I've started not to use random encounter tables during the play. Instead I roll several entries from them beforehand, and then think of complications and terrain features etc. at my leisure. Then whenever I need a random encounter I just cross the first one from the list and use that. I find this easier for myself because this way I don't have to come up with everything on the spot, and have the time to add a little extra to the encounter to elevate it.
I use random encounters with %. If my PCs are in a known environment (eg right now we play in the North of Faerun and they are from Waterdeep). If they are close to their native area i give a 5-10% for random encounter. Now that they are at Moonshea they will get a 40-50%.
This is perfect! I pre-roll a lot of content and run it this way, and it lets you refine and really consider things beforehand. Just make sure to plan for extra encounters in case some end up being nullified or end too quickly, or are inappropriate for the area.
For 2dX tables you can have the middle curve be no encounter. This keeps rare and common encounters without having such a high chance of the same ones being rolled, and makes it so they party isn't just attacked constantly when traveling.
@@DungeonMasterpiece It's used in the Orrery of the Wanderer, the forgotten/ignored official wotc adventure. 2d10, 9-11 are no encounter. You should check out that module, it has some cool stuff in it but that entire book was kind of written off due to the art and comedic nature.
@@DungeonMasterpiece It's in the Acquisitions Incorporated book and makes of the majority of the pages. I think everyone skipped the book because of the art. I'm finding a lot to like about the module, the book in general is super under rated.
I coincidently just started a new module within minutes of watching this video and the module happen to have this encounter table idea. I bet if I didn't see your video, I wouldn't have appreciated this idea as much.
Yes, I thought so too! You could even add "distance from nearest town" (possibly divided by a suitable number) to your roll, to make it more dangerous the farther into the wild you go.
One other thing might be a progression table to the list for some random things. Taking the wolves, you might have two of them, one that lets you adjust the specifics of the wolf pack as a whole...such as modifying the creatures involved when you find them as you progress (The party is killing off the younger and weaker wolves, so you might have a dire wolf or two used as alphas, or situations where they might encounter other things connected to that particular thing such as chances that the players run into a few wolves surrounding one of their own in a trap...players could play it and influence either the wolves or the hunter in the woods into being an ally (Or both if they play it right), or find their den...and eventually end them as a major thing, and the other being other things about the wolves with what they're specifically doing such as patrolling their territory because of other predators, hunting, searching for something, and perhaps have things tied to all of those. On top of that you have the other major thing that a lot of people forget, if it is going to have a more survival based theme, well, you want to have some easily recurring events that might give or drain resources but aren't something the players would really want to fight out (A game animal that could be felled easily if they pass a few checks, a water source, some fruit/berries that they might want to take advantage of, herbs or similar...things that let different party members feel useful and can help). Quite honestly, one of the best 3rd party things for this sort of thing was the Adventures in Middle Earth books because the journey system there was awesome and had a lot of things that worked for both combat and non-combat available...
@@Enfors Upping the die works too. You keep the easy low number encounters but add extras as the party levels up and the die increased from d4 to d6 to d8, etc.
Great idea about d6 on a bigger table. About the encounters..I recently discovered a method watching a livestream of Chris McDowall. You came up with 4 nouns for a location like a forest. (1. Tree 2. Leaves 3. Stream 4. Bandits) Than you make all combinations (1. Tree Leaves, 2. Tree Stream, 3. Tree bandits ... ) and come up with ideas like 1. A fallen tree on the road 2. A Treant crossing the stream 3. Bandits hiding in a tree and so on. It's a really great method.
I've used something similar. It really helps make randomized content feel more cohesive. I usually pick 5 words for a set of encounters/a quest, then each encounter uses some combination of 3 of those words. Adds some nice themes without feeling too repetitive.
I've never used the 2d6 bell curve model, so I didn't realize that this was a problem that other DMs dealt with. My preference is the d12 for encounter tables (mainly because that die is so underused in the rest of the game), which I think would work for your model even though you recommended against it. When my PCs reach a certain level, I like to add a single "cakewalk" entry to the tables, representing the encounters that are too easy to challenge them, but would still be present in a given hex (i.e., bandits and wild animals) while still minimizing their probability to about 8% of the time. Generally serves as a means to let PCs cut loose and revel in their power gains. Combining that with your model, I'd use the "cakewalk" entry to collect the entries that "fall off the list". The separate Behavior and Complication tables for narrative prompts are a great idea, too. Usually I just wing it on the fly, but I end up leaning too often on a few go-to options if I'm not careful.
I like using bigger dice and controlling the odds myself. So I might use a D10 (because I like D10 and D100) and put one or two likely encounters twice, maybe with different depositions. If you wanna make it interesting, create follow up tables. Say, you rolled a pack of wolves as a random encounter. For the next encounter a bear doesn't make as much sense as they conflict each other a bit. Instead of using the same "forest" table again, you use the "forest -> wolves" table again. That table is filled with encounters, that match the wolves. Like a hurt wolf they had to abandon, a werewolf, hunting party, ... This gives you a more tied in place. It is more work initially, but not that bad. And in the long run it saves you from stumbling over your brain in the moment. That said, I mainly use random D100 tables for loot, weather and stuff. I plan more of a narrative instead of doing random adventures.
To eliminate the bell curve I recommend rolling a percentile die, d100, and just having assigned ranges. This creates a curve with the shape you want... flat, bell, inverted bell, triangular, whatever you want. And if you add some monsters it is easy to adjust to the new group. But, random encounters are really only needed if you're reusing an area with groups that might have heard about the adventure before. Most of us write one-offs so you don't need random encounters. Just make encounters that fit the story, the time and place, the terrain and the party level. As far as the players know, everything is random.
I've never used random encounter tables based on the level of the characters. I just have them based on the region and fill in creatures that would live in that kind of climate. I also never adjust them to make them challenging either. There are push over encounters, hard deadly just depends on what's rolled and the level of the characters. If I want it to be more deadly, and if fits the narrative, then I beef it up. I think this obsession with balanced encounters is really blown out of proportion.
Balanced encounter is the video games logic. They video game is very limited in letting player use clever way to deal with problems. The Skyrim effect where the world level up as you do is retarded and your players never feel strong because everything get stronger. My approach is the same as yours. Also you encounter wolves... doesn't mean the wolves attack you... you encounter them. If you aren't a bunch of murder hobbos... you'll let them be.
@@fredericleclerc9037 It's funny. The early video game industry borrowed from what role-playing had done, even employing many of its early designers. Then as video games outpaced TTRPG their logic was applied to TTRPG as a generation raised on them became older. I love watching these younger generations of players and designers figure out what the previous one already knew. I don't say that to be mean, but as something that is interesting to watch occur.
I agree. If a creature belongs there, I don't care how many HD it has. For example, a bear has 5+5 HD and can be encountered in temperate or sub-arctic forests. This is true whether the PCs are 1st level or 20th level.
One thing you can do with the 2d6 is turn it from random encounter to the random event table. So 7 would represent nothing happening with 6 and 8 would be the next more common events such as a moderate difficulty encounter and discovering a location. The idea is yes rolling a 2 might be rare but that is where you place a deadly or extreme difficulty encounter. That way it is possible for the party to discover some monsters that might flat out kill them, like the wyvern they are too low to realistic fight. It can then be used as a foreshadow of what the can encounter, or show how truly deadly and out of their depth they are.
I do appreciate having a Disposition angle for random encounters. Hoblins rooting around for food (but otherwise neutral to the party) are potential allies if you offer food. I did wonder about your random encounter table having things like Grifting for Gold as an option that non-sapient beings would have, but you made a point about innovating that with the Broken Wing Wyvern example. Just handwave a Sudden Enemy Necromancer NEARBY which alters the stakes considerably. (in my example, I guess the wolves can speak now. "Hey. We've been cursed. Only if a hero stout of heart pays us a gold apiece are we freed!") Excellent video! A good and thoughtful demonstration of how to run fun random encounters.
I added a threat level to a dungeon that depending on how PCs played increased the chance to get harder encounters. I used 1d10 + 1d4 per level of threat level. This sliding scale of random encounters is great
I really enjoy the approach to 2d6 tables that the blog PapersPencils uses. On these tables, 2 is always a dragon, 12 is always a wizard, and 7 is an NPC from the cast that - usually - the players already know; entries 3-6 are region specific, while entries 8-11 are specific to the broader setting. With this set up - and some imagination - you'll end up either learning more about an NPC, meeting a wizard or a dragon, or learning more about the setting both local and beyond. 2dx is fine to use as a format as long as you stock it well. Your system with the devil table is very clever though and I may end up using this in some situations!
This is interesting. I didnt know how people did random encounters when I first started GMing. I only knew that tables were involved because it was mentioned in UA-camvideos amd such. So when I started GMing I tried to build encounter tables for each ecosystem, rolled one die for every few hours travel and threw together an encounter based on the results. I had tables for different levels of danger and different biomes so I could roll the number and then decide which table I wanted to use. My big idea was making a lot of the encounters nuetral or flavor oriented to give a sense of travel. For example, my players were traveling through a forest towards the feywild so I started with a table that was mostly things like "bear", "refugees", "group of satyr (friendly)", "goblin hunting party", etc. But I also had a table of violent fey encounters, ambushes, and other mostly bad things in case they didnt get any combat encounters for awhile and became restless. I built the tables so that high numbers would be generally friendlier encounters, middle numbers would be more nuetral encounters that could be roleplay opportunities and lower numbers tended to have more enemies. I was working on refining the system when the campaign ended. I would roll 1 die for the type of encounter, for example: special encounter, ambush, enemy patrol, beasts, nuetral warriers, refugees, travelers, merchants, friendly mgk user, friendly fey/beings. Then I would roll or select from a list of encounters within that category. I don't remember if I actually ended up doing this last method. Took way too long to get the various tables built. It was much easier just to roll on a single table for the biome- or switch between 2-3 tables. Something like 1-2, roll on combat table, 3-4 roll on flavor table, 5-6 roll on benefitial encounter table... changing those numbers with how dangerous the area is of course. Maybe in the dungeon its 1-5 combat, 6-7 nuetral encounter, and 8 for a special encounter...
