Random Encounters | Running The Game 

Sometimes when I watch these, I turn off the lights, turn on some loud music, take a round of shots and put the video at half speed and it feels like Matt is talking to me at a house party about D&D.

I misread the title of this series as "Ruining The Game" literally every time i see it.

The word exists! "Anemoia - _n._ The nostalgia for a time you've never known."

Had a group sleeping in the wilderness, and I rolled a dice and decided; it was time for them to meet somebody. They had one person keeping watch, which rolled low on his perception check. I described how this watch was completely boring, and he started to feel his eyes close. When one of them woke up, there was an Adult Green Dragon just laying there watching them. There was a sudden panic before the Green Dragon finally spoke, in a soothing feminine voice she said, "Sleeping on watch is a good way to get eaten little ones." There was a deep conversation about nature, life and death, and finally the dragon just flew away content with the conversation. The dragon, at the end, let it slip that she had cast sleep on the one on watch which is why he fell asleep. It was an interesting random encounter that didn't require any fighting.

Just so you know. Your videos work. I am looking for a group to DM for now.

One point others have probably brought up by now, but one thing about random encounters is that they don't need to be COMBAT encounters. a Random Encounter can be as random as you'd like. What I've done is write a list of encounters, some of which are monsters yes, but others that are like "a bunch of petrified soldiers" or, "an overturned traders cart" or just straight up "you bump into Franklin, the npc cleric you've met a few quests ago, making his way back to town." Other times, the encounter is just an environmental encounter like quicksand or gross swampland that is filthy and diseased. By having your encounters branch out from just "monsters monsters monsters" it makes the world feel that much more alive and real.

There used to be a random mundane encounter generator, which I loved. Once, there was a polar bear and her two cubs. The barbarian in party assumed the encounter had a purpose or else I wouldn't have rolled it, which I let him assume that. He proceeded to attack. Meanwhile the druid and a few others took offence to the random attack on a wild animal and refused to help. The barbarian almost died from a mundane encounter due to a divide in the party and only survived because I was having the wounded mother retreat once the cubs made it out of sight of the party. Other random rollers I love are weather, mundane loot and pickpocket. donjon hosts some of these and I think used to host them all, but no longer all of them.

I KNOW that this is an old video, but another idea that I like is not having all encounters be bad. Maybe there's a chance the party will come across a wounded adventurer that rewards them if helped. Maybe there's a Goblin fleeing for his life, and if caught and interrogated he gives up information about a big monster that attacked his tribe up ahead. Maybe there's a loud shriek that echoes suddenly through the night, waking everyone up and putting them on edge, but nothing ever comes of it. Having every single encounter just be another combat can get pretty dull, regardless of how challenging it is. It's nice to mix things up and include something other than "hungry monster" or "jerkwad bandit" on the list.

also worth noting, random encounters don't have to be combative. Perhaps it's a natural hazard like a large geode. at the center is a mysterious large crystal but it could collapse. or maybe an npc that you introduce over and over randomly.

Man, I'm barely starting to play and throw myself as DM for my friends for the lack of people who knows how to play. And all this videos are just amazing! Really love what you do here. Thank you, for real

I absolutely use encounters on the overland travel map and I find them integral to making the world feel alive. Our session one was preempted with a focus on traveling to the first town they were tasked to visiting. Instead of a sorted list of check marks to hit, I have an assortment of potential events that can happen which are dependent on time of day, what landmark is close by and so on. Each one has various things that can happen and they're voluntary -- which is great when you have a curious group. In the first event, there were undead individuals in a chapel carrying on a ritual in their afterlife. Instead of fighting them, the party used their knowledge of religious matters to help them complete the ritual and rest. A later one was a dilapidated older tower they took rest in, they found some evidence of who may have built it and clues that others were close by (in addition to finding a magical chamber pot but that's an aside). At a bridge passing a gorge, they were accosted by large spiders and spelunked into the gorge to find their nest, finding some valuables and clues of what may have killed the chapel members. Later they heard an explosion and the smoke, finding a small cave with smoke streaming from it. They went in and found some evidence that those who survived the explosion went to the town. All of this set up the tone of the adventure, it lent them knowledge of the setting and made them feel a part of the world. I think of it akin to Lord of the Rings in that the journey is just as important as the end result.

I usually keep my "random" encounters to a minimum, since I try to keep the story moving (my group doesn't have the time for long sessions). I put random in quotes, because there's not really anything random about the way I do it. I'll plan a variety of optional encounters before the session, and I'll throw them at my players if I feel like it.

