I love this! Interesting Random Encounter table use case: I had a group of level 1 characters that were about to go on a trek to the nearby magical cave, but they were worried about dying before getting there so they asked around in the tavern what they could expect along that road! So i just pulled out the random encounter chart and rolled a few times. Some wolves, some spiders, and a troll. Quickly whipped up a rumor about wolves on the road, and dream spiders in the forest that are hunted for their venom, and the troll guarding a bridge. It let them prepare in advance for the encounters! Albeit they prepared by buying four goats (one for the wolves and three for the troll). I cant wait to start posting those sessions.
years ago a players summarized it to me as "the frustration doesn't come from failing, it comes from not having the knowledge to prevent it" and rumors are a really simple way of doing it, just a simple "the dungeon has traps" sometimes is more than enough to save pc's life or make it ok with being crushed by a giant boulder
That’s brilliant! I think players should always be rewarded for thinking strategically and the random encounters are a great way of providing them with info on the fly 😂 And the goats? Absolute gold. Player creativity is just the best. Can’t wait to hear how those sessions play out, so definitely share when you can!
@@luizurtiga That's why I've been working on a "professional" dungeon-delver community for my homebrew world. They have innocuous little graffitoes like hobo sign, and their own taverns that act as impromptu guild halls. Knowledgeable authorities understand how to tap into these resources, and how to prepare adventurers they're hiring. I'm thinking that most dangerous areas and boss monsters will have some level of information available to the heroes, through research, reconnaissance, and talking to survivors. Not a whole WoW dungeon guide, but, "knows a lot of ice magic. Froze one guy solid when he got into melee range."
DMG: you may, at your discretion, award the players with the same amount of experience they would've gotten by beating the encounter, if they avoid or peacefully resolve it in an alternative way.
I use random encounters, but not at the table. They are rolled up before hand and then integrated into the main story or if they don't fit, just get tossed out or saved for later.
That reminds me of Madam Eva's tarot card reading in the official Curse of Strahd adventure for 5e. I was a player during that campaign, but I'm pretty certain the deck was written specifically for that campaign and had direct ties into how the story would unfold.
So random encounters where it's more a case of "may or may not take place" rather than "may or may not fit the situation". As long as it doesn't end up being "quantum monster of the trip" (i.e. doesn't matter which route you take, you still end up with the same outcome).
You really got to the heart of why I don't like random encounters as they are run. I've always struggled with throwing them out without them feeling like filler. This definitely helps breathe life into them. Thanks Ginny (and thanks for showing some appreciation for books... Seems like she's really craving attention)
I barely use them. Normally I´ll have planned minor, main and major (showdowns) encounters, that can happen at specific points or semi-random in a certain timeframe during the plot. I might occasionally use a random table for very minor things, but usually these are also planned, so yeah ... barely :)
One other benefit to rolling vs picking one encounter to prep is it forces the DM to work on their improv skills. I’m a chronic over-prepper, and random encounters force me to think on the fly, which can save time and help build confidence. Not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s helped me with my DMing goals! Great video ❤
Thank you! ❤️ I totally feel you on the over-prepping-sometimes letting the dice decide is the best way to get out of your head and just roll with whatever happens. Scary in the moment but a great exercise in saving prepping time!
Exactly! Actually one of the main reasons I’m playing ironsworn with group play. NO PREP. Similar to you, i will overprep till i don’t even wanna play anymore so removing that completely is ideal - in something like ironsworn there is no prep - you literally don’t know what’s gonna happen till you start playing
Fell in love with the random encounters when I ran Curse of Strahd. The ones in that book are brilliant. Not even a fight, but finding a random grave in the woods became a very tense moment as the PCs were travelling from Vallaki to the Windmill once. And in another random encounter, two PCs got bitten by a werewolf. One got their curse cured, but the other decided to keep the curse as a secret to the other players, ultimately having huge effect on the character and story later on. After running that campaign, this has become the way I do it in homebrews too. I love random encounters now.
Yes! I think random encounters in campaign modules are a perfect example of how they can be crafted to fit within the setting, so instead of feeling like generic filler, they enhance the atmosphere and theme of the campaign. Also, it's nice that you can add a unique twist to your story so not every CoS game is the same.
Yeah CoS really sold me on them. Literally the first random encounter my party had was with the (mostly) friendly Revenant who pointed them towards Argynvostholt, giving them an early hook for an area that otherwise might be missed entirely, or be a very late-game reveal.
For one of my homebrews, I'm definitely going to create a whole set of encounter tables, one for each potential threat the table decide to use. So, depending on whether they go after the indigenous species desperately trying to defend their home with violence, or the cult of demon-worshippers raiding caravans, or the unexplained behavioral changes in the wildlife, the tables can both reflect the story, and remind the players that there are other threats out there.
I had a similar experience running Storm King's Thunder! Running into an excavation site where fire giants are trying to dig up fragments of an ancient superweapon, or a group of refugees fleeing after their homes were destroyed by stone giants, really reinforced the main themes of the campaign. I also loved that the encounters table seemed to balance the three pillars of roleplaying (combat, social & exploration), with a good mix of things that would almost certainly result in a fight, things most likely to be resolved by talking, and things were the main focus was the environment.
This might have just saved my campaign, no joke. First time DM who’s never liked random encounters, but am running into an issue with pacing my players. This might just be my panacea! Thank you!
My favorite tip comes from Sly Flourish - roll twice. Those results are now interacting in some way. Immediately you have a random encounter that is occurring outside the PC's view. It decenters them and makes the world seem more real. And furthermore - pre-roll 2 or 3 of these random encounters.
Asking me to make myself a friendship bracelet was slightly surreal... but let’s be honest, it’s definitely not the first time I’ve had a conversation like that
Awww, poor insecure Books. I love her. I feel like she's under-appreciated for how useful she is. Thanks for joining the ranks of the "I actually read the DMG" fold! I can't wait to see what cool content like this video you can pull from it not-intended-to-be-secret secrets. You never fail to make the sponsor clips entertaining and thematic. I am continually impressed by them. Don't forget that a random encounter can be really fun for the DM by making unplanned things happen. We deserve to be surprised occasionally. It's wild to see an event unfold that you didn't prepare ahead of time!
Loving this Rosie the Riveter aesthetic. Anyway, yeah random encounters. I actually believe random encounters should almost NEVER be combats. I think little world-building moments are way more interesting than some throw-away fight. Finding a forgotten sending stone on the ground that emits some eldritch song or a chest with a random lute that summons a dancing mummy. Little things like this will engage the players and make your world feel far more alive.
I love combat that builds the world (the country at war table was a really inspiring example) or gives context for the danger they're facing. But, you're right, combat feels very different from a small interaction or finding an interesting item.
@@GinnyDi I try to use Random Encounters the way that games like Fallout or the Witcher does; build little vignettes that add details to small segments of the world. It's just another layer to my worldbuilding and storytelling, but it also a way to force myself to "care" about adding something cool everywhere. One of the reasons why the exploration in games like Skyrim feels so rewarding, even if you don't get "loot" you get rewarded for going over there and checking that thing out by seeing an interesting sight, getting lore information about the world, experiencing a cool microstory, defeating a puzzle or trap, or making a bargain with a hag that you feel SO confident you'll never see again.
I love the idea of using random roll tables as a magnifying glass for your world. It's easy to get caught up in the sweeping events and plot lines impacting the world you've created. But I can totally see how a carefully crafted table of random events, items, and characters can help players to really zoom in on a specific minor event or NPC to portray how those larger events may be impacting their world.
I was firmly in the 'encounter tables suck'-camp before I started customizing them to fit the campaign story & themes too!! Another great thing about it is that you can ask your players to roll for the encounters. It gives them a chance to yell 'WHY DID YOU ROLL A MAMMOTH' at another player and that can be very cathartic. (jokes aside, random encounters make for super fun improv and many unexpected side things to later connect back to the main storyline if you wanted!)
Right?! Customizing those tables can make SUCH a difference-it’s the best way to turn them from ‘ugh, filler’ to ‘oh wow, this fits perfectly!’ 😂 You're so right about players rolling the encounters too - it's a game-changer. As DMs, we often miss out on the surprise factor, so letting the players take the reins now and then keeps things fresh for us too.
Wouldn't a nicely crafted bookmark be even better than a bracelet? Books strikes me as the kind of girl who'd rather have something pretty and useful, instead of just something pretty.
Here's my campaign idea! WolfQuest (no, not that one) everyone's a wolf, everything is a wolf, all random encounter tables are adifferent number of wolves! Now it'll always make sense.
You've done a ton of ad reads I like, but this is a special kind of favorite one for me. Also, this whole video really changed my perspective and I appreciate the insights and ideas. Thank you!
A fun encounter suggestion: A Mimic table. Hear me out! Every few sessions I'll toss in a mimic. The first time it was the chest at the end of the room in the dungeon. The second time it was the book on the table _and_ the chest in the corner of the abandoned shack. The third time it was the ceiling of the room with the chest midway through the dungeon. The fourth time it was one of three chests _but_ it was frozen solid in the ice dungeon. The point is, it's never the same encounter even if it's the same stat block. Bonus that my players are always paranoid but they're still determined to open every chest because it's usually not a mimic and the cursed items are never actually harmful. The frozen mimic got a good laugh. Of course, they started discussing carrying it out of the dungeon and that's how I found out the average mimic is _500 lbs_
Mimics are so fun, and I love they can be everything. Favorite Mimic I ever used was a road sign where the letters were so small and washed out the PC had to get in *really* close to read. Never suspected a thing until it was too late.
I love mimics. A couple of good mimic encounters (the classic chest mimic and a door mimic) made the wizard in my party paranoid to the point that he never touches anything with his own hands if it's at all possible to use mage hand instead.
IMO, the whole point of random encounters is to hide scripted encounters between them. Whenever the characters are having an encounter, the players should not be able to tell in advance whether this is random or scripted.
Personally, I love random encounters. I use them to flesh out the campaign and let the players know there's more to the world than whatever they might be focused on right now. In my current campaign, one random encounter ended up driving a six-month adventure arc. Then again, I collect random tables--even the massive 100 entry ones from the internet; they are perfect for things like market stalls in the big city. My only concern with the video is that I felt too much time talking about the narrative and the story. As a DM, I'm not a huge fan of creating a narrative/story because I feel it robs player agency. I want my characters to build the story--I simply create opposition to facilitate their story.
Exactly, they not only make the outside world feel lived in and dangerous, but can lead to many other adventures. Old ruins, an abandoned mine, a mages tower , all can be connected to a random encounter. Traveling merchants, a lone adventurer, a wounded wolf The possibilities are endless. And they can be just plain weird 🙀
I'm in the same boat. I like creating a general plot outline as a guide (aka opposition plans), but my players are the ones who write all the details, even if my outline has to get scrapped completely due to their actions (which is even more fun). But I'll find a way to re-use any really cool ideas that they avoided, so nothing is really lost!
I think it’s funny that so many people want narrative/story and even call D&D a “collaborative storytelling” game. When that couldn’t be further from the truth. I agree with you - it’s a game about putting characters into encounters (both social and combat) and having them overcome and react to those encounters. There are much better games for people looking for storytelling that actually have mechanics to facilitate that. I even think random tables can add significantly to the “storytelling” aspect as you can connect the dots to figure out why something you rolled might be possible or how it connects to the current situation. Combine that with some Theme/Action tables to figure out most things.
@@roqueadeleon Got to disagree with you. I’ve run games for 40 years, and many campaigns that lasted for years. It is story telling but with the players acting out, changing fates and dictating how the story, or least their parts and those that they e interacted with goes to some degree.
@@Viglin123 not sure my entire message showed up just cuz YT hides it behind the “read more” button so could be some context missing there. But D&D is not a game designed around storytelling, its a TTRPG that almost exclusively revolves around combat - all the rules in the books, monster manuals etc almost exclusively revolve around that fact, there are some social rules as well but There are basically no rules that facilitate storytelling. Now that’s not to say that stories don’t get told after the fact, many do! But it’s not what the game is designed for (again no storytelling mechanics). You don’t have to look far to find games with storytelling mechanics if various degrees built into them - many PBTA games give players moves like flashbacks, change the scene or adding complications that allow players to add or change the story directly. As it relates to this video, you can see how a game with more storytelling mechanics would work with random tables. In something like Ironsworn you always roll random/oracle then you and the other players (since there is no gm) decide on what it means, what happens, where it goes. Truly collaborative storytelling at that point because you are all working on what will make the most interesting thing happen instead of trying to overcome the obstacle in front of you. And maybe that’s why there is a bit of a disconnect with some people when rolling random in D&D vs rolling random in other games.
