Our House Rules for Random Encounters in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... We discuss our house rule system for running random encounters in Dungeons and Dragons 5e!
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This video was sponsored by EASY ROLLER DICE! These affordable, colourful, and high-quality dice are perfect for building a large, personalized dice collection on a lightweight budget.
TIME STAMPS
2:15 - Why We Love Random Encounters
4:39 - Our Issues With Random Encounters
6:46 - How We Run Better Random Encounters
8:39 - Our System For Random Encounters
14:39 - Why This Works For Random Encounters
Here's a document outlining our quick rules: bit.ly/dd-random-encounters
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[@DungeonDudes]

Here's our Google Doc with a quick summary of the rules: bit.ly/dd-random-encounters

[@rafaelseyssel3388]

I was just thinking: "Man, I need this written somewhere" - Great work guys!

[@c2i3thedroid27]

Thanks guys, always nice to hear your tips, tricks and views.

[@markfarnsworth3340]

What a Godsend, my brethren. Appreciate all you and your crew does for the D&D community! 💗

[@robertvanark1800]

I love that you put the percentages in that document, saving me some annoying maths.

[@dachef123]

Thx man much appreciated 👍🏿🖖🏿👊🏿

[@thekrillsta]

Monty has all the good video equipment at his house 😂

[@davidlanglois8055]

It's because he is a cam girl in his off time

[@AmbivalentDreams]

#getkellyabettercamera

[@bettsdn]

Come on Monty. Give up the onlyfans handle 😂😂😂

[@iododendron3416]

@@davidlanglois8055 Monty alone with his dice.

[@Gauldame]

What if I told you...none of them are random. Don't tell my players...they think the percentile dice mean something.

[@raccoon0413]

Shhhhhhhhhh

[@Watchin4story]

Don’t give away the biggest secret!

[@docmike8601]

agree...I am not going to derail a campaign or kill a character with a random encounter.

[@xdonthave1xx]

I just posted a huge (not that huge) story just now of a campaign I had. Since I had plenty of time to plan it, all of the encounters were rolled ahead of time.

[@piemaniac9410]

@@docmike8601 I find a random fight with a bugbear doesn't seem to derail many campaigns, and if your character didn't want to die then sleeping in the bugbear woods was their mistake

[@cosmololgy3787]

My favorite moment of the Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign: "You ALL rolled ones? Well, there's only one thing that can happen now"

[@TheVelvetTV_Riesenglied]

Can you tell which episode and a rough time estimate? sounds interesting

[@svartrbrisingr6141]

@@TheVelvetTV_Riesenglied id just watch their campaign

[@codenameera3709]

@@TheVelvetTV_Riesenglied episode 47: about 3/4 of the way through! its hilarious but you should just watch the whole thing

[@ajooser]

@@codenameera3709 the other guy was like get 47 eps in for the moment you want to see ..of 3 hour eps.

[@paulcolpitts2684]

funny thing is he is right though...it is worth it :)

[@g.rathbone764]

One thing that I think is important is that a random encounter doesn’t always have to be hostile or even designed for combat! Maybe there’s another travelling party that they meet or a merchant. I remember one time we got an encounter and an injured angel was falling from the sky and we had to save them!

[@angelalewis3645]

That’s rad!

[@TheoJay615]

Monty used to stare into Kelly's soul. Now he stares into mine. I'm honored and blessed.

[@Snyperwolf91]

Alright , now you earned your 1D4 for sure !

[@davidpellecchia4360]

You have gained a 1d6 dice if inspiration for every roll for 1d4+1 days

[@deathbyspuds]

Whenever Kelly talks, Monty always looks like he's disappointed in my life choices.

[@masonshattuck6217]

I'm sure its hard making content with the situation we are in but you guys do a great job so keep it up

[@cianwade5599]

My thoughts exactly!

[@sassysilk6268]

I feel like I watched an episode of that old TV show where a masked magician revealed how he did his magic tricks 😂 Always wondered what those d6 rolls meant.

[@peterwhitcomb8315]

Same!

[@maxwalker66]

An added thing I've used for random encounters are reaction and motivation/activity tables. Things like patrolling, fighting, resting, tending to wounds... Really helps lessen the mental load when working out what this group or monster is doing.

[@Xanador1]

For a second I read the thumbnail as Our House Rules for Fandom Encounters in Dungeons and Dragons, I don't think I'm ready for that lol.

