Make your 2d6 Random Encounter Tables WAY BETTER! 

I've started not to use random encounter tables during the play. Instead I roll several entries from them beforehand, and then think of complications and terrain features etc. at my leisure. Then whenever I need a random encounter I just cross the first one from the list and use that. I find this easier for myself because this way I don't have to come up with everything on the spot, and have the time to add a little extra to the encounter to elevate it.

haven’t seen a single comment mention how he pronounced “wyvern” which really speaks to the quality of content he’s putting out. Tips so good they extinguish the classic nerd’s desire for pedantry

I really like the idea of using a d6 on a longer list, and sliding on the list to adjust difficulty! That's brilliant!

For 2dX tables you can have the middle curve be no encounter. This keeps rare and common encounters without having such a high chance of the same ones being rolled, and makes it so they party isn't just attacked constantly when traveling.

I've never used random encounter tables based on the level of the characters. I just have them based on the region and fill in creatures that would live in that kind of climate. I also never adjust them to make them challenging either. There are push over encounters, hard deadly just depends on what's rolled and the level of the characters. If I want it to be more deadly, and if fits the narrative, then I beef it up. I think this obsession with balanced encounters is really blown out of proportion.

Great idea about d6 on a bigger table. About the encounters..I recently discovered a method watching a livestream of Chris McDowall. You came up with 4 nouns for a location like a forest. (1. Tree 2. Leaves 3. Stream 4. Bandits) Than you make all combinations (1. Tree Leaves, 2. Tree Stream, 3. Tree bandits ... ) and come up with ideas like 1. A fallen tree on the road 2. A Treant crossing the stream 3. Bandits hiding in a tree and so on. It's a really great method.

Brilliant. In 22 years I’ve never thought of a sliding scale -not only for difficulty but for proximity. This is a …game changer (pun intended)

I've never used the 2d6 bell curve model, so I didn't realize that this was a problem that other DMs dealt with. My preference is the d12 for encounter tables (mainly because that die is so underused in the rest of the game), which I think would work for your model even though you recommended against it. When my PCs reach a certain level, I like to add a single "cakewalk" entry to the tables, representing the encounters that are too easy to challenge them, but would still be present in a given hex (i.e., bandits and wild animals) while still minimizing their probability to about 8% of the time. Generally serves as a means to let PCs cut loose and revel in their power gains. Combining that with your model, I'd use the "cakewalk" entry to collect the entries that "fall off the list". The separate Behavior and Complication tables for narrative prompts are a great idea, too. Usually I just wing it on the fly, but I end up leaning too often on a few go-to options if I'm not careful.

I added a threat level to a dungeon that depending on how PCs played increased the chance to get harder encounters. I used 1d10 + 1d4 per level of threat level. This sliding scale of random encounters is great

Excellent work Baron. I’m so happy RU-vid’s algorithm put you on my feed. I think you’ve gotten the fastest “subscribed” out of me. Please keep this up if you can your POV on this stuff is so on point that I never even thought about a lot of this and has really expanded my take on DMing. Thank you. It’s like the whole you don’t know what you don’t know and now I’m getting enlightened on it.

I really dig the proximity encounter tables. That's a pretty great idea to add different encounters without making entirely new lists.

I came up in 1st ed AD&D, which predated the d20 system. I learned to build encounter tables based on “percentile dice” using 2d20. The dice at the time only had single digits (bold was used to differentiate single numbers from teens), so rolling “0 1” = 1 and “0 0” = 100. Asking myself the probability of a particular encounter allows me to build the tables rather easily (though today I use 2d10 instead the old d20’s).

i was shocked to learn how frequently the most common encounters occur on a 2d6 table, but i still like the idea of a weighted random encounter table so i can use the classic dragon entry on 2. so i started playing with dice combinations and found that by rolling dice of non equal number of sides, the bell curve can be flattened out to more reasonably spread probabilities across the range. my gut sense is that 1d6+1d8 is the best combination; only have to come up with 13 table entries, and the 3 most common values are 7, 8, and 9, each equally likely and combining for a total 36% chance of being rolled. Essentially, a little over one of every 3 random encounters is one of those 3 most common, and the other two thirds of the time it rolls a rarer encounter. note that increasing the difference between the number of sides of the dice (eg 1d4+1d8 or 1d6+1d12) results in a wider plateau of equally most common encounters and increasingly flatter bell curves.

