Really, my party is just loving this whole idea. I have roleplayers, problem solvers, combat junkies and some unknowns totally fired-up! We ran the first session, and it was just roleplaying at the table to gain insight and knowledge, maybe BUILD those future relations with those NPCs and they loved it! NO combat for 4 hours. HOW crazy is that?
All right, really, my question is on hexploration. I stumbled across a rule modification that I REALLY liked (I posted a shout out), regarding putting the day into basically 4 phases. Sweet. All in.
NOW, there are some hexes in the game, that have pre-set locations, encounters. Yes? IN those hexes, would I ALSO roll for random encounters? Or, pretty much, that set piece is only thing to be found.
I'm a little confused, deeply appreciate feedback and comments. Thoughts? Tips and tricks?
Thank you!
Creative Director
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My advice for the hexes that have encounters in them is to not roll random encounters initially. Once the encounter there is resolved, feel free to roll random encounters if the PCs revisit.
That said, my strongest advice for random encounters is to keep an eye on how your players are enjoying them. If they're bored with stretches of no action, then more encounters should happen. If they're frustrated at having trouble making plot-progress or because they spend too much of the session dealing with random encounters, then fewer encounters should happen.
Die rolls should spur creativity and suggest things, but they shouldn't rule the game when it comes to things like random encounters; you as the GM should absolutely curate them and adjust things as needed to make the game more fun at that moment.
Have fun! :)
That said, my strongest advice for random encounters is to keep an eye on how your players are enjoying them. If they're bored with stretches of no action, then more encounters should happen. If they're frustrated at having trouble making plot-progress or because they spend too much of the session dealing with random encounters, then fewer encounters should happen.
^ All of this. Sometimes random encounters are great to cause unexpected things to happen which can build the story on its own, and also reinforce the idea that these are untamed, not-safe lands.
Other times... I know when my group is heading toward a quest that we are really keen on doing, having everything stop for a meaningless random encounter just deflates everyone.
Also note that if you're using the companion & camping stuff, there are a lot of ways to reduce the random encounter chance. We were using ALL of them, which is probably a signal for how many random encounters we prefer (not a lot).
We're not using the camping rules anymore for the most part, but you get the idea.
Thank you both, it all makes sense with your thoughts and suggestions. VERY much appreciated!
Session TWO, kicks-off this Wednesday!
I like camping rules in theory, but in practice RAW they cause way to many random encounters. Honestly, this is the hardest part of running this AP for me. Realistically, there should be A LOT of random encounters. This is the Stolen Lands. An area of the River Kingdoms that is so dangerous that no nation has been able to settle and hold it. So if you treat it with the respect it deserves the party should be engaging with a lot of random combat encounters with beasties and bandits.
However, those encounters can just get really dull. There's only so many times you can fight dire wolves, kobolds, bandits, spiders, etc.. in a wilderness biome map before the players just want to get on with it.
Honestly, the best way to do it is to create custom encounters with detailed RP. Instead of a random wolf attack, come across hunter being attacked by wolves who then meets PCs and eventually settles in their kingdom.
But those types of random encounters can take a lot of time to prep, and introduces NPC bloat.
The struggle is real for me, this AP takes A LOT of energy from the GM. Also, the kingdom management needs a lot of work to make it playable.