Xanathar's has many random encounter tables for different environments, but I have one problem with them. The higher level ones include dragons. Dragon isn't a random encounter creature!
Yeah, this is why I don't really like grabbing someone else's table (even one printed in the official books!) and using it blindly. Every game table is different and I think our encounter tables should reflect the type of game we're running!
I see your point but sometimes you just happen to walking below the dragon's flight path, or witnessing two dragons fighting. Or you are in known dragon territory and every step you make means a chance it discovers you trespassing.
Or this dragon comes as a humanoid to gain intelligence about this group of famous adventurers in their backyard. What are their intentions, can the dragon use them to further their own ends, would the party's gear and magic items look gorgeous in their own horde? You can even spin it to be bigger picture. The players attacked the dragon and have earned its ire. It was once a neutral party and now is funding the party's enemies. Maybe it's a good dragon who becomes a patron, showing up in a major city posing as a noble. Dragons are now a faction at play If I roll a dragon im HYPED for it. Free world building
Part of things like that is to also remember that these creatures can also be intelligent and have their own goals. Though I do always like the idea of having something like that on the chart having a sort of 2 stage effect. First time you roll it, you just get "dragon sign". Maybe it's literally the dragon flying overhead. Or maybe it's coming across some scene that just SCREAMS dragon. You have the setup in the player's mind that there's something out there, and it is not to be trifled with. You then have it set that if they DO roll that dragon again, this time it shows up. But again, it doesn't have to devolve IMMEDIATELY into a fight. Maybe it just starts with trying to extort them. Maybe it questions their presence, seeing if they are there FOR the dragon. With a decently leveled party, maybe they'll just say "get off my lawn!" This bluff game of "Not sure who would win, but the winner is still gonna hurt, so let's not fight at all". Or go completely sideways on the players to just confuse them: Incredibly vain Red dragon thinks the PCs are fans and/or paparazzi. She's willing to sign a couple autographs but she's not doing any portraits! She's actually kinda happy to get some attention and the party has to either risk offending her or do their damnedest to play it off. Blue dragon who's been expecting a delivery for *7 years* and just assumes the party must be them (Actual delviery died in the desert years ago and now the party has a lead on where that might be). The Blue dragon is more annoyed than anything, and can't bother fighting the party right now because they're still ~waiting for that damned delivery~.
I had two really good random dragon encounters I used in a campaign. The first encounter was a dragon just flying over the party - they cover up in the bushes. Next encounter the a dragon, I used the same dragon, it was hunting the same hill giants as the party was hunting. The party talked to the dragon with a some hesitation and they got some information about the hill giants.
I have always let the players choose someone "on point" to guide them through the wilderness / cave etc, then let them use their related skills to help influence the roll. (I usually do a mixed list of twenty plot relevant, zone relevant, or simply fun encounters available). If their tracker can help them avoid danger (to the point a high roll will let them choose between vague descriptions of the number rolled and +1/-1 of that). This is especially big for your Aragorns since they don't always get to feel that. Meeting local merchants, finding rings, or even teasing later difficult area encounters adds to the overall experience...but it's also always important to make things seem dangerous to me, I think this handles it well.
Well done Ginny! This clearly shows the pitfalls and benefits of random encounters. Over the years I've shifted from straight table roll to a table roll specific to the campaign. I put in attacks from creatures sent by the big bad to sidetrack or discourage the players from their quest. Nothing motivates a party quicker than knowing the bad guy has decided to have them all assassinated. In one campaign, one of the minor "bad guys" turned out to be the estranged daughter of the big bad. The simple fact that she was a powerful undead did not mean her goals were aligned with her father's. In fact they were directly opposite. The daughter even did things for and against the party to drive them in a direction away from her father's goals. So much fun!
Organizing encounters (as well as NPCs, locations and everything else) into rollable tables is great when you need to improvise on the spot. Maybe the PCs will ask some random NPC if they have noticed anything suspicious lately, and you really don't have an answer. Roll on the random encounter table and when it says "1d6 wolves", you can tell them: "I think I have heard wolves in the mountains. It's not unusual that you can hear one or two of them but there seem to be entire packs of them, hunting. Maybe the harsh winter left them hungry and desperate, moving so close to the village. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd start attacking people soon."
Yesss! Love this - Justin Alexander has really great tips on personalizing random tables and was the original person to really change my mind on using them for encounters
Under the comments of her video 'Baldur's Gate 3 is amazing, HOWEVER -', I asked @ProperBird for D&D advice and she directed me to the following person: www.twitch.tv/theplaymatt
I always prepare encounters in advance. I look at the random tables and I pick what I want to run. That way I can fit links to the story or set the vibe I want.
That’s kind of how I treated the encounters in Lost Mine of Phandelver, and it’s likely an intention on the module’s part. After beating up the Bugbears in the Redbrand hideout, Droop the Goblin will suggest finding goblins to make one show the way to Cragmaw Castle (as he doesn’t know the way), and the orcs are specifically described as coming from Wyvern Tor
One important note is also about how you run those encounters. You should always give the players a choice on how they react to the encounter. So instead of them instantly being attacked by a pack of wolves and being forced to fight no matter what, the encounter could start by them hearing a wolves howl and/or noises created by running animals. Then give them a little bit of time to decide what they want to do - prepare for a fight? carefully move on? try and hide or sneak past the creatures? Or maybe even some shenanigans that might sway the creatures following them into not attacking in the first place. Depending on what they do and whether or not that would be successfull, this can still lead to a fight, but it would still add much more to the game when they can make the decision of trying to avoid that and it will feel great for the players, if they find a way of avoiding the fight, you rolled up for them as an encounter.
Not sure if you are going to touch on this Ginny, but my trick around "Random Encounters" was to make them, well, not "Random"; in every campaign I prepare a lot of little encounters that are Modular and that i can just drop into the game at basically any time. They are carefully designed to be short, but interesting, and can contain social encounters as well as fights. They are quick to prepare, I can try out a lot of monsters and scenarios that I might never be able to deploy otherwise, and they are a lot of fun. Its easy to make like 10 in an evening, and be prepared in a few days for a long time, especially since a lot of them are campaign agnostic, so I can literally copy them other to the next campaign. And if I'm being clever, I can even link them to whats going on in the campaign, or use them to make the players interact with different parts of the map. I still deploy them LIKE random encounters, so quasi-randomly, so they still fulfill the same function. Just my 2 cents. On with the video! :) Edit: Ah, I see you are actually touching on this! :)
Maybe I'm not understanding, but what about this isn't "random"? It sounds like you're just writing your own random encounter tables and putting more effort into them, which is totally great.
@@TessHKM Great question! :) Its in so far not random that I don't roll a dice for them, I just pick the most appropriate one. Also, they are usually not just "encounters" in the typical sense, they are also little stories and can be classical encounters or social encounters or just flavour...or you cross paths with the God of Death in my setting. But, admittedly, I'm somewhat splitting hairs here - I could totally turn this into a table :)
There's one other instance where random encounters are useful that didn't get fully touched upon, and that's in emergent storytelling; games where where you go, what you find there and what you do with it are 100% generative and player driven. In tjese cases random encounters (with that seasoning of environmental and social encounters along with combat) coupled with the tables on detailing the rhe story of loot objects you enjoyed during your dive through the DMG, help provide bojes for you and your tablemates to collaborate on establishing truths about the space the characters occupy and the goings-on in it.
I read through the tables, pick things that sound fun, and file them away mentally, rather than doing it on the spot. I helps with planning the encounter and making sure it work/fits. Also its a good way to get ideas to flesh out finer details in the world: -oh, a nobleman is moving through the plaza in a parade, maybe i should include a festival on that day to spice up the city setting. -oh, a cave leads to the underdark, maybe this village has a dark history of connections or issues with drow. -oh, 1d6 wolves attack, maybe they are trained by goblins and this is a scare tactic to rob caravans. and the like!
This video is broadly great, but it's geared towards one (albeit very large!) style of play, and that is narrative adventures. Sandbox adventures- which personally, I prefer to run- are a completely different matter, whether they be hexcrawls or West Marches. In those cases, random encounters are part of the adventure's bread and butter- it's what players are expecting when they sign up! They do all the positives mentioned later in the video- bringing the world alive, taking both players and GM by surprise, and bringing in a random element. Mentioned in passing also, and very relevant to sandbox play is the tactical element- the risk of random encounters puts a heavy weight on players to consider what routes their journey may take- in time, distance, terrain, and even the sociopolitical landscape!
100% agree that not all random encounters need to be combat! Thank you for making this a point! I like using 2d4 (seven total encounters) and 2d6 (eleven total encounters) for my encounter tables -- you get a neat bell curve that way, so you can put "normal stuff" in the middle, where things are more likely (like pilgrims, merchants, bandits, troops, etc), and then expand out to the edges of the table, making things more rare and weird as you go. I also like polarizing the table -- higher rolls mean more beneficial encounters, and lower rolls mean more malicious things, e.g. on a 2d4 table, a roll of 8 sees the Solar Spirit Dragon sailing high in the skies above, smiling gently as she casts a Bless spell on the party below; a 2 results in a Dread Rider atop a spectral steed, an aura of terror emanating from its ghostly presence, causing all life in the woods to flee in horror as it rides as the vanguard of the undead army of the Lich-lord who rules the neighboring hell-kingdom of shadows and prepares for war.
Great video. I agree with most of your thoughts and would like to add my thoughts. When I started playing role-playing games in the 80s, we used random encounters differently than today. We didn't use the same nomenclature as today, but we primarily used random encounters in sandbox games. Most players came from a gaming background, and we lacked the improvisation experience. Contrary to the typical view today, random encounters helped us improvise. Much of the time, we invest in session planning, as we do today; back then, we invested in creating random encounter lists. The lists were more themed than today; they were usually longer and not as combat-heavy as they typically look today. The goal of the lists was to create the following experience: 1. The DM was not against the players. They were the messenger of what the dice decided. As a result, the players trusted the DM more than they do today. 2. The DM didn't need to do "lore dumps". If the lists were good, they would give the lore to the players over several sessions. 3. The lists made each session fresh, even if you played in the same world for several months. Today, I add a fourth reason. A typical session today can feel railroaded and tailored, where the players are always in the right place and time. The list could change that. A sudden potential for a new sidequest made the world feel alive, even to the DM. As a DM, the realisation that the list changed your plans in mid-session was inspiring. I don't use random encounters as much as I used to, as the lack of control is problematic when we have trouble finding time to play.
The “Random Encounters as prep tool” is spot-on and I love the take-out food analogy. I do this when I need details or direction in a novel. It’s like asking RNG for a story prompt. Using them as foreshadowing or to reinforce a theme is also useful advice. I hadn’t considered the Nazgul encounters in Fellowship of the Ring to be like this but, yeah, I can see that now.
I think it behooves all DMs to read and probably run the Moldvay-Cook B/X edition. In those books Wandering Monsters (note they are not called Random encounters in that edition) are there to bring the setting to life. They make the dungeon dangerous but they also simulate the comings and goings of monsters. Instead of the DM tracking a goblin patrol you roll to see if they randomly turn up this round. In these books there is a distinction between dungeon encounters and wilderness encounters. Yes, a wilderness can encounter can be three goblins but it can also be a “lair” which might house 140 bandits. So, wilderness encounters are divided into what 5e would call random encounters but also whole Adventure Locations to explore. I think this approach, specifically of adventure locations really fixes the problem 5e has with ransomed encounters being just a time drain. Instead of a meaningless combat it becomes a whole side quest.
