Has anyone developed a random encounter table for Ars?
In many of my games throughout the years I've used the tables, because, well, life tends to be random sometimes. Generally, for every day spent adventuring, we rolled a d20. On a 1, a random encounter happened. I find that a) it helps the feel of the game not be entirely storyteller driven (aka "railroaded"); b) that it can sometimes be a lot of fun to just have a little random encounter that doesn't have to be completely supported by tons of backstory, etc.; and c) sometimes they can lead into fun stories of their own.
I thought I'd try to develop a table in my new AM saga, set in the Rhine. But I thought I'd see if anyone has created one already?
It then leads to the need for a Seasonal table for covenants / downtime....
I just basically consider where people are and toss in something appropriate and random to liven things up, give chances for character development and so on.
Thus a black bear can sniffing at the camp of the characters only to be blown head of heals away by an auram specialist. An encounter with a city guard lead to amorous encounters. Shops always were amusing and interesting and so on.
Why roll a die, just consider where people are and what they might see, describe it well and they find their own encounters. ((one of the more memorable was the sheltered upbringing paranoid mage's first encounter with a squirrel.))
I hear you, but for the same reason that I enjoy using the Botch table, the Aging table, and the Twilight table, I like to roll to see what fate has in store.... I use tables as a jumping off point. And they often send me in a direction that I wouldn't have otherwise gone down.
I theow a totally random event when I sense that the troupe is getting bored by the main story. Sometimes it happens. The encounter tends to be located to the locale. Wagons jammed in a river ford, a nobleman's hunt crossing over them, a bunch of fae stealing their stuff, a demon looking for the grogs getting into trouble, a pickpocket at market (oliver twist), a bunch of highwaymen attacking them with or without supernatural help, a damisel running from a bunch of hellish-looking hounds (the damisel being a demon might happen).... The old Living Lore book is good for this kind of random encounters, and some of the mythic places book are cool for this sort of mini adventures that take half a session to play in the middle of a 5-session adventure.