Random Encounters and Reaction Rolls

We need more advanced random encounter tables. And by more advanced, I mean more suited to telling the kinds of stories we want to play, not the kind with modifiers based on current rainfall. There is not much to work with, as the mechanic has seen little use for rarely-discussed reasons (much like reaction rolls), so our starting point is much more primitive than with other rules design.

Random Encounters are a major facet of the old-style hex crawl and dungeon crawl. The idea is that when travelling, there exists a chance of triggering an encounter. More often than not, this means a fight scene likened to those random fights in CRPGs that use the world map. They are occasionally still seen in gaming products to this day, unceremoniously slapped in the back, rarely much else spoken of them.

Reaction Rolls are an old mechanic, used in place of many social systems, but are primarily seen in OD&D rules. The rundown is that just before rolling initiative, you would decide what how the NPC or monster would feel about the party. Whether they be hostile, neutral, or welcome to join in making friendship bracelets, would be decided on a random roll. Originally, it would be slightly influenced by the Charisma of one or more members of the party, but there are obviously more complex variations on this mechanic.

Both are signs of an older era, and both have been wordlessly dropped from the scene. Many other mechanics have been dropped from the old days, but their exclusion came with much discussion. THAC0 is one of the more infamous examples of a game rule whose removal had discussions (largely in favour).

As they're not built into the rules anymore, asking someone why they don't use reaction rolls is akin to asking a Texan why they don't put tomatoes in their clam chowder. They probably haven't even heard of the practice, and there's an inherent inertia to changing how things function. For those rare few that are versed in the rule sufficiently to have an opinion, they use the same arguments as you hear surrounding the Diplomacy skill; superiority of GM advocacy, role-vs-roll, unbiased decision-making, etc.

Random Encounters don't see this kind of debate. They're in the corner, used by some, unused by many outside of deciding what the party will fight today (making the process simpler by just opening your monster book to a random page and rolling initiative). The arguments for and against, I suspect, follow a similar pattern to that of Diplomacy. DMs feel more confident in their ability to tell a story, and feel they are hampered by such arbitrary dice, and might as well play a boardgame if the human element is removed.

What's important here is that random encounters shouldn't be seen as a crutch, but a tool. The position of DM carries the danger of bias and favoritism. This is a subtle danger. Even if you manage to not play favorites, your impressions and reactions to PC behavior are going to be the same from NPC to NPC. I'm not saying it's impossible, but actors face a similar hurdle and the best ones take lessons and practice for years in doing only that, while the role of DM is one of unguided discovery amid a sea of other roles. Much like the other rules of the game are used rather than just throwing it all to the wind for Cops & Robbers, an encounter table properly designed, serves to enhance the game.


Relevant Links
The Alexandrian's Game Structures
Online Encounter Generator
Improving Random Encounters

Werehouse

So, the apocalypse happened. The entire world had been destroyed and withered away. Reality was consumed, retroactively removing it from the timeline. However, destruction and annihilation isn't so clean. There are shards of the world left behind in the world's wake, falling through the quantum cracks into the realm of memory, the Astral Plane.
Someone stores them, catalogs them. This is the Werehouse (pronounced 'wir', not 'wear').

Roughly the size of Manhattan, this warehouse stores crate after crate, labelled and organized. Within each crate is leftover detritus from a world erased. The crates are typical 5' plywood, with an ancient script etched onto it by heat, stating the name of the world the piece is from as well as its multidimensional coordinates of origin.


In the background, there is a constant 'toll' for the deaths of each world: which sounds like this.

If you have a typical player, they WILL attempt to open a crate. Roll a d4 & a d12

d12\d4	1 - Place	2 - Event	3 - Item	4 - Emotion
1	Snowy mountain peak	Amphibious whale giving birth	Laser beam	Saudade: Melancholic feeling of incompleteness
2	Outer space	Extreme speed bridge match, televised before coliseum	Tandem bicycle	Serefe: Drinking for one’s honor
3	Tavern	17th century astronomy lecture	Rope-driven robot	Gezelligheid: Comfort of being with family/friends
4	21st century maternity ward	Humanoid trash monsters protesting in front of large cathedral	Burning animal head	Alienation
5	Wooded glen	Space frogs croaking to alien melody in space swamp	1’ pile of soot	Jubilation
6	Ship’s hold	Ice volcano eruption interrupting path of falling meteor	Bilge pump	Compassion
7	Middle of ocean	Tree falling in forest, soundlessly	Platinum spork	Jealousy
8	Permafrost beach	Battle of Teutoburk Forest, 12k Germans beating 25k Romans	6 tonnes of butter	Guilty
9	Edge of active volcano	Four-armed gorilla approaching lightning-made fire, picking up stick	Trumpet	Sore
10	1920-era train car	Very primitive shaman, exhausted, animating a zombie for the first time	Clump of bamboo	Panic
11	Old West bank lobby	Child drowning drugged mother in kitchen	Meteor	Iktsuarpok: Feeling of anticipation from waiting for someone to arrive
12	Massive tree branch	Giant lizard, seeking, finding last fruit behind rock	Corset for medium human	Boketto: Feeling from gazing vacantly

Place: A single moment, without any animal or sentient life, its conditions unchanging. Any attempts to change or disturb the place will result in it resetting to its original condition when not observed, even for an instant. The boundaries of the place, which are arbitrary, act as an exit out of the crate.

Event: Much like a place, except that people are present to recreate their roles in the original event, endlessly repeating themselves. While they can react to stimuli that differ from the narrative enshrined, they have immense mental inertia to direct the reaction to something approximate to the original outcome. Even getting them to appreciably change this will matter little once the event reaches its end-time and resets every participant regardless of observation.

Item: Other than the item remaining in temporal stasis, unchanging from the passage of time, it is otherwise an ordinary item subject to damage as normal.

Emotion: A glowing pink half-sphere, emanating and impressing a particular emotion upon any in the immediate vicinity (usually about 10' to 20' radius). Its radiating emotion can be blocked with sufficient concentration or a metal helmet.

The Caretaker of Werehouse: Goncho Vierge of the Dustmen
Tall, with flowing Arabic clothes. Everything, down to the skin, is bone white. He carries a plain white staff in one hand, and an identical head with turban in the other, which is fully alive and independent. Very quiet, erring towards silence or few words, and will react with indifference most of the time. He constantly maintains the grounds, and also works on new storage. He only resorts to violence in self-defense long enough to escape their reach, and will only press the attack against assailants to him or the facility if he feels he can take on the intruder.