I like the idea. I just subscribed a few day ago and have not been disappointed. This seems like a good way to keep mixing things up. It would be fun to roll a d8 at higher levels so the party can know that brigands still roam about.

Super helpful - clear and concise ideas. I was getting waaaay too complicated with my tables. When you started talking about sub-tables...let's just say I felt that.

I use the bell curve to determine if an encounter happens. Then a straight roll table to determine what happens. Many times the bell is useful.

The bell curve distribution "problem" only occurs, if you use multiple dice. Using a single dice/die yields the same probability for each number. So just use 1d12 instead of 2d6. If you aim for a linear distribution of probability and therefore only use a single die/dice, the downside is, you can only have a result of 1 with that single dice. But the points mentioned are absolutely valid and spot on. The more dice you use, the more evenly the probability of possible values will be distributed. So just use 12d2 instead of 2d6 for a value range of 12-24 therefore also having 12 possible slots to assign encounters to. Apply the same method to increase dice count and spread out probability.

Damn, this approach to random tables really adds a new level of inspiration! I would love to see more tables you made!

Combining the bell curve table with shifting the table based on proximity to a location would simulate types of encounters being more common closer to their usual habitat while still allowing them the possibility of wandering far from home. Plus what another commenter said about having the most common results being no encounter would be quite interesting. Also just because the results are skewed doesn’t mean it isn’t randomly determined

I have watched at least 8 of your videos and I have to say you are unacceptably good at them. Seriously. You need more subscribers.

Woow, you really are the Master. Behaviour and complications make that the encounters feels like real. Very nice tip.

I have always used (d100) % and created the odds around what I wanted to be random and what I wanted to be limited in randomness. This eliminates the standard bell curve. On Those limited randomly generated rolls, branches are created with similar generated (%)’s This pushes the randomness even further. Matrix tables can than be generated so that the players are not burdened with the math.

Echoing some others, I'll often put "no encounter" at the heart of my 2dX tables if the party is on a main road/not in dangerous territory. Another quick and easy way I add flavor and nearly *double* my number of potential outputs is by putting specific encounters on the even numbers and having different results if the dice rolled are odd or even. For instance, if the party is near a well of necromantic power and another faction of say, kobolds is also in the area, I can put skeletons as #6 on a 2d6 table. If I roll 1/5 or 3/3, then the skeletons are normal, whereas a 2/4 roll means they are now kobold skeletons! Quick and dirty monster flavor or even their temperament and reactions to the heroes on the fly.

Very grateful to have come across your video! My next campaign is exploration focused, so your advice gave clarity on how to create enjoyable and diverse random encounters; something I've been struggling with the last couple of weeks. Thanks much for sharing your thoughts!

Damn, this is great advice, but I just spent like a whole afternoon yesterday populating a cascading series of d20 tables lol. I guess this is for my next random encounter region. Love the "local lairing beast" concept. It helps to give a sense of danger to an area.

I do appreciate having a Disposition angle for random encounters. Hoblins rooting around for food (but otherwise neutral to the party) are potential allies if you offer food. I did wonder about your random encounter table having things like Grifting for Gold as an option that non-sapient beings would have, but you made a point about innovating that with the Broken Wing Wyvern example. Just handwave a Sudden Enemy Necromancer NEARBY which alters the stakes considerably. (in my example, I guess the wolves can speak now. "Hey. We've been cursed. Only if a hero stout of heart pays us a gold apiece are we freed!") Excellent video! A good and thoughtful demonstration of how to run fun random encounters.

I always liked random encounter tables, but its been so long I can't recall any specifics about how they were set up in the game systems I played (D&D of the 70's and early 80's, TSR Marvel Superheroes and Mayfair DC Heroes of the early and mid 80's). What I do remember is that Marvel's random character generating tables were so fun I think I tied it into a random encounter set-up (whether my own or theirs is lost to the sands of time). Great to see so much thought and effort put into it. An nice little trip down memory lane; thank you.