Another thing you can do if you’re into more tactical combat is add a separate table for each biome in your world that adds an obstacle or environmental hazard to a battlefield. A wolf pack encounter could be much more dangerous if the party was attacked on the side of a cliff instead of a gently sloping road, for example
A system I trial ran was a kind of escalation. As the players did more stuff in a warlord's domain it got her attention. Manifesting in harder and scarier events like hunting parties, traps, and maybe even one of her lieutenants. In rules you just add the 'escalation value' to any random event roll. Bonus points if you have certain abilities to play with escalation. By having a powerful spell add to it or a way to try and dial it down.
A normal distribution is still random. A discrete uniform distribution is also random. Both distributions can be very useful depending on your needs. In my experience a lot of people don't think about probability distributions when considering dice to roll. Most frequently they just think about the desired result range. These are great suggestions on how to use a discrete uniform distribution effectively. The "problems" described with a normal distribution are only problems when you don't expect and do not desire that particular distribution. If you want ~50% of encounters to be of a very small number of encounter types because that is the desired variability for a particular region, then a normal distribution is the correct tool for the job. A normal distribution can be harder to work with but only if you use too few dice to simulate the normal distribution. I prefer to use a JAGS roll when I want a normal distribution. This roll has a range of 0 - 20 (inclusive) with a surprisingly smooth looking normal-like distribution. The 21 slots is not too excessive and variability can be managed by assigning multiple slots of different probability sizes to a single encounter type if desired. The downside is a lot of dice to roll.
Putting your method to the test I made a quick table with 12 slots. each with an entity, a behavior, and a complication. Some test rolls got me: A blind commoner lost in the grasslands trying to find his way home. An Ankheg trying to find its lair but someone stole it's brain. A mind controlled howler fighting a young blue dragon. Some combinations made so little sense I HAD to reroll them, but its good enough for an on the fly event.
The way I use 2d6 tables (when I use complicated random encounters) I have either 7 be a clue to another encounter (roll again, rerolling a 7) and whatever the clue is to becomes the next random encounter. You could also do nested tables with your really cool sliding method; maybe 2d6 is *types* of encounters (rarer ranges for apex predators and magical phenomena, middle ranges for humanoids and regular animals) and then have separate sliding tables for each type.
The bell curve distribution "problem" only occurs, if you use multiple dice. Using a single dice/die yields the same probability for each number. So just use 1d12 instead of 2d6. If you aim for a linear distribution of probability and therefore only use a single die/dice, the downside is, you can only have a result of 1 with that single dice. But the points mentioned are absolutely valid and spot on. The more dice you use, the more evenly the probability of possible values will be distributed. So just use 12d2 instead of 2d6 for a value range of 12-24 therefore also having 12 possible slots to assign encounters to. Apply the same method to increase dice count and spread out probability.
Here's a different idea: If you like the bell curve system, which I do in my case, because I use a lot of automated imbedded 2D6 tables, you can still "level up" those tables by making rare more rare and more beneficial encounter lower on the table. Let's say your characters travel on land and could meet a merchant in the area near a city. If that encounter is more rare compared to meeting guards or simple travelers, increasing the result for areas further of the city will effectively eliminate them from the table. Meeting guards will become even more rare and travelers too, because of how less densly populated the area is. An encounter with, let's say goblins, that would be less likely near a city could then become much more common, since you are going deeper into the wilderness. Like the other system in the video, certain "unique" encounters will also start to appear. These tables are also useful for generating structures depending on location.
I came up in 1st ed AD&D, which predated the d20 system. I learned to build encounter tables based on “percentile dice” using 2d20. The dice at the time only had single digits (bold was used to differentiate single numbers from teens), so rolling “0 1” = 1 and “0 0” = 100. Asking myself the probability of a particular encounter allows me to build the tables rather easily (though today I use 2d10 instead the old d20’s).
I don’t even use dice for random encounters, inspired by something I heard from Zee Bashew, I get a small bowl and write down four combat encounters, two non-combat encounters, and four “no encounter” messages on slips of paper put them in the bowl. Then I ask for the players to give me at least one pair each of encounters. One good thing that can happen, one bad. This is by their standards, so it lets me see what they want from my game (one player once wanted a scene where he is kidnapped and players have to rescue him). After making sure it all fits and works well, into the bowl they all go. Now, when I need a random encounter, I reach into the bowl and pull out an encounter. I can remove ones too easy at any time, and if I want one to be more common, I just add that entry to the bowl multiple times.
As far as raw dice numbers I do prefer a belt curve personally l. But having adjusted modifiers based on party level/civilization/danger distances as well as 3 other random tables that gives context to each other's a a genius idea and I'll 100% be using those
Another idea is just replacing an encounter each time its used, i think this is really good if your trying to add a personal touch to each random encounter
the 666 table is pretty nifty there. I personally do like to roll 1d8 + 1d12 and then reaction table. Also if any DM rolls something up on the table that seems too strong right now one can always show some tracks or a kill. If its a bit too easy tell the players you spotted some goblins in the distance that hurrily dispersed and ran away. One thing not mentioned in the video is that it can be nice to have some non combat encounters like social encounter or discovery encounter. IT might also not truelly fit the modern playstyle but having 1 or 2 way too strong encounters in there can definitly be fun as well.
I think the majority of this is really good. I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that weighted probabilities != random. I think that using mixed dice creates a better distribution that isn't as heavily dominated by the center. I would suggest 1d4 + 1d8 to still have rare encounters but start to flatten out the curve a bit. Or even better start treating 2's as 3's and 12's as 11's. This beefs up the chance of those rare encounters without just removing them. Personally having rare unlikely encouters makes them more special. The 3rd time the party comes across a wyvern it is just as boring as the goblins. The fact that it is rare is what makes it special.
Excellent work Baron. I’m so happy UA-cam’s algorithm put you on my feed. I think you’ve gotten the fastest “subscribed” out of me. Please keep this up if you can your POV on this stuff is so on point that I never even thought about a lot of this and has really expanded my take on DMing. Thank you. It’s like the whole you don’t know what you don’t know and now I’m getting enlightened on it.
Table/result shifting came to me by way of the "classic" traveller game and yes, it works well. T&T had some interesting use of tables, keys and dice as well. The encounter deck is absolutely great in person and I swear by it. But at the end of the day the draw is your narrative capacity to stitch it together. I might prefer a second d6 b/c I'd have a few variations of the base die results, but that's just me.
i was shocked to learn how frequently the most common encounters occur on a 2d6 table, but i still like the idea of a weighted random encounter table so i can use the classic dragon entry on 2. so i started playing with dice combinations and found that by rolling dice of non equal number of sides, the bell curve can be flattened out to more reasonably spread probabilities across the range. my gut sense is that 1d6+1d8 is the best combination; only have to come up with 13 table entries, and the 3 most common values are 7, 8, and 9, each equally likely and combining for a total 36% chance of being rolled. Essentially, a little over one of every 3 random encounters is one of those 3 most common, and the other two thirds of the time it rolls a rarer encounter. note that increasing the difference between the number of sides of the dice (eg 1d4+1d8 or 1d6+1d12) results in a wider plateau of equally most common encounters and increasingly flatter bell curves.
I still recommend you ditch the bell curve. Roll a d100. Decide on the exact percentages you want as a chance for an encounter to appear. 1-13 goblins 14-15 hurt goblins 16-30 pack of wolves, 31-35 bear, ...
@@Haexxchengreat point. I'm doing that to build tables for my Karameikos campaign, using solely Monstrous Compendium Appendix Mystara monsters, and the info it brings for each entry (climate/terrain, activity cycle, rarity), and, of course, choosing the exact probabilities (what numbers will be a Surtaki etc out of 100 possible numbers). Thanks for validating that.❤
Also on the random encounter table, once something has been rolled, eliminate it from the list. If rolled again, you can re-roll until you get a different result. Or just select the random encounter you want.
I use a d20 for my random encounters. The same monsters may get more than one entry but it might be different groupings. 2d4 orcs 2d4 orcs, half are Fighters 2d6 goblins d6 goblins + d6 kobolds Older D&D games also emphasized reaction rolls which can determine how the monsters approach you. They might be hostile, unfriendly, neutral, or even outright friendly! If your campaign or dungeon has factions then something like the goblins + kobolds encounter could become very interesting. You might even encounter them fighting each other and you end up in the mix.
Really like the 3 column 666 idea. I've posted the link of this video in our solitary role-player FB group. Always need new ways to generate random events.
