part of that skill.
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