That proximity idea is brilliant! I am happy I found this channel, you have many great ideas that are new to me. Edit: The added behavior and complication idea is also great! I am not sure I totally understand the major threat part. Would that be a 4th column?

Awesome video man! I have been DM'ing for some time now and have come to a phase where I've become so comfortable with the role, that I now start to challenge some of my newbie habbits to try and weed out some of the things I do that might be a little boring. And I love the way this challenges the simple random encounter tables that I find in the modules that I have relied so heavily on. So thanks for rocking the foundation for my understanding of DM resources, and for expanding my ability to do a "generated" narrative plug ^^

The nearest major enemy addition is also brilliant. Whether it is per dungeon level or per hex on a world overview map, having some major, known or unknown, antagonistic entity/leader is absolute gold! What fun this is! My DM gears are turning! Thanks for the video!

A system I trial ran was a kind of escalation. As the players did more stuff in a warlord's domain it got her attention. Manifesting in harder and scarier events like hunting parties, traps, and maybe even one of her lieutenants. In rules you just add the 'escalation value' to any random event roll. Bonus points if you have certain abilities to play with escalation. By having a powerful spell add to it or a way to try and dial it down.

I scratched the surface of D&D 35 years ago and it's fascinating how it still excites people today. Watching your videos brings back some memories and, tbh leaves some itching to undust my bag of dice.

And here I am playing with flow charts. I definitely agree with the premise, but I don't like being constrained to only a handful of encounters. I want to be able to represent my entire world in a set of tables that anyone can use without any input from me. Oddly, for such radically different approaches, there are a lot of things we do similarly, like the "nearest major entity" entry, which (naturally) for me spills into a separate table for the faction associated with that entity. That way I know that this isn't just any kobold encounter, this is a pack of kobolds dragging sacks of gold back to their dragon leader, with appropriate rewards and consequences.

you're crushing this, man. incredible vids.

Love your content. Just found it last week, and finally subbed. :) Thanks for the work!

I also use the three-column encounter tables and phweew, it works wonders.

Baron vs Bob: the random encounter fight of the century

Your idea about using a single six sided die table for all of the random encounters is brilliant! Specifically the part about adding to the die roll depending how far away you are from the homebase or how deep you are in the dungeon.

I rarely use random tables, but when I do they come with options that have plot hooks and info about the campaign... and also some normal fights.

when it comes to random encounter tables i make myself, i just upgrade the monsters they can fight wolves become dire wolves, orcs become orogs. and so on. eventually i do run into the issue of there being no replacement monster so at that point i just start buffing the monster, better strength modifiers, buffed health. Small things to keep them relevant.

Build a dungeon using this method… probably one of my best creations… thanks for this

OK, ya got me. I've been through about 4 videos now and have to say, I like your style. Subscribed.

That was super helpful and super well put together. Thank you for making this video. Subscribed!

Probably my favourite video of yours. Love how you did this

It seems to me that you are describing encounters that have zones. Like the zones Professor Dungeon Master uses for his UDT you could have zones extending from civilization. Adding a +2 to a d6 for say, questionable, dangerous and unknown zones would be a great way to scale encounter tables.

I think the majority of this is really good. I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that weighted probabilities != random. I think that using mixed dice creates a better distribution that isn't as heavily dominated by the center. I would suggest 1d4 + 1d8 to still have rare encounters but start to flatten out the curve a bit. Or even better start treating 2's as 3's and 12's as 11's. This beefs up the chance of those rare encounters without just removing them. Personally having rare unlikely encouters makes them more special. The 3rd time the party comes across a wyvern it is just as boring as the goblins. The fact that it is rare is what makes it special.

These are great ideas and enough to cause fun sessions on their own. Thank you

Most inspirational/solid game design advice vids I’ve seen in a while!

This is why I don't roll on random encounter tables. I pick and choose what I want to fit where the adventure is at at the moment.

Just dosocvered thos channel and LOVING the Demography videos and thos one too! Very inspiring!!

Fantastic video! Great insights! Very helpful. Keep up the good work. Subscribed.

