Designing random encounter tables

[Sajber]

So, I've been thinking about designing my own random encounter tables for the campaign (and future campaigns/adventures) I run, but I'm not really sure what would work best. I've looked around with Google and seen everything between "roll % dice and look at table", "pick card from deck" and "make your own program in <language>". I really can't seem to decide which I prefer, so I thought I'd see what you people use, if anything.

The campaign I'm running now is a semi-rules-light system (a modified version of Chimera) but plays like what I'd think is a classical D&D campaign, but with less monsters and magic. They're still there, mind you, just not as much. Then again, I suppose what "classical D&D" is differs wildly! The encounters should range between "X attacks you" to "A sudden thunderstorm" and "Your horse falls ill", pretty standard I suppose.

Where I'm stuck is how I should actually implement the tables, in what form they should be. I DM behind my laptop, and use that as my DM screen, and roll any dice I need with the computer. I try to make everything seem very natural to the players, i.e. that I don't really roll any dice at all, more or less. I try to make every little thing the characters do seem equally (un)important, so if they go off on a complete tangent I'm all for that. Whatever the players and/or characters are doing at the moment works; we can always get to the "main quest" later on.

I kind of like the idea of having a program as the random encounter table, as that would nicely fit into my current style of DMing. That would mean I'd have to continually change the program as I go, though, adding new encounters. A bit of a hassle, but not too much, I suppose.

I saw somewhere a guy that used cards with written encounters on them and simply pulled one out at random, which also seems nice. It would be very easy to add cards, and it offers a very simple way to reduce repeated randomization: just remove already used cards. This would kind of disturb the way I'm DMing at the moment, though, as the players would see me do something with cards and then something would happen. I don't know if this is such a bad thing though, but it kinda seems like it...

I suppose an Excel sheet is an easy way to go as well.

I dunno, what do you guys think? What do you use for random encounters, if anything? Any advice for me?

[violence in the media]

[HalcyonUmbra]