Woot Woot! Random preparation. My favorite bowl of soup. Seriously though. I have always been frustrated with DMs that roll on a table and flip through a monster manual only to misuse the monster chosen for the encounter. I chose soup earlier because this can be a messy subject, but can also be something of substance and depth of flavor. I actually enjoy using random tables and then reskinning the mechanics to create a creature that is applicable to the terrain and storyline. I have been playing for a really long time. Sometimes I will roll for older editions and throw something a little old-school out. When this happens, if the creature in question has access to spells or spell like abilities, I will roll to see if the creature is old enough to be able to use the older version of the spell/ability. Great topic. Keep up the awesome content. 😊
On the note of using "fully random tables" like the massive d1000 premade tables, one GM I know particularly uses them to build the world or story. They know broad strokes and important characters, but if (say) 2d4 orc mercenaries show up, they were hired by someone specific the GM knows would hire them and this 'random encounter' is now telling the players a new piece of information in the form of a (presumably) failed assassination of them (loot the bodies for info! Or keep one alive). When a giant snake showed up, it let us know what happened to the missing blacksmith and that the town drunk really DID see a monster this close to town. #2 is actually what I generally do for random encounters. My tables tend to be a mix of "very likely combat", "will turn to combat if the PCs say the wrong things", "dangerous but not necessarily combat", "fun NPCs to run into", "lore drops", and very importantly "nothing of note". That last one is necessary because sometimes nothing happens despite a scary location, and it really helps make it feel less formulaic because now the players can't even be certain they will run into something every time they take a trek. I totally agree with the point of doing it ahead of time, but for me I specifically use them BECAUSE I couldn't plan for them. If I think the players are going to go into the tower with carefully prepared mini-puzzle boss fights that fight the theme and message of the tower but they instead decide to help this poor girl look for her father, I need to make encounters for the forest they are going to in five minutes. I also like to have multiple continuous plots happening and if they pick up the hints too fast, I'll realize I haven't planned things out for their new plans. Or the random encounter will show ME a plot I didn't realize was going in my world.
I love the advice from The Lazy GM - roll twice on the table(s) and combine them to add some variety/context. So if you roll say 1d6 wolves and 1d6 bandits you've got some options. Maybe the bandits are poachers, maybe the party think the bandits are merchants being attacked by starving wolves etc. It dramatically increases the options on the tables. I think in the same video he also mentions using the tables to suggest something that has happened or could happen. Maybe instead of stumbling in to a giant spider, the party finds the webbing and desiccated corpses of the last meal - now the players have some options. Do they hunt the spider? Take time looting the bodies? Move it double time so they don't end up as lunch?
One of my biggest gripes with random encounters has always been where they start. GMs often start then so the players are forced to be wholly reactive. Take the 1d6 wolves for example. A lot of GMs will get that result and immediately jump to, you’re attack by wolves, roll for initiative. I find even the most dull encounters feel a lot better if we start the narrative earlier. As the party is travelling they hear the howl of wolves in the distance, or find recent wolf tracks. The party then can decide how they want to handle this. Do they want to race towards a defensible location, try and bring the fight to the wolves, set up a fire to keep them at bay, put an obstacle between them and the wolves, take a different path that takes them out of the wolves territory, or perhaps prepare some sort of meat that will satiate the wolves hunger and reduce their interest in the party. The group has more agency in the situation, and can act in accordance with their character’s interests and inclinations rather than always being treated to what is effectively,”you’re ambushed by wolves”. Or to put it more simply, they have an opportunity to react more proactively to new information. The occasional ambush is fine, thematic even, but when every encounter feels that way it also makes characters feel very incompetent “why are we surprised all the time?” and removes the opportunity for the players to act proactively, instead positioning them to always act reactively by framing the scene where any choices they could have made to change the circumstance of the encounter have already been bypassed.
You roll surprise. If one side is surprised and the other not, that's how it goes. The PCs can better their odds with how they march. They might have a point man ahead. They can have a guard dog. Sometimes smaller groups have an advantage. 20 ogres are going to be more obvious than one.
You can roll for reaction, unless a reaction is obvious. Most encounters will not be instant violence. Sometimes you roll for distance. Are the ogres 20 m away or 5?
I’ve just gotten into DnD recently, just waiting for a few more people to join so I can start my first campaign, and I have been watching your videos religiously. They’re really well thought out, funny, and creative, and you’ve gotten me even more excited to start! Can’t wait for more :)
I think it's good to look at what different games feel like in the face of random encounters. Shadowdark, for example, uses them as an integral part of its tension building mechanism. You never know when something that will absolutely TPK you is going to happen, so you're always on your toes and trying to constantly move forward. The way most 5e campaigns are run is simply incompatible with this idea, so if you want random encounters to have an impact in a typical 5e campaign you need to really think about how each possibility on the table contributes to the stakes, and this takes a lot of work. Having said this, I'd say that even in your typical OSR session it's good to curate your random encounter lists so they really fit the themes you're going for in your campaign or even in the particular dungeon you're running. Dungeon ecologies are important!
Generally, I run my own random encounters during travel after a level up to let them play with their new toys OR for hints at lore, story/backstory hooks, etc. Most recent session a player rolled a 1 on an encounter roll. They just had a new character join so they ended up coming upon some lore hints of a world before theirs and then a combat encounter with an ancient beast that was awakened after after they interacted with the lore hints in order to let the new character show off his toys. Great video, Ginny!
Nailed it. I've felt this way for years about unscripted encounters. You however were able to articulate it succinctly. Nice primer you added for environmental storytelling too!
Another case to rolling: If you set up your table to have the difficult/dangerous encounters at the highest rolls; then if your party runs through the forest instead of sneaking through, you add +2 to your roll or something so a more dangerous option is more likely to happen, and finding treasure hidden in a tree is not going to happen.
Also, repeat rolls can be fun. I had a DM that rolled us an encounter with bandits on the road multiple times, but instead of it just being random bandits each time, it was the SAME bandit group. It was a ton of fun, and we eventually got them to stop being bandits and turn their lives around XD
One technique I use is to roll a couple of times, and take those creatures or whatever and have them in a scenario with each other. It makes the world feel more alive, like things are going on outside of the view of the party. It's also a good obstacle that doesn't totally feel show horned in there. I also like to throw in random encounters while they are in the middle of something else, because life is like that sometimes. By they way, your acting ability is supremely underrated.
My DM rarely uses random encounters but, a fantastic way he used them a lot was a forest that always is warping and changing. The random encounter charts he hand crafted for the forest are amazing and each shines a light on the lore of this weird forest
I a currently on a replay of the Witcher 3 and a lot of your suggestions reminded me of how this open world is constructed. - The monsters you encounter varie from country - in war zones you fight against deserted soldiers, on islands you fight pirates, in other areas you fight bandits > Random encounters add flavour to the world and feel like they belong in that specific area
I put a huge amount of work into my RETs. I break them down by environment, day/night, hostility, and time of year/seasons. There's also a scale to them, where the Encounter Levels range from easy to..."You better RUN". I also use them to determine other aspects of the campaign setting in real time. An example of this would be...I once had an encounter that resulted in a "roll twice" option. Both results ended up being "Noble retainers on patrol". However, one came up as hostile, and the other came up as friendly. When things went south, the two patrols clashed. Which eventually lead to a rivalry between the two noble houses. In turn, that rivalry eventually built up into a full fledged civil war within the kingdom. Things like this can really help when you're running long-term campaigns where you spend most of your time, as a DM, focusing on the primary story. It helps keep the rest of the world feel like it's existing beyond whatever the PCs are up to. With that in mind, I also like to shuffle in some familiar NPCs the party has either already met, or know about through some other means. Of course these NPCs shouldn't be important to the main plot. "Zedbelly, the boot-maker" who the PCs met in town back at lvl 2, could be out on the road being harassed by (or joined up with) brigands, and that's just fine.
Thanks for this - I read the DMG pre covid and just pulled it back off the shelf again yesterday to plan for my next session (there has been a 6 month gap), so the timing of this video is perfect. I am running a Wildemount adventure, so will be doing a lot of random encounters, since I've told characters there will be minimal handholding. Its great to use the idea of these encounter tables as a way to show the path to a questline, not just have an NPC come up to them every session with a plot hook.
Thank you for your video! I'm a new DM and I suffer with overpreparation, so for my recent one-on-one campaign with my husband I started using random encounter tables. Now, I'm still learning and I still prefer to prep a lot (at least the main storyline), but it led to some funny involuntary foreshadowing: hubby's half-orc sorcerer was en route to a spa town, I rolled a couple of mud mephits in the countryside on the way; now our sorcerer is working at a tavern, learning to make magical objects, all the while investigating sinister goings-on with the town's main hot water spring. And I only connected the mephits and the main quest afterwards :D
11:45 I’m also like this, and instead of rolling dice I ask for suggestions (which in fairness can be irritating), I say I ask for suggestions not to follow them, but to reveal my own thoughts and desires. Same with the dice. The dice does not decide, the dice reveals.
Great video! Another bit of useful random encounter advice I've gotten - from XP to Level 3, I think - is to roll twice. Instead of 1d6 wolves you can end up with things like a travelling merchant and their guard being attacked by 1d6 wolves - situations instead of random combats. I try to find a couple of encounters like that before a session and keep them in my back pocket.
Great job at video! I actually use random encounters a lot apparently. The first encounter I had in my current campaign was completely random but it added to the story. I wanted the players to know the backdrop of the world. The orcs had a massive horde and was warring with the northern elves. My party were a family of gnomes, so it really didn't pertain to them. But it did help get them acquainted with the rest of the world. They got stopped by a goblin checkpoint that demanded money or blood. Then they got on with finding their missing dad... The secret they don't know is the orcs are the good guys and their dad is helping them with their shoe needs.(The gnomes are cobblers)
Great video! I found random encounters helped with DM burnout as it was more exciting for me to not know what would happen each session. I created d4 or d6 tables like you suggested. However I randomise each component of the encounter to create unique situations I would never plan. I have a table for notable locations in the area, environmental hazards, the creatures, and the creature's reaction to the party. The reaction table especially changed how my party react to these encounters. For example, they see a white dragon being forced to land by the strong winds and whilst they know white dragons are typically hostile on sight, this one is acting more like a wounded and cornered animal. That particular encounter created a very memorable moment where the peace cleric wanted to spare the dragon but the oathbreaker paladin was determined to slay it to regain his honour.
I think my prep is a bit of quite a mix you are suggesting here (even some of the don'ts, because sometimes there is still no better way): 1. I have prepped random story encounters, I create them when writing the plot. They are often way more specific, and always tie into the story, but due to their specific constraints they might not fit when I need one. I will run at least 75% of them. 2. I have also for every session 2-3 fully prepared "random" encounters drop in ready, if I use one up, i make a new one for next session and it gets on my sheet of my usable encounters. They do nothing for the story, they are just there to shake up the pace or stretch time. 3. I never roll if I can avoid it, when I roll in game, I am not engaging the players, as I am engaged with the dice. Usually watch a movie or a TV series and then start noting things down when I see something that gets my inspiration going. It could be even just the outline of a badly written scene that gets me going: "How can I do this better?"
Great video! One thing I would suggest is to roll with two dice, instead of one. If you roll 2d6 for example, the chances of a 2 or 12 are lower than the numbers in the middle. I put really positive encounters at the very top of the list and very challenging ones at the bottom. My players are aware of this and I roll open for everyone to see. So when I roll a 12 and they get a reward they feel really lucky and satisfied. If they are already beaten up and I announce another random encounter they really pay attention to the result. That way random encounters feel more impactful in the game.
one tip i have seen from heliana's that also might work is divide radom encounters tables into combat and exploration/puzzle encounters. essentially when you are making checks to avoid stuff or navigate safely, have two encounter tables ready, one for if they succeed, one for if they fail. The success check includes more naritive encounters, like puzzles, npc's or stuff like that. The failure table is mostly combat encounters, since they failed to navigate safely. you could do something similar, by making succesful checks add more positive things into the random encounters than negative. This way navigation checks and stuff like traveling still feel like they have an impact.
Another thing about random encounters, If you know that there is one encounter a day, and you know you are getting a long rest every night, you just blow all your Long Rest abilities cause you know it wont matter.
