Xanathar Previews: Random Encounters & Character Names

I really thought people would have found this interesting.

I noticed Mehen's name.

 

[BoldItalic]

How to make a female name for any species:Take pretty much anything, slap an "a" on the end. Sooo much lazy.

Still looking forward to Xanathar's, though.

Will there be a Xanathara ?

 

[Azzy]

How to make a female name for any species:Take pretty much anything, slap an "a" on the end. Sooo much lazy.

To be fair, the real world tends to be equally lazy.

 

[The Old Crow]

Will there be a Xanathara ?

Well, Voloa needs a nemesis, right? We should ask Elminstera, bet she'd know!

 

[Krachek]

I like this:

Arctic Encounters (Levels 17-20)

"81-90 1d10 frost giants with 2d4 polar bears"

and

"00 1 ancient white dragon with 1d3 young white dragons."

This could be fun!

It is nice to see the Frost giant on the level 1-4 list!

 

[dave2008]

It is nice to see the Frost giant on the level 1-4 list!

I agree

 

[Mercule]

Why are random wilderness encounters based on the PCs' level? I guess I can see it, if it's supposed to represent something like settled lands vs wandering off to the Far Glacier. That's not how it reads, though. Wilderness encounters are one area where a low-level character should absolutely be able to screw themselves if they just start walking into the unknown.

 

[EternalRain]

An ancient white dragon at level 11 as a random encounter - I hope my DM doesn't get this!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Why are random wilderness encounters based on the PCs' level? I guess I can see it, if it's supposed to represent something like settled lands vs wandering off to the Far Glacier. That's not how it reads, though. Wilderness encounters are one area where a low-level character should absolutely be able to screw themselves if they just start walking into the unknown.

They haven't done this right since the 2e Monstrous Compendiums. Every time you base what happens in the world on the level of the characters you have moved into either story mode or highly gamey mode. The problem with doing this in story mode is that you don't need random tables--they get in the way of deciding how to present the story.

If you are going to use them in gamey mode, you have to have fairly fine granularity of CRs to make it "fair" to the players.

By contrast, random encounters with no reference to the party's level (ie, there is a single Arctic Encounters table that is the same for any characters) work great in exploration mode, where the goal is to simulate a world you are running around playing in.

And guess who actually wants these tables? People who prefer exploration mode.

So why do they make the tables in such a way that they might work for the people who probably aren't going to actually use them and don't work for the people who actually want them?

 

[R_Chance]

They haven't done this right since the 2e Monstrous Compendiums. Every time you base what happens in the world on the level of the characters you have moved into either story mode or highly gamey mode. The problem with doing this in story mode is that you don't need random tables--they get in the way of deciding how to present the story.

If you are going to use them in gamey mode, you have to have fairly fine granularity of CRs to make it "fair" to the players.

By contrast, random encounters with no reference to the party's level (ie, there is a single Arctic Encounters table that is the same for any characters) work great in exploration mode, where the goal is to simulate a world you are running around playing in.

And guess who actually wants these tables? People who prefer exploration mode.

So why do they make the tables in such a way that they might work for the people who probably aren't going to actually use them and don't work for the people who actually want them?

So you set the tier of the area (rather than basing it on the PCs levels) and let the dice fall where they may. As long as the PCs have a clue as to how dangerous an area is, it's up to them to go boldly, or not Or you create another table to determine the tier of encounter they meet, again with more (increased chance of higher tier encounters) and less dangerous (more lower tier encounters) outdoor areas. That pretty much sums up the old days of random encounters in a dungeon setting, the outdoors tended to be rather lethal...

Encounters in more civilized areas could be any tier, with combat less probable. And, of course, civilized or not, not all encounters have to be hostile. I've been doing my own random encounter charts for a long time to reflect my setting and account for PCs foibles.

 

[Mercule]

So you set the tier of the area (rather than basing it on the PCs levels) and let the dice fall where they may. As long as the PCs have a clue as to how dangerous an area is, it's up to them to go boldly, or not Or you create another table to determine the tier of encounter they meet, again with more (increased chance of higher tier encounters) and less dangerous (more lower tier encounters) outdoor areas. That pretty much sums up the old days of random encounters in a dungeon setting, the outdoors tended to be rather lethal...

Encounters in more civilized areas could be any tier, with combat less probable. And, of course, civilized or not, not all encounters have to be hostile. I've been doing my own random encounter charts for a long time to reflect my setting and account for PCs foibles.

Which is kind of what I was getting at, with my comment. It's just not presented that way, in the book. It's fairly ambiguous on how to use the different tiers, but without any direction, it kind of comes off as "scale it to your players, then roll." At that point, everything Sword of Spirit said is true.

If they're going to take the time to put in random wilderness encounter tables, it would be great if they gave some guidance on how to use them.