The Complete Doc Aquatic Brand Percentile Random Adventure Table

1. Thieves break into houses, steal nothing, refuse to leave.
2. Thieves break into houses, redecorate poorly.
3. Threat of orcs.
4. Threat of shooty and choppy orks from distant future.
5. Threat of distinguished and articulate orks from Victorian era.
6. Virgin succubus cursed to never get laid desperately seeks assistance, slowly goes apeshit crazy.
7. Map discovered on back of portrait of hideous man. Turns out portrait is map of Hideousmanface Mountain; map is portrait of guardian Map Golem.
8. Rain of frogs plague town. Man discovers frogs to be competent dance troupe. Man conquers national performance circuit.
9. Local baker seeks perfect ingredients for ultimate cake, secretly constructs powerful Cake Golem.
10. Philosophical zombies ponder meaning of love, pester passersby.
11. Noble wedding interupted by aggresive eel salesmen.
12. Attacked by snakes in wilderness environment.
13. Attacked by snakes in urban enviroment.
14. Attacked by urban enviroment; allies found in form of friendly snakes.
15. Sorcerer, for shits and giggles, trains ethereal filchers to interupt people during sex.
16. Party helps marauding demon warrior realize childhood dream of becoming stageshow dancer.
17. During daily tour, prestigious magic academy looted by goblins disguised as ugly children.
18. Ancient lich seeks new thrills by competing in mixed martial arts tournament.
19. Advancements in magically powered musical instruments climaxes with crew of grunge rock pirate bards clashing with clan of heavy metal viking bards; town threatened by collateral damage from killer solos. Crafty punk rock gypsies armed with enchanted accordians seek to capitalize on ensuing mayhem; all are united in effort to stick it to uptight paladins trying to bring them down. Powerful vibes attract glam rock demons and dirty hippies.
20. Dungeons give chase.
21. Bees get organized.
22. Party endlessly pursued by screaming fans, accompanied by catchy 60s rock.
23. Innacurate historical re-enactment attracts ire of necromancer history buff.
24. Passive aggresive druids extoll virtures of peace, love, substance abuse.
25. Captain Hampton attempts to use violence to stop the Halfling Pirates of Willygoat, who, although they are wee men, have big swords.
26. Dwarves threatened by serial barber.
27. Half-ogre lint merchant and half-drow nobleman's hot jailbait daughter harbour forbidden love.
28. Effeminate prince mistaken for princess and dragon who has kidnapped him harbour forbidden love.
29. Earth elemental and gelatinous cube harbour forbidden love.
30. Society plagued by freakish crossbreeds.
31. Awakened animated door develops delusion of being world-class gourmet and tirelessly hunts for keys to sample and critique.
32. Trio of skeletons discover their bones are pitch-perfect xylophones, start traveling percussion band, overcome prejudice, learn valuable life lessons, get laid.
33. Ancient lich seeks new thrills by competing in biathalon; disqualified for using machine gun.
34. Clinically insane duke hires party to kill invisible bugbears that turn out to be invisible hobgoblins with bad haircuts.
35. Desert-dwelling cactus dryads pine for romance with travellers, endlessly complain about how their spiny bodies prevent intimacy, get kidnapped by group of masochistic yuan-ti in ironic twist.
36. Tornados plan uprising.
37. Volcanos plot revenge.
38. Meteors get their shit together.
39. Fire, Water, Wind and Earth Elementals use lifedraining magic ring in attempt to create Heart Elemental and complete ancient summoning ritual.
40. Kobolds blow it all up.
41. Obnoxious scouts run around hitting people with bats.
42. Elderly grave digger has chance meeting with Grim Reaper; heated weapon debate escalates to destructive duel.
43. Gentlemanly british marksman hunts party for sport using only sheer grit, determination, and steam-powered railgun.
44. Sinister duststorms herald hobo revolution.
45. Party stalked by assassin rumoured to dual-weild katars, in actuality dual-weilds keytars.
46. High priest is secretly complex musical animatronic.
47. Desert warlord sends party to blue dragon's lair to retrieve the keys to his camel.
48. Mass pandemonium ensues when travelling troll barbarians pitch their tent in slightly inconveniant spot.
49. Reformed illithid working as hair stylist falls under suspicion.
50. Threat of mechanical war machines powered by steam.
51. Threat of mechanical war machines powered by clockworks.
52. Threat of mechanical war machines powered by love.
53. Miraculous self-replenshing canned food ration "Salient Blue" challenges ethics when discovered to be made of trolls.
54. Twin beholders come to town and make everyone feel self-concious.
55. Ancient lich seeks new thrills seek recruiting for rock band, records hit single "Hopeless Necromantic".
56. Sinister cult believes key to peace and happiness is painting everything blue.
57. Bored Thor throws killer pool party in Valhalla.
58. Bored Eris throws killer rave on Mount Olympus.
59. Bored Buddha launches aerial raids.
60. Threat of communists.
61. Disgruntled rebel fighters attempt to crash airship into king.
62. Ambitious rebel fighters attempt to crash moon into king.
63. Philosophical rebel fighters attempt to crash king into himself.
64. Undead army ravages countryside with well-choreographed dance numbers.
65. Evil tyrant outlaws eyebrows.
66. Large, upscale inn terrorized by wildly dancing yet stoic man.
67. Gnome enforces guarantee.
68. Fiend hunter paladin declares he must kill all the tieflings; later discovers, no, he is the tieflings.
69. Ancient lich seeks new thrills by becoming ramp-jumping daredevil, succeeds in jumping bulette over 27 ill-tempered kythons.
70. Threat of goblins with guns.
71. Threat of goblins with artillery.
72. Threat of hobgoblins with artillery that launches goblins - who have guns.
73. Eccentric dictator outlaws all weaponry; decrees international issues will be resolved by giving each other high-fives. All world problems are solved.
74. Impregnable floating fortress seiged by orcs with hang gliders.
75. Rogue ties bundles of Rods of Wonder together to create Wonder Shotguns.
76. Powerful sorceror born with single large fang believes himself to be reincarnation of legendary demon king, begins war to end the earth; turns out the rest of his teeth are just kind of small.
77. Powerful barbarian who's moustache grows to look like clock hands believes himself to be the one true clock, endeavors to smash every other timepiece in the world in order to become the Highlander.
78. Powerful cleric who continuously manifests stigmata-like supernatural wounds believes himself to be second coming of a god, incites holy crusade; turns out he's just a clumsy fucker.
79. Empire seiged by macho, sideburned elves; kingdoms fall one after another, as no one believes they exist.
80. Gibbering mouther aspires to become famous scat singer.
81. Master thieves break into museum and steal priceless portrait.
82. Master thieves break into castle and steal crown jewels.
83. Master thieves break into showbusiness and steal our hearts.
84. Ancient lich seeks new thrills by challenging party to race around the world.
85. Face-scalded mad man goes on serial axe-gnawing spree.
86. Barbarian hordes burn down capital city.
87. Barbarian hordes burn down the ocean.
88. Barbarian hordes burn down the sun.
89. Spunky teenagers travel through time to stop cosmic porcupine-looking thing from annihilating planet; become their own grandparents.
90. Gentlemanly cleric sends party on suicide trip to retrieve rare plant, makes world's strongest medicine.
91. Gentlemanly cleric sends party on suicide trip to retrieve rare plant, makes world's gnarliest blunt.
92. Gentlemanly cleric sends party on suicide trip to retrieve rare plant, makes world's tastiest tea; enters berserker rage when one party member adds milk.
93. Nation becomes infested by sandworms who are attracted to things with no rhythm; entire continent becomes perpetual dance number.
94. Fledgling lich captures our hearts with story of ambition, hot blackguards, and flying zombie sharks.
95. Fire-breathing, hammer-throwing tarrasque kidnaps princess; local sewer worker heroically pursues.
96. Party endlessly pursues dastardly villain who wields a bronzed hammerhead shark and bleeds shotgun shells.
97. Halfing monk just starts punching people in the crotch, all the fucking time.
98. Notorious mummy sorceror defeats paladin nemesis by dousing self in lamp oil, igniting, and tackling him into a black hole. Everyone else in universe realizes that this is the most awesome thing that will ever happen, and falls into deep depression.
99. Paladin achieves ultimate power by replacing stick up his ass with immovable rod.
100. All of the above.