Combining the bell curve table with shifting the table based on proximity to a location would simulate types of encounters being more common closer to their usual habitat while still allowing them the possibility of wandering far from home. Plus what another commenter said about having the most common results being no encounter would be quite interesting. Also just because the results are skewed doesn’t mean it isn’t randomly determined
This is amazing! I have a nice complication table in the game Stravagante! that is a d6 table with a nested d6 table for each number rolled. I also can use GMer' or Mythic's Chaos Rank to help with the difficulty raising, so when the tension raises in the adventure tougher encounters happen more often. I could probably use the Chaos Rank to influence the Number Appearing too! The possibilities!
I like the idea. I just subscribed a few day ago and have not been disappointed. This seems like a good way to keep mixing things up. It would be fun to roll a d8 at higher levels so the party can know that brigands still roam about.
Another possibility that works as a compromise to keep the idea of the curve but flatten it a bit is to use 1d4+1d8. This results in the 5 most common rolls having a flat 12.5% chance with 3 tapering off on the low and high sides for the more rare encounters. Though I like the suggestion below to make the 7 of a 2d6 roll be no encounter. I find it a bit odd the DMG has you roll to determine if there's an encounter and roll again for the encounter. It's much more efficient to combine the rolls.
Echoing some others, I'll often put "no encounter" at the heart of my 2dX tables if the party is on a main road/not in dangerous territory. Another quick and easy way I add flavor and nearly *double* my number of potential outputs is by putting specific encounters on the even numbers and having different results if the dice rolled are odd or even. For instance, if the party is near a well of necromantic power and another faction of say, kobolds is also in the area, I can put skeletons as #6 on a 2d6 table. If I roll 1/5 or 3/3, then the skeletons are normal, whereas a 2/4 roll means they are now kobold skeletons! Quick and dirty monster flavor or even their temperament and reactions to the heroes on the fly.
Damn, this is great advice, but I just spent like a whole afternoon yesterday populating a cascading series of d20 tables lol. I guess this is for my next random encounter region. Love the "local lairing beast" concept. It helps to give a sense of danger to an area.
This style of Random Encounter charts were already in circulation WAY back in 1983 with Chivalry & Sorcery 2nd Edition - a system I have been GM'ing since that year up until today. C&S has a Source Book with a VERY detailed process for Encounters that is very easy and quick to use which provides the following level of detail: If humans are encountered they are divided into several categories such as Fighting Men, That is further divided into a roll for Men-at-arms / Mounted Sergeantry / Knights etc. Then another quick roll will determine the service, duties and intentions of these men For example with a group of Knights and retinue they could be patrolling, or guarding, in the process of fighting an enemy, short on food and having to hunt, going on a journey or coming home from one, escorting a Lady or escorting a group under protection, looking for an enemy, looking for a monster reported in the area, on a Quest, camped, or even seeking out the party itself to hand over a message. This gives the GM countless ways to expand on the encounter, make it interesting and lead the adventure into an unexpected direction. The same kind of tables also expand on Brigand encounters, providing their intentions, or Thieves or Assassins, Clerical encounters, such as different types of Church business, Private business, Military Orders, Magic User encounter intention tables and so on. On top of this is a VERY detailed Urban, Highway, Fieflands encounter tables complete with the intentions of the encounter types which are most typically humanoid types going about their own business etc. With Bird encounters, Animal encounters etc. they also have their own Intentions chart to roll on so that the party can encounters these creatures who are going about their own habitats doing what these creatures typically do. The best of all is the Goblinoid, Trolls, and Giants Intentions list that is VERY in-depth and expansive. They provide the GM with such intentions that can be rolled up such as; Camping / preparing meat/resting & drinking or Lost and seeking aid or directions or escorting someone important or raiding village cattle/livestock or quarrel in progress or settling leadership of the band - these are just a few from the list which is about 50+ long. As a GM my encounters are often prepared in detail through these lists, often on the spot and not just an excuse to charge into the party with a blood lust. Many times what started as just a random encounter eventually expanded into a small adventure due to a few dice rolls on the Intentions/Duties/Service charts. The potential ideas for elaboration are endless and just as much fun for the GM as they are for the players, and this book is now 40/46 years old depending on the edition, 1st and 2nd. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry_%26_Sorcery_Sourcebook www.ebay.com/p/22028294558 whiteboxandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/02/chivalry-sorcery-2e.html
Adding some interesting terrain-features or weather-effect (like fog, rain or a hailstorm) to those random encounters would be neat. Strangely enough, PCs in a forest very rargely have to worry about thorn-bushes or trees blocking line of sight or difficult terrain. Even a small pond or a fallen tree can change the way that a battle has to be fought.
It seems to me that you are describing encounters that have zones. Like the zones Professor Dungeon Master uses for his UDT you could have zones extending from civilization. Adding a +2 to a d6 for say, questionable, dangerous and unknown zones would be a great way to scale encounter tables.
Like bus zones yeah :D assign a number for how difficult they are and a letter for which biome subtable to roll on (few or no owlbears in sewers, few or no oozes in grassland hexes, etc).
this video does solve a lot of problems I was still trying to figure out. I did get to the d6 tables on my own tho but i use about 4 of them per location.
to clarify, 2dX tables do not have a bell curve. They have a sort of "pyramid curve" that's triangular looking. Same principle, mostly, but it's slightly more likely to vary in probability than something like that rolls 3 or more dice which generates a bell curve.
I live this idea for encounter tables! I’ve tried them for exploration sections a few times, but they never “clicked”. Having now whipped up a few test tables, I can already see how inspiring this style can be! One question I have though…what do you put down for behaviour and complications for the more open-ended encounters? It’s easy to fill out entries for wolves…but less so for “Closest major power”!
I have always used (d100) % and created the odds around what I wanted to be random and what I wanted to be limited in randomness. This eliminates the standard bell curve. On Those limited randomly generated rolls, branches are created with similar generated (%)’s This pushes the randomness even further. Matrix tables can than be generated so that the players are not burdened with the math.
Why not use d100 and adjust the bell curve bent you don't like manually with percentage points? The linear approach you add does coincide nicely with a linear progression of difficulty so that bigger more common brackets are lowest and the closest encounters to 100 or 0, 0 on the die, would be rarer and more difficult. A single d10 added for a hundreds digit presents huge world building by random encounter options too. Your 666 method is neat, and smashes together moral 2d6+mod rolls and diverse Random encounter charts. Really neat and underlines the need for tools to enable dungeonmastering as fun and gamers. Thank for the video!
I don't think the bell curve is a problem, it's the purposeful point. Some things being more likely than others, it's a somewhat more rudimentary way of adjusting the probability weights. I use random generator tools to adjust it even more precisely, so a rare thing can be more rare. "You meet a... dragon! For the 5th time in a row!" It also makes it so it's not so samey, there's ups and downs, not just TV static. Hard to explain briefly. I first noticed in minecraft actually, there was a mod that added a biome that was just hideous, blocks just completely randomly placed mean no valleys, no hills, no rivers, no caves, just a vast land of entropy style, non-chaotic chaos, all different and yet feeling the same. Field after field of TV static like randomness. Procedural generation is not "fixed" or made better by removing the weights and making everything equal probability, but then, you're not going for procedural generation. (But I kind of am, lol.) Randomization with weights and sub-categories and sub-sub-cagetories, with different things generated as sub-parts of other things generated, seems to the next step or two up. Then you can explore and find things that actually feel different, rather than more of the samey static that's just everpresent, yet technically not identical. If you're doing improv as a GM and just using it as inspiration, it's not as big of a deal though, and the curve might not suit your tastes or what you're trying to do. Still, I wouldn't call it "fixing" it, any more than using a different palette or medium would be "fixing" art.
The nearest major enemy addition is also brilliant. Whether it is per dungeon level or per hex on a world overview map, having some major, known or unknown, antagonistic entity/leader is absolute gold! What fun this is! My DM gears are turning! Thanks for the video!
I like this. To be a stickler, the bell curve tables are still technically “random”. The issue is that they are skewed, and the skew is what results in poor outcomes. You’ve identified an important problem and provided a great solution 👍
Your idea about using a single six sided die table for all of the random encounters is brilliant! Specifically the part about adding to the die roll depending how far away you are from the homebase or how deep you are in the dungeon.
I scratched the surface of D&D 35 years ago and it's fascinating how it still excites people today. Watching your videos brings back some memories and, tbh leaves some itching to undust my bag of dice.
Super helpful - clear and concise ideas. I was getting waaaay too complicated with my tables. When you started talking about sub-tables...let's just say I felt that.
I always liked random encounter tables, but its been so long I can't recall any specifics about how they were set up in the game systems I played (D&D of the 70's and early 80's, TSR Marvel Superheroes and Mayfair DC Heroes of the early and mid 80's). What I do remember is that Marvel's random character generating tables were so fun I think I tied it into a random encounter set-up (whether my own or theirs is lost to the sands of time). Great to see so much thought and effort put into it. An nice little trip down memory lane; thank you.
i don’t use dice to determine the number - i use a small bingo cage with bingo balls and rotate the cage and pick one ball - this eliminates patterns/bell curve results
As someone who uses lots of random dice charts I love them. Good points. I use more even odds charts most often d%, d20 +d12 are my favourites overall. Good tips thanks.
Very grateful to have come across your video! My next campaign is exploration focused, so your advice gave clarity on how to create enjoyable and diverse random encounters; something I've been struggling with the last couple of weeks. Thanks much for sharing your thoughts!