To eliminate the bell curve I recommend rolling a percentile die, d100, and just having assigned ranges. This creates a curve with the shape you want... flat, bell, inverted bell, triangular, whatever you want. And if you add some monsters it is easy to adjust to the new group. But, random encounters are really only needed if you're reusing an area with groups that might have heard about the adventure before. Most of us write one-offs so you don't need random encounters. Just make encounters that fit the story, the time and place, the terrain and the party level. As far as the players know, everything is random.

As someone who uses lots of random dice charts I love them. Good points. I use more even odds charts most often d%, d20 +d12 are my favourites overall. Good tips thanks.

Absolutely awesome tips as usual!

Well sir, you've done it again! Making my life easier DMing for experienced players by putting in less prep time and justifying my improv indulgences.

The way I use 2d6 tables (when I use complicated random encounters) I have either 7 be a clue to another encounter (roll again, rerolling a 7) and whatever the clue is to becomes the next random encounter. You could also do nested tables with your really cool sliding method; maybe 2d6 is *types* of encounters (rarer ranges for apex predators and magical phenomena, middle ranges for humanoids and regular animals) and then have separate sliding tables for each type.

You're bringing the Heat!!! Keep it up great content!

Thanks for the excellent ideas - very inspiring!

Putting your method to the test I made a quick table with 12 slots. each with an entity, a behavior, and a complication. Some test rolls got me: A blind commoner lost in the grasslands trying to find his way home. An Ankheg trying to find its lair but someone stole it's brain. A mind controlled howler fighting a young blue dragon. Some combinations made so little sense I HAD to reroll them, but its good enough for an on the fly event.

This was probably the most helpful video for me so far

I consider myself a pretty decent DM. I've watched two videos from this guy and I'm like....grab the notebook and a pen because this gentleman is teaching class. Amazing information here.

One of the best pieces of advice I heard!

Really like the 3 column 666 idea. I've posted the link of this video in our solitary role-player FB group. Always need new ways to generate random events.

This is great! You could also apply negative modifiers and expand the table into negative numbers. This way you could cover more of a campaign area like near town - woods - graveyard. Either way, great video as always!

Crazy useful! Gonna create a few tables for my screen based on this!

Hi. I used your advice and it works exelentlly. Me and players had fun Thank you

Great idea! The old solo module Ghost of Lion Castle uses a wandering monster table that is similar but without the added narrative.

I like this. To be a stickler, the bell curve tables are still technically “random”. The issue is that they are skewed, and the skew is what results in poor outcomes. You’ve identified an important problem and provided a great solution 👍

One thing you can do with the 2d6 is turn it from random encounter to the random event table. So 7 would represent nothing happening with 6 and 8 would be the next more common events such as a moderate difficulty encounter and discovering a location. The idea is yes rolling a 2 might be rare but that is where you place a deadly or extreme difficulty encounter. That way it is possible for the party to discover some monsters that might flat out kill them, like the wyvern they are too low to realistic fight. It can then be used as a foreshadow of what the can encounter, or show how truly deadly and out of their depth they are.

Now I need to calculate the theoretical relative probabilities for a 1d20 +1d8 to see if it is a Normal distribution. I think the benefit of the bell curve is that it allows the GM, assuming the understand the underlying probabilities, is that the common stuff happens most frequently. The rare stuff is rare. I think the problem happens when the DM doesn't understand this, and puts the (supposed to be) rare creates in the middle of the distrubtion. Certainly when I started playing long ago, I didn't grasp this, even though the AD&D DM Guide did open my eyes more generally to the Normal distrubtion by providing a bell-curve table for ability scores. Anyway, thanks for the video.

This is amazing! I have a nice complication table in the game Stravagante! that is a d6 table with a nested d6 table for each number rolled. I also can use GMer' or Mythic's Chaos Rank to help with the difficulty raising, so when the tension raises in the adventure tougher encounters happen more often. I could probably use the Chaos Rank to influence the Number Appearing too! The possibilities!

This was great! Thank you for this.

This video really helped clear things up for me. I started with a d100 with percentile values for an artificial rarity bell curve (that I could fudge sometimes), with some entries changing depending on nearby major entities (orc and goblin tribes don't like each other, so have some norkers and ogrillons in the same slot depending on which is closer). Bottom entries also had "one time" notes for a unique creature, like a territorial bulette or a bar-lgura escaped from an abyssal seal. Where I went extra wrong was trying to fit all of the encounters in at once, and duplicating the list with edits so they scale with each level, instead of scaling them on the fly and coming up with context ideas for the encounters. Definitely going to implement this stuff for the next tier of play, maybe some hex crawl stuff too since they're going to be trudging through a massive swamp.