In all honesty, just roll a percentile dice.

[Guyr Adamantine]

So, being an ancient lich is a lot like hitting mid-life crisis, huh?

[rampaging-poet]

Try this table. Three columns of six hundred entries, and some entries make function calls to one or more other columns. None of it make any sense of course, but it's pretty amusing and nobody can say the encounter wasn't random.

More seriously, there are two general ways to make a wandering monster table. Either you make a list of level-appropriate encounters, or you make a list of monsters in the area. Once you have a list, assign probabilities to each entry by gut feeling.

If you're working from a finite monster population, such as the monsters in a given dungeon, you probably only want about six possible random encounters. Cross each group off after it's been encountered, and have defined places where the monsters lurk when they aren't wandering. If the party meets a potential wandering group while they're chilling in their lair, cross them off the wandering monster list.

[Dogbert]

The Complete Doc Aquatic Brand Percentile Random Adventure Table

If I still was into DnD, I'd totally use this, you're my new spiritual guide.

[Red_Rob]

Here's some sound advice for making flavourful random encounter tables: http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/8 ... recycling/

As for the form, ultimately it all boils down to there being a set percentage for each result however you slice it, so a pure D% table probably provides the most transparency and ease of tweaking to suit your requirements.

[shadzar]

Deck of Encounters 1 and 2.
my own "incident" tables...like Oregon Trail and your own "horse falls ill"
die roll, odd is good, even is bad outcome.

[virgil]

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/152 ... structures

Part of a series on the role of structure in your gaming sessions to make it place it between railroading and aimless nothing. The entire thing largely encourages the importance and use of random encounter tables.

Speaking of which, what is the popular consensus on random encounter tables? They were largely dropped in the old days, but not in a thrown to the side out of bitterness, just...forgotten. I see them crop up once in awhile, but nobody ever comments on their presence or absence.

They have similarities in purpose & resolution to the reaction chart, in that they both impassively dictate a part of the game without control of the GM, and they both have been quietly dropped without comment.

I think there would be a great improvement to gaming were random encounter tables to be reintroduced, but with more thought put into their design and what purpose they serve.

[hogarth]

Speaking of which, what is the popular consensus on random encounter tables?

Random encounters are basically essential for a homebrew sandbox* kind of game. I think they're mostly just a waste of time in an adventure path** kind of game, though.

--

* I'm avoiding the word "simulationist" here.
** I'm avoiding the word "narrativist" here.

[rasmuswagner]

What. Do you want. Your table. To achieve?

Don't ask for a tool before you know the task(, young grasshopper!).

[tussock]

In a game where XP comes mostly from treasure, and wandering monsters have none of it, they are a wonderful thing to threaten players with should they decide to argue, or search overlong, or be any sort of boring or annoying. You roll a die and check the table and they take the hint and move the fuck along.

In a game where all XP comes from monsters, and wandering monsters are XP, your game will suffer for it. It encourages the players to do stupid shit like chase around the local wildlife and chump-change muggers rather than go on actual quests and shit.