[@deathbyd4]

I kind of cheat when it comes to random encounters. I prepare a handful of "optional" encounters, which only occur if the specific things occur. That way, I've already figured out the narrative of these encounters and I know that combat won't end up being wildly imbalanced.

[@GhostlyNomad130]

Exactly how I like to run things too. Sometimes Random is silly. Like WHY THE FUCK is their A Gelatinouas Cube in the middle of the Fucking Dessert? You know what I mean?

[@evilsquirrel0573]

@@GhostlyNomad130 him eating sand

[@TheBierp]

As a new DM, this is gold! I've been concerned about the pointlessness of table generated encounters. This mechanism will definitely help. Thanks!

[@peterwhitcomb8315]

I don't think the tables in the DMG are pointless. I guess it really depends on how often and creative you are "on the fly" which gets better with more practice. Immediately in their example of Trolls in a forest infested with undead" I immediately figured the trolls were there for one of two reasons. (a) The trolls were there as henchman working for the cult or BBEG and were under protection which is why the (intelligent) undead don't attack them. Or they carried a minor magic item that protects them. Therefor allowing the PC's an easier time navigating the forest once the encounter was over if they searched the bodies. (b) This was there home before the undead moved in. They are either moving out (finding a new area to claim) or they are doing exactly what the adventurers are doing. Trying to clear their home of undead. Option (B) allows for a possible social interaction while it is possible for one in (A), it is less likely. Although in (A) they may learn some valuable information prior to defeating them and acquiring a trinket or two making their journey "safer" deeper in the forest. I am in agreement though that you should probably prep any adventure with a tailored random table encounter if you plan on ever using it. But if you forget or didn't have time because "Real Life" occurred, the DMG is perfectly usable and creates some excitement for you too.

[@11horde11]

>Nat 20 ITS FINALLY HAPPENING!

[@svartrbrisingr6141]

[@BleydTorvall]

I like this concept and use something similar myself. However, I have a small twist that I think adds a little more randomness to it. While all the players roll their die as in your rule, the DM also rolls a die. The encounter happens, not on a 1, but when the DM roll matches a player roll. This makes things a little more uncertain, while keeping the odds roughly the same. There are a couple other benefits to this as well. If there is an encounter, the players won't know who triggered it, nor will they know how difficult it will be based on the number of 1s or 6s rolled. And, you know, if you really just want to force them into an encounter, you can fudge your rolls with them being none the wiser, where it's kinda hard to pretend your players rolled a 1 when they clearly can see that they didn't. Obviously, you would only want to use that trick judiciously, but it allows you a little more control when you need it. One last thing about this twist, I usually prepare around 6 different encounter options for an area, so each value on a d6 roll would be associated with a specific encounter. If we matched on 1, they get encounter 1, if we matched on 4, they get encounter 4, etc. If you want to use a bigger dice, just assign a batch of numbers to each encounter. I feel like it kinda streamlines the process of deciding which encounter to pit the players against a little bit.

[@ashleyien1222]

Kelly saying "What's the worst that can happen?" XD I always had a couple of random encounters prepped in advance in case they were needed, but the 1d6 way of triggering one is much more interesting with the option of 6 or additional 1s influencing the encounter. {Downloads the document} Thanks

[@burgerchicken]

I adopted your system into my game as I was seeing it used in Drakenheim. I was mostly right in guessing how it worked. The only thing I do differently is change which dice result determines an encounter by rolling the same dice myself, so that way my players don't always associate rolling a 1 with "Uh oh now we're going to fight something". But as a whole it helps keep my players on their toes, so thanks.

[@silveraxx]

Your idea about rolling ones on multiple dice is incredibly beautiful and opens up new ways of thinking about RE.

[@alexanderrogers4557]

My absolute favourite RE in a dungeon is ANOTHER adventuring group. Having hints that something is around the corner and having the PCs setup an ambush, only to have a bunch of humans/elves/dwarfs come around the corner in a orc dungeon. The conversations are great. They could team up, but then they might have to share the rewards. They could attack, but who sent the other party. They won't be pleased. There is so much you can do. Also, where is the link to the google docs or am i being blind??

[@DungeonDudes]

Right here: bit.ly/dd-random-encounters

[@Samuleish]

We have a random adventure party that's slightly better than my player and keep stealing the treasure it's happed a couple of times and I'm waiting for them to look into it to find out about a adventure guild but so far no luck

[@jonathanmorphew6786]

@@DungeonDudes I'm sorry but anyone else here was being driven crazy by Monty's rogue piece of hair.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

@@jonathanmorphew6786 I was more distracted by his right (our left) eyebrow. There's a spot where it parts I never noticed.