Excellent as always. Many thanks.

As far as raw dice numbers I do prefer a belt curve personally l. But having adjusted modifiers based on party level/civilization/danger distances as well as 3 other random tables that gives context to each other's a a genius idea and I'll 100% be using those

I love this video so much, the hexcrawl one is also amazing

i simply dont have random encounters. i plan everything with 4-7 choices for the players. the way they explore and act defines the encounter i throw at them. makes the world more belivable. The encounters tie in to the story and roleplay. it takes a lot of planing but this channel thaught me a lot so i dont need random encounters.

this video does solve a lot of problems I was still trying to figure out. I did get to the d6 tables on my own tho but i use about 4 of them per location.

the 666 table is pretty nifty there. I personally do like to roll 1d8 + 1d12 and then reaction table. Also if any DM rolls something up on the table that seems too strong right now one can always show some tracks or a kill. If its a bit too easy tell the players you spotted some goblins in the distance that hurrily dispersed and ran away. One thing not mentioned in the video is that it can be nice to have some non combat encounters like social encounter or discovery encounter. IT might also not truelly fit the modern playstyle but having 1 or 2 way too strong encounters in there can definitly be fun as well.

Love the idea of the adding to the list like that. I just made a random encounter list that rolls a 1d40 (if you dont have a d40 use paper and cup method) and its more of an area stocked list (Jungle) than a level appropriate type list. Out of the 40 possibly 10 are rolled once and rerolled if landed on again. Some of these will also place certain random quests that can be taken ect. roughly 3/4 or so could end in combat. EDIT: This is an area where the players will be spending a lot of time!

Table/result shifting came to me by way of the "classic" traveller game and yes, it works well. T&T had some interesting use of tables, keys and dice as well. The encounter deck is absolutely great in person and I swear by it. But at the end of the day the draw is your narrative capacity to stitch it together. I might prefer a second d6 b/c I'd have a few variations of the base die results, but that's just me.

This is interesting. I didnt know how people did random encounters when I first started GMing. I only knew that tables were involved because it was mentioned in RU-vidvideos amd such. So when I started GMing I tried to build encounter tables for each ecosystem, rolled one die for every few hours travel and threw together an encounter based on the results. I had tables for different levels of danger and different biomes so I could roll the number and then decide which table I wanted to use. My big idea was making a lot of the encounters nuetral or flavor oriented to give a sense of travel. For example, my players were traveling through a forest towards the feywild so I started with a table that was mostly things like "bear", "refugees", "group of satyr (friendly)", "goblin hunting party", etc. But I also had a table of violent fey encounters, ambushes, and other mostly bad things in case they didnt get any combat encounters for awhile and became restless. I built the tables so that high numbers would be generally friendlier encounters, middle numbers would be more nuetral encounters that could be roleplay opportunities and lower numbers tended to have more enemies. I was working on refining the system when the campaign ended. I would roll 1 die for the type of encounter, for example: special encounter, ambush, enemy patrol, beasts, nuetral warriers, refugees, travelers, merchants, friendly mgk user, friendly fey/beings. Then I would roll or select from a list of encounters within that category. I don't remember if I actually ended up doing this last method. Took way too long to get the various tables built. It was much easier just to roll on a single table for the biome- or switch between 2-3 tables. Something like 1-2, roll on combat table, 3-4 roll on flavor table, 5-6 roll on benefitial encounter table... changing those numbers with how dangerous the area is of course. Maybe in the dungeon its 1-5 combat, 6-7 nuetral encounter, and 8 for a special encounter...

Delivered intellectually and supported with solid game logic. Master Class.

This is a super useful, super cool idea. (stealing) Before I would have rolled an encounter then racked my brain for why, usually just picking out a reason relating to what the PCs are currently trying to do like, "they are bounty hunters looking for you" or simply they're hungry because of things going on further ahead of the PCs.

Well done. Way more interesting indeed!