The vampire generation with "Why is the vampire here?" is actually exactly what inspired Ravenloft and the module we now call Curse of Strahd. The original authors of Ravenloft saw a vampire that had basically just been rolled from a table, thought that his being there was dumb and lacked sufficient explanation, and actually built an entire AD&D adventure around it. Super cool example.

Our mage was named Malizar. The "random" encounters happened for frequently on his watch we called him Malizar the Monster Magnet.

Someone who loves the under-appreciated d12 as much as I do! All my random effect, result, and encounter tables are d12 based because it might be the only time that die is rolled all night, and I love the shape and feel of the d12.

oh wow... When I was a kid, my very first experience of D&D was this box that my dad had given me that he'd played with when he was young. I was super excited about it, and dived right into it. Dad pretty much left me and my brother to our own devices with it. I was the DM, my brother played a fighter, and we invited the kid next door to join us who decided to play a wizard (I think he played a wizard anyway). We played in the garage and probably got lots of stuff wrong, but overall had a blast. The next day the kid's father showed up at our house, red faced and seething at my dad about how he couldn't believe he'd allowed us to play a game about Satan worship. My father got into it with him, but in the interest of peace with the neighbors he threw away the entire game. It still breaks my heart that that happened, and it wasn't until I was living on my own many years later that I had another chance to play, this time third edition. To this day I never knew what edition it was that my dad had given to me. At the time I was really young and had no idea I needed to pay attention to that at all. I do know Outdoor Survival was included with it, I very distinctly remember that cover and that map. After all I poured for hours at a time over it and all the other materials trying to work out how to DM for the very first time. Thank you Matt for posting about this, its something I'd almost forgotten about, but had always bothered me not knowing which edition it was.

I somehow knew he was gonna say "Wyvern" as soon as he mentioned the random encounter in the forest. I feel like we have a special connection

I just binge watched/listened all the playlist (except the twich world building stuff). All the advices you gave are super useful and the campaigns you're running sounds so cool -the moment when the new Count has been nominated was epic- that you almost made me eager to play D&D again. Keep on doing this great work so i can stop being a GM too and go back to make a character sheet please and thank you from Italy Matt.

"Nostalgia for an era we don't belong to..." >Com Truise shirt my man

"Golem must have a master." You got me with that deep cut. Have a thumbs up, sir.

For the beginning of my DM "career", I always shied away from random encounters, because it felt like, well, random, no bearing on the narrative. But lately, with my current group of players (who're all new to the game), I've been making some use of them, not really for any real reason, just because I wanted to get back to the "roots" of the game, so to speak, and I can't believe I've gone without them for so long. They're the perfect counter to the infamous "15 minute adventuring day", and they help my players learn about things like making a hidden camp and keeping watches. I let the second-hand disdain some DMs have for the old ways rub off on me while I was new, and I let it deprive me of useful tools and fun adventures for _far_ too long. I'm so glad for your video series! (And, you know, I didn't know Pitons could be used for hammering doors shut, I'll have to share that one with them, they'll love it!)

I'm at Uni atm, but wanted to comment to enter and to say that I'm planning on having a number of custom encounters prepared, that I can then pull out semi-randomly when I need them. This method obviously has the disadvantage that it's a lot of work, but it has enough benefits to validate it imo. For example, you can make sure the encounters are relevant. There is a war between Orcs and Goblins going on? You might stumble into a small Orc patroll that is getting overwhelmed by goblins. "Random" encounters like this can seriously improve the gameplay by adding atmosphere; you won't walk through a war-torn Kingdom without ever encountering a single soldier.

I'm going to go with "notstalgia".

Absolutely love the Abbott and Costello input. One of my favorite bits of word play right there.

"It's action, reaction...random interaction. So who's afraid of a little abstraction?" This episode got me a bit nostalgic for ye olde wandering monster charts. As for nostalgic feelings for an era we haven't experienced first hand; how about "Missedtalgia"? Best I could conjure up at 2 AM

It is amazing to see this channel grow, having randomly stumbled upon it when the first video dropped.

My older brother back in the 80's would DM games for his friends and let me watch. They mostly played stoned out of their minds. My brother would add an illness component to the adventures. One night he told a human fighter, after said fighter drank stream water, that he had to make a saving throw for Diarrhea. That was it. Game over due to the laughs. They never took themselves too serious. It was fun to watch.

