Better Random Encounters in D&D

[@RdotDoyle]

d10 ways to Create Better Random Encounters 1 Location Location Location 2 Lairs 3 Environmental Features 4 Not everything's an instant fight 5 Not everything's a monster (Include NPCs) 6 Signs and Portents 7 Loot 8 Null Result can still be Interesting 9 Roll on the Next Region's Table 10 Roll twice and Combine

[@TwinSteel]

🥳🫂👍🏿 I’m always shuffling back thru my house rule quest videos - came by this one today - great stuff - you weren’t joking about liking random tables 😄 I got your book and boy oh boy is it chock full of them ❤

[@ChickenSplitter]

Loving your content just found your channel. Cheeky little Bartleby reference I love it.

[@RdotDoyle]

Ha! Thank you, he’s been selling scrolls in my world for awhile now

[@davidmc8478]

Hi, great video. I tend to have either 2 1d10 tables or 1 1d20. Half the entries are monsters and the other half are “events” including skill challenges and NPC interactions.

[@RdotDoyle]

I really like framing it as “events.” There’s a few examples here that I think qualify but just using that label gets my mind generating more and thinking differently. Thanks for that. I’m curious about the potential split of your 2 1d10 tables: are you making an event table and a monster table? Does the encounter check result potentially land you on one table or the other?

[@davidmc8478]

@@RdotDoyle I divide teh day into four 2 hour travel segments. Each segment has a 1-2 on 1d6 of an occurrence. If there is an occurrence I alternate between the tables so the players experience monster-event-monster-event. For longer journeys i lengthen the segments, so a week has 1 segment per day, a month trip across the desert has 1 segment per week.

[@RdotDoyle]

@@davidmc8478 Oh wow, that's an interesting approach I hadn't considered. Seems like a good way to influence things while keeping it random. Do the players know that's how things work? "We pulled that ankheg last time, we might get something good now." I'm curious if you spell it out or if they figure it out themselves over time

[@davidmc8478]

@@RdotDoyle they just see me rolling dice. They learn pretty quick it’s a mix of good and scary stuff

[@nextgenwalkthrough27]

I'm a little late to the party here, but I have been loving your random encounters. I started using them as you advised a couple of months ago when i came across your channel and man they are just so much fun. My group loves them and so do I. I always wanted to stress the fact that the world was real and vast and dangerous but it just felt so difficult to come up with constantly interesting encounters on the road especially when I was never quite sure where my group would head next in the sandbox-y style game we tend to play. These tables turned monotonous overland travel segments of the past from some of my least favorite parts of DnD to some of my groups favorites. A quick aside having the player's roll the dice and telling them bigger is better was a HUGE difference maker in my experience, great advice there! I have absolutely fallen in love with your encounter tables that you've released so far and with my player's headed towards the Anauroch desert (in Faerun) it's finally time to expand and start making my own tables. Desert's have been tough in my experience. It's really difficult to breathe life into a part of the world that is almost supposed to be desolate and uninhabitable. I find it is even more difficult to keep travel through those regions interesting and not just "you spend ten hours walking over more big sand dunes. It's really hot". That being said after even filling out just under half of my 2d6 table modeled closely after your encounter volumes I already feel so much more prepared and excited to have my players traverse the region. Making my own encounter table has really led me to explore lots of other content from various books/youtube videos about interesting things people have done in the region and let me tell you having a larger understanding of a region that your player's will likely ever see just makes you feel so ready to run a session in the region. What was once a large blank area in my world building became filled out so much faster with these encounter tables than it ever would have if I had devised road encounters and just built the cities from scratch. And I'm still only halfway done! These encounter tables are seriously the way to go. As someone who didn't love random encounters in the past, I am a full convert. These are the truth!

[@RdotDoyle]

Welcome to the party! I'm out and about but this comment really filled me with joy so I had to respond right away. Might come back for more later but I'm so glad to hear all of this. It would be tremendous if you copy and pasted this on the DM's guild. I definitely plan on releasing more of them in a month or two. I spent some time in the American Southwest and was amazed at how much stuff there is in the desert. We usually just imagine featureless expanses of sand but standing in forests of towering saguaro and organ pipe cacti with all sorts of flora and fauna around really changed my whole perception of things. Thanks again for taking the time with this one, you made my day

[@RdotDoyle]

Your name just clicked for me. Send me an email, address is on the about page, and I'll hook you up

[@nextgenwalkthrough27]

@@RdotDoyle Will do! I'm always amazed how quickly I hear back from you! So glad I'm able to give you the dopamine rush these videos deserve. It's hard to overstate just how great I think these videos are. Best DM centered channel I've come across by far seriously :).

[@sm0ky_cowboy693]

Hey my man thanks, for you content and your guides and helping us all. I Like your videos, it just should be a little more visual interactive and give us more things to see instead of only you sitting and speaking like a podcast ;)

[@RdotDoyle]

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve definitely been thinking about ways to incorporate more b roll and interest. I’ve been focused on other aspects, and most of my easy ideas flirt with copyright strikes, but it’s definitely something I’m going to put more effort into in the near future

[@kyleolson-kelley2458]

@@RdotDoyle Just like Bob Worldbuilder said, stay true to your language. If you feel you need more flashy visuals, that's great. Personally, I think you're on the right track with your emotive speech and sharing ideas just a little different from what I've heard elsewhere. Since you're just starting out, you have plenty of time to experiment. Good luck on your journey!

[@RdotDoyle]

@@kyleolson-kelley2458 I appreciate you coming here and saying that. There's definitely a balance between being engaging and being authentic. Recording a video or running a game it's natural to want to please everyone, but everyone is different so you just have to do your thing and hope you find your tribe. Thanks for the comment