I never really liked random tables and I typically avoid using them. However, this video has given me a way to make them more relevant, useful and fun. Well done. 👍

Why not use d100 and adjust the bell curve bent you don't like manually with percentage points? The linear approach you add does coincide nicely with a linear progression of difficulty so that bigger more common brackets are lowest and the closest encounters to 100 or 0, 0 on the die, would be rarer and more difficult. A single d10 added for a hundreds digit presents huge world building by random encounter options too. Your 666 method is neat, and smashes together moral 2d6+mod rolls and diverse Random encounter charts. Really neat and underlines the need for tools to enable dungeonmastering as fun and gamers. Thank for the video!

This is outstanding!

I use a d20 for my random encounters. The same monsters may get more than one entry but it might be different groupings. 2d4 orcs 2d4 orcs, half are Fighters 2d6 goblins d6 goblins + d6 kobolds Older D&D games also emphasized reaction rolls which can determine how the monsters approach you. They might be hostile, unfriendly, neutral, or even outright friendly! If your campaign or dungeon has factions then something like the goblins + kobolds encounter could become very interesting. You might even encounter them fighting each other and you end up in the mix.

I don’t even use dice for random encounters, inspired by something I heard from Zee Bashew, I get a small bowl and write down four combat encounters, two non-combat encounters, and four “no encounter” messages on slips of paper put them in the bowl. Then I ask for the players to give me at least one pair each of encounters. One good thing that can happen, one bad. This is by their standards, so it lets me see what they want from my game (one player once wanted a scene where he is kidnapped and players have to rescue him). After making sure it all fits and works well, into the bowl they all go. Now, when I need a random encounter, I reach into the bowl and pull out an encounter. I can remove ones too easy at any time, and if I want one to be more common, I just add that entry to the bowl multiple times.

Weird idea Using a coin flip to determine which method you roll with Still gives you a bell curve but somewhat flattens the bell curves

Here's a different idea: If you like the bell curve system, which I do in my case, because I use a lot of automated imbedded 2D6 tables, you can still "level up" those tables by making rare more rare and more beneficial encounter lower on the table. Let's say your characters travel on land and could meet a merchant in the area near a city. If that encounter is more rare compared to meeting guards or simple travelers, increasing the result for areas further of the city will effectively eliminate them from the table. Meeting guards will become even more rare and travelers too, because of how less densly populated the area is. An encounter with, let's say goblins, that would be less likely near a city could then become much more common, since you are going deeper into the wilderness. Like the other system in the video, certain "unique" encounters will also start to appear. These tables are also useful for generating structures depending on location.

This is genius. Definitely adding this to my DM toolbox

Adding some interesting terrain-features or weather-effect (like fog, rain or a hailstorm) to those random encounters would be neat. Strangely enough, PCs in a forest very rargely have to worry about thorn-bushes or trees blocking line of sight or difficult terrain. Even a small pond or a fallen tree can change the way that a battle has to be fought.

Found you because of your superior geopolitics videos.

I've always used a d12 table with 5 or six encounters, where different encounters have 1-3 number reaults each. So for example, in the Wyrm mountains, you'll meet a travelling dwarf merchant on a roll of 1-3, and the wyvern that makes its nest nearby on a roll of 12

I sometimes use a percentile die and simply shift the percentages around as I please. It's technically a single die and allows for a super high degree of control, you can easily shift the percentages around as well if the characters get closer to a certain zone.

Good Ideas! Thank you for this video!

THANK YOU! I played a Curse of Straud Campaign and had 8 random encounters with Wolves of varying sizes! It was SO boring! I even told my DM, but he just said "that's what's in the book..." Personally, I rarely use random encounter tables (instead I use preset scenarios), but I might give them a shot in my next campaign. Thanks for the advice :).

Another possibility that works as a compromise to keep the idea of the curve but flatten it a bit is to use 1d4+1d8. This results in the 5 most common rolls having a flat 12.5% chance with 3 tapering off on the low and high sides for the more rare encounters. Though I like the suggestion below to make the 7 of a 2d6 roll be no encounter. I find it a bit odd the DMG has you roll to determine if there's an encounter and roll again for the encounter. It's much more efficient to combine the rolls.