I tend to use "encounter grids" which are basically random tables arranged as a grid, where each row is an encounter and then there are multiple columns where one is "lair", one is "monster", and others are things like "noises", "spoor", "traces", etc. The end result is when you roll on them (I use 2d6 for the rows, 1d8 for the columns so 11 encounter-types and 8 categories of potential encounter), you tend to get a lot of evidence of monsters or potential encounters, but only rarely an actual monster (or lair). Combined with the specificity you mention, it allows you to foreshadow potential encounters and distribute clues the PCs can try to puzzle together to figure out what kinds of threat or opportunities are in a given area. I also hand the PCs a blank copy of the grid and let them fill in entries as they roll them, to help them keep track of what they've already discovered or encountered. It's made random encounters much more atmospheric and added a puzzle element to them that my players enjoy.
This is how I started with my encounter tables; I tailored them to match the environment, region, terrain, etc. and I mainly reserve them for overland travel. For most major cities, it’s usually guard patrols, traveler convoys, merchants, etc. and for overland travel I will also randomly generate homesteads, villages and towns.
Excellent video. That moment when your players look at you for what happens next and you have no idea what happens next? That is why I prep a random encounter table or at least a short list of plot points that I need to work into the story "sometime soon."
This video gave me the idea of letting players know some items on a table beforehand, perhaps based on backstory or gossip. Sort of like Gandalf knowing there could be Orcs and a Balrog in Moria. It could let them make weightier decisions about travel routes and be a nice way to spice up exploration
I only roll on random tables during game prep. I typically prepare a number of encounters before any session. During the session I only roll to see if there is an encounter. Then I choose one from the ones I have prepared. And I LOVE ALL Ginny Di videos!
I recently had to make my own random encounter for my party traveling on an airship in Exandria. It was surprisingly hard to find a table for an airship so I had to make it myself. It really made me look at random encounters and I realized that they are fine and useful if the encounters make sense for the narrative/area/region the players are in. I admit that random encounters were more a meme because, like you said, 1d6 random wolves show up, battle happens and then the party moves on. But having a d6 or d12 table for them to roll on that was customized made them excited for the things they got. Tldr: Ginny is spot on, make a number of different encounter types that make sense for where/what your players could encounter. It can help spice things up or push players into different things they didn't account for. And changing the table helps make sure players don't know what to expect. It also makes it look like your table is way bigger if they are trying to keep track of what they rolled so bonus points there.
100% agree! I love random encounters as they can potentially give you interesting encounters that sometimes you, the GM, didn't think to have. Also, as Ginny stated, they could help make your world feel alive. Especially if the GM integrates them into the world. A randomly rolled bandit encounter becomes much more interesting if it isn't just fodder to slow down the characters. What if those bandits are just poor villagers that felt they had no choice but to attempt a mugging because of their living circumstance? Maybe the bandits are hesitant and look remorseful about trying to rob the players. Then suddenly the players might start thinking, "Wait, why are these people resorting to mugging us? There must be something else going on." And instead of combat, maybe the players start talking to the bandits and trying to learn about their situation and suddenly you can potentially hook the players into a side quest to deal with the source of these "bandits" problems or something. So, this small random encounter could potentially lead the players into a much larger sub-plot or at the very least be much more compelling than just a bunch of bandits with knives demanding money.
Thank you for explaining the controversy with random encounters. I still remember fondly the time our DM did a random encounter and it was a stone golem. He told us to run as the CR was too high. We fought it and won.
I dont think I ever used a random encounter. But this inspires me to use more variety in my planned ones. Just sprinkle a few things that add to the atmosphere and do some exposition, love it.
Random encounter is sure helpful for a guy like me that improvising alot and very terrible with prepping. I thank you as this video has really motivated me and sparked with lots of ideas for my random tables, like random rooms for a dungeons, traps, monsters, puzzles and loot - speak of loot! it motivated me enough to make even a custom magic item with the help of the dms guide book, and the item became this very unexpected possible mechanical fun and story heavy artifact, that may or not may come in hands of my players haha. I kinda find it its very fun to do random table, the unpredictable odds - and the thrill what may be unfold, let the dice and the fate,fortune and misfortune tell a epic saga of my adventures!
I've always loved random encounter tables. I think Ginny summed it up nicely with "It gives the impression that the world is beyond the GM's control." Carefully crafted random encounter charts can add a sense of danger and mystery to a setting, and allow for certain plot points or NPCs to come up organically, rather than prescribed by the GM.
The answer to most "how to make random *anything* not suck" is often "make it less about the random" These recent "what the DMG *actually* says" videos are also great at highlighting something related that's quite interesting & important itself -- that (for most groups) most RPGs still more-or-less work even if the players & GM aren't 100% on the specific rules. And as the video shows, the things we don't know often include comments exactly to that effect -- too often what people miss are the bits saying "these are not immutable laws of physics, we think they work, but they're here to help you do what works for you" Humans are (in general) pretty good at resolving the slightly fuzzy gaps & overlaps in a rules system -- they know what they're trying to achieve, they know how the system works in general, they know the resolution mechic works, it's all good in the end and everyone's happy. Except the 1d6 wolves. Most 5e tables aren't "pure" 5e -- we mix & match rules from 3.5, PF2E, third parties, season with our own homebrew, then import a campaign from PF1E -- and it all more-or-less works, for the same reasons that a "pure" 5e game can still work just fine, even if you don't know all the rules. The rules have flexibility built into them; using houserules *is* playing by the rules; and if the game rules were a perfectly-aligned and provably-correct mosaic of axiomatic game-legalese with no need for human adjudication then you could just feed them to a computer and have an AI GM run everything, so that's obviously not going to happen... :)
I have been a random encounter hater in the past, but you definitely make a good case on how they can be used more effectively. Great food for thought, thanks! (P.S. Books' crush on you is adorable, please try to let her down easy.)
love it. I do this with a 2-step roll. First, a D20, with the bottom being a fight, and the top being an NPC or loot situation. Middle rolls do nothing. I adjust the boundaries based on likelihood. Then, both ends of the roll, fight or NPC, I have a 2D6 list, so it's a bell curve of popularity of items. Wolves are more common than undead, etc. For the NPC encounter, it could be narrative, merchant, or even social opportunity for a boon.
Agree with this whole heartedly! I dropped the book's random encounters almost immediately (sorry books). I make every table now to fit in with their current scenario and provide world building info to show what's going on outside or because of their main quest. I feel like they are also good to introduce rare shops or loot that don't necessarily fit with your current setting but still would to give the players a treat!
Random encounters are great when you have a party that likes to explore large areas at a time. We're getting ready for an ocean adventure and they have full control of the steering wheel so having a table available to help me with my predetermined encounters is going to be really helpful
That's exactly how I use mine! I set up a table full of minor encounters relating to what's going on in the region, not all of them combat. I also have the "Discovery!" encounter, where I roll on a secondary table that has a bunch of small dungeons or other landmarks on it. These dungeons then remain on the map for the players to enter when they want to. Since I run my games on a VTT, I also have the ability to give each encounter a different "weight". So if a certain kind of encounter (say, plain clear weather, nothing special) has come up more than once, I can make those less prevalent. Party far away from the place where an encounter makes sense? Drop the probability or turn that one off entirely. Local events causing a surge in undead? Up the probability of those patrols, or of soldiers hunting them! So far, it's worked very well. :P Now, PRE-ROLLING the encounter table so you have an idea ahead of time to integrate into the session more naturally? Thaaaaaaat's an idea I had not thought about. I may start doing that!
The most common use of random encounters I've seen was ones where plot/story relevant encounters were on the table, in addition to resource-eating encounters. Like, stealing a random person's drink in a bar could get you into a fight with just faceless nobodies, or into a fight with the local insurrectionist that has a bone to pick with one or more members of the party due to backstory reasons.
Such good advice to make random tables less random! Did you see PointyHat vid “Traveling in DnD is bad?” because I think your two videos blend ideas perfectly. TLDW: They suggest making 3 themes for encounters: combat, exploration/environment, and role play. I think this breaks up the slog of random encounters always being combat (which you touch on) and gives more opportunity for story, backstory hooks, and world building fun. Love your videos; always nuanced and insightful. I’m always fooled by the thumbnails thinking they’ll be clickbait hot takes but every time, nuance and insight. Thank you!
There is skill on the DMs side to respect their players time, as it's very easy to conceal event-less triggers as "immersion". This upset really does sound like a disillusion in desires of the campaign to me. If the players are more focused on narrative progression then a DM building variety into the situations they next hit so that they tie narrative threads into them is going to be beloved, and one forcing 7 arbitrary roadblocks between each objective deserves to be challenged. Does 20 hours of RNG story-less obstruction over the course of a campaign actually improve the experience? Should it be a lower number or higher? Should there be any filler at all? All answers can be right for different tables, and pure dismissal of opinions different to your own is a very narrow perspective to apply.
The one and only time I’ve used a random encounter table to date was when I couldn’t decide which of three encounter ideas I had to throw at my players for their very first encounter. So I made a random table with three entries to decide. This video helps me validated in that decision.
My group had a lot of fun with the random encounter tables in the Wild Beyond the Witchlight module. Really added to the surreal Alice In Wonderland esque feel of the story. Our most iconic random encounter was a tornado that, on failing a strength save, would sweep people away to another randomly rolled part of the campaign map. We all failed our save, and the place we rolled for the tornado to take us was the final dungeon, thereby skipping most of the chapter.
I played a couple of sessions with one group, and there was a lot travelling via ship. DM had a random encounter table specifically for days out at sea which I enjoyed, it made it feel like the travelling days weren't just wasted time. The one I remember was encountering a merchant ship that sold baked goods with odd effects when you ate them. I know there was a combat encounter as well, but the merchant stood out because I didn't think about beneficial encounters being included.
I am a weird DM creature who does a lot of prep but also doesn’t like to have a set, strict number of encounters before the sessions, except one or two important ones. I love TTRPGs because they can surprise even me, the “author”, thanks to dice rolling, and players agency, and creative thinking! So, I’ve always liked random encounters and making my own tables for them. First, it helps with establishing a mood and setting, and second, it gives me that thrill of unknown that I think the DM is also entitled to!
I love this! Interesting Random Encounter table use case:
I had a group of level 1 characters that were about to go on a trek to the nearby magical cave, but they were worried about dying before getting there so they asked around in the tavern what they could expect along that road!
So i just pulled out the random encounter chart and rolled a few times. Some wolves, some spiders, and a troll. Quickly whipped up a rumor about wolves on the road, and dream spiders in the forest that are hunted for their venom, and the troll guarding a bridge.
It let them prepare in advance for the encounters! Albeit they prepared by buying four goats (one for the wolves and three for the troll). I cant wait to start posting those sessions.
years ago a players summarized it to me as "the frustration doesn't come from failing, it comes from not having the knowledge to prevent it" and rumors are a really simple way of doing it, just a simple "the dungeon has traps" sometimes is more than enough to save pc's life or make it ok with being crushed by a giant boulder
That's such a clever way to come up with nearby rumors! Love it
That’s brilliant! I think players should always be rewarded for thinking strategically and the random encounters are a great way of providing them with info on the fly 😂
And the goats? Absolute gold. Player creativity is just the best. Can’t wait to hear how those sessions play out, so definitely share when you can!
@@luizurtiga That's why I've been working on a "professional" dungeon-delver community for my homebrew world. They have innocuous little graffitoes like hobo sign, and their own taverns that act as impromptu guild halls. Knowledgeable authorities understand how to tap into these resources, and how to prepare adventurers they're hiring.
I'm thinking that most dangerous areas and boss monsters will have some level of information available to the heroes, through research, reconnaissance, and talking to survivors. Not a whole WoW dungeon guide, but, "knows a lot of ice magic. Froze one guy solid when he got into melee range."
DMG: you may, at your discretion, award the players with the same amount of experience they would've gotten by beating the encounter, if they avoid or peacefully resolve it in an alternative way.
I use random encounters, but not at the table. They are rolled up before hand and then integrated into the main story or if they don't fit, just get tossed out or saved for later.
Ohhhh, I like this!!
Yes! I like having them there for security if I *have* to be spontaneous but this is my favorite way of doing things too 🥰
Book of Many Things has an interesting variation on this, in that you can stack the deck.. literally.
