I hold my hands up. Since I started gaming over 20 years ago I only ever used random encounter charts for the first three years of GMing. Of all the game mechanics that seem to crop up in almost every system this has to be the one that has got me most annoyed.

Vegas Decker@Flickr

It’s not even the kind of annoyance where I would be angry at something or someone. It’s that kind of annoyance where you’ve just spent days building a bookshelf for your bedroom only to that it doesn’t quite fit all your books. It’s minor in the grand scheme of things but it’s going to be there for a long long time.

I have always enjoyed the fact that both as a player and a GM I’ve never had to suffer the “oh it’s been 10 minutes of game time I must roll some dice to work out what’s going to happen next” moments. Don’t get me wrong the occasional secret skill check by the DM works great but the structured approach to random encounters that most systems encourage is beyond me.

Taking them out completely isn’t an option for me either. I actually like the supposed randomness the idea can give to gaming sessions if you’ll believe that or not. It’s the ‘regular’ rolling of dice I despise as it turns the game into a series of turns. That’s fine when it comes to combat but for general play it’s to much of a hindrance for me at times.

So how did I every get around this part of the mechanics? For a couple of years I had a small computer program that produced a page full of random numbers from whatever dice you chose to roll. I coupled this with maps that had specific points where an encounter ‘roll’ would take place rather than at set times during the game. It did mean that if a group stayed at one point they shouldn’t come across any enemy until they moved off if they had already encountered something whilst there but these were flaws I was willing to live with.

Having the number sheet meant I could keep the game flowing without stopping for dice rolls every time I needed to check something. If they group needed a check traps roll then I marked off the next number on the percentile page and any time I needed to roll for awareness or a similar skill the players need never know that they failed. I did love the effect of randomly rolling a dice during dungeon crawls and watching the players panic though.

These days I’m not as much of a fan of this method but I’m struggling to find a happy medium that stops never ending dice rolling outside of combat and keeps the secret rolls from the players. Any ideas people?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

It’s a big hat…it’s funny…

Over the years I’ve threatened player groups with super baddies and the occasional grumpy vampire on Speed but I’ve never followed through with failed attempts at taking out these baddies. It’s always came down to the Final Battle™ and that was it. If the enemy survived to fight another day they never came back for another bite unless it was going to end the same way.

I’d never really thought about it until I looked out of my window to see the local wildlife sneaking up on an unsuspecting friend and jump him from behind. I’m assured it was all in jest despite the screams of @I’ll kill you for that’ coming from the victim. How often do you ever have your players hunted by a competent assassin?

When I say competent I really do mean one that actually could end the life of a player should the dice roll well and the player doesn’t take adequate protection.

It’s my random thought for Friday night.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The kids in my street are worrying me. I think it is a general thing worldwide but I’ve just started to notice it now in the UK. Kids just have no concept of money.

I caught the kids playing with D&D miniatures in the street last night on my way home from work. Nothing wrong with that you might think. And you’d be correct in thinking that. What gets me is how they were playing with them though.

When you buy miniatures you realise they are expensive and take care of them. If they are bought unpainted you spend hours painstakingly painting every single individual link in it’s chainmail and personalising its livery. You carry them about in a lined carry case or at worst wrap them in toilet paper and put them in amongst your dice. Even the prepainted models you look after because you know how expensive they are in the long run.

These kids were throwing them off walls, chucking stones at them and generally doing everything a child would do with toy soldiers. The obvious problem with this is these are not your £1 green plastic soldiers. They weren’t even the slightly more expensive £5 for 20 model soldiers from the local model plane/boat/tank shop. These were from the £8 D&D blister packs and they had about 50 of them all over the street in various states of disrepair.

A few of them are possibly a bit young for roleplay games but some of my stepsons friends might be about the right age to start getting into it. They already play the collectible card games so the step up might not be that big for them.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!