I use a already bigger random table with levels up to mid and high level. So the group can encounter high level tier stuff... like dragons or other iconic stuff. So they had encounters they did not interfer with: Dragon flies by? - hide in the woods! See a horde of orcs? - change your route to go around! Meet a small group of goblins? - smash them with ease or let them flee from your might! The group even tried (and partially succeeded) to make allies of stronger monsters/NPCs and made most of.the encounters important to the story. I do not like, that everything is balanced. But that is thr reason I keep the bell curve in my 2d10 list, so these high level encounters aren't that frequent.
And here I am playing with flow charts. I definitely agree with the premise, but I don't like being constrained to only a handful of encounters. I want to be able to represent my entire world in a set of tables that anyone can use without any input from me. Oddly, for such radically different approaches, there are a lot of things we do similarly, like the "nearest major entity" entry, which (naturally) for me spills into a separate table for the faction associated with that entity. That way I know that this isn't just any kobold encounter, this is a pack of kobolds dragging sacks of gold back to their dragon leader, with appropriate rewards and consequences.
@@davidmorgan6896 in no particular order, personal satisfaction, OCD, other DMs at the table, and because it's just good design philosophy. I also make sure the novels I write that I have no intention of publishing have good characterization, strong scenes, and sensical plot structure
is just about to make my own random table for a grid crawl campaign im running. Another thing i like to add is non-combat encounters intermingled with the combat ones. Travelling merchants and the like. They can probably use the same behavior chart as well. AND, an idea i got from Zipperon Disney was to add an urgency roll. Not sure which of his videos he discussed this but the idea is to create situations in combat that require players to make hard choices. An urgency can be as easy as enemy reinforcements in the midpoint of combat to a ticking bomb or innocent civilians in danger. Maybe you dont have to roll one of these for every combat but it makes things much more interesting when you do.
@@DungeonMasterpiece i think it was this video ua-cam.com/video/z2d1gceeAPw/v-deo.html . He doesn't explicitly talk about combat urgencies as a random table however his idea of exigencies is where i got the idea. Basically when i roll up a combat and feel that it's somewhat lacking or that the mood around the table is getting stale i modify it with some extra urgency. However this modification can also occur while combat is going on. Is the combat getting boring? Is it too easy? Instead of just buffing the monsters hp or letting the boss cast a new spell or whatever i throw in something extra that takes the players focus. And ill usually do this between their turns, so in the middle of them executing their plan something happens that throws a wrench in there.
One point I would make on the 2d systems. The ones with very dissimilar dice (d20+d8 for instance) do give a very flat region in the middle and only taper at the ends. For instance, the d20+d8 would have equal probabilities for the numbers 9 through 21 ... so 13 options in the middle that are all equal, and then some rare things at each end. I'm wondering if using a deck of cards might not be a good idea ... each number could represent a different encounter and the suit might influence or determine something about the state or disposition of the encounter (♥ could be friendly, ♦might have extra loot, ♣could be an encampment or lair, ♠could be outright hostile). One of the advantages of this would be that once you have an encounter, it's in the discard pile and reduces the chances of encountering it again. Even if you do, the state would be different.
Awesome video man! I have been DM'ing for some time now and have come to a phase where I've become so comfortable with the role, that I now start to challenge some of my newbie habbits to try and weed out some of the things I do that might be a little boring. And I love the way this challenges the simple random encounter tables that I find in the modules that I have relied so heavily on. So thanks for rocking the foundation for my understanding of DM resources, and for expanding my ability to do a "generated" narrative plug ^^
I never really liked random tables and I typically avoid using them. However, this video has given me a way to make them more relevant, useful and fun. Well done. 👍
I sometimes use a percentile die and simply shift the percentages around as I please. It's technically a single die and allows for a super high degree of control, you can easily shift the percentages around as well if the characters get closer to a certain zone.
I recommend ditching the dice and using cards instead. In most cases, we don't want to repeat the same encounters since repetition is rarely interesting. By using cards, you can randomise by shuffling and remove repetition by putting used encounters into the discard pile.
This video really helped clear things up for me. I started with a d100 with percentile values for an artificial rarity bell curve (that I could fudge sometimes), with some entries changing depending on nearby major entities (orc and goblin tribes don't like each other, so have some norkers and ogrillons in the same slot depending on which is closer). Bottom entries also had "one time" notes for a unique creature, like a territorial bulette or a bar-lgura escaped from an abyssal seal. Where I went extra wrong was trying to fit all of the encounters in at once, and duplicating the list with edits so they scale with each level, instead of scaling them on the fly and coming up with context ideas for the encounters. Definitely going to implement this stuff for the next tier of play, maybe some hex crawl stuff too since they're going to be trudging through a massive swamp.
That proximity idea is brilliant! I am happy I found this channel, you have many great ideas that are new to me. Edit: The added behavior and complication idea is also great! I am not sure I totally understand the major threat part. Would that be a 4th column?
To share a useful iteration I've been using; I've added two more columns: quirk and loot. Same idea with each column being rolled separately, but you'll only add the quirk column if you feel the need to have a stronger or elite version of the encounter. The loot column has become a way of cluing what the enemies last ran into, but I'll often also give out the encounter's original loot as well. Since I didn't want to reward the random encounters much, I make the loot be a form of plot hook or some minor crafting material. In the video's example table, the displacers might drop moon-flint jewelry bearing the mark of their master and sometimes the party might find elite examples that can teleport through shadows. Or the brigands might drop a partial blueprint of a nearby noble's mansion whose defenses they were unable to thwart and the party might sometimes find elite examples that are capable of manipulating the weather with magic. But it is just as likely that the brigands are the ones that can ambush from the shadows or that the displacer beasts are the ones that can summon a storm. If they could learn each other's tricks, can the party?
when it comes to random encounter tables i make myself, i just upgrade the monsters they can fight wolves become dire wolves, orcs become orogs. and so on. eventually i do run into the issue of there being no replacement monster so at that point i just start buffing the monster, better strength modifiers, buffed health. Small things to keep them relevant.
Another approach I'm thinking of lately is to keep the smaller fights in, but turn them into skill challenges, where it's not a deadly fight but you instead try to find out if the PCs come out unscathed.
I've always used a d12 table with 5 or six encounters, where different encounters have 1-3 number reaults each. So for example, in the Wyrm mountains, you'll meet a travelling dwarf merchant on a roll of 1-3, and the wyvern that makes its nest nearby on a roll of 12
Love the idea of the adding to the list like that. I just made a random encounter list that rolls a 1d40 (if you dont have a d40 use paper and cup method) and its more of an area stocked list (Jungle) than a level appropriate type list. Out of the 40 possibly 10 are rolled once and rerolled if landed on again. Some of these will also place certain random quests that can be taken ect. roughly 3/4 or so could end in combat. EDIT: This is an area where the players will be spending a lot of time!
THANK YOU! I played a Curse of Straud Campaign and had 8 random encounters with Wolves of varying sizes! It was SO boring! I even told my DM, but he just said "that's what's in the book..." Personally, I rarely use random encounter tables (instead I use preset scenarios), but I might give them a shot in my next campaign. Thanks for the advice :).
The behavior and complication columns make me think of action and theme tables from the Ironsworn RPG, which is completely free and I'd highly recommend. This style of generation could also be used for faction actions as well, although you would have to be a bit more creative coming up with what the complication means in the pursuit of their next faction goal.
I have one of the players roll a d20, which correlates with various d100 tables, which change based on where the party is. Used both for traveling and rests. There are empty spots, and include encounters that are not combat oriented. Also, some are encountered only once, with that encounter being replaced thereafter. Not all encounters are weighted equally either, but are far less than 30%
I've started not to use random encounter tables during the play. Instead I roll several entries from them beforehand, and then think of complications and terrain features etc. at my leisure. Then whenever I need a random encounter I just cross the first one from the list and use that. I find this easier for myself because this way I don't have to come up with everything on the spot, and have the time to add a little extra to the encounter to elevate it.
Excellent!
Very good. I do the same. I call them encounter vignettes.
I use random encounters with %. If my PCs are in a known environment (eg right now we play in the North of Faerun and they are from Waterdeep). If they are close to their native area i give a 5-10% for random encounter. Now that they are at Moonshea they will get a 40-50%.
This is perfect! I pre-roll a lot of content and run it this way, and it lets you refine and really consider things beforehand. Just make sure to plan for extra encounters in case some end up being nullified or end too quickly, or are inappropriate for the area.
this is how tables are meant to be used, whether people know it or not
For 2dX tables you can have the middle curve be no encounter. This keeps rare and common encounters without having such a high chance of the same ones being rolled, and makes it so they party isn't just attacked constantly when traveling.
I hadn't considered that. That's not a terrible idea
@@DungeonMasterpiece It's used in the Orrery of the Wanderer, the forgotten/ignored official wotc adventure. 2d10, 9-11 are no encounter. You should check out that module, it has some cool stuff in it but that entire book was kind of written off due to the art and comedic nature.
@@beaug4306 I haven't even heard of it! Thanks for making me aware of it. I'll def check it out
@@DungeonMasterpiece It's in the Acquisitions Incorporated book and makes of the majority of the pages. I think everyone skipped the book because of the art. I'm finding a lot to like about the module, the book in general is super under rated.
yes empty encounter is good.
I really like the idea of using a d6 on a longer list, and sliding on the list to adjust difficulty! That's brilliant!
