BETTER ENCOUNTERS

 

Cascading Random Encounter Tables

I love rich encounters. Interacting with cool NPCs is key to great gaming sessions in my opinion. It’s not too hard to write rich and fun encounters for a single adventure. But when those encounters are meant for a whole setting, made to be used for lots of sessions, they need to be highly reusable. A single table might not be enough. You need some randomness and variety. One simple solution is to add more tables. But rolling multiple times can be tedious. On top of this The Lost Bay is a d6 system. Rolling d6s implies either short tables, with only six entries and little variety, or huge d66 tables, with thirty six entries, which frankly would be a nightmare to write. Oh I forgot to mention, I’m writing ad hoc encounter tables for each of The Lost Bay districts, so that means LOTS of tables.

My first encounter procedure was a bit of a mess, it had you rolling different dice (d6, d10, d20) on four + different tables. You might’ve seen an early version of it in the First Look edition on itch.io (which is not supported anymore and has been replaced by the Manuscript Preview).

I wasn’t totally happy with it and I spent quite some time looking for a fast and simpler procedure, while still keeping the rich storytelling potential of the original. I struggled to find something to suit my needs.

Luckily Prismatic Wasteland showed me the way in a kickass blog post, Overloading the random encounter table. The core idea of this uber clever procedure is to combine several rolls into just one. Instead of rolling three d6s separately, for three different tables, you roll 3d6 once, add the results up, and consult only one table with 16 entries (the sum of the 3d6 results will always be between 3 and 18).

The three dice’s info is sort of baked into the resulting sum, and you can build a better table using that granularity hidden into the sum of the roll.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, but if you’re into game design I’d wholeheartedly recommend reading Prismatic’s post, it’s fantastic. In a nutshell, the beauty of this procedure is: while it requires a bit of sweat on the designer’s side, it’s much more nimble to use on the GM/player side.

Prismatic uses Overloaded Tables to build encounters for the published adventure Forge of Fury. One table, 18 entries. Super fun and rich. But as I was mentioning above we need a bit more than 18 entries because we are building random encounters for a setting which could probably be played hundreds or thousands of times (yes, totally exaggerating here). We’re looking for replayability and consistency.

Here comes the Cascading Random Encounter Tables (CRET???!!!)

It might sound ominous, but it’s really not! It’s fun to design and use.

How does it work? Roll 3d6 and use the results of the roll in a series of successive tables:

1. Dude(s): the NPC(s) you encounter.
2. Quirk: something weird and tasty about the NPC.
3. Mood: the TLB version of an NPC reaction table.
4. Role: the secret desires and deep flaws of the NPC (I’ve already shared a bit about why I love Roles over Reactions in a previous post, https://thelostbaystudio.substack.com/p/better-encounters-free-supplement).

The first table Dude(s) already gives you plenty of info, and depending on how detailed you want the encounter to be you can move down the list of tables to add flavour and meaning to it. We’ve got four tables, sound familiar? Yes, except for this there’s only one roll, with the tables all being connected. There being only one roll makes it easier for the player, and that connection between tables offers us interesting design opportunities.

Here’s a simple breakdown of how the four tables utilize the roll.

1. Dude(s): the sum of the 3d6, results between 3 and 18
2. Quirk: the sum of the 2 lowest rolls, results between 2 and 12
3. Mood: the sum of the 2 highest rolls, results between 2 and 12
4. Role: the middle die.

The beauty is that 2d6 and 3d6 don’t provide linear curves, meaning some results will be more likely. Allowing us to design the table(s) while taking into account all this probabilistic gravy. Some NPCs will pop up more frequently, and that’s super useful to know for when we’re designing the Setting.

A simple example. Take the roll 6, 6, 6. 666 is gonna be a baddie right? It’s one of the two less likely encounters to happen. It’s gonna be epic. The roll will provide the following results: 18, 12, 12, 6. We’re going to bake as much evil information as possible into each table result, see below:

With that you’ve got an NPC with a whole lot of depth in just one roll.

Another roll containing just one or two 6s can be some level of evil. Maybe they’re not an antagonist but their quirk is 12, and their body is rotting, that’s gotta push the fiction somehow.

That is the beauty of Cascading Random Encounter Tables (CRET!!).

But wait, there’s more!

You know what else could we do with that single 3d6 roll? NPC stats! For your average Lost Bay NPC, stats tend to be pretty simple: they consist only of Heart (their HP if you will) and Harm (default damage).

Let’s add those.

HEART: the middle die.
HARM: default harm is 0, +1 harm for each 6.

Hang on a sec, let’s add a ‘lil bonus

Doubles of any #: Dude sneaks up on PCs, gets a surprise turn if in combat.

See where the 6, 6, 6 roll is going? Maxed Heart, 3 Harm, surprise turn. That’s tough MOFO!

There’s more fun things happening in TLB encounter tables, but I’ll let you retro engineer those for yourself. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of CTs (Cascading tables). They’re already being used for node generation (I'll blog about this soon), and I’m experimenting with using them for character creation as well. One 3d6 to give you a vibe, stats, powers, background, gear. Your whole character, generated in just one roll!

Below is a free Cascading Random Encounters Table for the Desert district. Roll a few NPCs or even better you could snag the game on itch https://the-lost-bay.itch.io/thelostbayrpg or preorder it on our store http://thelostbayrpg.com/

That’ll give you access to the preview manuscript and to a lot more cool tables!

