This is a question I've pondered over for quite a while and haven't really figured out how to go about this.
One of the major problems with my DMing is that whenever the players travel, there's a chance of random, completely plotless encounters, and this gets very dungeon-crawly and takes away from the immersion.
So I'm asking around, how do you make random encounters feel more like actual encounters and less like they're in a video game and have to kill something to move on?
How to make Random Encounters interesting
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Siberys
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How to make Random Encounters interesting
Listen up maggots, Mr. Popo's 'bout to teach you the pecking order.
It goes you, the dirt, the worms inside of the dirt, Popo's stool, Kami, then Popo.
~Mr. Popo, Dragonball Z Abridged
It goes you, the dirt, the worms inside of the dirt, Popo's stool, Kami, then Popo.
~Mr. Popo, Dragonball Z Abridged
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Nymie_the_Pooh
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I think the way to make random encounters work is to change one element that you mentioned. The completely plotless part. Find a way to either tie the random encounter into a plot point or make it a start for a new story thread. If you can't work the random encounter into an existing plot or think you want it to go somewhere then drop it. If you roll up something that seems out of place treat it as nothing of consequence occurs.
My experience has been that players create enough randomness on their own. If they don't then I definitely do. I never needed random encounters outside of games like Warhammer Quest or some other system that is set up to run without a gamemaster.
If you want to use random encounters it might be best to figure out your intended story first. Make a random encounter table using events that can be done out of sequence which build on the overall story you have planned. It can also help if these events are not necessary to reach the intended end story, but build upon it instead so if they aren't used or if the players fail then they don't fail at the final goal because they missed a random encounter. If you roll one thing but another seems more appropriate for that moment then use it. Between sessions as you remove events that were used add new ones based on things that tie directly to what the players have already done if anything comes to mind.
Another option is to have stories that the players aren't part of. Create random encounters that work as hints to those stories. This can be tied to history, something happening a couple of kingdoms away, every day occurrences, or anything else you can think up. These random encounters can help to give the players the perspective that there are things going on in the world that have nothing to do with them. The tricky part here is to ensure that they are minor events locally speaking unless you want to use these encounters to plant suggestions for future sessions, but that is what the ideas in the last paragraph were for.
The reason to keep these minor, and varied if possible is that these are places where the PCs' story bumps into stories from other places in the world. If one theme comes across too strong the players may feel that a story they are not part of overshadows them. I'm not saying that the players should have the biggest story, but it is their book so the current story should focus on them.
Expanding on this you could have some region specific random encounters. If you look at the campaigns for a game like Descent each location has a danger level and that affects the random encounter. Maybe the players are traveling through Orc country so having more encounters with Orcs makes sense. Roaming bands of Orcs and bandits may be a less likely occurence on patrolled roads, but patrols are much more likely.
I wouldn't combine all these into one table, but instead have a check for if a random encounter happens or not. If one does then pick a random encounter table or roll for it. This can easily get out of hand so I would probably stick to story created encounters myself and make up on the spot things like coming across a party of Orcs if it seems appropriate.
Again, you don't need random encounters, but if you want them then write your own and throw out any that you aren't feeling. Is there a large populace of people that are migrating? Have one of the random encounters be running into a camp of these people as they are on the move. Tolkien did this in the Lord of the Rings by having Frodo intersect with some Elves leaving Middle Earth. The Elves were moving on in mass, but we only saw one such camp in the books. The random encounter was used once to illustrate something that is happening in the world at large, then taken off the table as it didn't need visited again. This was one of the things Tolkien did to show that there was more to Middle Earth beyond just the landscape as there are many bits of history that pop up along with encounters like this one.
I can't tell you what to add as I don't know the story your group is telling nor do I know your world. If you want random encounters to mean something they have to tie to something tangible within the fiction that is being created. Otherwise you are better off completely ignoring random encounters.
So to sum up, figure out your primary story and what is going on in the world at large outside of your players' group. Make your own random encounters based on things tied to these two categories. Anything that means failure to the end of the campaign needs to be removed from random encounters. In fact, you may need to rework things to make certain that nothing at all can mean absolute failure in the end even though things should impact chances of success at the end. Anything that feel like it may overshadow the players should either be removed, or have some smaller events written that hint at the bigger thing. While random events can hint at bigger things, the bigger things should not be easily accessible unless you want to give the players the option of pursuing that path.
My experience has been that players create enough randomness on their own. If they don't then I definitely do. I never needed random encounters outside of games like Warhammer Quest or some other system that is set up to run without a gamemaster.
If you want to use random encounters it might be best to figure out your intended story first. Make a random encounter table using events that can be done out of sequence which build on the overall story you have planned. It can also help if these events are not necessary to reach the intended end story, but build upon it instead so if they aren't used or if the players fail then they don't fail at the final goal because they missed a random encounter. If you roll one thing but another seems more appropriate for that moment then use it. Between sessions as you remove events that were used add new ones based on things that tie directly to what the players have already done if anything comes to mind.
Another option is to have stories that the players aren't part of. Create random encounters that work as hints to those stories. This can be tied to history, something happening a couple of kingdoms away, every day occurrences, or anything else you can think up. These random encounters can help to give the players the perspective that there are things going on in the world that have nothing to do with them. The tricky part here is to ensure that they are minor events locally speaking unless you want to use these encounters to plant suggestions for future sessions, but that is what the ideas in the last paragraph were for.
