First, some background. The game I'm running right now is an open table westmarches hexcrawl. I'm using 6 mile hexes and rolling for a random encounter every "watch" (4 hours). Because I want to use the same encounter table for many sessions in the same region, and the nature of the game is to randomly generate as much of the content as possible, I decided to generate a fairly large table with a curve.

To this end, I settled on using 1d6+1d20. This means I have 2 extraordinarily rare encounters, 1 in 120, 15 encounters that are all equally likely, 1 in 20, and 8 encounters with a probability in between. I've also adopted that lower sum encounters are negative and dangerous, whereas higher sums are potentially auspicious.  Also, to fill out the 25 encounters, several of them are quite mundane, like a group of turkeys, vultures, wild horses, deer etc. these are supposed to be a point of interest rather than a combat encounter. Right now I only have a random encounter on a 2 in 6.

My problems with this are twofold. First, the mundane encounters make the random encounters as a whole less dangerous. I think that this is fine, but I am considering increasing the frequency of random encounters to compensate.

Second, there isn't a place in the random encounters table for the circumstances of the encounter. Take a pack of wolves for example. Does the party just blunder into them and both sides are unprepared? Does the party happen upon a hunt in progress? Is the party what's being hunted? Does the party just encounter tracks of the wolves, perhaps also the tracks of what they were hunting? I want the system to be able to handle these kinds of things, to broaden the kinds of encounters the party could get into. I don't think though that having a blanket "tracks" roll or whatever would work. My thought is to add one more roll, probably a d10, against a table specific to each type of encounter. So the wolf pack could be just tracks on a roll of 8-10, hunting a deer on 7, encountered normally on 4-6, starving on a 2-3, and ambushing the party on a 1. The downside is that this requires me to think of 25 more random tables, and roll an extra die against that table for each encounter, but is probably the most thorough way of handling it. Also, this system is another reason to increase the frequency of the baseline encounter roll, since a number of the encounters would be mere signs etc.

What do yall think of this potential system? How have you handled these issues in your own games?

Roll an encounter distance, and use the results to determine the encounter circumstance.

Using your example of wolves:  If the encounter distance is close (couple hundred yards), the either the wolves are curious or hungry.  If the distance is greater, mile or so, then it's just tracks.

Quote from: aganauton on February 16, 2024, 01:28:11 AM
Roll an encounter distance, and use the results to determine the encounter circumstance.

Hmm... Distance is a good thing to roll, very old school, but it still leaves a fair bit to interpretation. On the flipside, it's easily generalizable to all the different encounters, so I don't have to come up with a new table for every encounter. I could also let surprise and reaction rolls determine circumstance, enemy hostile and only the party surprised? ambush, etc. Only thing then I'm making 3 rolls, but those are rolls that would basically always need to be rolled for most encounters anyway. And individual differences in encounters could be noted as necessary, a unicorn never being surprised etc. Thanks for the Idea, I'll definitely take it into consideration. What do you roll to determine distance personally, that can range from hundreds of yards to a mile?

Surprise> Distance> Reaction

Surprise helps a lot in determining priority, and boy oh boy does it build tension!  I let my players roll that one... behind my screen.  It's the smile and answer buried in follow-up description afterwards that sells it. It also reminds players to coordinate PCs to look in as many directions as they can when traveling.

Distance is great in allowing either party to choose avoidance, especially if surprise favors them in the result.  Suddenly exploration comes before combat.

Reaction is also great in allowing either party to choose avoidance.  Suddenly social comes before combat, again.

Those three things really keeps encounters fresh because I got to build interactable scenery context and mental postures before any of us bother with initiative. I've gotten some nice big eyes from PC failed surprise rolls and then later describing leaves and branches parting in the distance without giving away what it was that chose to avoid them.  The unpredictability of encounters from these rolls makes them feel dynamic.

I tend to keep encounter distance abstract ie. very close (right on top of you, surprise situation etc.) to very far.

Depending on the creature encountered, you have to fudge the rolls a little if you have exact distances, as in your example of a unicorn.

