Random encounters should not feel random

In a video game where it only takes a minute to resolve an encounter, it’s no issue. But for a TTRPG session that took a month of WhatsApp messages to get five adults in the same room, nobody wants a bad roll on a random encounter table to chew up a half-hour of precious game time.

To respect every player’s time, a mindful TTRPG session should be a purposeful, curated experience, even when the Game Master decides to roll on a seemingly random table.

For most encounter tables, the possibilities reflect the environment — zombies in the swamp, bears in the cave, yetis in the snow — but even that doesn’t feel curated enough. Because when the players defeat the random bears in the cave, we haven’t really advanced the story, we’ve just survived the story. That’s not drama.

Instead, this system advocates for relevant encounters rather than random encounters. Regardless of whether the players are faced with a wandering monster or a roleplaying challenge, every option on your encounter table should be specifically curated for the adventure and always geared towards exposition.

Contents

• An original system for populating an encounter table in a way that addresses the purpose of your campaign
• A template for five kinds of relevant encounters

And check out this video related to the PDF