That reminds me of Madam Eva's tarot card reading in the official Curse of Strahd adventure for 5e. I was a player during that campaign, but I'm pretty certain the deck was written specifically for that campaign and had direct ties into how the story would unfold.
So random encounters where it's more a case of "may or may not take place" rather than "may or may not fit the situation".
As long as it doesn't end up being "quantum monster of the trip" (i.e. doesn't matter which route you take, you still end up with the same outcome).
You really got to the heart of why I don't like random encounters as they are run. I've always struggled with throwing them out without them feeling like filler. This definitely helps breathe life into them. Thanks Ginny (and thanks for showing some appreciation for books... Seems like she's really craving attention)
I barely use them. Normally I´ll have planned minor, main and major (showdowns) encounters, that can happen at specific points or semi-random in a certain timeframe during the plot.
I might occasionally use a random table for very minor things, but usually these are also planned, so yeah ... barely :)
Indeed, her description of why they usually suck was so spot on and just like it feels!
One other benefit to rolling vs picking one encounter to prep is it forces the DM to work on their improv skills. I’m a chronic over-prepper, and random encounters force me to think on the fly, which can save time and help build confidence. Not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s helped me with my DMing goals! Great video ❤
Not being able to carefully map out everything ahead of time can be a real boon. More focus on the bigger picture, more freedom to the players.
Thank you! ❤️ I totally feel you on the over-prepping-sometimes letting the dice decide is the best way to get out of your head and just roll with whatever happens. Scary in the moment but a great exercise in saving prepping time!
Exactly! Actually one of the main reasons I’m playing ironsworn with group play. NO PREP. Similar to you, i will overprep till i don’t even wanna play anymore so removing that completely is ideal - in something like ironsworn there is no prep - you literally don’t know what’s gonna happen till you start playing
Fell in love with the random encounters when I ran Curse of Strahd. The ones in that book are brilliant.
Not even a fight, but finding a random grave in the woods became a very tense moment as the PCs were travelling from Vallaki to the Windmill once.
And in another random encounter, two PCs got bitten by a werewolf. One got their curse cured, but the other decided to keep the curse as a secret to the other players, ultimately having huge effect on the character and story later on.
After running that campaign, this has become the way I do it in homebrews too. I love random encounters now.
Yes! I think random encounters in campaign modules are a perfect example of how they can be crafted to fit within the setting, so instead of feeling like generic filler, they enhance the atmosphere and theme of the campaign.
Also, it's nice that you can add a unique twist to your story so not every CoS game is the same.
Yeah CoS really sold me on them. Literally the first random encounter my party had was with the (mostly) friendly Revenant who pointed them towards Argynvostholt, giving them an early hook for an area that otherwise might be missed entirely, or be a very late-game reveal.
For one of my homebrews, I'm definitely going to create a whole set of encounter tables, one for each potential threat the table decide to use. So, depending on whether they go after the indigenous species desperately trying to defend their home with violence, or the cult of demon-worshippers raiding caravans, or the unexplained behavioral changes in the wildlife, the tables can both reflect the story, and remind the players that there are other threats out there.
I had a similar experience running Storm King's Thunder! Running into an excavation site where fire giants are trying to dig up fragments of an ancient superweapon, or a group of refugees fleeing after their homes were destroyed by stone giants, really reinforced the main themes of the campaign. I also loved that the encounters table seemed to balance the three pillars of roleplaying (combat, social & exploration), with a good mix of things that would almost certainly result in a fight, things most likely to be resolved by talking, and things were the main focus was the environment.
Absolutely! Not every random encounter needs to be a /combat/ encounter.
This might have just saved my campaign, no joke. First time DM who’s never liked random encounters, but am running into an issue with pacing my players. This might just be my panacea! Thank you!
Glad I could help!
Make Books a friendship bracelet, Ginny. She deserves it.
I've got to decide which words to put on them though!
Any suggestions?
@@GinnyDi "Books Is/Are The Best". I hope she has thick wrists.
@@GinnyDi Ever In Dex! As in, "You'll forever be in my index." What could possibly be sweeter than promising someone a place in your lookup section?
My favorite tip comes from Sly Flourish - roll twice. Those results are now interacting in some way. Immediately you have a random encounter that is occurring outside the PC's view. It decenters them and makes the world seem more real.
And furthermore - pre-roll 2 or 3 of these random encounters.
That first tip is brilliant!!
The delivery of the line, "When will you make me a friendship bracelet?", was so funny.
Asking me to make myself a friendship bracelet was slightly surreal... but let’s be honest, it’s definitely not the first time I’ve had a conversation like that
@GinnyDi Good practice for when the inevitable conversations between 2 of your NPCs happen. Or perhaps... those are good practice for your videos.
Awww, poor insecure Books. I love her. I feel like she's under-appreciated for how useful she is.
Thanks for joining the ranks of the "I actually read the DMG" fold! I can't wait to see what cool content like this video you can pull from it not-intended-to-be-secret secrets.
You never fail to make the sponsor clips entertaining and thematic. I am continually impressed by them.
Don't forget that a random encounter can be really fun for the DM by making unplanned things happen. We deserve to be surprised occasionally. It's wild to see an event unfold that you didn't prepare ahead of time!
As a GM, I've been deeply anti-random encounters for better than a decade. Your point-- three simple rules, really, though, is... erm... on point.
Loving this Rosie the Riveter aesthetic.
Anyway, yeah random encounters. I actually believe random encounters should almost NEVER be combats. I think little world-building moments are way more interesting than some throw-away fight. Finding a forgotten sending stone on the ground that emits some eldritch song or a chest with a random lute that summons a dancing mummy. Little things like this will engage the players and make your world feel far more alive.
I love combat that builds the world (the country at war table was a really inspiring example) or gives context for the danger they're facing.
But, you're right, combat feels very different from a small interaction or finding an interesting item.
@@GinnyDi I try to use Random Encounters the way that games like Fallout or the Witcher does; build little vignettes that add details to small segments of the world. It's just another layer to my worldbuilding and storytelling, but it also a way to force myself to "care" about adding something cool everywhere. One of the reasons why the exploration in games like Skyrim feels so rewarding, even if you don't get "loot" you get rewarded for going over there and checking that thing out by seeing an interesting sight, getting lore information about the world, experiencing a cool microstory, defeating a puzzle or trap, or making a bargain with a hag that you feel SO confident you'll never see again.
Hey crispy good to see ya
And i agree
I love the idea of using random roll tables as a magnifying glass for your world. It's easy to get caught up in the sweeping events and plot lines impacting the world you've created. But I can totally see how a carefully crafted table of random events, items, and characters can help players to really zoom in on a specific minor event or NPC to portray how those larger events may be impacting their world.
I'd amend that to "Random encounters with a possibility of combat should have several options to avoid combat".
I was firmly in the 'encounter tables suck'-camp before I started customizing them to fit the campaign story & themes too!! Another great thing about it is that you can ask your players to roll for the encounters. It gives them a chance to yell 'WHY DID YOU ROLL A MAMMOTH' at another player and that can be very cathartic.
(jokes aside, random encounters make for super fun improv and many unexpected side things to later connect back to the main storyline if you wanted!)
Right?! Customizing those tables can make SUCH a difference-it’s the best way to turn them from ‘ugh, filler’ to ‘oh wow, this fits perfectly!’ 😂
You're so right about players rolling the encounters too - it's a game-changer. As DMs, we often miss out on the surprise factor, so letting the players take the reins now and then keeps things fresh for us too.
@@GinnyDi Exactly!!!!
A good question - when *are* you making Books a friendship bracelet?
I've been busy making this video!!
Fr book needs some love
Wouldn't a nicely crafted bookmark be even better than a bracelet?
Books strikes me as the kind of girl who'd rather have something pretty and useful, instead of just something pretty.
@@herrhartmann3036 Books asked for a friendship bracelet though
@@RollForTuraco What a person asks for is not necessarily what would make them the most happy.
I am now unnaturally invested in whether Books will get a friendship bracelet
The books sure do get excited when we spend time with them! LOL
Here's my campaign idea! WolfQuest (no, not that one) everyone's a wolf, everything is a wolf, all random encounter tables are adifferent number of wolves! Now it'll always make sense.
God damn it, I'm in 🐺
"oh no, what's happening to m-" 🧎🐺
You've done a ton of ad reads I like, but this is a special kind of favorite one for me.
Also, this whole video really changed my perspective and I appreciate the insights and ideas. Thank you!
I agree it did not even feel like a add
Ginny your outfit is really cute !
Thank you!! 🥰🥰
@@GinnyDi your welcome!
Gives me Imogen Temult vibes :D
@@Kilmori Oh yeah good point!
@@GinnyDi The colors go really well with your hair!
A fun encounter suggestion: A Mimic table.
Hear me out!
Every few sessions I'll toss in a mimic. The first time it was the chest at the end of the room in the dungeon. The second time it was the book on the table _and_ the chest in the corner of the abandoned shack. The third time it was the ceiling of the room with the chest midway through the dungeon. The fourth time it was one of three chests _but_ it was frozen solid in the ice dungeon.
The point is, it's never the same encounter even if it's the same stat block. Bonus that my players are always paranoid but they're still determined to open every chest because it's usually not a mimic and the cursed items are never actually harmful.
The frozen mimic got a good laugh. Of course, they started discussing carrying it out of the dungeon and that's how I found out the average mimic is _500 lbs_
Mimics are so fun, and I love they can be everything.
Favorite Mimic I ever used was a road sign where the letters were so small and washed out the PC had to get in *really* close to read.
Never suspected a thing until it was too late.
@@Dadaph oh that's genius I'm stealing it
@@DadaphThat is devious and I love it.
@@M_Alexander Please do!
I love mimics. A couple of good mimic encounters (the classic chest mimic and a door mimic) made the wizard in my party paranoid to the point that he never touches anything with his own hands if it's at all possible to use mage hand instead.
"Is this a random encounter or are we encountering something randomly?"
You either don't understand this question or you're a good DM.
IMO, the whole point of random encounters is to hide scripted encounters between them.
Whenever the characters are having an encounter, the players should not be able to tell in advance whether this is random or scripted.
Personally, I love random encounters. I use them to flesh out the campaign and let the players know there's more to the world than whatever they might be focused on right now. In my current campaign, one random encounter ended up driving a six-month adventure arc. Then again, I collect random tables--even the massive 100 entry ones from the internet; they are perfect for things like market stalls in the big city. My only concern with the video is that I felt too much time talking about the narrative and the story. As a DM, I'm not a huge fan of creating a narrative/story because I feel it robs player agency. I want my characters to build the story--I simply create opposition to facilitate their story.
Exactly, they not only make the outside world feel lived in and dangerous, but can lead to many other adventures.
Old ruins, an abandoned mine, a mages tower , all can be connected to a random encounter.
Traveling merchants, a lone adventurer, a wounded wolf
The possibilities are endless.
And they can be just plain weird 🙀
I'm in the same boat. I like creating a general plot outline as a guide (aka opposition plans), but my players are the ones who write all the details, even if my outline has to get scrapped completely due to their actions (which is even more fun). But I'll find a way to re-use any really cool ideas that they avoided, so nothing is really lost!
I think it’s funny that so many people want narrative/story and even call D&D a “collaborative storytelling” game. When that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I agree with you - it’s a game about putting characters into encounters (both social and combat) and having them overcome and react to those encounters.
There are much better games for people looking for storytelling that actually have mechanics to facilitate that.
I even think random tables can add significantly to the “storytelling” aspect as you can connect the dots to figure out why something you rolled might be possible or how it connects to the current situation. Combine that with some Theme/Action tables to figure out most things.
@@roqueadeleon
Got to disagree with you.
I’ve run games for 40 years, and many campaigns that lasted for years.
It is story telling but with the players acting out, changing fates and dictating how the story, or least their parts and those that they e interacted with goes to some degree.
@@Viglin123 not sure my entire message showed up just cuz YT hides it behind the “read more” button so could be some context missing there. But D&D is not a game designed around storytelling, its a TTRPG that almost exclusively revolves around combat - all the rules in the books, monster manuals etc almost exclusively revolve around that fact, there are some social rules as well but There are basically no rules that facilitate storytelling.
