A random encounter table doesn't have to be a chore for a party in D&D, so follow these tips and tricks to set one up.

Random encounters are a subject of some contention in the Dungeons & Dragons community. On one hand, entire campaigns have been run based on a string of random encounters. On the other hand, campaigns are often played through without involving a single one. What really are random encounters, and what do they have to offer our games of D&D?

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We'll look to answer this question by examining how to properly build a random encounter table. This is the resource by which random encounters get their name. Otherwise, they would just be encounters. It consists of a number of pregenerated encounters that the DM (Dungeon Master) plans to occur based on a dice roll, usually used during periods of travel, over the course of short or long rests in a dangerous environment, and when the game suddenly needs some added excitement.

At their most basic level, random encounters are decided by the probabilities of the tables in which they are featured. For example, a random encounter table based on rolling a d12 and a d8 will have over an eight percent chance of turning up the numbers nine through 13. Meanwhile, both the one and 20 results will only occur around one percent of the time. Consequently, it makes sense to assign encounters to these numbers that are less likely to happen.Examples of these rarer foes might include a dragon passing overhead, the PCs (player characters) stumbling into a unicorn's grove, or the sudden discovery of a magic item. Meanwhile, more common encounters should be assigned to the more commonly rolled numbers which could be passing other travelers on the road, being suddenly attacked by a pack of wolves, or running across a group of bandits. Assigning random encounters to sensible probabilities adds verisimilitude to your game world and helps the adventure come to life.

If you're planning to use random encounters in your game, you should be ready to make or use tables for all kinds of different environments. Random encounters are one of the best tools to bring your world to life, but only when they're set for the environment your PCs are exploring. After all, it wouldn't make much sense for the PCs to run into wolves when they're sailing aboard a merchant ship. Of course, they could always be some kind of weird shark wolves, but that's besides the point.

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You want to build your random encounter tables with the goal of filling them with creatures, NPCs, and other challenges that would exist inside of the environment the table portrays. For instance, a random encounter table for ocean travel might include pirate ships, other merchant vessels, and braving bad storms as more common encounters, and running into a kraken, encountering a whirlpool, or passing by a coral reef home to a tribe of friendly tritons as rare encounters.

As you might have noticed in the examples already mentioned, you want to spice up your random encounter tables with a variety of scenarios. If all of your random encounters are as simple as the PCs engaging in combat with some monsters, you'll find that your battles begin to get a little stale.

It's better to pepper your tables with social encounters, combat encounters, skill challenges and chases, environmental hazards or traps, and whatever other cool discoveries your beautiful brain might come up with. Your players will thank you for the added variety, and they'll never quite know what to expect when a random encounter pops up.

Random encounters really are one of the best ways to build out your world. Running into the bandits who have been savaging the local baron's roads is a lot more exciting and memorable than hearing some NPCs talk about it (though this is a good method of foreshadowing), and a random encounter table is perfect for these kinds of opportunities.

Tables for certain areas can provide you with talking subjects for NPCs that live in the same area. If there's a small chance of encountering a young green dragon in the nearby forest, it's likely that at least one person living in the town has already come across it. Perhaps this very encounter is what led to an NPC's reputation as the town drunkard, who continues to prophesy the town's doom by green wings above roiling poisonous clouds.

A common complaint about random encounters is that they get in the way of the primary narrative. In other words, they are meaningless battles or social interactions that interrupt the development of the plot. While poorly executed random encounters can certainly lead to such feelings, they don't have to distract from the primary narrative. In fact, they're the perfect way to add more depth and consequence to whatever the main plot might be.

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Taking the plot of Curse of Strahd as an example, players running across vampire spawn in the woods is a random encounter that directly results from Strahd's vampirism plaguing the land. If it weren't for Strahd's ownership over all Barovia, there wouldn't be vampire spawn preying on people and beasts just outside town. Additionally, one of these vampire spawn might have been in Castle Ravenloft once before. Perhaps they know something about a room inside of the castle and can warn the players of its dangers. Assuming they are properly persuaded, of course.

Many players claim that you should balance random encounters appropriately for the adventuring party exploring the area. However, this completely destroys the feeling that your world is a real place. If the level three PCs decide to explore the Valley of Ash, where cultists summon demons and devils to plague the land, they should be warned of its dangers by other NPCs before going — and those dangers should be properly presented when they arrive.

We're not saying that you need to TPK (total party kill) for a bad decision, but the world shouldn't change based on their decisions. In fact, a great D&D world functions in the exact opposite way. The PC decisions should be informed from and shaped by the world presented to them. So, when your brave adventurers inevitably run into a deadly encounter, think about how it might become a social encounter, or maybe even a memorable chase. Once the PCs are better equipped and more experienced, the day they run into this monster again will be all the sweeter.

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Chris Stomberg is an avid gamer of all kinds. Board games, card games, tabletop games, video games: if its a game, it will pique his interest. Chris has written anchor stories for news broadcasts, modules for his D&D group, and is currently working on his first novel. His hobbies outside of gaming include yoga, reading, bar hopping, and spending time with friends old and new.