I coincidently just started a new module within minutes of watching this video and the module happen to have this encounter table idea. I bet if I didn't see your video, I wouldn't have appreciated this idea as much.
Yes, I thought so too! You could even add "distance from nearest town" (possibly divided by a suitable number) to your roll, to make it more dangerous the farther into the wild you go.
One other thing might be a progression table to the list for some random things.
Taking the wolves, you might have two of them, one that lets you adjust the specifics of the wolf pack as a whole...such as modifying the creatures involved when you find them as you progress (The party is killing off the younger and weaker wolves, so you might have a dire wolf or two used as alphas, or situations where they might encounter other things connected to that particular thing such as chances that the players run into a few wolves surrounding one of their own in a trap...players could play it and influence either the wolves or the hunter in the woods into being an ally (Or both if they play it right), or find their den...and eventually end them as a major thing, and the other being other things about the wolves with what they're specifically doing such as patrolling their territory because of other predators, hunting, searching for something, and perhaps have things tied to all of those.
On top of that you have the other major thing that a lot of people forget, if it is going to have a more survival based theme, well, you want to have some easily recurring events that might give or drain resources but aren't something the players would really want to fight out (A game animal that could be felled easily if they pass a few checks, a water source, some fruit/berries that they might want to take advantage of, herbs or similar...things that let different party members feel useful and can help).
Quite honestly, one of the best 3rd party things for this sort of thing was the Adventures in Middle Earth books because the journey system there was awesome and had a lot of things that worked for both combat and non-combat available...
@@Enfors Upping the die works too. You keep the easy low number encounters but add extras as the party levels up and the die increased from d4 to d6 to d8, etc.
Great idea about d6 on a bigger table. About the encounters..I recently discovered a method watching a livestream of Chris McDowall. You came up with 4 nouns for a location like a forest. (1. Tree 2. Leaves 3. Stream 4. Bandits) Than you make all combinations (1. Tree Leaves, 2. Tree Stream, 3. Tree bandits ... ) and come up with ideas like 1. A fallen tree on the road 2. A Treant crossing the stream 3. Bandits hiding in a tree and so on. It's a really great method.
Love this
I've used something similar. It really helps make randomized content feel more cohesive. I usually pick 5 words for a set of encounters/a quest, then each encounter uses some combination of 3 of those words. Adds some nice themes without feeling too repetitive.
Brilliant. In 22 years I’ve never thought of a sliding scale -not only for difficulty but for proximity. This is a …game changer (pun intended)
I've never used the 2d6 bell curve model, so I didn't realize that this was a problem that other DMs dealt with. My preference is the d12 for encounter tables (mainly because that die is so underused in the rest of the game), which I think would work for your model even though you recommended against it.
When my PCs reach a certain level, I like to add a single "cakewalk" entry to the tables, representing the encounters that are too easy to challenge them, but would still be present in a given hex (i.e., bandits and wild animals) while still minimizing their probability to about 8% of the time. Generally serves as a means to let PCs cut loose and revel in their power gains. Combining that with your model, I'd use the "cakewalk" entry to collect the entries that "fall off the list".
The separate Behavior and Complication tables for narrative prompts are a great idea, too. Usually I just wing it on the fly, but I end up leaning too often on a few go-to options if I'm not careful.
I like using bigger dice and controlling the odds myself. So I might use a D10 (because I like D10 and D100) and put one or two likely encounters twice, maybe with different depositions.
If you wanna make it interesting, create follow up tables. Say, you rolled a pack of wolves as a random encounter. For the next encounter a bear doesn't make as much sense as they conflict each other a bit. Instead of using the same "forest" table again, you use the "forest -> wolves" table again. That table is filled with encounters, that match the wolves. Like a hurt wolf they had to abandon, a werewolf, hunting party, ... This gives you a more tied in place. It is more work initially, but not that bad. And in the long run it saves you from stumbling over your brain in the moment.
That said, I mainly use random D100 tables for loot, weather and stuff. I plan more of a narrative instead of doing random adventures.
To eliminate the bell curve I recommend rolling a percentile die, d100, and just having assigned ranges. This creates a curve with the shape you want... flat, bell, inverted bell, triangular, whatever you want. And if you add some monsters it is easy to adjust to the new group.
But, random encounters are really only needed if you're reusing an area with groups that might have heard about the adventure before. Most of us write one-offs so you don't need random encounters. Just make encounters that fit the story, the time and place, the terrain and the party level. As far as the players know, everything is random.
I use random tables a lot because I play solo TTRPGs.😊
I've never used random encounter tables based on the level of the characters. I just have them based on the region and fill in creatures that would live in that kind of climate. I also never adjust them to make them challenging either. There are push over encounters, hard deadly just depends on what's rolled and the level of the characters. If I want it to be more deadly, and if fits the narrative, then I beef it up. I think this obsession with balanced encounters is really blown out of proportion.
Yes, completely agree, but I do tend to focus more on simulating an environment rather than trying to force a narrative or provide a game.
I wanna give more than one like for this comment!
Balanced encounter is the video games logic. They video game is very limited in letting player use clever way to deal with problems. The Skyrim effect where the world level up as you do is retarded and your players never feel strong because everything get stronger. My approach is the same as yours. Also you encounter wolves... doesn't mean the wolves attack you... you encounter them. If you aren't a bunch of murder hobbos... you'll let them be.
@@fredericleclerc9037 It's funny. The early video game industry borrowed from what role-playing had done, even employing many of its early designers. Then as video games outpaced TTRPG their logic was applied to TTRPG as a generation raised on them became older. I love watching these younger generations of players and designers figure out what the previous one already knew. I don't say that to be mean, but as something that is interesting to watch occur.
I agree. If a creature belongs there, I don't care how many HD it has. For example, a bear has 5+5 HD and can be encountered in temperate or sub-arctic forests. This is true whether the PCs are 1st level or 20th level.
One thing you can do with the 2d6 is turn it from random encounter to the random event table. So 7 would represent nothing happening with 6 and 8 would be the next more common events such as a moderate difficulty encounter and discovering a location. The idea is yes rolling a 2 might be rare but that is where you place a deadly or extreme difficulty encounter. That way it is possible for the party to discover some monsters that might flat out kill them, like the wyvern they are too low to realistic fight. It can then be used as a foreshadow of what the can encounter, or show how truly deadly and out of their depth they are.
I do appreciate having a Disposition angle for random encounters. Hoblins rooting around for food (but otherwise neutral to the party) are potential allies if you offer food.
I did wonder about your random encounter table having things like Grifting for Gold as an option that non-sapient beings would have, but you made a point about innovating that with the Broken Wing Wyvern example. Just handwave a Sudden Enemy Necromancer NEARBY which alters the stakes considerably. (in my example, I guess the wolves can speak now. "Hey. We've been cursed. Only if a hero stout of heart pays us a gold apiece are we freed!")
Excellent video! A good and thoughtful demonstration of how to run fun random encounters.
I use the bell curve to determine if an encounter happens. Then a straight roll table to determine what happens. Many times the bell is useful.
This is a good point
I added a threat level to a dungeon that depending on how PCs played increased the chance to get harder encounters. I used 1d10 + 1d4 per level of threat level. This sliding scale of random encounters is great
I really enjoy the approach to 2d6 tables that the blog PapersPencils uses. On these tables, 2 is always a dragon, 12 is always a wizard, and 7 is an NPC from the cast that - usually - the players already know; entries 3-6 are region specific, while entries 8-11 are specific to the broader setting. With this set up - and some imagination - you'll end up either learning more about an NPC, meeting a wizard or a dragon, or learning more about the setting both local and beyond. 2dx is fine to use as a format as long as you stock it well. Your system with the devil table is very clever though and I may end up using this in some situations!
I really dig the proximity encounter tables. That's a pretty great idea to add different encounters without making entirely new lists.
This is interesting. I didnt know how people did random encounters when I first started GMing. I only knew that tables were involved because it was mentioned in UA-camvideos amd such.
So when I started GMing I tried to build encounter tables for each ecosystem, rolled one die for every few hours travel and threw together an encounter based on the results.
I had tables for different levels of danger and different biomes so I could roll the number and then decide which table I wanted to use.
My big idea was making a lot of the encounters nuetral or flavor oriented to give a sense of travel.
For example, my players were traveling through a forest towards the feywild so I started with a table that was mostly things like "bear", "refugees", "group of satyr (friendly)", "goblin hunting party", etc.
But I also had a table of violent fey encounters, ambushes, and other mostly bad things in case they didnt get any combat encounters for awhile and became restless.
I built the tables so that high numbers would be generally friendlier encounters, middle numbers would be more nuetral encounters that could be roleplay opportunities and lower numbers tended to have more enemies.
I was working on refining the system when the campaign ended. I would roll 1 die for the type of encounter, for example: special encounter, ambush, enemy patrol, beasts, nuetral warriers, refugees, travelers, merchants, friendly mgk user, friendly fey/beings.
Then I would roll or select from a list of encounters within that category. I don't remember if I actually ended up doing this last method. Took way too long to get the various tables built. It was much easier just to roll on a single table for the biome- or switch between 2-3 tables.
Something like 1-2, roll on combat table, 3-4 roll on flavor table, 5-6 roll on benefitial encounter table... changing those numbers with how dangerous the area is of course. Maybe in the dungeon its 1-5 combat, 6-7 nuetral encounter, and 8 for a special encounter...