[@arlem525]

THANK YOU!!! I have been trying to puzzle out what the dreaded Ok "I want everybody to roll a d6." actually meant for a year.

[@SamanthaVimes177]

In my session yesterday the DM took us straight from one village to a major town and it kind of struck me as odd at the time. But this is exactly why there weren't any random encounters. And I didn't realize how much I would miss them until they weren't there. I really like how you guys handle these random encounters and miss not having them in my game. I'll make sure to show this video to my DM and maybe we can change things up next time!

[@sarcastic_corpse8726]

Ty guys for still producing content during all this. I've been running a campaign lately online and your advice and videos have a been a fantastic resource

[@cianwade5599]

These are brilliant rules! It is fantastic to have a system to decide when to grant surprise or add complications like reinforcements, as without it i never know when to adding these things to combat can make the difficulty to much or too little. These videos are fantastic. Thank you so much for all the help you've given us for improving our game!

[@athomas5035]

When Monty said that him and kelly had google doc of guidelines for random encounters, the DM inside of me just cried in happiness

[@inrisd3704]

Our party is currently trekking through a desert, ran into a giant scorpion as a random encounter. With some solid grapple checks on its claws and animal handling from our ranger, we now have a new buddy we have been using to pull our cart and produce poison

[@sebastiankortmann4689]

To be honest: My secret stars of this episode? Your hairstyles. :) I love them. Keep them.

[@_Phillter]

This was a genuinely great episode! I appreciate these different styles of doing things, as I have been looking at how to better do random encounters for my Strahd campaign

[@watchface6836]

Thank you for this video. I'm about to start a long travel arc in my campaign and I was looking for a better encounters guide. Ya'll are lifesavers.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

This is one of my favorite videos y’all have ever made!! And it fits so nicely into my random encounter system! Brilliant!!

[@DungeonDudes]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@sourcitrusfruit]

This is great! Thanks for sharing your document! I've DM'd on a (usually) monthly basis for almost 3 years, and haven't done anything in terms of random encounters. I think something like this system will be a great place to start.

[@chucknorris1920]

I've been DM'ing for a long time but I always find you guys have great insights and advice. I appreciate that you two emphasized in this video that random encounters should support development of the narratives. Your d6 system for the how the encounters develop is also a great idea. Keep it up fellas ✌️

[@markfarnsworth3340]

Thank you!!! I’ve always been curious about the d6 rolls in the Drakkenheim campaigns. 🤓 great video guys, like always! Super appreciate your online mentorship.

[@eliasdegasperi_art]

This is gold!! Im looking forward to use this system and also to become a patron. Good work guys

[@F2t0ny]

Thank you for keeping up the content!

[@MrBlitz665]

i just started playing for the first time and i been finding your guides very helpfull. made my gaming experience much more enjoyable. with this i might give being a dnd master a try after current crusade.

[@gregoryrussellakainfinitet6682]

Really solid video, your choices make sense. I will definitely implement this going forward in my new Xen'drik adventure. Bravo, gentlemen!

[@cistern]

One of your best to date! Loads of useful tips here.

[@Snyperwolf91]

Awesome advice as always. This helps me to get some more action with less preparations. Im gonna homebrew some own tables out for Random encounters and Random events to make my adventures a little bit more interesting .

[@SauloCioba]

Perfect, guys! You are helping me so much! Thanks!

[@joshuakilmer8449]

Thanks so much for this!! It’s amazing advice that I can’t wait to use in my game

[@michaelayen2973]

Thanks so much, this is really useful and has helped develop my way of thinking. Brilliant

[@trioofone8911]

This was one of Dungeon Dudes most useful videos.

[@DungeonDudes]

Glad you think so!

[@NegatveSpace]

What an awesome video that sheds a lot of light and gives a lot of context that helps a lot. I was thinking to keep the players guessing what I could do instead is have prerolled dice written down and that way each time the players roll the negative and positive outcomes would be random. Then each time they roll I would cross off two of the random numbers and the next time use the next two.

[@Rantaku]

When it’s the day before your weekly game, you’re prepping and the Dungeon Dudes come out with a video 😩👌🏻

[@luke.friesen]

I appreciate the increase in sound quality guys, keep up the great work!

