Random Encounters in Ravenloft

[Bookwolf]

I'm in the midst of planning up my new Ravenloft campaign, and I came to the conclusion that I'd like to make a couple random encounter tables.

Now, before I go through the process of looking through each domain's Flora/Fauna sections in the Gazetteers, I'd like to get everyone's favourite method of generating random encounters, be it making a table (or finding a good one) or just deciding which monsters to throw at the party if there's to be an encounter.

Thanks!

[Jester of the FoS]

One of the first advertising campaigns for Ravenloft had the tagline "There are no random encounters, only deadly ones!"

Part of the setting is that there should be few random encounters, chance shouldn't always enter into the plots. The older products used "incidental encounters" where, at the DM's descretion, there could be small encounters unrelated to the plot but help establish mood or theme.

[Malus Black]

I've never used a random encounter, as I find them entirely too... random. While I enjoy combat as much as anyone else, I've always felt that an encounter should either be directly related to the plot of the adventure and/or campaign, or be somehow connected with the characters. So, if the adventure deals with a child kidnapped by a hag and her goblin minions, the PCs aren't going to run across, say, a mummy lurking in its crumbling tomb. They might, however, run into any number of goblin traps, the hag's pet shambling mounds, or the ghosts of previously kidnapped children. Of course, sometimes an encounter may simply be there to emphasise the theme of the adventure, or the "feel" of the locale (a wraith-infested sandstorm in a desert, a forlorn cottage infested with the animated remains of lost travellers in a swamp, a group of thugs in a city etc.). But the (longwinded) point is that no, I don't roll for random encounters, I pick those I feel will add something more to the game than loot and quick XP.

This, incidentally, is not limited to my Ravenloft games. No matter the setting or system, the above still applies.

[Joël of the FoS]

I too rarely plan random encounters.

I prefer to prepare encounters on the basis of what I'd like them to meet (ex: red widow), then write half a page of possibilities with this monster.

Then, during I game, when I see appropriate, I draw material from this "pre-prepared" encounter file.

Joël

[Bookwolf]

Well...those are actually something I'd considered. The main point of the first few encounters was going to be to introduce them to some RL monsters and what the tone of the fights was going to be, but I think you're all quite right. Random encounters don't really seem to fit with the atmosphere and setting. I guess I'll just draw up some mood-setting encounters myself then