Random Encounters?

[Jastermereel]

How many DMs use truly random encounters?

A few weeks ago I'd decided that, due to a traveling mishap, my party wasn't going to get directly to their destination and, due to a longer detour, would pay the penalty of a random encounter...but due to game-night scheduling delays, a simple "meet a shambling mound in the woods" turned into "a shambling mound and a shocker lizard working in tandem near the picked over corpse of a messenger coming from their destination city heading to Brindol to deliver a message regarding recent attacks so as to reinforce plot hooks they're already following"...and thus...not so random at all, even though the original Shambling Mound was randomly rolled from a table.

So I got to thinking...how many DMs really use truly random encounters? How many have quasi-random encounters that get woven in to the threads of the adventure? And how many just have strictly plot-relevant encounters.

This doesn't include the unexpected encounters of an unruly party bringing trouble onto them selves, but more the type that appear as a sort of penalty for moving long distances in unfriendly lands.

[Serpentine]

I don't think it is unreasonable - nor even unrealistic - to have "random encounters" woven into the story itself or even expanded into their own stories. In fact, that's how I use them - I'll get a random encounter table (usually custom-made), and keep rolling until I get a combination from which I can glean an interesting, usually somewhat-realistic, story.

[jmbrown]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with tailoring random encounters to suit your needs. Simply saying "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself" while fighting off 8 gnolls, 4 giant spiders, and 10 ghosts fighting together makes absolutely zero sense. Even in the 1E DMG, Gygax's magnum opus which is filled to the brim with "roll randomly on Chart A, then again on Chart B7, if 1 roll on Chart 9X, if less than 10 but higher than 9 roll on Chart AA2B9" he constantly reinforces the DM to discard results that make no sense.

Rolling on charts is designed to give you a general idea. A good DM will always tailor events to suit his game instead of turning it into nonsensical video game rules where you step out of a tavern and suddenly 30 thugs appear out of nowhere armed to the teeth.

[Gavinfoxx]

I would LOVE to do the "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself", but ONLY if I could have it *sound exactly like* that announcer saying it from Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II.

Hehehehe....

[dgnslyr]

I don't think it is unreasonable - nor even unrealistic - to have "random encounters" woven into the story itself or even expanded into their own stories. In fact, that's how I use them - I'll get a random encounter table (usually custom-made), and keep rolling until I get a combination from which I can glean an interesting, usually somewhat-realistic, story.

Is this week one of those avatar theme weeks?

On the subject of the OP, what else are you going to do while the party is traveling from A to B?

[WalkingTarget]

Is this week one of those avatar theme weeks?

It's Monty Python week.

spam spam spam baked beans and spam

[AslanCross]

In my last campaign, I used random encounter tables constructed based on the environment the PCs were traveling in. As such, the "devil-infested, fiery death mountains" surrounding the BBEG's lair were populated with the BBEG's hobgoblin and ogre minions, summoned devil scouts and soldiers, and the occasional mountain troll. (They ended up fighting a mountain troll plus a bunch of devils close to the fortress)

I also roll them up way in advance so I can prepare the battlefield. As the OP said, it wasn't a truly random encounter, but I prefer to run them that way.

Now if you want a truly random encounter, pick a bunch of monster manuals, roll a die to determine which one you're going to get them from, then roll a die to determine page number. :P

I would LOVE to do the "You have been waylaid by enemies and must defend yourself", but ONLY if I could have it *sound exactly like* that announcer saying it from Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II.

Hehehehe....

I now have an idea: Next time my PCs take too long to move on and instead sit around and banter, I'll incessantly repeat "YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH."

[Gavinfoxx]

I now have an idea: Next time my PCs take too long to move on and instead sit around and banter, I'll incessantly repeat "YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH."

Oh god, that would be sooo meaannn.... hehehehe

Do that if they try to split up and one of them leave the area, though! You've gotta get it to happen at roughly the same sort of moment... =D =D