I like to differentiate random encounters depending on the way players carry themselves in a dungeon. If they are stealthy, clean up bodies etc. theres a better chance of the random encounter being a single enemy looking for the latrine. Are they being rambunctious and obvious, or have they been spotted before and forced/allowed an enemy to retreat... Then the encounter might include things like a search and destroy party using a bloodhound and including a variety of more specialised enemies that are (at least in the mind of the enemies) up to the task of killing the invaders. They often include a character that calls for backup, making cleaning up camp and moving a necessity after winning the encounter.

I made a post-apoc random encounter game as my first attempt at GMing, my players HATED it. It was all numbers. I loved it.

Sorry, I'm pausing the video in the middle because I really like your idea of a 12 sided die for random wilderness encounters. I think I may steal that, but instead, I'd have them roll and if it was a 1 or a 12, just because I like the feel of that. 1 being the more dangerous one, and 12 being them coming across something with the small chance of avoiding the issue. I'd then decide on how the 1 is dangerous, it could be that th enemies get a surprise round, or they're just bigger in numbers. The 12 may still have the same amount of guys, but they may get a surprise round if they handle it correctly. Dunno, this sounds like an interesting Idea that I may try implementing in my first DM group that I'm starting in a month.

I just started as a player and more recently as a DM and I stumbled across your videos. They are super! I love this one about random encounters, it does make the world feel more alive. Thank you for sharing your experience/ knowlegde!

I just binged watched the whole channel and just couldn't stop watching. You are giving a lot of great info in a really compelling way. Thanks for taking the time and keep it coming.

Am I too late for the giveaway?

"Nostalgia for an era that you weren't a part of" The dictionary of obscure sorrows calls that "Anemoia"

Eddie Izzard is my favorite comedian and Dressed to Kill is my favorite in his series. Thank you for referencing him😀

I get that feeling of nostalgia Matt's talking about when I watch "Dazed and Confused"

Although I've only started playing DnD less than a year ago, I had already set in my mind the way the game worked and the way I thought it should work. But it seems to me that every time I watch a video of yours I find my opinion of the game(both playing and DMing) changes and I want to thank you for that. You've been an inspiration and I feel as though all campaigns I participate in have improved, even if it's just for me, and I want to thank you for that.

The picture of Elric keeps changing. Silly things you notice.

Back in 3.0E, I had a Wizard in a mid-level game who kept several spells prepared JUST for camping out .... and for creating advantageous terrain. Using Wall of Stone to build a 10-by-20 cube, with cross-let arrowslits and a single standard-width doorway, really changes the dynamic of a fight. And helps limit the danger of random encounters during the night, too. Immensely. And then, there's the matryoshka approach: the Wall of Stone bunker, around a Leomund's Secure Shelter, inside of which is the entrance to a Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. :D

I just found your channel a few days ago from the suggested videos on the front page. I've already watched everything in the running the game Playlist (I've been sick, so I've had a lot of free time). Thanks for all of your hard work!

You're the best Matt

So you mentioned Critical Role a couple of times a while back and I decided 'what the heck' and started watching about 3 weeks ago. I caught up last Friday. It has actually changed my entire perspective on D&D and its now, to me, become a full time hobby and not just another game to play when my friends are over. Seeing Critical Role and watching this channel has, between the two, inspired me to start my first campaign as a Dungeon Master - and I just wanted to say thanks because that's all on you for getting me hooked :) Also, I've been thinking about who I should be playing with for my first campaign as DM and wouldn't mind some advice. I have a regular group I play with often where I am not the DM, as well as a group of friends who haven't played before but are very keen to learn. I think that playing with both is probably not the best option as theyre each about 4-5 people, and Im not confident I can handle that much confusion. I have a good grasp of the rules but as I haven't DMed before I figure its probably best for at least my first session or two to be with the new players, so we can sorta learn together as I develop my own way of doing things. Does that make sense? Or should I play with people who already know the rules to get me started.

I love random encounters. The chance to face off against strange and unusual creatures, is just the best.

Just stumbled across your channel a couple days ago and LOVE your D&D videos. My husband and I have often talked about how to make games better for our players (or to be better players), and I feel like a lot of these videos will help me understand how to do that. Great stuff :D Can't wait to see more.

Nostalgia for a time period you're not a part of: Hipster "What version of Dungeons and Dragons am I playing? Yeah you've probably ever heard of it..." XD Just subbed and look forward to gorge watching everything.

Nostalgia for an era you didn't belong to = Not-Stalgia

Matt - this entire channel has been SO much fun. I'm feeling more inspired about my D&D gaming after these than I have been in years. Thank you!