Another thing you can do if you’re into more tactical combat is add a separate table for each biome in your world that adds an obstacle or environmental hazard to a battlefield. A wolf pack encounter could be much more dangerous if the party was attacked on the side of a cliff instead of a gently sloping road, for example
A system I trial ran was a kind of escalation. As the players did more stuff in a warlord's domain it got her attention. Manifesting in harder and scarier events like hunting parties, traps, and maybe even one of her lieutenants.
In rules you just add the 'escalation value' to any random event roll.
Bonus points if you have certain abilities to play with escalation. By having a powerful spell add to it or a way to try and dial it down.
A normal distribution is still random. A discrete uniform distribution is also random. Both distributions can be very useful depending on your needs.
In my experience a lot of people don't think about probability distributions when considering dice to roll. Most frequently they just think about the desired result range. These are great suggestions on how to use a discrete uniform distribution effectively.
The "problems" described with a normal distribution are only problems when you don't expect and do not desire that particular distribution. If you want ~50% of encounters to be of a very small number of encounter types because that is the desired variability for a particular region, then a normal distribution is the correct tool for the job. A normal distribution can be harder to work with but only if you use too few dice to simulate the normal distribution. I prefer to use a JAGS roll when I want a normal distribution. This roll has a range of 0 - 20 (inclusive) with a surprisingly smooth looking normal-like distribution. The 21 slots is not too excessive and variability can be managed by assigning multiple slots of different probability sizes to a single encounter type if desired. The downside is a lot of dice to roll.
Putting your method to the test I made a quick table with 12 slots. each with an entity, a behavior, and a complication.
Some test rolls got me:
A blind commoner lost in the grasslands trying to find his way home.
An Ankheg trying to find its lair but someone stole it's brain.
A mind controlled howler fighting a young blue dragon.
Some combinations made so little sense I HAD to reroll them, but its good enough for an on the fly event.
Build a dungeon using this method… probably one of my best creations… thanks for this
The way I use 2d6 tables (when I use complicated random encounters) I have either 7 be a clue to another encounter (roll again, rerolling a 7) and whatever the clue is to becomes the next random encounter. You could also do nested tables with your really cool sliding method; maybe 2d6 is *types* of encounters (rarer ranges for apex predators and magical phenomena, middle ranges for humanoids and regular animals) and then have separate sliding tables for each type.
The bell curve distribution "problem" only occurs, if you use multiple dice. Using a single dice/die yields the same probability for each number. So just use 1d12 instead of 2d6. If you aim for a linear distribution of probability and therefore only use a single die/dice, the downside is, you can only have a result of 1 with that single dice. But the points mentioned are absolutely valid and spot on.
The more dice you use, the more evenly the probability of possible values will be distributed. So just use 12d2 instead of 2d6 for a value range of 12-24 therefore also having 12 possible slots to assign encounters to. Apply the same method to increase dice count and spread out probability.
Here's a different idea: If you like the bell curve system, which I do in my case, because I use a lot of automated imbedded 2D6 tables, you can still "level up" those tables by making rare more rare and more beneficial encounter lower on the table.
Let's say your characters travel on land and could meet a merchant in the area near a city. If that encounter is more rare compared to meeting guards or simple travelers, increasing the result for areas further of the city will effectively eliminate them from the table. Meeting guards will become even more rare and travelers too, because of how less densly populated the area is. An encounter with, let's say goblins, that would be less likely near a city could then become much more common, since you are going deeper into the wilderness. Like the other system in the video, certain "unique" encounters will also start to appear.
These tables are also useful for generating structures depending on location.
I came up in 1st ed AD&D, which predated the d20 system. I learned to build encounter tables based on “percentile dice” using 2d20. The dice at the time only had single digits (bold was used to differentiate single numbers from teens), so rolling “0 1” = 1 and “0 0” = 100. Asking myself the probability of a particular encounter allows me to build the tables rather easily (though today I use 2d10 instead the old d20’s).
I don’t even use dice for random encounters, inspired by something I heard from Zee Bashew, I get a small bowl and write down four combat encounters, two non-combat encounters, and four “no encounter” messages on slips of paper put them in the bowl.
Then I ask for the players to give me at least one pair each of encounters. One good thing that can happen, one bad. This is by their standards, so it lets me see what they want from my game (one player once wanted a scene where he is kidnapped and players have to rescue him). After making sure it all fits and works well, into the bowl they all go.
Now, when I need a random encounter, I reach into the bowl and pull out an encounter. I can remove ones too easy at any time, and if I want one to be more common, I just add that entry to the bowl multiple times.
As far as raw dice numbers I do prefer a belt curve personally l. But having adjusted modifiers based on party level/civilization/danger distances as well as 3 other random tables that gives context to each other's a a genius idea and I'll 100% be using those
Another idea is just replacing an encounter each time its used, i think this is really good if your trying to add a personal touch to each random encounter
the 666 table is pretty nifty there. I personally do like to roll 1d8 + 1d12 and then reaction table. Also if any DM rolls something up on the table that seems too strong right now one can always show some tracks or a kill. If its a bit too easy tell the players you spotted some goblins in the distance that hurrily dispersed and ran away.
One thing not mentioned in the video is that it can be nice to have some non combat encounters like social encounter or discovery encounter. IT might also not truelly fit the modern playstyle but having 1 or 2 way too strong encounters in there can definitly be fun as well.
The alternative is to use two rolls.
1d6 for 3 tables of 6 entries. One table is combat, the next is social, and the last is a mystery.
I think the majority of this is really good. I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that weighted probabilities != random. I think that using mixed dice creates a better distribution that isn't as heavily dominated by the center. I would suggest 1d4 + 1d8 to still have rare encounters but start to flatten out the curve a bit. Or even better start treating 2's as 3's and 12's as 11's. This beefs up the chance of those rare encounters without just removing them.
Personally having rare unlikely encouters makes them more special. The 3rd time the party comes across a wyvern it is just as boring as the goblins. The fact that it is rare is what makes it special.
Excellent work Baron. I’m so happy UA-cam’s algorithm put you on my feed. I think you’ve gotten the fastest “subscribed” out of me. Please keep this up if you can your POV on this stuff is so on point that I never even thought about a lot of this and has really expanded my take on DMing. Thank you. It’s like the whole you don’t know what you don’t know and now I’m getting enlightened on it.
I should be dropping my next vid this weekend!
Table/result shifting came to me by way of the "classic" traveller game and yes, it works well. T&T had some interesting use of tables, keys and dice as well. The encounter deck is absolutely great in person and I swear by it. But at the end of the day the draw is your narrative capacity to stitch it together. I might prefer a second d6 b/c I'd have a few variations of the base die results, but that's just me.
i was shocked to learn how frequently the most common encounters occur on a 2d6 table, but i still like the idea of a weighted random encounter table so i can use the classic dragon entry on 2. so i started playing with dice combinations and found that by rolling dice of non equal number of sides, the bell curve can be flattened out to more reasonably spread probabilities across the range. my gut sense is that 1d6+1d8 is the best combination; only have to come up with 13 table entries, and the 3 most common values are 7, 8, and 9, each equally likely and combining for a total 36% chance of being rolled. Essentially, a little over one of every 3 random encounters is one of those 3 most common, and the other two thirds of the time it rolls a rarer encounter. note that increasing the difference between the number of sides of the dice (eg 1d4+1d8 or 1d6+1d12) results in a wider plateau of equally most common encounters and increasingly flatter bell curves.
I still recommend you ditch the bell curve.
Roll a d100. Decide on the exact percentages you want as a chance for an encounter to appear. 1-13 goblins 14-15 hurt goblins 16-30 pack of wolves, 31-35 bear, ...
@@Haexxchengreat point. I'm doing that to build tables for my Karameikos campaign, using solely Monstrous Compendium Appendix Mystara monsters, and the info it brings for each entry (climate/terrain, activity cycle, rarity), and, of course, choosing the exact probabilities (what numbers will be a Surtaki etc out of 100 possible numbers).
Thanks for validating that.❤
5:00 I forgot I'd already watched this until he said "wervin".
Also on the random encounter table, once something has been rolled, eliminate it from the list. If rolled again, you can re-roll until you get a different result. Or just select the random encounter you want.
I use a d20 for my random encounters. The same monsters may get more than one entry but it might be different groupings.
2d4 orcs
2d4 orcs, half are Fighters
2d6 goblins
d6 goblins + d6 kobolds
Older D&D games also emphasized reaction rolls which can determine how the monsters approach you. They might be hostile, unfriendly, neutral, or even outright friendly! If your campaign or dungeon has factions then something like the goblins + kobolds encounter could become very interesting. You might even encounter them fighting each other and you end up in the mix.
Really like the 3 column 666 idea. I've posted the link of this video in our solitary role-player FB group. Always need new ways to generate random events.
Combining the bell curve table with shifting the table based on proximity to a location would simulate types of encounters being more common closer to their usual habitat while still allowing them the possibility of wandering far from home. Plus what another commenter said about having the most common results being no encounter would be quite interesting.
Also just because the results are skewed doesn’t mean it isn’t randomly determined
This is amazing! I have a nice complication table in the game Stravagante! that is a d6 table with a nested d6 table for each number rolled. I also can use GMer' or Mythic's Chaos Rank to help with the difficulty raising, so when the tension raises in the adventure tougher encounters happen more often. I could probably use the Chaos Rank to influence the Number Appearing too! The possibilities!