If the distance is abstract you can tailor the actual distance to the creature rolled.  Continuing with the example of the wolves.  I based my distances on the way wolves would behave.  You generally don't see wolves up close and personal like unless they are extremely curious or hungry.  More often or not, they keep their distance, and as such, you might hear snapping twig, maybe see some sign, or hear them at a distance.

So I just find it easier to keep encounter distance abstract and just use a little logic 'on the fly' to set up the encounter.

Quote from: aganauton on February 16, 2024, 02:08:43 AM
I tend to keep encounter distance abstract ie. very close (right on top of you, surprise situation etc.) to very far.

Depending on the creature encountered, you have to fudge the rolls a little if you have exact distances, as in your example of a unicorn.

If the distance is abstract you can tailor the actual distance to the creature rolled.  Continuing with the example of the wolves.  I based my distances on the way wolves would behave.  You generally don't see wolves up close and personal like unless they are extremely curious or hungry.  More often or not, they keep their distance, and as such, you might hear snapping twig, maybe see some sign, or hear them at a distance.

So I just find it easier to keep encounter distance abstract and just use a little logic 'on the fly' to set up the encounter.

I like that a fair bit. having a pretty basic close, medium, far, distant, could definitely work and be easily tailored to a given encounter. I can also curve it a bit by rolling distance on a d6, with 1 being close, 2-3 medium, 4-5 being far, and 6 being distant.

Combining that with surprise and reaction rolls as necessary, that seems like a pretty good system. I'll give that a shot for the next session.

One thing I would do is at least halve encounter frequency while the party are in camp. So if it's 2 in 6 for 4 hours travel, 1 in 6 for 4 hours camped. Days will typically be 12 hours travel (including breaks), 12 hours in camp.

Even at this frequency, in most areas you do definitely want a lot of encounters to be mundane/colour, like non-threatening wildlife and non-hostile road travellers.

You may want to either have separate Day & Night tables, using your preferred dice, or use a d% table with a modifier for night time rolls so that eg the bottom numbers are day only, top night only.

The advice about variable encounter distance, and using a Reaction table, is spot on.

Quote from: Zenoguy3 on February 16, 2024, 03:16:47 AM

Quote from: aganauton on February 16, 2024, 02:08:43 AM
I tend to keep encounter distance abstract ie. very close (right on top of you, surprise situation etc.) to very far.

Depending on the creature encountered, you have to fudge the rolls a little if you have exact distances, as in your example of a unicorn.

If the distance is abstract you can tailor the actual distance to the creature rolled.  Continuing with the example of the wolves.  I based my distances on the way wolves would behave.  You generally don't see wolves up close and personal like unless they are extremely curious or hungry.  More often or not, they keep their distance, and as such, you might hear snapping twig, maybe see some sign, or hear them at a distance.

So I just find it easier to keep encounter distance abstract and just use a little logic 'on the fly' to set up the encounter.

I like that a fair bit. having a pretty basic close, medium, far, distant, could definitely work and be easily tailored to a given encounter. I can also curve it a bit by rolling distance on a d6, with 1 being close, 2-3 medium, 4-5 being far, and 6 being distant.

Combining that with surprise and reaction rolls as necessary, that seems like a pretty good system. I'll give that a shot for the next session.

Now here is the fun part.

Adjust your encounter distance curve based upon the terrain.

Characters are in a thick forest.....weigh heavily to the close encounters.

Characters on a flat prairie.....weigh heavily to the medium distance encounters.

Characters on a ship on open water.....you get what I'm saying.

Ag

I have a index card box full of index cards with random encounters, NPC, and events.  I roll them with 2d6 and I have them broken down by how rare and how advantageous or perilous they are rating from 2 (very bad and very hard) to 12 (big win) with 7 being fairly mundane right in the middle.

Generally speaking, I don't like rolling random encounters during the session though.  I will roll up locations on the map with their encounters and establish the travel patterns with a time table for patrols and wandering monsters in my prep.  Part of the reason I like to do this is that I like to keep things rolling but the main reason is that I can look at all the encounters as a a whole tapestry and tweak things if need be to fit together.

I go the opposite route:  I have custom, small encounter tables for each location.  There may be one for wilderness in the hex, and then another one for top floor of the ruins in the hex, and then one for the fist section of a cave complex underneath, etc.

