A single goblin guard that reacts scared is a totally different encounter from a group of hurt orcs dragging gravely wounded orcs back to base and different from an ogre that looks at the group, laugh and keeps going his way.
I enjoy using 2d6 for a lot of things. 2-6 = generally negative, lower means worse, 8-12 = generally positive, higher means better, and 7 means complicated or in the middle
Ex: weather. 7 = cloudy and a bit windy but okay. 6 = light rain or kind of hot. 4 = heavy rain or blisteringly hot. 8 = clear and light breast, 10 = perfect weather
@@geoffreyperrin4347I use something similar. D20, 1-10 weather stays the same as the day before. 11-20, the higher you go the more challenging the weather will be. Tables are overrated
Yeah, tableless rolls really are the way to go for a number of things. Sometimes you just need a bit of direction, which is what that provides. It's like making players roll a skill/ability check without a set DC, and more just basing it off of how high/low well they roll.
I often roll a d10 for the 'degree' of something, such as weather. Wind: 1= calm, 10 = Very strong (and roll again, on another 10, hurricane). I also use ray Winninger's "If you don't know the chance of something, it is 50%" :D
@SlyFlourish Why do you presume a random encounter is with a monster? There are other options besides monsters. Travelers (story hook?) , unusual terrain feature (flavor or story hook), an undiscovered mini dungeon, or a sudden weather effect (sudden downpour or violent thunderstorm - a terrain challenge to overcome?) to name but a few.
don't be afraid when you're determining a random encounter distance to have them show up behind the party! It's tremendously undervalued.
A single goblin guard that reacts scared is a totally different encounter from a group of hurt orcs dragging gravely wounded orcs back to base and different from an ogre that looks at the group, laugh and keeps going his way.
Great advice! Thank you for giving the snippets of the ancient knowledge from older books.
I enjoy using 2d6 for a lot of things. 2-6 = generally negative, lower means worse, 8-12 = generally positive, higher means better, and 7 means complicated or in the middle
Ex: weather. 7 = cloudy and a bit windy but okay. 6 = light rain or kind of hot. 4 = heavy rain or blisteringly hot. 8 = clear and light breast, 10 = perfect weather
@@geoffreyperrin4347I use something similar. D20, 1-10 weather stays the same as the day before. 11-20, the higher you go the more challenging the weather will be. Tables are overrated
I love a chart to give a random encounter something. I had an article published in En5ider #46 called 'Motivated Encounters' on this exact thing.
Yeah, tableless rolls really are the way to go for a number of things. Sometimes you just need a bit of direction, which is what that provides. It's like making players roll a skill/ability check without a set DC, and more just basing it off of how high/low well they roll.
tableless rolls is really the way, the vague vibe of what the roll is for means that it can be tailored to the moment and circumstance
I often roll a d10 for the 'degree' of something, such as weather. Wind: 1= calm, 10 = Very strong (and roll again, on another 10, hurricane). I also use ray Winninger's "If you don't know the chance of something, it is 50%" :D
Awesome discussion. So glad to hear you talking about this!
@SlyFlourish Why do you presume a random encounter is with a monster? There are other options besides monsters. Travelers (story hook?) , unusual terrain feature (flavor or story hook), an undiscovered mini dungeon, or a sudden weather effect (sudden downpour or violent thunderstorm - a terrain challenge to overcome?) to name but a few.
Basically describing an Oracle, ex Paul Bimler’s The Solo Adventurers Toolbox and others. It’s a great system.
I made my own excel random thingy for encounter/activity/reaction. Works fine :)
I guess you could roll a few of these before the start of each game and just let them percolate.
Thanks for another helpful video, hopefully this comment appeases the algo.
Was just reading this in Shadowdark. I don't generally worry about it. Thanks.