Game Master Tips – Using Long Rest, Short Rest and Random Encounters

April 4, 2016

Nerdarchist Ted here and Nubz had an emergency and I am here to fill in. If you missed his article on the World of Darkness, you can check it out here.

In Dungeons and Dragons the mechanics have built in the use of Long Rest and Short rest as a way of getting back hit points as well as abilities. Some classes are built on needing these while others function just off of their hit point pool.

So because of this need to get abilities back the party is going to want to take a breather now and again. If you have marched, exercised or fought hard for any length of time you know how important it is to actually sit down and try to catch your breath.

Game Master Tips – Random Encounters

So it begs the question as a DM are you using the random encounter? Random Encounters are great tools for a DM to throw anything at the party and see what they do with it. Random Encounters have the ability to be anything along the Interaction, Exploration or Combat Triangle. It can encompass one or more or even all.

As exploration the one on watch could notice a trail that he had not seen before. A call in the distance could capture his attention and draw him away. A map could be found. All of these have the ability to take the party off in a different direction from where they were going previously.

As interaction a wandering merchant or any traveler for that matter could come up the trail. A simple conversation starts thereafter. An adversary could come a calling and wishes to talk things out. It might lead to combat eventually but he does not enter with weapons drawn. Some new clue could come up or one of the party might bring up something about themselves based on something they see or remember. It could spark an all player interaction, leaving you free to save your voice.

Lastly we have combat. You know as well as I all the fun things a DM can throw at the players. As a random encounter it can be as small as a fluffy bunny rabbit or as big as the Tarrasque. Random encounters are not a thing that are always supposed to be within the party’s capability to be defeated. The idea of a random encounter is to make the players feel that they are a part of a living breathing world and that all it takes is one mistake and you could be goo on the pavement.

Every DM has to decide for themselves what is going to work. Some DMs do not feel the need for random they do enough planning and encompass the living world within their material. I have no problem with that as that is kind of what I do to account for the shortened time frame that our group tends to play in.

Others feel that they just want to keep playing until everyone is exhausted. Material is prepped and random roles can be made for everything. Lets keep playing until whenever. We used to play this way. If you are going to role for random encounters you have to consider the area that the party is in and how likely is it that someone or something else is going to make an appearance.

If your party is sitting on a busy street corner in town and they are just waiting for something to catch their eye, I feel you could make those roles non stop. If you are in a deserted town, chances are slim of anything wandering by. So make sure that your time intervals make sense for the location. Once you make the role though make sure you have a good idea about why this random encounter happened. Not only will it make the world more real but if done well enough it could have impact on the larger story arc that players just might remember.

However you use Long rests and Short rests in your game spice them up with Random Encounters and make your players run for their lives now and again.

Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!