Now that’s not to say that stories don’t get told after the fact, many do! But it’s not what the game is designed for (again no storytelling mechanics).
You don’t have to look far to find games with storytelling mechanics if various degrees built into them - many PBTA games give players moves like flashbacks, change the scene or adding complications that allow players to add or change the story directly.
As it relates to this video, you can see how a game with more storytelling mechanics would work with random tables. In something like Ironsworn you always roll random/oracle then you and the other players (since there is no gm) decide on what it means, what happens, where it goes. Truly collaborative storytelling at that point because you are all working on what will make the most interesting thing happen instead of trying to overcome the obstacle in front of you.
And maybe that’s why there is a bit of a disconnect with some people when rolling random in D&D vs rolling random in other games.
Xanathar's has many random encounter tables for different environments, but I have one problem with them. The higher level ones include dragons. Dragon isn't a random encounter creature!
Yeah, this is why I don't really like grabbing someone else's table (even one printed in the official books!) and using it blindly. Every game table is different and I think our encounter tables should reflect the type of game we're running!
I see your point but sometimes you just happen to walking below the dragon's flight path, or witnessing two dragons fighting. Or you are in known dragon territory and every step you make means a chance it discovers you trespassing.
Or this dragon comes as a humanoid to gain intelligence about this group of famous adventurers in their backyard. What are their intentions, can the dragon use them to further their own ends, would the party's gear and magic items look gorgeous in their own horde?
You can even spin it to be bigger picture. The players attacked the dragon and have earned its ire. It was once a neutral party and now is funding the party's enemies. Maybe it's a good dragon who becomes a patron, showing up in a major city posing as a noble. Dragons are now a faction at play
If I roll a dragon im HYPED for it. Free world building
Part of things like that is to also remember that these creatures can also be intelligent and have their own goals.
Though I do always like the idea of having something like that on the chart having a sort of 2 stage effect. First time you roll it, you just get "dragon sign". Maybe it's literally the dragon flying overhead. Or maybe it's coming across some scene that just SCREAMS dragon. You have the setup in the player's mind that there's something out there, and it is not to be trifled with.
You then have it set that if they DO roll that dragon again, this time it shows up. But again, it doesn't have to devolve IMMEDIATELY into a fight. Maybe it just starts with trying to extort them. Maybe it questions their presence, seeing if they are there FOR the dragon. With a decently leveled party, maybe they'll just say "get off my lawn!" This bluff game of "Not sure who would win, but the winner is still gonna hurt, so let's not fight at all".
Or go completely sideways on the players to just confuse them: Incredibly vain Red dragon thinks the PCs are fans and/or paparazzi. She's willing to sign a couple autographs but she's not doing any portraits! She's actually kinda happy to get some attention and the party has to either risk offending her or do their damnedest to play it off.
Blue dragon who's been expecting a delivery for *7 years* and just assumes the party must be them (Actual delviery died in the desert years ago and now the party has a lead on where that might be). The Blue dragon is more annoyed than anything, and can't bother fighting the party right now because they're still ~waiting for that damned delivery~.
I had two really good random dragon encounters I used in a campaign. The first encounter was a dragon just flying over the party - they cover up in the bushes. Next encounter the a dragon, I used the same dragon, it was hunting the same hill giants as the party was hunting. The party talked to the dragon with a some hesitation and they got some information about the hill giants.
I have always let the players choose someone "on point" to guide them through the wilderness / cave etc, then let them use their related skills to help influence the roll. (I usually do a mixed list of twenty plot relevant, zone relevant, or simply fun encounters available). If their tracker can help them avoid danger (to the point a high roll will let them choose between vague descriptions of the number rolled and +1/-1 of that). This is especially big for your Aragorns since they don't always get to feel that.
Meeting local merchants, finding rings, or even teasing later difficult area encounters adds to the overall experience...but it's also always important to make things seem dangerous to me, I think this handles it well.
Well done Ginny! This clearly shows the pitfalls and benefits of random encounters. Over the years I've shifted from straight table roll to a table roll specific to the campaign. I put in attacks from creatures sent by the big bad to sidetrack or discourage the players from their quest. Nothing motivates a party quicker than knowing the bad guy has decided to have them all assassinated. In one campaign, one of the minor "bad guys" turned out to be the estranged daughter of the big bad. The simple fact that she was a powerful undead did not mean her goals were aligned with her father's. In fact they were directly opposite. The daughter even did things for and against the party to drive them in a direction away from her father's goals. So much fun!
I hope The Books finds a bestie who matches their energy 🥺
Organizing encounters (as well as NPCs, locations and everything else) into rollable tables is great when you need to improvise on the spot.
Maybe the PCs will ask some random NPC if they have noticed anything suspicious lately, and you really don't have an answer. Roll on the random encounter table and when it says "1d6 wolves", you can tell them: "I think I have heard wolves in the mountains. It's not unusual that you can hear one or two of them but there seem to be entire packs of them, hunting. Maybe the harsh winter left them hungry and desperate, moving so close to the village. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd start attacking people soon."
Yesss! Love this - Justin Alexander has really great tips on personalizing random tables and was the original person to really change my mind on using them for encounters
Oh awesome! I'll have to check it out 🙌
Under the comments of her video 'Baldur's Gate 3 is amazing, HOWEVER -', I asked @ProperBird for D&D advice and she directed me to the following person:
www.twitch.tv/theplaymatt
Love the way you work commercials into the story. Keep it up!
I always prepare encounters in advance. I look at the random tables and I pick what I want to run. That way I can fit links to the story or set the vibe I want.
Same!
That’s kind of how I treated the encounters in Lost Mine of Phandelver, and it’s likely an intention on the module’s part. After beating up the Bugbears in the Redbrand hideout, Droop the Goblin will suggest finding goblins to make one show the way to Cragmaw Castle (as he doesn’t know the way), and the orcs are specifically described as coming from Wyvern Tor
One important note is also about how you run those encounters. You should always give the players a choice on how they react to the encounter. So instead of them instantly being attacked by a pack of wolves and being forced to fight no matter what, the encounter could start by them hearing a wolves howl and/or noises created by running animals. Then give them a little bit of time to decide what they want to do - prepare for a fight? carefully move on? try and hide or sneak past the creatures? Or maybe even some shenanigans that might sway the creatures following them into not attacking in the first place. Depending on what they do and whether or not that would be successfull, this can still lead to a fight, but it would still add much more to the game when they can make the decision of trying to avoid that and it will feel great for the players, if they find a way of avoiding the fight, you rolled up for them as an encounter.
15:02 She is right though!!!!!!
Not sure if you are going to touch on this Ginny, but my trick around "Random Encounters" was to make them, well, not "Random"; in every campaign I prepare a lot of little encounters that are Modular and that i can just drop into the game at basically any time. They are carefully designed to be short, but interesting, and can contain social encounters as well as fights. They are quick to prepare, I can try out a lot of monsters and scenarios that I might never be able to deploy otherwise, and they are a lot of fun. Its easy to make like 10 in an evening, and be prepared in a few days for a long time, especially since a lot of them are campaign agnostic, so I can literally copy them other to the next campaign. And if I'm being clever, I can even link them to whats going on in the campaign, or use them to make the players interact with different parts of the map.
I still deploy them LIKE random encounters, so quasi-randomly, so they still fulfill the same function.
Just my 2 cents. On with the video! :)
Edit: Ah, I see you are actually touching on this! :)
Maybe I'm not understanding, but what about this isn't "random"? It sounds like you're just writing your own random encounter tables and putting more effort into them, which is totally great.
@@TessHKM Great question! :) Its in so far not random that I don't roll a dice for them, I just pick the most appropriate one.
Also, they are usually not just "encounters" in the typical sense, they are also little stories and can be classical encounters or social encounters or just flavour...or you cross paths with the God of Death in my setting.
But, admittedly, I'm somewhat splitting hairs here - I could totally turn this into a table :)
There's one other instance where random encounters are useful that didn't get fully touched upon, and that's in emergent storytelling; games where where you go, what you find there and what you do with it are 100% generative and player driven. In tjese cases random encounters (with that seasoning of environmental and social encounters along with combat) coupled with the tables on detailing the rhe story of loot objects you enjoyed during your dive through the DMG, help provide bojes for you and your tablemates to collaborate on establishing truths about the space the characters occupy and the goings-on in it.
I read through the tables, pick things that sound fun, and file them away mentally, rather than doing it on the spot. I helps with planning the encounter and making sure it work/fits.
Also its a good way to get ideas to flesh out finer details in the world:
-oh, a nobleman is moving through the plaza in a parade, maybe i should include a festival on that day to spice up the city setting.
-oh, a cave leads to the underdark, maybe this village has a dark history of connections or issues with drow.
-oh, 1d6 wolves attack, maybe they are trained by goblins and this is a scare tactic to rob caravans.
and the like!
This video is broadly great, but it's geared towards one (albeit very large!) style of play, and that is narrative adventures. Sandbox adventures- which personally, I prefer to run- are a completely different matter, whether they be hexcrawls or West Marches. In those cases, random encounters are part of the adventure's bread and butter- it's what players are expecting when they sign up! They do all the positives mentioned later in the video- bringing the world alive, taking both players and GM by surprise, and bringing in a random element. Mentioned in passing also, and very relevant to sandbox play is the tactical element- the risk of random encounters puts a heavy weight on players to consider what routes their journey may take- in time, distance, terrain, and even the sociopolitical landscape!
100% agree that not all random encounters need to be combat! Thank you for making this a point!
I like using 2d4 (seven total encounters) and 2d6 (eleven total encounters) for my encounter tables -- you get a neat bell curve that way, so you can put "normal stuff" in the middle, where things are more likely (like pilgrims, merchants, bandits, troops, etc), and then expand out to the edges of the table, making things more rare and weird as you go. I also like polarizing the table -- higher rolls mean more beneficial encounters, and lower rolls mean more malicious things, e.g. on a 2d4 table, a roll of 8 sees the Solar Spirit Dragon sailing high in the skies above, smiling gently as she casts a Bless spell on the party below; a 2 results in a Dread Rider atop a spectral steed, an aura of terror emanating from its ghostly presence, causing all life in the woods to flee in horror as it rides as the vanguard of the undead army of the Lich-lord who rules the neighboring hell-kingdom of shadows and prepares for war.
Great video. I agree with most of your thoughts and would like to add my thoughts. When I started playing role-playing games in the 80s, we used random encounters differently than today.
We didn't use the same nomenclature as today, but we primarily used random encounters in sandbox games. Most players came from a gaming background, and we lacked the improvisation experience. Contrary to the typical view today, random encounters helped us improvise.
Much of the time, we invest in session planning, as we do today; back then, we invested in creating random encounter lists. The lists were more themed than today; they were usually longer and not as combat-heavy as they typically look today.
The goal of the lists was to create the following experience:
1. The DM was not against the players. They were the messenger of what the dice decided. As a result, the players trusted the DM more than they do today.
2. The DM didn't need to do "lore dumps". If the lists were good, they would give the lore to the players over several sessions.
3. The lists made each session fresh, even if you played in the same world for several months.
Today, I add a fourth reason. A typical session today can feel railroaded and tailored, where the players are always in the right place and time. The list could change that. A sudden potential for a new sidequest made the world feel alive, even to the DM. As a DM, the realisation that the list changed your plans in mid-session was inspiring.
I don't use random encounters as much as I used to, as the lack of control is problematic when we have trouble finding time to play.
The “Random Encounters as prep tool” is spot-on and I love the take-out food analogy. I do this when I need details or direction in a novel. It’s like asking RNG for a story prompt.
Using them as foreshadowing or to reinforce a theme is also useful advice. I hadn’t considered the Nazgul encounters in Fellowship of the Ring to be like this but, yeah, I can see that now.
Thanks!
Pixie or Goliath should be the new Starbucks default
😂😂 let's petition them
I think it behooves all DMs to read and probably run the Moldvay-Cook B/X edition. In those books Wandering Monsters (note they are not called Random encounters in that edition) are there to bring the setting to life. They make the dungeon dangerous but they also simulate the comings and goings of monsters. Instead of the DM tracking a goblin patrol you roll to see if they randomly turn up this round.