Other than that, it's just so you can have a lot of things happen that might include fights without having to do everything up front. If you're not going to use it much, just have a 6-entry table of MM page numbers and roll a d6 when needed. Local colour; orcs and big pigs and giant spiders and whatever else in these here hills.

[hogarth]

In a game where all XP comes from monsters, and wandering monsters are XP, your game will suffer for it. It encourages the players to do stupid shit like chase around the local wildlife and chump-change muggers rather than go on actual quests and shit.

In traditional D&D, random encounters rarely have cool loot so you don't have to worry about that too much. Your campaign might be different, of course.

[TheFlatline]

Speaking of which, what is the popular consensus on random encounter tables? They were largely dropped in the old days, but not in a thrown to the side out of bitterness, just...forgotten. I see them crop up once in awhile, but nobody ever comments on their presence or absence.

Usually more bother than they're worth. I'd be more likely to actually design a few encounters and pull them out at random than roll on a chart.

Most random encounter tables really should be shit like:

* Pass a turnip farmer in his cart
* A coach & 4 is on the side of the road with a broken axle
* Encounter a caravan escorted by a dozen level 3 guards
* The road passes by the edge of a farm
* The road passes by the edge of an unkept farm
* Farmer in cart refuses to give you the road until the absolute last second. Mumbles something about foreigners as you ride off.

and other unremarkable shit like that for like 90 options out of 100. 5 of the remaining options should be interesting but ultimately trivial (you come across a looted caravan with everyone dead), the other 5 should be real threats.

Bandits & orcs & shit should be relatively rare for adventurers to encounter once they're past level 3 or 4. You're kitted out and look like you can handle yourselves in a fight. If your enemies are level 5 their needs won't be met waylaying Dirt Merchants, they've moved out of that tier and should be able to figure that the PCs are a mortal threat if challenged. Simply leaving a fire going at night and a sentry with some rocks will take care of most shit like wolves. If travel was as dangerous as most random encounter tables suggest, nobody would go anywhere.

I remember in the pathfinder game we had to travel for 2 weeks to get to our destination. We got *THREE* random encounter rolls per day (two during the day, one at night). It took 8 sessions of pure random encounters before the story continued. It sucked. It'd have been better to just generate a few encounters that were relevant or interesting instead of fucking rolling over and over and over again.

My rule of thumb: One interesting/noteworthy/dangerous event per week of travel. Two if you're traveling through wild terrain. One every two weeks for large highways that are regularly patrolled.

[ishy]

I don't think any random encounter table is made for 42 random encounters in a row.

You'd be better off to build something ad-hoc around one. Thus for example if you're ambushed by bandits, you'd create a bandit camp or whatever.

[TheFlatline]

Well, we didn't have 3 random encounters per day of travel, we had a 50% chance of an encounter 3 times a day. I think after the 12th encounter (the party was unbelievably slow... the wizard would stare at his spell sheet for like 2 minutes every turn, shrug and cast magic missile, the thief had to be explained, every round, how to attack, the bard was a rules lawyer who would argue just for the sake of arguing, so we might manage 1-2 random encounters in a 5 hour session) the fighter and I started bitching so much that the DM accelerated things thank god.

But yeah, that game made me hate random encounters.

[Chamomile]

* I'm avoiding the word "simulationist" here.
** I'm avoiding the word "narrativist" here.

But are encounter tables useful to people who avoid the word "gamist?"

[hogarth]

But are encounter tables useful to people who avoid the word "gamist?"

You could have an interesting game with or without random encounters.

[tussock]

Most random encounter tables really should be shit like:

* Pass a turnip farmer in his cart.

No they shouldn't. You handwave days of boring shit with a single sentence, but detail the things you want the players to interact with along the way. Clues, traps, honeypots, ninja assassins, and hostile guards. Also, Orcs. Orcs are extra good for interaction, on account of they squeal real purdy.

[hogarth]

Most random encounter tables really should be shit like:

* Pass a turnip farmer in his cart.

No they shouldn't. You handwave days of boring shit with a single sentence, but detail the things you want the players to interact with along the way. Clues, traps, honeypots, ninja assassins, and hostile guards. Also, Orcs. Orcs are extra good for interaction, on account of they squeal real purdy.

A random encounter table should contain noteworthy encounters (passing a turnip farmer wouldn't count, IMO), but it shouldn't consist solely of enemies and traps (passing a guarded caravan is a perfectly reasonable encounter, for instance).