[@snarkback]

Love this channel. It is one of my go to views.

[@danielokeefe4453]

This looks like a really cool system. Looking forward to testing it out!

[@syrupchugger421]

Great idea to really put the random in random encounters while maintaining relevance to the plot. Thanks for the tips!

[@gimpleg9913]

Great video, definitely recommending it to some DMs I know

[@ORAForcegaming]

I've always struggled with random encounters so this helps me a lot and it's also cool finding out how the random encounters in Drakkenheim work

[@kemvaros5031]

This video came really handy right now!

[@suvogel1966]

Last time I was this early, I was excited about buying 1e

[@captainthorrek262]

Miss the funny comics in 1st edition

[@danielbernini]

As someone who is coming back to DM after long years of being just a player, these hints are gold! Thanks for the advice and the rules sheet, now I just need to figure how to adapt this to a huge 8-player party, lol.

[@darcyw156]

I love this idea. Thanks guys. Gonna try it next game.

[@brandonschmitz6696]

As I've been running through Storm King's Thunder hc, I've used random encounters to reinforce the hazards of the wilds and foreshadow factions that haven't been encountered yet; a minstrel sings about a future ally, giants are found searching for relics or futhering their leader's plans, barbarians defend their territory with extreme fervor. I think it's helped tie the whole narrative together, with fewer npcs being sprung on the party randomly according to the chapter's guidelines.

[@edwarduribe2910]

Great ideas guys... I never applied these techniques before. I'll try it with my next game for sure.

[@QuasiGame0]

Extremely helpful as always, thank you, my players are just about to get into the open world of Barovia. Just leaving the Death House

[@colewoodward6809]

adding all these videos to my favourites to rebinge after i get the DM books for my first campaign

[@peterwhitcomb8315]

Thank you for finally doing this video. I never quite understood why you did a d6 or had every player roll.

[@johnhenrysguitar]

These are great ideas that I will definitely borrow from!

[@jfuite]

Just finished. I am going to immediately rewatch this important video, and take some notes.

[@jonathandietz3739]

just when my party leaves the big city for the first time and enter the wilderness you guys make this video :D gonna use that, thank you very much

[@Vinceras]

Awesome ideas guys! Love it!

[@DungeonDudes]

Glad you liked it!!

[@jiml9856]

You can tell you two have been doing this together a long time. Even over zoom you have good chemistry.

[@Terragen]

Omg this is literally what I was looking into today. Thanks Dudes!

[@DungeonDudes]

Happy to help!

[@dracoartiumstudio7467]

This is exactly what I needed before my next session.

[@Coswagrigus]

Can’t wait to run this at my table! Been wondering how you guys work this out since Drakkenheim started

[@fishroy1997]

Nice video as always. Would you guys do a video about how to manage dungeon exploration and encounters from a DMs perspective?

[@DungeonDudes]

Great suggestion!

[@Toaster_Weevil]

I have a similar system: the Party rolls a d20 and a d4. The d20 will determine the encounter based on tables that I’ve already established for that area (1-10 is a hostile encounter, with 1 being a particularly bad one, while 19-20 is a neutral or friendly encounter). The d4 only applies to the hostile encounters, and determines the circumstances (1 being the Party is at a disadvantage, 4 being the Party is at an advantage).

[@JNJTabletop]

I figured those seemingly random dice rolls had something to do with this! Thanks for explaining it!

[@ichifish]

When I was DMing D&D back in the day I only used random encounters when we were doing a hex crawl, for the reasons you mentioned here, like random encounters not fitting thematically or distracting from the main goals of the sessions. And for confined spaces they didn't make sense to me. Something to keep in mind is that random encounters originated because OD&D was much more of a tactical wargame where movement through the dungeon was slow and careful. Random encounters forced players to move quickly in order to avoid potentially TPKing encounters. As a Dungeon World (a Powered by the Apocalypse system) GM now I rarely have random encounters: there's always something that is happening as a result of the fiction, and I let that fiction determine the what the "random" event is. In my last session the party was crossing through an abandoned city in search of a relic. The wizard rolled poorlywhile trying to contact a spirit to tell him the location of the relic, "drawing unwanted attention." Suddenly we had a random encounter with the skeletons of the tomb!

[@joesmittington1207]

This is exactly what ive been looking for for my encounters. I wanted a way to quickly spark ideas for random encounters that are more than just. " 1d4 boar/ogres/naga appear". And this fits that bill certainly.