Thank you for everything, Matt! I'm preparing to finally run my own game this month, in large part to the confidence you've instilled in me to run the game.

Eddie Izzard shoutouts get my respect! :)

I agree. Invent that word.

Last week I had my first session as a DM (and my 10th session as a RPG player in general), and you have been invaluable in the good time we all had. Thanks for your videos! I've seen them all now and catched up, so I'm eager for more!

These videos are amazing and a huge help, also the streams demystify the act of making a campaign setting. Thank you so much Matt

what happens if your players watch this video, then know about the fake hard/easy charts? edit: you should also do 2d6 instead of 1d12, that way 12 is literally a less common "harder" role

0:50 "They hear heavy footprints." lol

watching this series has been so helpful and encouraging. I love your insight and your tips. I recently ran a oneshot and it was my very first time DMing, everyone had a blast and I just wanna thank you! For giving me the confidence to try and for being so accessible, easy to understand and encouraging!

So, I'm 16 videos into watching all these helpful DM tips and I really appreciate them so far. I've played other table tops, Shadowrun and some home-brewed pathfinder. I DM'd for Shadowrun ears ago once and I enjoyed it, so these videos are really helping me think up new ideas for my first time DMing for D&D. thank you for sharing your 30 years of experience!

Every video I watch of yours I wonder If your players watch these videos?

I legitimately cheered and scared my dog when the Eddie izzard clip came on

I love your vids man, I've been playing for 13-14 years as a DM and I love the game. You make me think about what I know, what i can or should use. Keep up the good work.

Just watched the whole playlist in a few days. This wasn't only very informative, but also very entertaining! Thanks Matt

The "problem" I have with random encounters is the map. I can only play online with roll 20 and I usually make relatively detailed maps tailored to the encounter ... a similar problem is tokens, it's sometimes tricky to find good pictures ad hoc, but as you said, I coul^d just lie to my players ^^

Saudade, may be the name for the type of nostalgia that you experience. Like being love with cities you’ve never been to and people you’ve never met.

Matt, as a relative newcomer to DnD, and to DMing, these videos are great. I love you fast cadence and your enthusiasm for what you speak about. I used your first adventure in the knights old temple that was overrun by goblins and used your pointers when dealing with setting up my adventures as a whole. Thanks for all you do for the community!

Shared this channel with two new DMs - well, a DM and an ST - in about as many days. I told both to make the Catastrophic Failure episode one of the first three they watch; still my favorite by far.

Mr Coleville, you have given me a moral dilemma. Mr Mercer has been my favorite DM since I discovered critical role, and now I find I have feelings for you. Your style and narrative abilities are making me feel as if i were betraying him....this is a good thing. I know you two are very very busy, but I would like to throw an idea out there. I would pay good money to see you two co-dm a game. I have always been curious about doing this, it seems like it could be alot of fun, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to do it. You two together would be amazing and highly informative. No pressure, just wanted to plant the see. ;)

i created my own pen and paper and the main dice is the d12 :)

Thanks for all these videos you've been putting up. As a starting DM these have been a huge help! I've been playing with a group of players I introduced to the game and i'm quite happy with the group we gathered and the links in the doobly-doo are super helpful aswell and will definitely improve our games. Thanks a bunch for all these videos and I hope you keep making more!

Your depth of knowledge and enthusiasm for D&D makes your informative videos fun to watch. Keep up the great work!

0:16 "Kek, the Dwarven war priest." I bet he serves the memelords, _PRAISE_ _KEK!_

Do you ever include non-combatants (wandering merchants, pilgrims, etc) to your Random Encounters?

I've spent the last two days binging on this series and I'll admit that I'm a bit disappointed to have finally caught up. I'm a new DM who just ran their first game with a bunch of players who have never even seen a die with more than six sides before. Your videos are packed with great advice and have given me many ideas for my campaign. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for all this Matt. Loving it all. Big fan of seeing how you run games and the Q&A's are a great idea. Literally binge watched all your videos when I first found you and now I am so excited every day to check my subscriptions to see if you have uploaded another video. We need more of you Matt! Hello from Australia. Can't wait to see your big group play a session.

Skyrim is a great example of how to do random encounters

Nostalgia for an era you've never been a part of: "hipsteria"

I love your playlists! Really helping me out, am about to start my first DnD campaign, all because of you! Thanks!

Wow! Matthew, you are absolutely incredible! I am so grateful for all these videos! Such an awesome resource. I am about a year old DM, You've totally changed my games. Thanks so much

"Cast-away-nostalgia"?

