(Go back to Campaign Manager ) This help topic is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Gaming License v1.0a .
The DMG describes how to create a random encounter table – in this frame, you can enter the entire table or create your own and instantly roll and generate an encounter. See Rolling a Random Encounter .
Click the “Add Row” to add a row to the grid. Each row has several columns
- Chance: The relative chance of rolling this random encounter. This is a single number – if you are converting a table that says “11-15”, enter 5. The value of the dice rolled is the total of the chance column. It does not need to add up to 100 – any number above 0 is all right.
- Friend: An “X” in this box signifies that the creatures are friendly – or at least, won't attack the PCs. Click to toggle.
- Creature Race: Click on this to select the race to edit in the frame below (see Stat Block for Row#, Race# below).
There can be up to 4 different races for each row of the encounter table. There is no limit to the number of creatures from each race.
Click on the correct row and column of the table above to select the race to edit. This is the description of this part of the encounter. Many times, only the first column is used – for example, an encounter might be 1 dragon, or 1d6+1 kobolds. However, if there are two types of monsters, use the first and second column – for example, a level 10 NPC fighter and his 1d4 level 3 henchmen.
- Stat Block: The large text box holds the stat block for this part of the encounter. This can be either a complete stat block or just a really simple line such as just the name of the race (“Goblin” or “Great Wyrm Red Dragon”). See New Creature: Import Stat Block to learn how to write a valid stat block. Note however than only one stat block may be entered. Do not forget to set the Number box.
- Other uses of the stat block: You don't have to put a real creature in an entry of the random encounter table - you type in a meteorological event (like 'Windstorm'), a special effect (like 'A random magical item malfunctions'), something impeding the PC's progress (like 'The road is blocked by a fallen tree'), or anything else you may desire. If this comes up when rolling the random encounter, click “Cancel” to stop (DM Genie does create a creature named “Windstorm” for example, but all its stats are empty because that is not a valid race). Make sure to set the Number to one or more or else the event will not come up.
- List of Races: The dropdown list box gives you all the races (or the filtered races, see below).
- Set button: Generate a simple stat block using the selected race only.
- Filter By CR: Much like the New Creature Screen , you can filter the list of races to display by CR, from a minimum to a maximum value. A level-1 dungeon might use creatures with CRs from 0 to 1 for example.
- Number: The dice to roll to calculate the number of creatures. Formats accepted are: 1d8+5, or 1d4, or simply 1. If the HP of the creature is not indicated in the stat block, all HP are rolled using the creature's HD.
- Treasure: Enter the percent chance of the creatures carrying treasure. This is used as a reminder – unless included in the stat block, random encounter creatures do not carry any inventory.
Check this to use the same random encounter table as the parent adventure. Be warned that this will overwrite any changes made to your table. When the parent adventure's random encounter table is changed, this one follows suit as well.
Enter any miscellaneous notes about the encounters in the table, like details of treasure or magical items some might carry. This is also a good place to note the frequency of checks (e.g. Once per hour and every time the PCs make noise.)
Click the “Roll a Random Encounter” button. A box tells you what races were rolled and how many creatures for each race. If you put something else then a race, “Unknown Race: ...” appears. In addition, the Encounter Level, the Party's Level and the Challenging Encounter level are displayed. See Encounter Difficulty for more details.
You can either accept this roll by pressing Yes, or roll again by pressing No, or press Cancel.
To adjust the difficulty of a random encounter, you can multiply the number of creatures rolled - from x1/3 to x4. For example, 1d6+1 x 1/2 will roll 1d3. For multiples of x2 or higher, you can choose to roll more than once on the table instead of multiplying the number of creatures.