In these books there is a distinction between dungeon encounters and wilderness encounters. Yes, a wilderness can encounter can be three goblins but it can also be a “lair” which might house 140 bandits. So, wilderness encounters are divided into what 5e would call random encounters but also whole Adventure Locations to explore. I think this approach, specifically of adventure locations really fixes the problem 5e has with ransomed encounters being just a time drain. Instead of a meaningless combat it becomes a whole side quest.
Woot Woot! Random preparation. My favorite bowl of soup. Seriously though. I have always been frustrated with DMs that roll on a table and flip through a monster manual only to misuse the monster chosen for the encounter. I chose soup earlier because this can be a messy subject, but can also be something of substance and depth of flavor. I actually enjoy using random tables and then reskinning the mechanics to create a creature that is applicable to the terrain and storyline. I have been playing for a really long time. Sometimes I will roll for older editions and throw something a little old-school out. When this happens, if the creature in question has access to spells or spell like abilities, I will roll to see if the creature is old enough to be able to use the older version of the spell/ability. Great topic. Keep up the awesome content. 😊
On the note of using "fully random tables" like the massive d1000 premade tables, one GM I know particularly uses them to build the world or story. They know broad strokes and important characters, but if (say) 2d4 orc mercenaries show up, they were hired by someone specific the GM knows would hire them and this 'random encounter' is now telling the players a new piece of information in the form of a (presumably) failed assassination of them (loot the bodies for info! Or keep one alive). When a giant snake showed up, it let us know what happened to the missing blacksmith and that the town drunk really DID see a monster this close to town.
#2 is actually what I generally do for random encounters. My tables tend to be a mix of "very likely combat", "will turn to combat if the PCs say the wrong things", "dangerous but not necessarily combat", "fun NPCs to run into", "lore drops", and very importantly "nothing of note". That last one is necessary because sometimes nothing happens despite a scary location, and it really helps make it feel less formulaic because now the players can't even be certain they will run into something every time they take a trek.
I totally agree with the point of doing it ahead of time, but for me I specifically use them BECAUSE I couldn't plan for them. If I think the players are going to go into the tower with carefully prepared mini-puzzle boss fights that fight the theme and message of the tower but they instead decide to help this poor girl look for her father, I need to make encounters for the forest they are going to in five minutes. I also like to have multiple continuous plots happening and if they pick up the hints too fast, I'll realize I haven't planned things out for their new plans. Or the random encounter will show ME a plot I didn't realize was going in my world.
I love the advice from The Lazy GM - roll twice on the table(s) and combine them to add some variety/context. So if you roll say 1d6 wolves and 1d6 bandits you've got some options. Maybe the bandits are poachers, maybe the party think the bandits are merchants being attacked by starving wolves etc. It dramatically increases the options on the tables.
I think in the same video he also mentions using the tables to suggest something that has happened or could happen. Maybe instead of stumbling in to a giant spider, the party finds the webbing and desiccated corpses of the last meal - now the players have some options. Do they hunt the spider? Take time looting the bodies? Move it double time so they don't end up as lunch?
You're literally the best DnD creator Ginny. We love you
One of my biggest gripes with random encounters has always been where they start. GMs often start then so the players are forced to be wholly reactive.
Take the 1d6 wolves for example. A lot of GMs will get that result and immediately jump to, you’re attack by wolves, roll for initiative.
I find even the most dull encounters feel a lot better if we start the narrative earlier. As the party is travelling they hear the howl of wolves in the distance, or find recent wolf tracks. The party then can decide how they want to handle this. Do they want to race towards a defensible location, try and bring the fight to the wolves, set up a fire to keep them at bay, put an obstacle between them and the wolves, take a different path that takes them out of the wolves territory, or perhaps prepare some sort of meat that will satiate the wolves hunger and reduce their interest in the party.
The group has more agency in the situation, and can act in accordance with their character’s interests and inclinations rather than always being treated to what is effectively,”you’re ambushed by wolves”. Or to put it more simply, they have an opportunity to react more proactively to new information.
The occasional ambush is fine, thematic even, but when every encounter feels that way it also makes characters feel very incompetent “why are we surprised all the time?” and removes the opportunity for the players to act proactively, instead positioning them to always act reactively by framing the scene where any choices they could have made to change the circumstance of the encounter have already been bypassed.
You roll surprise. If one side is surprised and the other not, that's how it goes.
The PCs can better their odds with how they march. They might have a point man ahead. They can have a guard dog.
Sometimes smaller groups have an advantage. 20 ogres are going to be more obvious than one.
You can roll for reaction, unless a reaction is obvious. Most encounters will not be instant violence.
Sometimes you roll for distance. Are the ogres 20 m away or 5?
I’ve just gotten into DnD recently, just waiting for a few more people to join so I can start my first campaign, and I have been watching your videos religiously. They’re really well thought out, funny, and creative, and you’ve gotten me even more excited to start! Can’t wait for more :)
I think it's good to look at what different games feel like in the face of random encounters. Shadowdark, for example, uses them as an integral part of its tension building mechanism. You never know when something that will absolutely TPK you is going to happen, so you're always on your toes and trying to constantly move forward. The way most 5e campaigns are run is simply incompatible with this idea, so if you want random encounters to have an impact in a typical 5e campaign you need to really think about how each possibility on the table contributes to the stakes, and this takes a lot of work.
Having said this, I'd say that even in your typical OSR session it's good to curate your random encounter lists so they really fit the themes you're going for in your campaign or even in the particular dungeon you're running. Dungeon ecologies are important!
Generally, I run my own random encounters during travel after a level up to let them play with their new toys OR for hints at lore, story/backstory hooks, etc.
Most recent session a player rolled a 1 on an encounter roll. They just had a new character join so they ended up coming upon some lore hints of a world before theirs and then a combat encounter with an ancient beast that was awakened after after they interacted with the lore hints in order to let the new character show off his toys.
Great video, Ginny!
Nailed it. I've felt this way for years about unscripted encounters. You however were able to articulate it succinctly.
Nice primer you added for environmental storytelling too!
Another case to rolling: If you set up your table to have the difficult/dangerous encounters at the highest rolls; then if your party runs through the forest instead of sneaking through, you add +2 to your roll or something so a more dangerous option is more likely to happen, and finding treasure hidden in a tree is not going to happen.
Also, repeat rolls can be fun. I had a DM that rolled us an encounter with bandits on the road multiple times, but instead of it just being random bandits each time, it was the SAME bandit group. It was a ton of fun, and we eventually got them to stop being bandits and turn their lives around XD
One technique I use is to roll a couple of times, and take those creatures or whatever and have them in a scenario with each other. It makes the world feel more alive, like things are going on outside of the view of the party. It's also a good obstacle that doesn't totally feel show horned in there. I also like to throw in random encounters while they are in the middle of something else, because life is like that sometimes. By they way, your acting ability is supremely underrated.
My DM rarely uses random encounters but, a fantastic way he used them a lot was a forest that always is warping and changing. The random encounter charts he hand crafted for the forest are amazing and each shines a light on the lore of this weird forest
I a currently on a replay of the Witcher 3 and a lot of your suggestions reminded me of how this open world is constructed.
- The monsters you encounter varie from country
- in war zones you fight against deserted soldiers, on islands you fight pirates, in other areas you fight bandits
> Random encounters add flavour to the world and feel like they belong in that specific area
3:08 the delivery of this line is immaculate lol
You can here the dm frustration of putting a simple puzzle that is meant for 5 year olds that took the entire session to get past.
I put a huge amount of work into my RETs. I break them down by environment, day/night, hostility, and time of year/seasons. There's also a scale to them, where the Encounter Levels range from easy to..."You better RUN".
I also use them to determine other aspects of the campaign setting in real time. An example of this would be...I once had an encounter that resulted in a "roll twice" option. Both results ended up being "Noble retainers on patrol". However, one came up as hostile, and the other came up as friendly. When things went south, the two patrols clashed. Which eventually lead to a rivalry between the two noble houses. In turn, that rivalry eventually built up into a full fledged civil war within the kingdom.
Things like this can really help when you're running long-term campaigns where you spend most of your time, as a DM, focusing on the primary story. It helps keep the rest of the world feel like it's existing beyond whatever the PCs are up to. With that in mind, I also like to shuffle in some familiar NPCs the party has either already met, or know about through some other means. Of course these NPCs shouldn't be important to the main plot. "Zedbelly, the boot-maker" who the PCs met in town back at lvl 2, could be out on the road being harassed by (or joined up with) brigands, and that's just fine.
A bunch of tables have some variant of "encounter A is interacting with encounter B". Which is always fun.
You can always have specific individuals as encounters. The Purple Wizard or Brolf the mercenary or whatnot.
Thanks for this - I read the DMG pre covid and just pulled it back off the shelf again yesterday to plan for my next session (there has been a 6 month gap), so the timing of this video is perfect. I am running a Wildemount adventure, so will be doing a lot of random encounters, since I've told characters there will be minimal handholding. Its great to use the idea of these encounter tables as a way to show the path to a questline, not just have an NPC come up to them every session with a plot hook.
Thank you for your video! I'm a new DM and I suffer with overpreparation, so for my recent one-on-one campaign with my husband I started using random encounter tables. Now, I'm still learning and I still prefer to prep a lot (at least the main storyline), but it led to some funny involuntary foreshadowing: hubby's half-orc sorcerer was en route to a spa town, I rolled a couple of mud mephits in the countryside on the way; now our sorcerer is working at a tavern, learning to make magical objects, all the while investigating sinister goings-on with the town's main hot water spring. And I only connected the mephits and the main quest afterwards :D
11:45 I’m also like this, and instead of rolling dice I ask for suggestions (which in fairness can be irritating), I say I ask for suggestions not to follow them, but to reveal my own thoughts and desires. Same with the dice. The dice does not decide, the dice reveals.
Great video! Another bit of useful random encounter advice I've gotten - from XP to Level 3, I think - is to roll twice. Instead of 1d6 wolves you can end up with things like a travelling merchant and their guard being attacked by 1d6 wolves - situations instead of random combats. I try to find a couple of encounters like that before a session and keep them in my back pocket.
This video brought you by the wolves inside you "We are over worked"
There are 1d6 wolves inside you.
And they're tired 😂
@@GinnyDiGotta make that into a meme
There are two wolves inside you. One is tired, boss and the other is also tried, boss.
Wolves inside? Laudna, is that you?
Geladon the nightmare in ivory as a random encounter was one of the single best moments in the Mighty Nein campaign
I enjoy all of Ginny Di videos 😂🎉🎉😂
Great job at video! I actually use random encounters a lot apparently. The first encounter I had in my current campaign was completely random but it added to the story. I wanted the players to know the backdrop of the world. The orcs had a massive horde and was warring with the northern elves. My party were a family of gnomes, so it really didn't pertain to them. But it did help get them acquainted with the rest of the world. They got stopped by a goblin checkpoint that demanded money or blood. Then they got on with finding their missing dad... The secret they don't know is the orcs are the good guys and their dad is helping them with their shoe needs.(The gnomes are cobblers)
Great video!
I found random encounters helped with DM burnout as it was more exciting for me to not know what would happen each session.
I created d4 or d6 tables like you suggested. However I randomise each component of the encounter to create unique situations I would never plan.
I have a table for notable locations in the area, environmental hazards, the creatures, and the creature's reaction to the party.
The reaction table especially changed how my party react to these encounters. For example, they see a white dragon being forced to land by the strong winds and whilst they know white dragons are typically hostile on sight, this one is acting more like a wounded and cornered animal.
That particular encounter created a very memorable moment where the peace cleric wanted to spare the dragon but the oathbreaker paladin was determined to slay it to regain his honour.
I think my prep is a bit of quite a mix you are suggesting here (even some of the don'ts, because sometimes there is still no better way):
1. I have prepped random story encounters, I create them when writing the plot. They are often way more specific, and always tie into the story, but due to their specific constraints they might not fit when I need one. I will run at least 75% of them.
2. I have also for every session 2-3 fully prepared "random" encounters drop in ready, if I use one up, i make a new one for next session and it gets on my sheet of my usable encounters. They do nothing for the story, they are just there to shake up the pace or stretch time.
