TTRPG Judge advice: Into the wild

 

The trio trek the long path upwards, pushing through brush and brambles but always keeping an eye on the track ahead. 

After an hour the party reaches the barren summit, sitting down, catching breaths and taking in the magnificent panorama all around. 

Suddenly a sound destroys the silence, wings beating like the crack of thunder peal overhead. A blood red scaled nightmare soars high bellowing a challenge.

Two of the novice adventurers scramble for cover, desperate to be out sight. The remaining party member (a half orc named Bok) raises his war axe high and screams in defiance back at the dragon. 

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This was my first experience playing role playing games, I had created a feral half orc named Bok and I'm pretty sure it was pathfinder. It was a random thrown together adventure with a group of Americans I had never met face to face. It lasted possibly three to four session and not much got done.

I will never forget this experience and it has had a lasting impression on me as a judge. 

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Random monster and wilderness encounters are amazing. They build moments like this, a young adventuring party coming face to face with a monster that could reduce them to ash. An army of orcs passing through the valley marching to war. A merchants caravan under attack by a tribe of lizard/bee people. 

Some TTRPG's advise the judge to keep within the parties level range when designing fights. To use websites and apps to carefully configure encounters. To treat the game like a set of equations (If the paladin has this AC I could have that many goblins for him to fight). 

I ask judges to be brave and throw this advice out the window and embrace the chaos! To create unbalanced, broken and random encounters. To subvert expectations by using the reaction tables (That army of orcs are actually on the way to defend a human village). To create a realistic world.

When you do this your creation actually comes to life, you take it out of the cold sterile lab and you let it grow and develop and most of all live.

Embrace the madness and have a red dragon fly overhead, hide your smile behind the judge screen when a players decides to scream at it.