 

HEART	is Middle die
HARM	default harm is 0, +1 harm for each 6
Doubles any #	Dude sneaks up on PCs, gets a surprise turn
DUDE(s)
Sum of the 3 dice
3	Survivalist. MOVE Geolocate using digital watch/sun/stars. GEAR Digital Watch, snacks, flares x2, water filtering kit.
4	Moonshiner. MOVES Drink from silver flask. Complain about outsiders. GEAR Moonshine flask, distillery door keys, bird skull.
5	Believer. MOVE Show proof aliens are among us. GEAR Annotated map, "The new Gods" bestseller. EXTRA QUIRK perfectly triangular birthmark on forehead.
6	Racer. MOVE Curse at their dirt bike. GEAR Out of gas bike, cross helmet, pager.
7	Surveyor MOVES Throw away magazine, Measure distance GEAR Surveyor tool and tripod (1 DMG), boiled eggs, kinky magazine.
8	Wildlife, lowest die 1 Snake, 2 Wild horse, 3 Vulture. (see Wildlife).
9	Nomad. MOVE Braid their own hair. GEAR Dream shrooms (Force save or pass out and gain 1 Weird), Satchel contains lowest die 1. Lucky charm (Succeed at Weird save once) 2. Iridescent sand 3. Dried fruit (roll for Food effect)
10	Wildlife, lowest die 1 Snake, 2 Wild horse, 3 Vulture. (see Wildlife).
11	Hunters x 3 Hunting lowest die 1. Eagles 2. Wild horses 3. A naked pervert (see entry 18) MOVES Headshot 3 DMG up to Far, once per encounter. Takes two turns, gun is fired on second turn. Tell unlikely hunting tale. GEAR Hunting rifles (1d6 DMG Split at Near), binoculars, cottage cheese (+1 Heart).
12	Runner. MOVES Stretch legs. Jump in place. GEAR Running shoes, obnoxious sunglasses, energy drink flask (Roll for Food effect)
13	Campers (# is lowest die). MOVES Set up camp. Grill marshmallows. GEAR Tent, sleeping bags, fire starters, beer cans, marshmallows (Roll for food effect), cured meat.
14	Falconer (# magnificent birds of prey is Middle die). MOVES Unleash birds (Split DMG as birds number at Near), Feed lizards to birds. GEAR Gauntlet (1 DMG), bag of live lizards, truck keys (see entry 17)
15	Drug cook. MOVES Smile staring (Focus save or lose 1 die next roll). GEAR Coffee filters, Acid, 9mm gun 1d6 DMG.
16	Bearded Astronomer. Move Stroke beard. GEAR Water tank, Solar eclipse glasses, compass.
17	Trucker. Fix stuff, Slap 2 DMG Close. GEAR Dark lord cap, inflatable neck cushion, torch keyring.
18	Alien. MOVES Talk into your mind telepathically (Focus save or Obey for 3 turns). Pop head (Force save or 1D6 DMG, works at Near, no contact required). GEAR Headless lizard.
QUIRK	Optional
Sum 2 lowest dice
2	Sun burns
3	Abundant sweating
4	Fresh ketchup stains
5	Ear missing, roll 1d6 even just ripped off and drips blood, odd dirty makeshift head bandage
6	Heavily intoxicated
7	Broken voice
8	Extremely slender and tall
9	Shirt and tie. Second Quirk is lowest die.
10	Constantly scratching
11	Looks extremely sick, roll 1d6 even pukes, odd burps
12	Naked.
MOOD	Optional
Sum 2 highest dice
2	Thirsty. "Water, water, water."
3	Jaded. "So you're from the city? I could tell by your clothes, they're not so fancy you know."
4	Blinded. "Did you see the light, it burned my eyes. Or was it the sun?"
5	Welcoming. "Blessed be your day. What brings you in this wretched place?"
6	Bored. "Nothing ever happens around here. It's so flat. Almost useless."
7	Conspirative. "Shush. They're listening, they have spies behind every rock."
8	Lost. "I think I might be circling in loops, where are we?"
9	Euphoric. "Look at the sky, the sand! There's nothing like this place."
10	Wounded. Loses 1 Heart per turn. Can't speak. Burps blood.
11	Mystical. "Your aura is like a rainbow. You're so beautiful."
12	Curious. "What's this? And this?"
ROLE	Optional
Middle die
1	Cowardly Guide. Knows their way around, flees from danger. MOVES Decrypt signs | Know who’s who | Flee on the first blood drop
2	Radical Protector. Will die to protect, jumps into trouble. MOVES Bash DMG 3 (once) | Sacrifice take hit | Lead +1 die
3	Scared Witness. Knows valuable information, reluctant to talk. MOVES Destroy evidence | Freeze when asked info | Point fingers at clue
4	Flawed Ally. Helps with all their heart, extremely clumsy. MOVES Fumble and make noise | Encourage +1 die | Share snack +1 Heart
5	Fake Samaritan. Pretends to help, covert antagonist. MOVES Lure to wrong places | Steal precious item | Distill lies
6	Curious Minion. Serves an evil master, but is intrigued by the party. MOVES Express fake admiration | Reveal secret about master| Poison food and beverages