Random or improvised encounters

[Rackapulsare]

Any suggestions on how to manage random encounters or improvised encounters when using official adventure from a Piazo to not make it obvious that the encounter is not part of the adventure? Which maps to use? How to prepare or how to quickly create a set of adversaries that are of the right difficulty level.

[tahl_liadon]

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when you say "official adventure," i will make the assumption you mean adventure paths.

toward the back of every book within an ap, there is an encounter table based on % roll. all encounters have c.l. listed.

if you are not talking about adventure paths, i think for little efforts and if you're not picky, those can be a good resource for quick random/improvised encounters. i don't think they really make hard references as being part of the adventure although a few might have creatures that appear in that particular book.

i'm sure there's prob also a table in the gm rulebook if i recall correctly, or you can find a number of tools online to generate encounters, but again these ap tables are great: minimum efforts and keep your game moving along.

in terms of maps, there are tons online that you can download and re-purpose. i tend to use generic ones that fit the encounter's theme: e.g. simple forest, town center, swamp, tavern, etc. if you don't make a production of it, it won't be :-)

keep in mind these are disposable -- as name suggests, "random" and "improvised" -- i even reuse maps in a session if needed; players don't care once they're in the thick of battle X-D

hope that was useful insight :-)

[Rackapulsare]

Thanks @tahl_liadon. And yes; "official adventure" equals adventure paths.

[DCrumb]

One thing I found with the Adventure Path random encounters was that the table didn't have links for the monsters/npcs. Therefore I had to get the Bestiarys to be able to use the random encounters.

[tahl_liadon]

...table didn't have links for the monsters/npcs...

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i don't know about how it's set up if you purchased a pre-made module.

it takes a bit of preparation if you do your own.
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[DCrumb]

This is from Mummy's Mask. Note that only the ones from the module have accessibility icons.
Wati-random.jpg

[tahl_liadon]

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the way i have mine set up, you can create an encounter right away, and it won't need any bestiary modules open... i.e. the setup in your image, i believe, monsters stats won't show unless required bestiaries are loaded.

[DCrumb]

That is with the Bestiaries loaded. The module doesn't have the links written into the table.