[@gonzaloolivera1954]

I am a new gm making my first campaign. For now i use a d20 system where random numbers make a list of events. 19-20 is a special merchant, where 1 means a Wyvern or Dragon encounter with several Wildlife, monsters, bandits, random gimmicks or events and in some cases even a Nothing clause for them to just enjoy there travels in peace. I have been experimenting with this table and this video has given me a great idea for the next step. Thanks

[@ConnorSinclairCavin]

I like a few of the ideas you have given to adjust what i do... When i run games i currently do the following: 1: every hour regardless of surrounding triggers at least one check by me 2: any time players really botch something i check my triggers 3: any time players really succeed i check my triggers 4: if it feels possible i check triggers 5: when building the campaign/world i set up a number of charts, in particular the ones that are universal are ; world tied enemies, story tied enemies, location tied enemies, world encounters, story encounters, location encounters, world bonus, story bonus, location bonus, location bane, world bane, story bane, location quirk, story quirk, world quirk, personal fave list 6: each “check” is a result of rolling 1D100, each check that nothing happens lets me move the result 1 closer to the next stronger target group, each nat 1 since the last check by anyone lowers and nat 20 raises the result by 1, if there are unused inspiration or similar effects in play or people with lucky these too add 1 each, each target zone is designated to a different table, with dangerous ones being lower and more loose and higher ones being beneficial and more exactly placed. 7: each table then has a roll happen with the same modifiers, the result on the table in question determines which pre-made encounter/event triggers. Once an option has been encountered it will “grey out” until a refresh triggers unless it is a constantly occurring event or a one time event. 8: this way there can be good, bad, odd, ugly, or useful/helpful events but they feel random. Depending upon the groups luck different tbings can be more or less prone, and either way lots of good RP chances show up, and not all encounters are fights. A handy stream showing up in the woods, or a fairy curse that helps you blend in better amongst your allies might indeed be more interesting and driving that “oh look, 4 more wolves...”

[@davidpellecchia4360]

My DM has a really unique way of playing. He doesn’t have a “main” story or 1 railroad, but instead just worldwide events that happen at all times and with dice rolls they either get better or worse. The 1 out of 10 outcomes he had prepared the we chose unexpectedly was 1 man attempting to ascend to godhood while all other deities were locked behind a divine gate. As for random encounters while we wait for everyone to come (as we do online) he has us roll d100’s, d20’s and so forth for random loot we could find out in the field and what will happen at any given time. This was used a lot while we were in the abyss

[@drbukowski9490]

Fresh haircuts, lads!! Looking sharper than a manticore’s claw.

[@euchiron]

This is really useful! Love your videos, dudes. ...am I crazy, or am I the only one missing the sword slash when you guys get started?

[@Calebgoblin]

KZbin somehow unsubscribede for you guys so I've been wondering where you'd gone for two months...great to rediscover you!!

[@BlackShadow1991]

Huh, that's a very neat and tight house rule for a random encounter :D Thanks for that, Dudes!

[@Hazknoklu]

This is an awesome system! It both involves the party and evolves that action.

[@nintendonerd1293]

This is AWESOME. Stealing this for my starfinder 5e game.

[@Robocop2134]

I like your system. might steal... also very much looking forward to your subclass tierlist.

[@hbrhodes1s]

Love your content! I joined you patron! You guys could make a video of you just chilling out, breathing and relaxing! I'd watch it!

[@k.g.7591]

Great review. Makes me think about picking up Superman.

[@kaildraconis]

Im trying to figure out why i actually like this format more. I can't imagine how much more work it is to clip together the entire video instead of just cutting from the two of you being together but for some reason i feel like the audio is better or that its actually smoother this way.

[@StoveandGarden]

Monty, you’re consistently looking fresher and fresher every episode. Clean cut and freshly trimmed. Looking good brother. And like the new hair Kelly 👍🏻

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Always LOVE to see how the “Top Dog” KZbinrs run different systems! Great video! Y’all still have been a huge inspiration for me and my channel! I just don’t have any friends to make videos with lol p.s. great job adapting to this Covid thing and still making great content!

[@DungeonDudes]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@PerikleZ87]

Best episode so far.

