Encounters do not necessarily equal combat! Yes, players may choose to fight, but roleplaying outcomes perhaps are more useful. Can the players bargain, charm, recruit, trick, or evade encounters? Plus, if characters kill humans they meet, how will local law enforcement react? The results of the player’s actions could lead the campaign in interesting ways.
Many of these encounters are with events, not NPCs or creatures. High strangeness, or fire burning down a town, or an army besieging a town, are entirely appropriate to game play. Any of these can call for fast thinking, problem solving, and teamwork.
Encounters are best used when play slows down, or players’ attention is wandering. So, arrange a random encounter twice a day, one in the day, and once at night. You can spring additional random encounters on players when it seems appropriate, just to keep them figuring out your schedule. Don’t let them get comfortable!
You could randomly roll what time of day or night an encounter begins, but it probably would work better if you simply decide and work it into your narrative.
If you roll a result that makes no sense for a given location, or doesn’t fit your narrative, jump to the next result, or roll again. The game master has a lot of leeway in what happens when. Encounters are not meant to disrupt game play, but enhance it.
Encounters do not include legendary beings or unique characters, because those should be arranged by the game master, not randomly. The legendary and unique characters and beings are there for pre-planned, purposeful encounters, and it is the game master who decides when their appearance is appropriate.
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