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Wednesday, May 13, 2015

(Very) Random Encounters in Context

Based on this discussion: LINK to Tenkar's Tavern

I don't prep.  I roll encounter dice and read 3s as evidence of activity if someone is tracking, 2s as obvious recent activity or tracks (what have you), and 1s as encounter events.

Next, I grab my Koplow dice, now dubbed Quisitor dice, comprised of a Greater Than/Less Than die and a Likelihood die, roll them together and determine if something actually happens.

After I know something happens, I roll two colour dice (red through violet) and use that to stimulate my imagination/understanding of the situation, taking terrain, time of day, season, etc. into account.

If the Quisitors give me a high likelihood of an event, and the colour dice suggest it is hostile, I then roll critter dice (again, Koplow), to impromptu create a type of thing to be encountered, doing away with the need for monster lists.

Then to determine strength of encounter, I roll a d20 or something that makes sense for circumstances, then in the ten seconds or so this process took, I ask the players to roll perception or initiative, etc. to then describe the results.