[tussock]

Meh, time's limited. I might mention traders if you're well off any trade routes, but then it's not a random encounter. They probably pass through a hamlet every three miles, crap in the woods, re-shoe their horses as needed, oil their weapons when it rains, replace rations over time and eat a little of the wildlife, and make with the ale and whores at rest stops; but I don't need to mention those either. Living expenses, done.

[Judging__Eagle]

I'll be honest, I prefer tables over pre-planning out any of my adventures.

I've always felt that almost any adventure written by a person from start to finish is always going to be sub-par. The designer's prejudices, preconceptions, and other myopias will always be creating the adventure; and I'm not a fan of going through someone else's pre-written script (even if the games that I play are exactly that).

When actually playing out adventures I have some pre-drawn out dungeon maps so that I have some sort of geography, and have the players roll out percentile dice to plan out: the plane of the current adventure, the NPCs they meet and interact with, and their quest-giver. As well as the creatures, traps and treasures they'll encounter.

In general I merely ask for a percentile check from the players, and the first one to give me a result is the result that I use; usually going around the table if I need to generate more than a single result.

Now, the tables are more generic than other tables. Their entries are based on the DMG encounters tables with Type of creature, CR and amount retained; while the details of which specific creature removed. I have Monster Manuals 1-3, Libris Mortis and the Mini Handbook to pull entries out of.

As well, I might narrow down my choices depending on the environment. In a glacial environment the players will see Snowflake Oozes, Immoths, Frost Salamanders, Frost Jotun, and other creatures that can conceivably exist in a wilderness sub-zero environment. Although sometimes I'll have incredibly disparate results (Celestial Unicorn Charger & a Dretch, in a city in Gehenna?) which forces me to determine just how the encountered creatures relate to each other.

Usually I base the adjudication on the environment, creatures in inimical environments are usually at a disadvantage; giving the players an encounter that isn't instantly "roll for initiative".

It's not a pretty method, and sometimes I have to spend a few seconds trying to figure out what the PCs actually see; but I'm not going to fall into the problem of seeing the players face an encounter that I planned out. Honestly, I hate having to plan out an encounter because honestly, I play D&D to see what new wild thing the adventurers will encounter. I don't want to already know what they'll encounter before the players do, seriously.

I make an exception for pre-written adventures though, the level of detail involved in them means that I'll never recall every detail that the writer came up with until I'm actually using it.

[TheFlatline]

Most random encounter tables really should be shit like:

* Pass a turnip farmer in his cart.

No they shouldn't. You handwave days of boring shit with a single sentence, but detail the things you want the players to interact with along the way. Clues, traps, honeypots, ninja assassins, and hostile guards. Also, Orcs. Orcs are extra good for interaction, on account of they squeal real purdy.

Then 80 entries out of 100 need to be "nothing of note happens".

It's bullshit to take the highway from the 2nd largest city in the kingdom to the largest city in the kingdom and get waylaid by bandits, attacked by orcs, dire wolves, and more bandits, stuck in quicksand, lost in the woods, and waylaid by ninja assassins.

This is the most traveled road in the kingdom ostensibly.

Random encounters are pointless most of the time. They serve only two purposes. First, they are padding to level you up without the DM just giving you XP. Second, they put the adventure off for as long as the DM feels like it, which can be weeks of real time delay as I've experienced. They also tend to make no fucking sense to the world around them since they're... well... random.

[tussock]

1: Lower the chance of encounters if you don't want as many, you silly man.

2: They make perfect sense in the game world in that they are the game world. You include things on the table that relate to the surrounding points of interest. Duh. Clues to an adventure, minions of local crime lords, orcs with pie, and so on.


The purpose of random encounters is in adding time pressure to travel and exploration (but not XP, 3e's challenge-based XP model doesn't work well there). Also in saving the DM some up-front work and providing a little discovery on the closed face of the screen as the Judging Eagle wrote of.

[Judging__Eagle]

I'll be honest, I don't like using a screen when I dm, and I've even got more than a couple that I could use.

Although I occasionally hide the dice rolls behind a stood up book, usually the dice roll onto the played on table. I play the dice where they lay, and pull out minis from a case that's off of the table and out of view. The DM screen is to give surprise, and I don't really need it with the way I usually am set up.

On some levels, I want to get away from the retro-method of tables.... but they're somewhat useful to flesh stuff out on the fly. I still want to develop a much better way to organize encounters based on setting, regions, and by grouping the alphabey soup of D&D monsters into larger, cohesive, groups.