[4e] Has anyone made random encounter tables?

[MammonAzrael]

As the title, has anyone worked on or made random encounter tables for 4e? I've always been a fan of 2nd's idea that X monsters live in Y terrain and you have a chance of meeting something you can in no way handle. I was going to go through the MM and come up with my own, but I figured I'd see if anyone else had worked on it first. (work smart, not hard!)

I'll just have to remember to tell my players that the concept of encounters always being level-appropriate doesn't apply in my games.

[Oracle_Hunter]

As the title, has anyone worked on or made random encounter tables for 4e? I've always been a fan of 2nd's idea that X monsters live in Y terrain and you have a chance of meeting something you can in no way handle. I was going to go through the MM and come up with my own, but I figured I'd see if anyone else had worked on it first. (work smart, not hard!)

I'll just have to remember to tell my players that the concept of encounters always being level-appropriate doesn't apply in my games.

Nah, because I've always felt that random encounters are silly for the reasons V outlines. If I'm sending the PCs somewhere, or they want to wander about, maybe I'll work up a sidequest, if I feel like it.

That said, what I do is describe (to the players) what generally lives in certain areas of my campaign. Orc warbands hang out in the highlands, the Eastern Mountains are home to kobolds and various giants living in the ruins of a lost civilization, and goblins and ettercaps live in this forest. That way, the PCs are going to be seeing what is supposed to be there, rather than Displacer Beasts.

[MammonAzrael]

That said, what I do is describe (to the players) what generally lives in certain areas of my campaign. Orc warbands hang out in the highlands, the Eastern Mountains are home to kobolds and various giants living in the ruins of a lost civilization, and goblins and ettercaps live in this forest. That way, the PCs are going to be seeing what is supposed to be there, rather than Displacer Beasts.

This is pretty much the type of thing I was looking for. I didn't want an arbitrary table I could roll on so they get X random encounters per day of travel, but rather so I can give them an idea of things they might run into, or things that might disturb them in the middle of the night, or things that the locals might ask them to deal with, etc.

I could go through the MM and jot down where things are commonly (and uncommonly) found, but if someone has already done that heavy lifting...well, who am I to not appreciate their hard work?

[Oracle_Hunter]

This is pretty much the type of thing I was looking for. I didn't want an arbitrary table I could roll on so they get X random encounters per day of travel, but rather so I can give them an idea of things they might run into, or things that might disturb them in the middle of the night, or things that the locals might ask them to deal with, etc.

I could go through the MM and jot down where things are commonly (and uncommonly) found, but if someone has already done that heavy lifting...well, who am I to not appreciate their hard work?

It depends on your setting. Yeah, I kind of wish they still had the "found in" section of their stat block, but most of the fluff in the MM says where things are found.

Me? I like my orcs on the plains and goblins in the forests. So that's where they go

[MammonAzrael]

Well ok then. Looks like I got some work to do. :)

Starting off we have...

Plains
Forests
Mountains
Caves
Underdark
Swamps
Salt Water
Fresh Water
Astral Sea
Celestia
Abyss
Nine Hells
Far Realms
Shadowfell
Feywild
Volcanoes
Arctic (and other sub-zero temps)
Wasteland
Deserts
Primordial plane (whatever it's called)

I'm sure I'm still missing areas. suggestions?

[SamTheCleric]

Primordial Plane = Elemental Chaos.

[Behold_the_Void]

I was actually a bit disappointed that they had this myself since the 4e campaign I'll be running actually has USE for these things (since the wilderness in general is a BAD PLACE with things that can and will kill the party).

I'll probably be going through the monster manual and setting up a bunch of heroic tier encounters across the board so I can use them while the PCs are traveling. I want to stress to them that sometimes it's better to run and hide than face the creatures that can be found out there.

[MammonAzrael]

I was actually a bit disappointed that they had this myself since the 4e campaign I'll be running actually has USE for these things (since the wilderness in general is a BAD PLACE with things that can and will kill the party).

I'll probably be going through the monster manual and setting up a bunch of heroic tier encounters across the board so I can use them while the PCs are traveling. I want to stress to them that sometimes it's better to run and hide than face the creatures that can be found out there.

Indeed...but don't limit yourself to heroic tier creatures if you really want to get the point home that most people don't go into the wild for a reason.