3. I never roll if I can avoid it, when I roll in game, I am not engaging the players, as I am engaged with the dice.
Usually watch a movie or a TV series and then start noting things down when I see something that gets my inspiration going. It could be even just the outline of a badly written scene that gets me going: "How can I do this better?"
Great video! One thing I would suggest is to roll with two dice, instead of one. If you roll 2d6 for example, the chances of a 2 or 12 are lower than the numbers in the middle. I put really positive encounters at the very top of the list and very challenging ones at the bottom. My players are aware of this and I roll open for everyone to see. So when I roll a 12 and they get a reward they feel really lucky and satisfied. If they are already beaten up and I announce another random encounter they really pay attention to the result. That way random encounters feel more impactful in the game.
one tip i have seen from heliana's that also might work is divide radom encounters tables into combat and exploration/puzzle encounters.
essentially when you are making checks to avoid stuff or navigate safely, have two encounter tables ready, one for if they succeed, one for if they fail.
The success check includes more naritive encounters, like puzzles, npc's or stuff like that.
The failure table is mostly combat encounters, since they failed to navigate safely.
you could do something similar, by making succesful checks add more positive things into the random encounters than negative.
This way navigation checks and stuff like traveling still feel like they have an impact.
Another thing about random encounters, If you know that there is one encounter a day, and you know you are getting a long rest every night, you just blow all your Long Rest abilities cause you know it wont matter.
I tend to use "encounter grids" which are basically random tables arranged as a grid, where each row is an encounter and then there are multiple columns where one is "lair", one is "monster", and others are things like "noises", "spoor", "traces", etc. The end result is when you roll on them (I use 2d6 for the rows, 1d8 for the columns so 11 encounter-types and 8 categories of potential encounter), you tend to get a lot of evidence of monsters or potential encounters, but only rarely an actual monster (or lair). Combined with the specificity you mention, it allows you to foreshadow potential encounters and distribute clues the PCs can try to puzzle together to figure out what kinds of threat or opportunities are in a given area. I also hand the PCs a blank copy of the grid and let them fill in entries as they roll them, to help them keep track of what they've already discovered or encountered. It's made random encounters much more atmospheric and added a puzzle element to them that my players enjoy.
This helped me soo much. Thank you! I have sometimes noticed, that my players were bored during random encounters and now I know why!
This is how I started with my encounter tables; I tailored them to match the environment, region, terrain, etc. and I mainly reserve them for overland travel. For most major cities, it’s usually guard patrols, traveler convoys, merchants, etc. and for overland travel I will also randomly generate homesteads, villages and towns.
Excellent video. That moment when your players look at you for what happens next and you have no idea what happens next? That is why I prep a random encounter table or at least a short list of plot points that I need to work into the story "sometime soon."
This video gave me the idea of letting players know some items on a table beforehand, perhaps based on backstory or gossip. Sort of like Gandalf knowing there could be Orcs and a Balrog in Moria. It could let them make weightier decisions about travel routes and be a nice way to spice up exploration
I only roll on random tables during game prep. I typically prepare a number of encounters before any session. During the session I only roll to see if there is an encounter. Then I choose one from the ones I have prepared. And I LOVE ALL Ginny Di videos!
I'd go as far as to say this is one of your best videos. Great advice with meaningful details on fixing a complicated problem.
I recently had to make my own random encounter for my party traveling on an airship in Exandria. It was surprisingly hard to find a table for an airship so I had to make it myself. It really made me look at random encounters and I realized that they are fine and useful if the encounters make sense for the narrative/area/region the players are in. I admit that random encounters were more a meme because, like you said, 1d6 random wolves show up, battle happens and then the party moves on. But having a d6 or d12 table for them to roll on that was customized made them excited for the things they got.
Tldr: Ginny is spot on, make a number of different encounter types that make sense for where/what your players could encounter. It can help spice things up or push players into different things they didn't account for. And changing the table helps make sure players don't know what to expect. It also makes it look like your table is way bigger if they are trying to keep track of what they rolled so bonus points there.
100% agree! I love random encounters as they can potentially give you interesting encounters that sometimes you, the GM, didn't think to have. Also, as Ginny stated, they could help make your world feel alive. Especially if the GM integrates them into the world. A randomly rolled bandit encounter becomes much more interesting if it isn't just fodder to slow down the characters. What if those bandits are just poor villagers that felt they had no choice but to attempt a mugging because of their living circumstance? Maybe the bandits are hesitant and look remorseful about trying to rob the players. Then suddenly the players might start thinking, "Wait, why are these people resorting to mugging us? There must be something else going on." And instead of combat, maybe the players start talking to the bandits and trying to learn about their situation and suddenly you can potentially hook the players into a side quest to deal with the source of these "bandits" problems or something. So, this small random encounter could potentially lead the players into a much larger sub-plot or at the very least be much more compelling than just a bunch of bandits with knives demanding money.
As a guy who makes free D100 tables, I am cut to the bone by some of your comments. 😛
Great video as always!
Thank you for explaining the controversy with random encounters. I still remember fondly the time our DM did a random encounter and it was a stone golem. He told us to run as the CR was too high. We fought it and won.
I dont think I ever used a random encounter. But this inspires me to use more variety in my planned ones. Just sprinkle a few things that add to the atmosphere and do some exposition, love it.
That section "Why random?" really made me reconsider my opinion about random encounters. Thx !
Ginny: "You don't need to constantly use wolves"
Me running a Curse of Strahd campaign: "Good ol' wolves, nothing beats that"
Random encounter is sure helpful for a guy like me that improvising alot and very terrible with prepping.
I thank you as this video has really motivated me and sparked with lots of ideas for my random tables, like random rooms for a dungeons, traps, monsters, puzzles and loot - speak of loot! it motivated me enough to make even a custom magic item with the help of the dms guide book, and the item became this very unexpected possible mechanical fun and story heavy artifact, that may or not may come in hands of my players haha.
I kinda find it its very fun to do random table, the unpredictable odds - and the thrill what may be unfold, let the dice and the fate,fortune and misfortune tell a epic saga of my adventures!
I've always loved random encounter tables. I think Ginny summed it up nicely with "It gives the impression that the world is beyond the GM's control." Carefully crafted random encounter charts can add a sense of danger and mystery to a setting, and allow for certain plot points or NPCs to come up organically, rather than prescribed by the GM.
The answer to most "how to make random *anything* not suck" is often "make it less about the random"
These recent "what the DMG *actually* says" videos are also great at highlighting something related that's quite interesting & important itself -- that (for most groups) most RPGs still more-or-less work even if the players & GM aren't 100% on the specific rules. And as the video shows, the things we don't know often include comments exactly to that effect -- too often what people miss are the bits saying "these are not immutable laws of physics, we think they work, but they're here to help you do what works for you"
Humans are (in general) pretty good at resolving the slightly fuzzy gaps & overlaps in a rules system -- they know what they're trying to achieve, they know how the system works in general, they know the resolution mechic works, it's all good in the end and everyone's happy. Except the 1d6 wolves.
Most 5e tables aren't "pure" 5e -- we mix & match rules from 3.5, PF2E, third parties, season with our own homebrew, then import a campaign from PF1E -- and it all more-or-less works, for the same reasons that a "pure" 5e game can still work just fine, even if you don't know all the rules.
The rules have flexibility built into them; using houserules *is* playing by the rules; and if the game rules were a perfectly-aligned and provably-correct mosaic of axiomatic game-legalese with no need for human adjudication then you could just feed them to a computer and have an AI GM run everything, so that's obviously not going to happen... :)
Great work on the video, but also great job on the ad. I found it genuinely entertaining.
I have been a random encounter hater in the past, but you definitely make a good case on how they can be used more effectively. Great food for thought, thanks!
(P.S. Books' crush on you is adorable, please try to let her down easy.)
love it. I do this with a 2-step roll. First, a D20, with the bottom being a fight, and the top being an NPC or loot situation. Middle rolls do nothing. I adjust the boundaries based on likelihood. Then, both ends of the roll, fight or NPC, I have a 2D6 list, so it's a bell curve of popularity of items. Wolves are more common than undead, etc. For the NPC encounter, it could be narrative, merchant, or even social opportunity for a boon.
Agree with this whole heartedly! I dropped the book's random encounters almost immediately (sorry books). I make every table now to fit in with their current scenario and provide world building info to show what's going on outside or because of their main quest. I feel like they are also good to introduce rare shops or loot that don't necessarily fit with your current setting but still would to give the players a treat!
Random encounters are great when you have a party that likes to explore large areas at a time.
We're getting ready for an ocean adventure and they have full control of the steering wheel so having a table available to help me with my predetermined encounters is going to be really helpful
That's exactly how I use mine! I set up a table full of minor encounters relating to what's going on in the region, not all of them combat. I also have the "Discovery!" encounter, where I roll on a secondary table that has a bunch of small dungeons or other landmarks on it. These dungeons then remain on the map for the players to enter when they want to.
Since I run my games on a VTT, I also have the ability to give each encounter a different "weight". So if a certain kind of encounter (say, plain clear weather, nothing special) has come up more than once, I can make those less prevalent. Party far away from the place where an encounter makes sense? Drop the probability or turn that one off entirely. Local events causing a surge in undead? Up the probability of those patrols, or of soldiers hunting them!
So far, it's worked very well. :P
Now, PRE-ROLLING the encounter table so you have an idea ahead of time to integrate into the session more naturally? Thaaaaaaat's an idea I had not thought about. I may start doing that!
The most common use of random encounters I've seen was ones where plot/story relevant encounters were on the table, in addition to resource-eating encounters. Like, stealing a random person's drink in a bar could get you into a fight with just faceless nobodies, or into a fight with the local insurrectionist that has a bone to pick with one or more members of the party due to backstory reasons.
Such good advice to make random tables less random! Did you see PointyHat vid “Traveling in DnD is bad?” because I think your two videos blend ideas perfectly. TLDW: They suggest making 3 themes for encounters: combat, exploration/environment, and role play.
I think this breaks up the slog of random encounters always being combat (which you touch on) and gives more opportunity for story, backstory hooks, and world building fun.
Love your videos; always nuanced and insightful. I’m always fooled by the thumbnails thinking they’ll be clickbait hot takes but every time, nuance and insight. Thank you!
Players who hate random encounters because they're "not relevant" to the story really annoy me, the world is bigger than just what you're doing.
There is skill on the DMs side to respect their players time, as it's very easy to conceal event-less triggers as "immersion". This upset really does sound like a disillusion in desires of the campaign to me.
If the players are more focused on narrative progression then a DM building variety into the situations they next hit so that they tie narrative threads into them is going to be beloved, and one forcing 7 arbitrary roadblocks between each objective deserves to be challenged.
Does 20 hours of RNG story-less obstruction over the course of a campaign actually improve the experience? Should it be a lower number or higher? Should there be any filler at all? All answers can be right for different tables, and pure dismissal of opinions different to your own is a very narrow perspective to apply.
The one and only time I’ve used a random encounter table to date was when I couldn’t decide which of three encounter ideas I had to throw at my players for their very first encounter. So I made a random table with three entries to decide.
This video helps me validated in that decision.
My group had a lot of fun with the random encounter tables in the Wild Beyond the Witchlight module. Really added to the surreal Alice In Wonderland esque feel of the story. Our most iconic random encounter was a tornado that, on failing a strength save, would sweep people away to another randomly rolled part of the campaign map. We all failed our save, and the place we rolled for the tornado to take us was the final dungeon, thereby skipping most of the chapter.
I played a couple of sessions with one group, and there was a lot travelling via ship. DM had a random encounter table specifically for days out at sea which I enjoyed, it made it feel like the travelling days weren't just wasted time. The one I remember was encountering a merchant ship that sold baked goods with odd effects when you ate them. I know there was a combat encounter as well, but the merchant stood out because I didn't think about beneficial encounters being included.
I am a weird DM creature who does a lot of prep but also doesn’t like to have a set, strict number of encounters before the sessions, except one or two important ones. I love TTRPGs because they can surprise even me, the “author”, thanks to dice rolling, and players agency, and creative thinking! So, I’ve always liked random encounters and making my own tables for them. First, it helps with establishing a mood and setting, and second, it gives me that thrill of unknown that I think the DM is also entitled to!