Random Encounters

[Gwyndolin]

I have just finished the random encounter tables for my first major region of my sandbox map.

Its the first random encounter table I have ever put together and I am pretty happy with it. If anyone here has any expience with this sort of thing then please let me know if I am missing anything that would make running the sandbox a lot easier 😛

Of course I will be putting together tables for other major regions in the map but I want to get the framework down first.

And of course anyone is free to take this and use / alter it ❤️

Hex Crawl Encounter Tables - Havenbrook Highlands.pdf

[tooley1chris]

For years as a DM, GM, Chronicler, etc...I've loved random tables and charts. (Deck of Many Things is an all time favorite!)

But now...I'd rather prepare something I think will be fun and challenging instead of rely on a die roll.

 Such charts are finding their way back into systems with Solo games (and I guess that's necessary if you're playing by yourself and need random factors) but I think you and your players will find it more enjoyable if you have a few custom encounters planned out ahead of time that THEY will find challenging or interesting.

Something I've always done with preprinted "adventures" is tear into them beforehand and find ways to make them more fun. If your table requires a more random element, you do whatever it takes to make it fun, but I think you'll find they'll enjoy it more if you've planned ahead and have something nasty waiting for them 😎

[g33k]

Have you heard of "hex flowers"?
 

https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/hex-power-flower/

 

[g33k]

On 11/30/2023 at 8:44 PM, tooley1chris said:

For years as a DM, GM, Chronicler, etc...I've loved random tables and charts. (Deck of Many Things is an all time favorite!)

But now...I'd rather prepare something I think will be fun and challenging instead of rely on a die roll.

 Such charts are finding their way back into systems with Solo games (and I guess that's necessary if you're playing by yourself and need random factors) but I think you and your players will find it more enjoyable if you have a few custom encounters planned out ahead of time that THEY will find challenging or interesting.

Something I've always done with preprinted "adventures" is tear into them beforehand and find ways to make them more fun. If your table requires a more random element, you do whatever it takes to make it fun, but I think you'll find they'll enjoy it more if you've planned ahead and have something nasty waiting for them 😎

While I (personally) agree with you, generally... many people love the "hexcrawl" format, where both GM and players are surprised by the contents of each hex.

Their fun isn't wrongbad fun, or worse in any way than our fun.  It's just different.

Unlike those perverts who actually like the taste of rutabaga, now that's some wrongbad!

 

[NickMiddleton]

A well crafted “random” encounter table condenses pages and pages of world building into a succinct single table. They are woefully under appreciated IMO as a key part of filling out settings.

Every table of gamers uses what it prefers, and no one else’s preferences dictate to anyone else: but I would encourage anyone to look at Gwyndolin’s table and consider how one might create an equivalent for any particular locale or region of one’s own setting, and how that can concisely evoke its nuance and detail.

Edited December 6, 2023 by NickMiddleton

[Gwyndolin]

On 12/6/2023 at 1:02 AM, g33k said:

Have you heard of "hex flowers"?
 

https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/hex-power-flower/

 

I have yeah, and I really love them.

I have used a hex flower like that (I think it was made by the same person) to pregenerate weather for my calender. So that way, I dont have to worry about generating weather on the fly. 

I ultimately decided to make my own map rather than randomely generate terrain but I do love these kinds of generation.

[Gwyndolin]

On 12/1/2023 at 4:44 AM, tooley1chris said:

For years as a DM, GM, Chronicler, etc...I've loved random tables and charts. (Deck of Many Things is an all time favorite!)

But now...I'd rather prepare something I think will be fun and challenging instead of rely on a die roll.

 Such charts are finding their way back into systems with Solo games (and I guess that's necessary if you're playing by yourself and need random factors) but I think you and your players will find it more enjoyable if you have a few custom encounters planned out ahead of time that THEY will find challenging or interesting.

Something I've always done with preprinted "adventures" is tear into them beforehand and find ways to make them more fun. If your table requires a more random element, you do whatever it takes to make it fun, but I think you'll find they'll enjoy it more if you've planned ahead and have something nasty waiting for them 😎

 

Yeah I get that. Up until now I have always run games as a kind of self contained adventure or adventures that were linked together, that I would kind of plan before each session depending on what the players were doing. I always felt that I was playing catchup though.

What I like about this method is that i can do a lot of the major prep before session 1 and it frees up time between sessions to work on other parts of the game. Very few of the encounters are old final fantasy style "you fight 3 wolves", but things they can react to and will help flavour the world. 

It also helps me come up with more typical adventures too. If for example the players encounter animal remains with fungal growths on them, more than once, I can build a story from that. I could decide between sessions there is beast from the fungal forest in that area and maybe throw it at them without use of the table. Maybe I could come up with a quest were this fungus is ravaging the livestock of a nearby village and they could help if they want. If they choose not to then I can work with that too. 

But if that were to happen it wouldnt feel completely out of the blue for them because they kept finding the animal remains so this feels like something they were going to bump inot anyway. Forshadowing.

Instead of just "you fight 3 wolves now move along" the table is as much for helping me world build and come up with adventures as it is to make the world feel alive for the players. 

 

At least thats the goal 😅

Edited December 17, 2023 by Gwyndolin