Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Arckon 08-26-05, 11:39 AM	Title sums it up. Would like to get something that includes all the MMs, EPH, etc.
rbrt_Spade 08-26-05, 02:21 PM	the dmg 2 is supposed to have a list of what your looking for ive read on the boards
Murrdox 08-26-05, 02:54 PM	"Just say no" to random encounters! :) My general rule is to mix and match different monsters/npcs in new and original ways, depending on the EL for the encounter you're going for. Remember that Humanoid NPCs can be combined with almost anything! Now, if you need tables for what monsters are readily found in different climate zones, I believe those are already in the MM. Some of my favorite combinations, with a few different ELs for you to choose from: 1) Goblins led by a Bugbear 2) Orcs led by an Ogre, with several Wolves as attack beasts 3) A Young dragon with several low-level humanoid lackies to help guard it and hault its treasure 4) Skeletons, Zombies, and a Wight 5) Gelatinous Cubes with just about anything 6) Several NPC Wizards with some lesser Elementals
rbrt_Spade 08-26-05, 02:57 PM	the monsters in the mms and other supplements have a climate part listed :D
Illion the Red 08-26-05, 03:10 PM	This just made me realize that I haven't had a truly random encounter in probably 10 years. Then again, my definition of random encounter may vary from yours...
Transit 08-26-05, 05:31 PM	IMHO I think random encounter tables are a vital part of the game, and a big help in avoiding DM burn out. As a DM, random encounters let me feel like I'm getting to play too. I get to roll the dice and see what happens next. I get to try out different monsters in different situations that I could never have thought up if I sat down to "plan it all out" before hand. I get to be surprised by how an encounter turns out. And as a player, I get tired of facing a DMs favorite "stock" monsters over and over again. (Oh look, we've been ambushed by yet another goblin raiding party...) Without random encounters, the players end up being prepared in advance for all the DMs favorite creature-combos and the game stops being a challenge. To answer Arckon's original question: I don't think there are any encounter tables that include all official monsters in one place. Troll Lord Games came out with a book called "The Mother of all Encounter Tables" but I think it's limited to creatures from the SRD, and includes other monsters from non-wotc D20 sources. rbrt_Spade is right. The DMGII has a nice section of encounter tables. Combining them with the ones in the first DMG is a good start. And I've found this Excel spreadsheet to be quite helpful in preparing custom encounter tables for different areas of my campaign. http://www.geocities.com/plutoreus/files/RandEncGen.xls
olshanski_home 08-26-05, 09:13 PM	The "mother of all encounter tables" is published by Troll Lord/Necromancer Games. {EDIT: Beaten to the punch by the previous post... I am working too slow today} I think random encounter tables are very useful for DMs. You don't roll a random encuounter at the table, but the night before gaming, you roll a random encounter, then figure out why that random creature is appearing when it does, give it a little backstory... and voila, you have a decent encounter. Not all encounters in the world further the overall plot. Some add depth to your campaign world. A random encounter does exactly that. Random encounter tables are also useful for a DM that is suffering from writer's block... sometimes you can't really think of anything, so a roll on an encounter table gets the creative juices flowing... it is a jumping-off point for more stuff. Say you roll an encounter with 5 hobgoblins... why are they here? are they on a diplomatic mission, are they common brigands, do they have a lair nearby? Who do they report to, if anyone? Are they mercenaries hired to assassinate the PCs? if so, who hired them? Perhaps one of the hobgoblins has a scroll with some clues on it.