I like the idea. I just subscribed a few day ago and have not been disappointed. This seems like a good way to keep mixing things up. It would be fun to roll a d8 at higher levels so the party can know that brigands still roam about.
Another possibility that works as a compromise to keep the idea of the curve but flatten it a bit is to use 1d4+1d8. This results in the 5 most common rolls having a flat 12.5% chance with 3 tapering off on the low and high sides for the more rare encounters. Though I like the suggestion below to make the 7 of a 2d6 roll be no encounter. I find it a bit odd the DMG has you roll to determine if there's an encounter and roll again for the encounter. It's much more efficient to combine the rolls.
This was probably the most helpful video for me so far
Hell yeah
"Random encounter tables suck, so naturally I brought you some."
Probably my favourite video of yours. Love how you did this
Thank you! I honestly love this one too. I consider it my personal inovation in the ttrpg space, my groundbreaking technology lol.
Echoing some others, I'll often put "no encounter" at the heart of my 2dX tables if the party is on a main road/not in dangerous territory.
Another quick and easy way I add flavor and nearly *double* my number of potential outputs is by putting specific encounters on the even numbers and having different results if the dice rolled are odd or even. For instance, if the party is near a well of necromantic power and another faction of say, kobolds is also in the area, I can put skeletons as #6 on a 2d6 table. If I roll 1/5 or 3/3, then the skeletons are normal, whereas a 2/4 roll means they are now kobold skeletons! Quick and dirty monster flavor or even their temperament and reactions to the heroes on the fly.
Woow, you really are the Master. Behaviour and complications make that the encounters feels like real. Very nice tip.
he didn't come up with this idea lol jesus.
Damn, this is great advice, but I just spent like a whole afternoon yesterday populating a cascading series of d20 tables lol. I guess this is for my next random encounter region.
Love the "local lairing beast" concept. It helps to give a sense of danger to an area.
This style of Random Encounter charts were already in circulation WAY back in 1983 with Chivalry & Sorcery 2nd Edition - a system I have been GM'ing since that year up until today. C&S has a Source Book with a VERY detailed process for Encounters that is very easy and quick to use which provides the following level of detail: If humans are encountered they are divided into several categories such as Fighting Men, That is further divided into a roll for Men-at-arms / Mounted Sergeantry / Knights etc. Then another quick roll will determine the service, duties and intentions of these men For example with a group of Knights and retinue they could be patrolling, or guarding, in the process of fighting an enemy, short on food and having to hunt, going on a journey or coming home from one, escorting a Lady or escorting a group under protection, looking for an enemy, looking for a monster reported in the area, on a Quest, camped, or even seeking out the party itself to hand over a message. This gives the GM countless ways to expand on the encounter, make it interesting and lead the adventure into an unexpected direction.
The same kind of tables also expand on Brigand encounters, providing their intentions, or Thieves or Assassins, Clerical encounters, such as different types of Church business, Private business, Military Orders, Magic User encounter intention tables and so on. On top of this is a VERY detailed Urban, Highway, Fieflands encounter tables complete with the intentions of the encounter types which are most typically humanoid types going about their own business etc. With Bird encounters, Animal encounters etc. they also have their own Intentions chart to roll on so that the party can encounters these creatures who are going about their own habitats doing what these creatures typically do. The best of all is the Goblinoid, Trolls, and Giants Intentions list that is VERY in-depth and expansive. They provide the GM with such intentions that can be rolled up such as; Camping / preparing meat/resting & drinking or Lost and seeking aid or directions or escorting someone important or raiding village cattle/livestock or quarrel in progress or settling leadership of the band - these are just a few from the list which is about 50+ long.
As a GM my encounters are often prepared in detail through these lists, often on the spot and not just an excuse to charge into the party with a blood lust. Many times what started as just a random encounter eventually expanded into a small adventure due to a few dice rolls on the Intentions/Duties/Service charts. The potential ideas for elaboration are endless and just as much fun for the GM as they are for the players, and this book is now 40/46 years old depending on the edition, 1st and 2nd.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chivalry_%26_Sorcery_Sourcebook
www.ebay.com/p/22028294558
whiteboxandbeyond.blogspot.com/2019/02/chivalry-sorcery-2e.html
OK, ya got me. I've been through about 4 videos now and have to say, I like your style. Subscribed.
Adding some interesting terrain-features or weather-effect (like fog, rain or a hailstorm) to those random encounters would be neat. Strangely enough, PCs in a forest very rargely have to worry about thorn-bushes or trees blocking line of sight or difficult terrain. Even a small pond or a fallen tree can change the way that a battle has to be fought.
It seems to me that you are describing encounters that have zones. Like the zones Professor Dungeon Master uses for his UDT you could have zones extending from civilization. Adding a +2 to a d6 for say, questionable, dangerous and unknown zones would be a great way to scale encounter tables.
Like bus zones yeah :D assign a number for how difficult they are and a letter for which biome subtable to roll on (few or no owlbears in sewers, few or no oozes in grassland hexes, etc).
this video does solve a lot of problems I was still trying to figure out. I did get to the d6 tables on my own tho but i use about 4 of them per location.
Damn, this approach to random tables really adds a new level of inspiration!
I would love to see more tables you made!
to clarify, 2dX tables do not have a bell curve. They have a sort of "pyramid curve" that's triangular looking. Same principle, mostly, but it's slightly more likely to vary in probability than something like that rolls 3 or more dice which generates a bell curve.
I live this idea for encounter tables! I’ve tried them for exploration sections a few times, but they never “clicked”. Having now whipped up a few test tables, I can already see how inspiring this style can be!
One question I have though…what do you put down for behaviour and complications for the more open-ended encounters? It’s easy to fill out entries for wolves…but less so for “Closest major power”!
You kinda gotta go generic for those. "Hungry" and "lost something valuable" is good
I have always used (d100) % and created the odds around what I wanted to be random and what I wanted to be limited in randomness. This eliminates the standard bell curve. On Those limited randomly generated rolls, branches are created with similar generated (%)’s
This pushes the randomness even further. Matrix tables can than be generated so that the players are not burdened with the math.
Why not use d100 and adjust the bell curve bent you don't like manually with percentage points? The linear approach you add does coincide nicely with a linear progression of difficulty so that bigger more common brackets are lowest and the closest encounters to 100 or 0, 0 on the die, would be rarer and more difficult.
A single d10 added for a hundreds digit presents huge world building by random encounter options too.
Your 666 method is neat, and smashes together moral 2d6+mod rolls and diverse Random encounter charts.
Really neat and underlines the need for tools to enable dungeonmastering as fun and gamers.
Thank for the video!
Weird idea
Using a coin flip to determine which method you roll with
Still gives you a bell curve but somewhat flattens the bell curves
I have watched at least 8 of your videos and I have to say you are unacceptably good at them. Seriously. You need more subscribers.
Baron vs Bob: the random encounter fight of the century
LOL i was thinking about this. definitely irreconcilable approaches and I'm not sure which I prefer
I don't think the bell curve is a problem, it's the purposeful point. Some things being more likely than others, it's a somewhat more rudimentary way of adjusting the probability weights. I use random generator tools to adjust it even more precisely, so a rare thing can be more rare.
"You meet a... dragon! For the 5th time in a row!" It also makes it so it's not so samey, there's ups and downs, not just TV static. Hard to explain briefly.
I first noticed in minecraft actually, there was a mod that added a biome that was just hideous, blocks just completely randomly placed mean no valleys, no hills, no rivers, no caves, just a vast land of entropy style, non-chaotic chaos, all different and yet feeling the same. Field after field of TV static like randomness. Procedural generation is not "fixed" or made better by removing the weights and making everything equal probability, but then, you're not going for procedural generation. (But I kind of am, lol.)
Randomization with weights and sub-categories and sub-sub-cagetories, with different things generated as sub-parts of other things generated, seems to the next step or two up. Then you can explore and find things that actually feel different, rather than more of the samey static that's just everpresent, yet technically not identical. If you're doing improv as a GM and just using it as inspiration, it's not as big of a deal though, and the curve might not suit your tastes or what you're trying to do. Still, I wouldn't call it "fixing" it, any more than using a different palette or medium would be "fixing" art.
The nearest major enemy addition is also brilliant. Whether it is per dungeon level or per hex on a world overview map, having some major, known or unknown, antagonistic entity/leader is absolute gold! What fun this is! My DM gears are turning! Thanks for the video!
I like this.
To be a stickler, the bell curve tables are still technically “random”. The issue is that they are skewed, and the skew is what results in poor outcomes.
You’ve identified an important problem and provided a great solution 👍
Your idea about using a single six sided die table for all of the random encounters is brilliant! Specifically the part about adding to the die roll depending how far away you are from the homebase or how deep you are in the dungeon.
I scratched the surface of D&D 35 years ago and it's fascinating how it still excites people today. Watching your videos brings back some memories and, tbh leaves some itching to undust my bag of dice.
I love this video so much, the hexcrawl one is also amazing
you're crushing this, man. incredible vids.
Super helpful - clear and concise ideas. I was getting waaaay too complicated with my tables. When you started talking about sub-tables...let's just say I felt that.
I always liked random encounter tables, but its been so long I can't recall any specifics about how they were set up in the game systems I played (D&D of the 70's and early 80's, TSR Marvel Superheroes and Mayfair DC Heroes of the early and mid 80's). What I do remember is that Marvel's random character generating tables were so fun I think I tied it into a random encounter set-up (whether my own or theirs is lost to the sands of time). Great to see so much thought and effort put into it. An nice little trip down memory lane; thank you.