The reason to keep these minor, and varied if possible is that these are places where the PCs' story bumps into stories from other places in the world. If one theme comes across too strong the players may feel that a story they are not part of overshadows them. I'm not saying that the players should have the biggest story, but it is their book so the current story should focus on them.
Expanding on this you could have some region specific random encounters. If you look at the campaigns for a game like Descent each location has a danger level and that affects the random encounter. Maybe the players are traveling through Orc country so having more encounters with Orcs makes sense. Roaming bands of Orcs and bandits may be a less likely occurence on patrolled roads, but patrols are much more likely.
I wouldn't combine all these into one table, but instead have a check for if a random encounter happens or not. If one does then pick a random encounter table or roll for it. This can easily get out of hand so I would probably stick to story created encounters myself and make up on the spot things like coming across a party of Orcs if it seems appropriate.
Again, you don't need random encounters, but if you want them then write your own and throw out any that you aren't feeling. Is there a large populace of people that are migrating? Have one of the random encounters be running into a camp of these people as they are on the move. Tolkien did this in the Lord of the Rings by having Frodo intersect with some Elves leaving Middle Earth. The Elves were moving on in mass, but we only saw one such camp in the books. The random encounter was used once to illustrate something that is happening in the world at large, then taken off the table as it didn't need visited again. This was one of the things Tolkien did to show that there was more to Middle Earth beyond just the landscape as there are many bits of history that pop up along with encounters like this one.
I can't tell you what to add as I don't know the story your group is telling nor do I know your world. If you want random encounters to mean something they have to tie to something tangible within the fiction that is being created. Otherwise you are better off completely ignoring random encounters.
So to sum up, figure out your primary story and what is going on in the world at large outside of your players' group. Make your own random encounters based on things tied to these two categories. Anything that means failure to the end of the campaign needs to be removed from random encounters. In fact, you may need to rework things to make certain that nothing at all can mean absolute failure in the end even though things should impact chances of success at the end. Anything that feel like it may overshadow the players should either be removed, or have some smaller events written that hint at the bigger thing. While random events can hint at bigger things, the bigger things should not be easily accessible unless you want to give the players the option of pursuing that path.
Plotless encounters aren't bad, per se, as not everything that happens in the world is tied to the overarching plot. Depending on the setting & location, the ubiquitious (sp?) bandit gang is a viable encounter.
Just don't stick too much to the DMG's encounter percentages. If you deem that a certain region is perfectly safe, well, no encounters then.
The way I go about this, is by designing the campagin in (small) chapters, which are selfcontained stories. Once I got the story, I think about which parts are viable encounters. (Obstacles, social battle, combat, research/puzzle,...) If I find that after filling out those, that there isn't enough action in the chapter or that the players won't have gained enough XP*, I'll add in "random" encounters. These can be the aforementioned bandit gang trying to rob the heavily armed travelers (silly bandits
), or the voracious wildlife, or a marauding enemy.
I do take note when the players enjoy interacting with a particular group/NPC/monster, as I tend to incorporate those in one of the sidequests or even the mainquest later on.
Long story short: check beforehand how many encounters you'd like to run, and if the story doesn't provide enough, weave in random ones, as long as those make sense.
XP* = As we can only play thrice a month max, the players like to level each session. It's an arbitrary yardstick, so YMMV.
Just don't stick too much to the DMG's encounter percentages. If you deem that a certain region is perfectly safe, well, no encounters then.
The way I go about this, is by designing the campagin in (small) chapters, which are selfcontained stories. Once I got the story, I think about which parts are viable encounters. (Obstacles, social battle, combat, research/puzzle,...) If I find that after filling out those, that there isn't enough action in the chapter or that the players won't have gained enough XP*, I'll add in "random" encounters. These can be the aforementioned bandit gang trying to rob the heavily armed travelers (silly bandits
), or the voracious wildlife, or a marauding enemy.I do take note when the players enjoy interacting with a particular group/NPC/monster, as I tend to incorporate those in one of the sidequests or even the mainquest later on.
Long story short: check beforehand how many encounters you'd like to run, and if the story doesn't provide enough, weave in random ones, as long as those make sense.
XP* = As we can only play thrice a month max, the players like to level each session. It's an arbitrary yardstick, so YMMV.
The more you role-play the random characters the more it will seem real to you and thus to your players. If you need random plot ideas on the spot, I have found Chaotic Shiny to be very helpful there. If you believe in your NPC's then your players will too. Make them real, believe in them and role play them and they will work wonders even though they are "meaningless".
Here's an example: One common random wilderness encounter is with merchants. Now, the players might not have any money and a merchant encounter seems pointless, but its not pointless to the merchants! They have a purpose in mind and if you have trouble coming up with those details, there is a merchant creator in Chaotic Shiny that will instantly spark ideas and thus motivations for your merchants. Armed with these ideas and motivations you role play the merchants as if they are real people.
Here's an example: One common random wilderness encounter is with merchants. Now, the players might not have any money and a merchant encounter seems pointless, but its not pointless to the merchants! They have a purpose in mind and if you have trouble coming up with those details, there is a merchant creator in Chaotic Shiny that will instantly spark ideas and thus motivations for your merchants. Armed with these ideas and motivations you role play the merchants as if they are real people.
Favorite online game: World of Dungeons