I always use 8 entries, numbered. It's 1d6 for daytime, 1d6+2 for night, with "day" and "night" meaning something different underground.  It's really "active" and "inactive" but since very few creatures in my world can see in the dark, that amounts to a day/night cycle. 

A typical entry would look something like this:

7. Wolves: tracks or remains of prey or howling in the distance; 1d6+3 pack stalking party; 1d6+6 pack stealing food.

When I get the 7 result, I stick to it.  If I have a pack encountered, I stick to the numbers.  Everything else is flavor and prompt for me to adjust on the situation.  So I don't necessarily do the encounters in that order.  I may repeat them.  The 1d6+6 pack might be more aggressive than stealing food because they are hungry and the stalkers might try to pick off a scout.

This is a little work to set up in a new region.  OTOH, I populate half the list of "wandering" monsters with creatures that have a fixed presence in the area.  So it really isn't that many new entries to come up with each time.  Plus I reuse some entries to kind of blend one area into the next. 

Finally, I give almost no experience for wandering monsters, and this is made explicit to the players.  So it's more the threat than the reality of them that keeps the players honest, which is their purpose after all.   

I've been obsessing over random encounters lately because I tried running them RAW (B/X) and didn't like the results.

Wrote a few posts about it, FWIW.

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/confused-wolves.html
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-becmi-reaction-table.html
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2024/01/wilderness-levels.html
https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-painful-procedure-of-random.html

I try not to codify too much in the random encounter table. It's too much to sort through during the session. Too many if-thens breaks the flow.

As others mentioned, I roll for distance sometimes and that usually helps crystalize the encounter.

But mostly I try to weave the encounter into what's happening at the moment. The situation dictates how the encounter starts. And since I can't predict the situation, the side effect is that I have to improvise and often I'm surprised as well.

In a recent example, the party was dillydallying at a branch to a side passage. Do we continue straight or take the left? I roll and it's ghouls. They could come from any of the 3 directions, back, front, or left, and I choose left. The party hears shuffling and moaning from the left side passage, so they quickly continue straight. Of course the ghouls follow, but the party has time to set an ambush. I could have chosen back or front for a very different encounter. Back? How did they follow us? Are we being stalked? Front would be traditional and maybe a little boring. Left seemed like a good choice to help the party make up their mind. On another day, I might have rolled for the approach direction. Bottom line, you can't prewrite all these options on a table.

I will also keep an encounter "in the air" until it makes sense. Just because I roll it, doesn't mean it has to happen immediately. It can happen round or even turn later, if that would make more sense. Again, how it starts is part of the art of running a game, IMO. The party has barricaded themselves in a room that has a small sewer hole in the floor. The roll is striges. Do they scratch against the door or fly up through the hole? Roll or decide.

Edit: I realize now you were talking mostly about wilderness. I would still try to fit the situation, as others have said with tracks etc., but you could also write a generalized sub-table, like: 1d6: 1. Minding own business, 2. Resting 3. Eating or hunting, 4. Special activity based on creature type, 5. Stalking or following party, 6. Ambush or hiding.  Of course, given the variety of creatures, you might have to ignore or reroll.

Thanks guys, I think the abstract distance roll, surprise roll, and reaction roll will meet my needs pretty well. I also like the idea of rolling less often when the party is resting, since they won't be actively running into anything. I don't think I'm going to apply any changes to the table day vs night, just because I think that'll throw off what I have set up already too much.

The thing you are looking for is "The HexFlower Cookbook" system. 

I found it on drivethrurpg for a few dollars.  I think the author had his own website too.
yep.  linky - https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/hex-power-flower/

The system lets you weight and/or tie events/selections based on a prior event/selection.

This allows events like weather to flow in a more logical progression.

Same with encounters, you can weight them, in order of increasing danger by location or time(#of rolls).

Good luck.

Well I am running Old School Essentials and since it's based on the B/X rules it has rules for when to roll for encounters.   It also comes with pretty detailed charts to roll against to determine what the players encounter.

The characters never know what they will run into and it makes life easy on me.