These are great ideas and enough to cause fun sessions on their own. Thank you
i don’t use dice to determine the number - i use a small bingo cage with bingo balls and rotate the cage and pick one ball - this eliminates patterns/bell curve results
Well sir, you've done it again! Making my life easier DMing for experienced players by putting in less prep time and justifying my improv indulgences.
Just dosocvered thos channel and LOVING the Demography videos and thos one too! Very inspiring!!
As someone who uses lots of random dice charts I love them. Good points. I use more even odds charts most often d%, d20 +d12 are my favourites overall. Good tips thanks.
Love your content. Just found it last week, and finally subbed. :) Thanks for the work!
Awesome, thank you!
Very grateful to have come across your video! My next campaign is exploration focused, so your advice gave clarity on how to create enjoyable and diverse random encounters; something I've been struggling with the last couple of weeks. Thanks much for sharing your thoughts!
I use a already bigger random table with levels up to mid and high level. So the group can encounter high level tier stuff... like dragons or other iconic stuff.
So they had encounters they did not interfer with: Dragon flies by? - hide in the woods! See a horde of orcs? - change your route to go around! Meet a small group of goblins? - smash them with ease or let them flee from your might!
The group even tried (and partially succeeded) to make allies of stronger monsters/NPCs and made most of.the encounters important to the story.
I do not like, that everything is balanced. But that is thr reason I keep the bell curve in my 2d10 list, so these high level encounters aren't that frequent.
And here I am playing with flow charts. I definitely agree with the premise, but I don't like being constrained to only a handful of encounters. I want to be able to represent my entire world in a set of tables that anyone can use without any input from me. Oddly, for such radically different approaches, there are a lot of things we do similarly, like the "nearest major entity" entry, which (naturally) for me spills into a separate table for the faction associated with that entity. That way I know that this isn't just any kobold encounter, this is a pack of kobolds dragging sacks of gold back to their dragon leader, with appropriate rewards and consequences.
Are you writing for publication? If not, why does it matter that other people can use your tools?
@@davidmorgan6896 in no particular order, personal satisfaction, OCD, other DMs at the table, and because it's just good design philosophy. I also make sure the novels I write that I have no intention of publishing have good characterization, strong scenes, and sensical plot structure
@@thehikingviking2049 that's a great answer
I'm just entranced by what the roll "Wolves - Grifting for cash" would even be. Awakened wolves trying to get cash? Werewolf bandits?
Could be as simple as carying off a coin purse that smells like rationa
is just about to make my own random table for a grid crawl campaign im running. Another thing i like to add is non-combat encounters intermingled with the combat ones. Travelling merchants and the like. They can probably use the same behavior chart as well. AND, an idea i got from Zipperon Disney was to add an urgency roll. Not sure which of his videos he discussed this but the idea is to create situations in combat that require players to make hard choices. An urgency can be as easy as enemy reinforcements in the midpoint of combat to a ticking bomb or innocent civilians in danger. Maybe you dont have to roll one of these for every combat but it makes things much more interesting when you do.
I'll have to go dig up zips video on this! Thanks!
@@DungeonMasterpiece i think it was this video ua-cam.com/video/z2d1gceeAPw/v-deo.html . He doesn't explicitly talk about combat urgencies as a random table however his idea of exigencies is where i got the idea. Basically when i roll up a combat and feel that it's somewhat lacking or that the mood around the table is getting stale i modify it with some extra urgency. However this modification can also occur while combat is going on. Is the combat getting boring? Is it too easy? Instead of just buffing the monsters hp or letting the boss cast a new spell or whatever i throw in something extra that takes the players focus. And ill usually do this between their turns, so in the middle of them executing their plan something happens that throws a wrench in there.
This is outstanding!
Bell Curve extension sounds good.
One point I would make on the 2d systems. The ones with very dissimilar dice (d20+d8 for instance) do give a very flat region in the middle and only taper at the ends. For instance, the d20+d8 would have equal probabilities for the numbers 9 through 21 ... so 13 options in the middle that are all equal, and then some rare things at each end.
I'm wondering if using a deck of cards might not be a good idea ... each number could represent a different encounter and the suit might influence or determine something about the state or disposition of the encounter (♥ could be friendly, ♦might have extra loot, ♣could be an encampment or lair, ♠could be outright hostile). One of the advantages of this would be that once you have an encounter, it's in the discard pile and reduces the chances of encountering it again. Even if you do, the state would be different.
Awesome video man! I have been DM'ing for some time now and have come to a phase where I've become so comfortable with the role, that I now start to challenge some of my newbie habbits to try and weed out some of the things I do that might be a little boring. And I love the way this challenges the simple random encounter tables that I find in the modules that I have relied so heavily on. So thanks for rocking the foundation for my understanding of DM resources, and for expanding my ability to do a "generated" narrative plug ^^
I never really liked random tables and I typically avoid using them. However, this video has given me a way to make them more relevant, useful and fun. Well done. 👍
I also use the three-column encounter tables and phweew, it works wonders.
I sometimes use a percentile die and simply shift the percentages around as I please. It's technically a single die and allows for a super high degree of control, you can easily shift the percentages around as well if the characters get closer to a certain zone.
I recommend ditching the dice and using cards instead. In most cases, we don't want to repeat the same encounters since repetition is rarely interesting. By using cards, you can randomise by shuffling and remove repetition by putting used encounters into the discard pile.
This was great! Thank you for this.
This video really helped clear things up for me. I started with a d100 with percentile values for an artificial rarity bell curve (that I could fudge sometimes), with some entries changing depending on nearby major entities (orc and goblin tribes don't like each other, so have some norkers and ogrillons in the same slot depending on which is closer). Bottom entries also had "one time" notes for a unique creature, like a territorial bulette or a bar-lgura escaped from an abyssal seal.
Where I went extra wrong was trying to fit all of the encounters in at once, and duplicating the list with edits so they scale with each level, instead of scaling them on the fly and coming up with context ideas for the encounters. Definitely going to implement this stuff for the next tier of play, maybe some hex crawl stuff too since they're going to be trudging through a massive swamp.
Great idea! The old solo module Ghost of Lion Castle uses a wandering monster table that is similar but without the added narrative.
That proximity idea is brilliant! I am happy I found this channel, you have many great ideas that are new to me.
Edit: The added behavior and complication idea is also great! I am not sure I totally understand the major threat part. Would that be a 4th column?
To share a useful iteration I've been using; I've added two more columns: quirk and loot. Same idea with each column being rolled separately, but you'll only add the quirk column if you feel the need to have a stronger or elite version of the encounter. The loot column has become a way of cluing what the enemies last ran into, but I'll often also give out the encounter's original loot as well. Since I didn't want to reward the random encounters much, I make the loot be a form of plot hook or some minor crafting material.
In the video's example table, the displacers might drop moon-flint jewelry bearing the mark of their master and sometimes the party might find elite examples that can teleport through shadows. Or the brigands might drop a partial blueprint of a nearby noble's mansion whose defenses they were unable to thwart and the party might sometimes find elite examples that are capable of manipulating the weather with magic. But it is just as likely that the brigands are the ones that can ambush from the shadows or that the displacer beasts are the ones that can summon a storm. If they could learn each other's tricks, can the party?
when it comes to random encounter tables i make myself, i just upgrade the monsters they can fight wolves become dire wolves, orcs become orogs. and so on. eventually i do run into the issue of there being no replacement monster so at that point i just start buffing the monster, better strength modifiers, buffed health. Small things to keep them relevant.
Another approach I'm thinking of lately is to keep the smaller fights in, but turn them into skill challenges,
where it's not a deadly fight but you instead try to find out if the PCs come out unscathed.
I've always used a d12 table with 5 or six encounters, where different encounters have 1-3 number reaults each. So for example, in the Wyrm mountains, you'll meet a travelling dwarf merchant on a roll of 1-3, and the wyvern that makes its nest nearby on a roll of 12
Delivered intellectually and supported with solid game logic. Master Class.
Thanks skeleton guy! 😎
Love the idea of the adding to the list like that. I just made a random encounter list that rolls a 1d40 (if you dont have a d40 use paper and cup method) and its more of an area stocked list (Jungle) than a level appropriate type list. Out of the 40 possibly 10 are rolled once and rerolled if landed on again. Some of these will also place certain random quests that can be taken ect. roughly 3/4 or so could end in combat. EDIT: This is an area where the players will be spending a lot of time!
THANK YOU! I played a Curse of Straud Campaign and had 8 random encounters with Wolves of varying sizes! It was SO boring! I even told my DM, but he just said "that's what's in the book..." Personally, I rarely use random encounter tables (instead I use preset scenarios), but I might give them a shot in my next campaign. Thanks for the advice :).
The behavior and complication columns make me think of action and theme tables from the Ironsworn RPG, which is completely free and I'd highly recommend.
This style of generation could also be used for faction actions as well, although you would have to be a bit more creative coming up with what the complication means in the pursuit of their next faction goal.
I have one of the players roll a d20, which correlates with various d100 tables, which change based on where the party is. Used both for traveling and rests. There are empty spots, and include encounters that are not combat oriented. Also, some are encountered only once, with that encounter being replaced thereafter. Not all encounters are weighted equally either, but are far less than 30%