I have a 6 player, 4th level group, rowing down river into an unknown, heavily forested valley with little, if any, human habitation.

What frequency, per day, is it considered fair to roll for random encounters?

I found this quote on a nature website:

"Typical black bear densities range from one bear per square mile to one bear per seven square miles."

I imagine that you get one or more bears per square mile if there isn't any human interference.

So if I have one solo monster per square mile, I might also have 20 or so prey monsters, like hippogriffs, per square mile.

Does anyone hunt or go camping in the deep woods often? How often do you run across a bear? I feel like running into monsters in a magical woodlands would have about the same frequency.

Real-life answer: almost never (probably give it a 10% chance at most on your table).

Gaming Answer: whenever you think they should run into a bear (or hippogriff or whatever).

Quote from: Werekoala;341121Real-life answer: almost never (probably give it a 10% chance at most on your table).

Gaming Answer: whenever you think they should run into a bear (or hippogriff or whatever).

10% is pretty instinctive to me, but, I feel like animals in areas that haven't been despoiled by humans would have a lot more.

Quote from: Cranewings;34112210% is pretty instinctive to me, but, I feel like animals in areas that haven't been despoiled by humans would have a lot more.

Although semi/cultivated areas might actually support a larger wildlife population. The question is would wild animals want to go near the humans if it could avoid them?

Random encounters were deliberately left out of the Pathfinder Corebook. It's not supposed to be a part of the game you're playing, just as there is no corresponding section in the 4E DMG.

Nor can you count on there being a section on random encounters in the forthcoming Pathfinder GM Guide, since random encounters and the tables to go with them have been decried as useless by the Paizo fanbase for years, and Paizo (as a company) have made it their business to listen to their fanbase carefully. Quite a good practice, except for the times when your interests don't overlap with the fanbase's. (As seems to be the case here.)

Given this situation, I'd recommend you to invest 8 dollars or so for a fully compatible GM Guide that will sate your needs (with a LOT of readymade encounter tables) and expand your exposure to campaign style variety. (Apologies if you already own the book, but in that case I doubt you'd ask the question above.)

I usually dislike answering a question by product recommendations, but in this case I make an exception because the product is a) cheap and b) really answers your question, and c) gives you 300 pages of full-coloured goodness by the same person who wrote the preface to Pathfinder (M Cook).

Still, to make up for that type of response, I will also  link you to a resource that could fully answer your current need as well. It's a re-layouted version of an Encounter Table by another user on this board (Sacrificial Lamb) made for a forest clearing. The encounter level therein is all over the place (as it should be, imo); however, as this is so radically at odds with the expectations most Pathfinder players bring to the table, you potentially risk trouble at the table by using it.

While on the subject of random encounters and encounter level (EL), general advice on how to do random encounters in 3E (which Pathfinder is the latest incarnation of) varies. For instance, in 3.0 (DMG, page 133) you basically assign a basic range of Encounter Level (EL) according to terrain type and then check the MM for a monster of right CR and theme.

EL [die roll]___Terrain
1-6 [1d6]                    Plains
2-7 [1d6+1]                Hills
4-9 [1d6+3]                Forest
5-10 [1d6+4]              Desert
7-12 [1d6+6]              Mountains
8-13 [1d6+7]              Aquatic
10-15 [1d6+9]            Swamp [/quote]

The 3.5 DMG (page 98) and the Mother of All Encounter Tables handle both EL assignment and frequency of encounters differently to the 3.0 DMG; so does the Wilderlands Box by Necromancer Games. In short, there's no single answer to your question.

PS. Out of interest. You don't happen to be playing Greg Vaughan's River into Darkness? In that case, forget about forest encounters and go for jungle encounters (M'wangi Expanse, iirc). A good resource, and fully compatible (well, mostly), would be Secrets of Xen'drik. Again, dead cheap, and a good resource in my experience.

There are random encounter tables in the back of the Pathfinder Beastiary, 3 or 4 if I remember, and some guidelines for making your own.

Quote from: Werekoala;341141There are random encounter tables in the back of the Pathfinder Beastiary, 3 or 4 if I remember, and some guidelines for making your own.

Veeery interesting. Thanks, I didn't know that.

If you own it yourself, can you tell me what does it say about

1. EL assignment (based on terrain? party level? totally randomized?)
2. frequency of random encounters?

Edit. Ok, I've found the (full) answer to my question here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/encounterTables.html

There's a full Forest (average) CR 5 table in there that should suit you perfectly.

Quote from: Cranewings;341117Does anyone hunt or go camping in the deep woods often? How often do you run across a bear?

I work in remote areas fairly often, and I've never run across a bear or mountain lion or whatever (of course, I was never looking for them, either).  What I have encountered is fresh spoor, gawd-awful marking scent, and fresh footprints, suggesting that the bears and mountain lions saw or heard me coming first.  Not the most heroic or dramatic reaction for a RPG.

!i!

Quote from: Ian Absentia;341146What I have encountered is fresh spoor, gawd-awful marking scent, and fresh footprints, suggesting that the bears and mountain lions saw or heard me coming first.  Not the most heroic or dramatic reaction for a RPG.

Yeahbut I think Cranewings is analogizing the bear encounter with something bigger & weirder & less cautious about dudes with swords, that would actually confront the PCs, and also eat hippogriffs or something.

Quote from: Imp;341158Yeahbut I think Cranewings is analogizing the bear encounter with something bigger & weirder & less cautious about dudes with swords, that would actually confront the PCs, and also eat hippogriffs or something.

More like, I think monsters are about as common as bears in a forest with enough magical food or whatever to support them.

On the Bestiary, I got it a few days ago. I really like it and it does have random encounters, but not frequency.

I've never read the DMG 2. I can probably borrow it from the group I play with.

I don't really like random encounter tables to include CRs, unless the GM (me) has designated CRs for areas on the map (which I haven't) and players have chosen to go to an area because they think they can handle it (haven't). I prefer a more honest spread on the sheet...

Though I feel like an honest encounter table would need a d1000 and have about 950 occurrences of dire animals and goblins.

Quote from: Joshua Ford;341126Although semi/cultivated areas might actually support a larger wildlife population. The question is would wild animals want to go near the humans if it could avoid them?

Wild animals might get closer if they weren't being hunted much (not likely) but I feel like magical creatures, at least in my game, are confined to areas without much human habitation.

Okay, I take Imp's point, and I should re-think my response a little.  For one thing, random encounter tables probably shouldn't reflect two parties stumbling upon each other at point-blank range, but rather the opportunity to notice one another.  In the original Traveller books, the Referee would roll not only for the chance of an encounter, but the range at which the encounter occurs; then the Referee determines if either party is aware of the other, at which point they may decide whether to make contact or withdraw.

Using that logic, my encounters with bear and mountain lion spoor described above were, effectively, hits on a wildlife random encounter chart.  The animals got initiative and decided to withdraw; I succeeded with my Spot Hidden roll but declined the option to pursue the animals.  There are probably a number of occasions on which I failed my Spot roll and missed other random encounters.

That said, I don't know if I could put a number to how often I come into contact with a large wild animal when I'm in the wilds.  And, truth be told, I'm almost never in the true, true "wilds" -- there's always some trace of human activity within a stone's throw.  However, I'm surprised at how often I do see signs of bear or mountain lion, and how often deer of all variety actively approach my position.

!i!

Speaking of random encounters, can anyone direct me to a site with a shitload of tables for generating random stuff?

I found one a few weeks ago but didn't bookmark.

You mean Age of Fable's site or Seventh Sanctum?

Both are excellent.  Cheers.