"a word for nostalgia that you weren't a part of" we have that, it's called "i was born in the wrong generation" Filthy Frank made a video about it.

These videos have been absolute help while I'm learning how to run D&D. thanks again for all the time you're putting into these

So, I just spent the bulk of my vacation binge watching this series. As a new/aspiring DM, I want to thank you for all of the inspiration and encouragement. I feel a lot more confident about my next session (third ever) as a DM. Looking forward to your episode about how you take a pre-made adventure and tweak it to make it your own!

Hehe Kek

have you ever screwed with your players after a nasty battle and they try and rest: like "roll to see if you stay awake during watch." -critical fail- ---dm rolls dice behind screen. Okay, everybody roll initiative!!!!! ....JK!!!

Adventures in Middle Earth for 5e shifts the focus of the game largely to the journey made before the heroes actually arrive at the destination, and supplies a whole mini-game for determining how the journey goes. I really like the mechanics behind it, it really gives the feeling of a long journey with real consequences.

Sehnsucht "The experience is one of intense longing… the sense of want is acute and even painful, yet the mere wanting is felt to be somehow a delight… even when there is no hope of possible satisfaction, [the longing, itself] continues to be prized, and even to be preferred to anything else in the world"…. •C S Lewis•

top kek

Thank you very much for all these videos. I can't DM as much as I want these days and listening to your channel while working is a great albeit temporary consolation prize.

Thanks Matt - I've been wanting to include random encounters for a while but have always struggled with how to implement them. This has really helped me figure out want I want from them and given me ideas on how to make then work for me.

So I put him to 0.5 speed and it was much better

I've learned to love random encounters! Playing old school systems where a fight is fast and furious and avoiding the fight is usually the smart move. Rolling randomly if there is an encounter, what is encountered, how many, surprise, distance. I haven't used tables for what the creature is up to when encountered but I think I will. Combined with random weather and other elements of wilderness survival (or dungeon) create awesome emergent stories. Also as a DM I wouldn't throw deadly encounters if it was up to me but when it comes from random generation its up to the players to figure out how to handle it. Likely if it's a huge monster or an army of orcs of give the character's at least a better chance of avoiding a combat.

This series continues to be all killer, no filler. And for that, I am most grateful. Definitely gonna check out that URL.

Thanks for your videos. I just started DM'ing for my friends and its all our first time playing. I've learned a lot from your videos and I enjoy the info and tools you share.

Thanks for making such a great series on running D&D. I know I've learnt a lot and this has rekindled my passion for running the game.

I went into this video not expecting to watch the whole thing since I didn't plan on including random encounters in my games but I got into it and now I'm thinking I should! Enjoyed this one!

I really appreciate these videos, Ive just started running my first Campaign, so having all these resources to draw from makes these seem a little less daunting. So thank you.

I don't think I have commented in RU-vid before. Thank you for taking all this time to create videos that are so helpful. I am a picking back up being a DM after a 3 year game break. My confidence in running has been pretty low. but each tidbit of information you share helps remind me that I can do this. Thank you again.

3 years later and this is still an awesome series! Thanks for the awesome videos! I can't wait to run my own games

One of the first random encounters in my current group's current campaign was a vampire I ran into while exploring an ancient ruined city as I walked into a ruined ballroom -- also a randomly generated location. Our DM fully expected this t just be a combat encounter, but I exchanged greetings with him an we got along well. At the end of our conversation, I asked him if he'd care to dance since we were in a ballroom, and he said yes, so our bard played a waltz for us. That encounter has since developed into an ongoing romance.

I have been binge watching this play list sir and I just wanted to say thank you. I am a new-ish DM and your videos are really helpful AND give me a boost in confidence. Thanks :)

Been watching these preparing for my first game with me running the game and couldn't help but notice the shirt!! Good choice in music Matt, and keep up the awesome work. You make learning this fun with how entertaining you make these videos.

Going through all your old videos again because I just love these. I use the random encounter tables to build adventures and side quests for my group. I built a cyclops adventure on an island with two different factions. One group just wants to live in peace on the island while the other has been working with some pirates to take over as a base of operations to plunder trade routes. The hook was that a trading guild owner was trying to get the attention of the city's magistrate as the party was leaving the tavern in the morning. His ships have been attacked for the past few weeks and the city has done nothing to protect the seas. It's up to the party to determine what side they want to be on in this conflict. I'm very excited to see where it leads. Great videos!