[@RaijQuentin]

In my current campaign players take turns rolling a d100 for encounters of various kinds which i really enjoy preparing, and a d20 for weather. I make it interesting by having something special prepared for when they roll a 1 or a 100/20. For example they are currently exploring a massive 'lost continent' and when someone finally rolled a d100 they ran into a dwarven man who was either a lvl 20 cleric of the Greyhawk traveller god Farlaghn or the god of roads himself, who shouted them food and drink before giving them a map of the continent (I also love making map-making). Next time that happens they'll run into a friendly human were hawk from the far east who doesn't speak any of the languages they can and who might have some other useful information for them. I'm really looking forward to when they roll a 1 on their weather roll for the first time and get hit by a storm which creates a magic dead-zone....

[@chucklindelof8815]

I would have at least a dozen pre-rolled random encounters for each type of terrain the party may encounter. I would then roll secretly for when a random encounter would occur. In this way, the party never knew if the encounter was truly random, or some integral part of the campaign. This forces them to treat all encounters - random or planned - seriously. However, I LOVE the idea of making the players roll! It adds an element of suspense any time you have to roll. But I will still have the random encounters set up ahead of time; the player rolls will determine if/when they are triggered. The player still won’t be sure if it is random or planned. Thanks for the great idea!

[@alphaxtitania5597]

This is actually going to help a lot. I suck at throwing random stuff at my players.

[@alexmoskowitz811]

My hands down favorite moment from DoD was “you ALL rolled a 1? Well there’s only one thing that can happen now…”

[@jontylerlud]

The issue I have with most advice for good random encounters is advice that involves preparing a series of encounters ahead of time. Of course those encounters are gonna be wayyy better but that’s a lot of work and prep and you only have a finite amount of them. This is why random encounter tables are so enticing cuz it’s like all the work is already done for you but it’s meaningless. Finding that balance of quality encounters and little prep time is what I’m looking for haha

[@mikecarson7769]

awesome! was curious how you managed those d6 rolls in Drakkenheim

[@shadowmyst9661]

When I know that my players are going to be traveling I like to prepare a small list of 5-10 random encounters that make sense for where my players will be traveling through. In my game I’ve had situations where the random encounters had resulted in an entire side quest that my players wanted to pursue.

[@romeotango5597]

I think some true randomness can have value: one of the most memorable experiences I had with my ArmA Muslim group was in a game type that was pretty random. It simulated an entire region including enemy faction, friendly faction, and independent faction. It also included civilians who could act on behalf of themselves or any of the factions. At one point we had been on patrol and ended up in a firefight. We pressed hard and took out the enemy. However we had casualties that needed evac. So we chose a nearby village as a good place to do this. Well, as we were calling for dust off, we witnessed something insane in the distance: enemy and friendly armor clashing. An enemy tank column had been spotted and fired upon by a friendly tank column. And we were caught in the middle. We had limited AT options but we used them against enemy forces. We had limited impact on their capabilities. And as time went on, the enemy tanks rolled up on and used our position for their own, seemingly unaware of us using it. It was epic from beginning to start. We were playing a mission that was supposed to be infantry vs insurgents. But the moment tanks ran through we made it feel real and it was dope.

[@chazzerine7650]

"We camp in this clearing contained by dead trees filled with web" "Roll a d6 everyone" "Ya know what? Let's continue on!"

[@Redr00t]

Nice stuff ! Do you have any good ideas to create a meaningful long term 'cost' of a RE going bad or straining the party ? With the long rest mechanism I feel like it's just become filler and possibly a boon (finding item or clue). Always inventing some time pressure is also getting a bit difficult..

[@angelalewis3645]

Your videos are so helpful! All along I’ve been thinking, in a realistic world, you’d meet farmers and woodsmen and traveling merchants and all kinds of friendly or neutral folk and creatures as well as monsters. Do you guys have your players meet these folks in your game?

[@Voriclexx]

What would you suggest for Tomb of Annihilation? I like this rule for homebrew campaigns and Curse of Strahd because I can prepare in advance since they aren't as large of areas. But the hex crawl from ToA is basically all random encounters.

[@mikemckinney7031]

When I began as a DM, I would truly roll for random encounters, and in my opinion it slowed down the game (Roll again on various tables, results, look up stats, and what they had as loot, ect). Then as a friend of mine who was a much better DM pointed out after I asked him for his opinion, "Do you randomly make up a castle or dungeon on the fly, or do you plan things out ahead of time?" So from that point on I would place a "random encounter" With one or two pages of notes for that, on hand and keep the game moving along with no wasting time, looking stuff up. This also can keep things random things that makes no scene, in line with a story arc, or theme like you guys pointed out.