Make Random Encounters Matter || DnD Narrative Tools 

Your failing forward causing encounters advice is absolutely the best. I use that all the time to great effect. Framing the scene as "do you make it up the rocks before the spiders come?" Is tense and great. Don't forget to describe success in that case as spiders still come but the party can either keep going or bait their former hunters into being prey!

Warehouse. A house that stores wares. Werehouse. A house that can transform into a humanoid under certain conditions. Wherehouse. A house that takes you places.

I got better at random encounters by not deviating from the tables in the ToA adventure. Once the players had gotten the same encounters multiple times instead of rolling again or using a different table or ignoring them, I started to frame each encounter in a different way. The creatures might be feeding and ignoring the party, but the party might have to waste time going around the area to avoid a fight. The creatures might be running from something bigger, and the players might need to run or get caught by whatever is coming (I had one where a bunch of axe beaks were running away from a group of velociraptors). The creatures might be dead, and there might be some useful information about what lurks nearby if the players stop and examine what happened. For non-combat encounters an NPC they met previously on a random might be captured by an enemy. A stash of gold might be getting looted by bandits. You can even roll twice and use that for an idea to combine the two, but try to avoid the players having to avoid fighting a double encounter by having one of the encounters subdued, non-hostile, or roleplay. I don't consider planned encounters to be random. I still enjoy rolling on tables because some really memorable moments come out of something neither I nor the players were expecting.

sometimes, if the PC's have entered a large structure, I will have the planned encounters be in "flexible" locations. like, instead of assigning room 23 to be the kobolds sleeping room, it's the first room of 20x30' the PC's enter. and so forth. I also do this for overland travel quirks that hint at forgotten civilizations.

I used my first real random encounter to fill in the haunted forest my party is going though. The banshee looked like an elf and when someone tried to detect thoughts, they heard her screaming the name of the Druid lich that did this to her. It was a good encounter that was 100% built on a random generator and a bad encounter roll.

Love the stuff about using encounters related to failing skill checks. This makes way more sense than the rogue "breaking the lockpick in the keyhole" every single time.

You make a great point about the emerging story. I love it when the players gain some knowledge or even an item that I never intended them to have. Sometimes this has completely changed the course of the campaign, which my players have noticed and really seem to enjoy.

Another way to use random encounters is to encourage the players to do something about a growing threat. Goblins raiding a farming village? "Not our problem." say the players. So the goblins grow in number and now the PCs can't go three steps without running into a goblin raiding party. Suddenly it is their problem.

Appreciate the tips. Coming from a long term DM, you're tips are not something that I would've thought of as a new DM

This is great! Why do you only have deadly and hard encounters? Why not give opportunities for the players to feel their strength through quick under leveled encounters?

You deserve millions of subscribers I truly mean that - thank you for the effort you put into these videos

I love your take on random encounters. I have been a DM for about 5 years, altho I have had to take off a significant amount of time for health reasons. I love that I learn something from every DM I play with. It may be what not to do, but it always makes me better. This video was what to do. Very cool.

Another awesome video THANK U

I honestly just did random encounters to give players XP and they love it

Hi Zipperon! I have a question about using the calendar. How exactly do you do this? You have days and when something happens you write it there? Or do you have events prescribed on days that they are sort of waiting to happen? I did not get it perhaps because of my english but I think using calendar might help my game. Thank you :-)

Thanks for sharing! I really liked what you said at 5:10 about "joy of discovery"! I've blended that with "foreshadowing" by intermittently presenting navigation choices that elude to which random encounters lie ahead. For example, as the PCs travel south along the river bank they come to a choice between the steep bluff with an aarakocra statue at the pinnacle overlooking the river OR the mist-shrouded valley trail with two emerald green lanterns glowing dimly within. Which way do they want to go?

Would you be willing to post your full excel document? I like the idea, but I'm having trouble formatting one for myself in a way that makes sense.

Less than 3 minutes in, and already I’ve gotten gold from it!

Totally agree, it’s easy to frustrate players when they feel like an encounter is just spinning wheels. Really into the idea of progressing the world with each one but if a house teleported me away from the action without a plot reason I’d get annoyed tbh. Also what’s up with all the tie-dye?

Nice video. Any plan on doing another 5e classes evolution videos? In the line of "Evolution of the Fighter: DnD Next to 5e"? I really enjoyed!

Are you familiar with the AngryGM? I find that you two agree on a lot of points. Not saying either one is plagiarizing the other, but you might find some other intersting ideas on his blog, seeing how a lot of your content already coincides with his.

God the inclusion of random monster table for random encounters is the biggest issue with the communities perceptions of random encounters. Making "random" situations occur is a much better idea. Just like you said, they expose things about the world that people who sit in town and behind the safety of civilization couldn't know. Now the party are the ones speaking rumors and they can effectively trade information with other folk who wander the uncivilized places of the world.

Hey, where'd your USMC bling go?