Random Encounters

Following are some random encounter tables I’ll be working on off and on as time permits. If anyone would like to help out with these just post a note on the boards.

Quote PRD: “At times during a game when you’re looking to liven things up (perhaps during a long overland journey, or maybe when the party’s decided to camp in a dangerous dungeon), you can use the following encounter tables to randomly generate monster encounters. These tables do not include all of the monsters in this book—likewise, they don’t cover all possible locations the PCs might find themselves in during the course of a game, but you can use these tables as models for generating additional encounter tables of your own design. Note that each of the following tables has been assigned a CR score—this indicates the average difficulty of the encounters that can be rolled up on the table. A CR 4 encounter table works well when challenging a group of 4th level PCs, for example.”

With that above information I will be incorporating the core tables as well as adding additional information and events.

First, it is important to understand the goal of these tables. They generate random unimportant events as well as dangerous encounters. Events can be mundane occurrences, changes in weather, strange things found on a road or trail, harmless pilgrims, or terrible demons and the GM is encouraged to use these rolls as starting points to encounters or simply thought provokers. In some cases the details are fully provided while in others only a scrap of information is given. In those cases the GM should decide for himself how that scrap can be most interesting to his players.

Second, it is important to determine how frequently one should check for encounters. This is often a matter of taste or simply something the GM can do at a slow point in a session or to liven up travel from one point to another. A GM can roll for random encounters during a session or between sessions when preparing for the next game.

Terrain	Note
Desert	Choose Desert for any very hot terrain/climate.
Forest/Jungle	Choose Forest/Jungle for any heavily wooded or forested terrain.
Hills/Mountains	Choose Hills/Mountains for any terrain with hills or mountains. Hills or mountains may also be wooded.
Marsh/Swamp	Choose Marsh/Swamp for any swamp-like terrain.
Plains	Choose Plains for any relatively flat or mostly flat and open terrain.
Urban	Choose Urban if PC’s are in a city or town.
Subterranean	Choose Subterranean if PC’s are underground, whether in a natural cavern or dungeon.
Marine	Choose Marine if PC’s are on a boat or ship, whether in an ocean, sea, lake, or river.
Aquatic	Choose Aquatic if PC’s are adventuring underwater.