Bell Curves are for Cowards
A bell curve in statistics is a normal distribution. They happen everywhere. If I see a critic who doesn’t have a bell curve for their ratings, I get suspicious. Bell curves are good for when you want a predictable result. There will be times when you get a wacky result but that’s part of being predictable, occasionally you do get to eat ice cream for supper.
And it’s Bandits… Again
What does this have to do with Dungeons and Dragons? I constantly see people advising a 2d6 for their Random Encounter charts. I think this is a disservice to your players. If you roll two or more dice, you will more likely get average results. In fact, the more dice you add, the more likely that the result will be average. Unusual can happen but it is less likely. The point of games is to have fun and unusual results faciliate that. In my example chart, your players will be bored to tears with yet another Bandit, Goblin or Wolves result.
With your Sandbox games living or dying by the emergent story that is Random Encounters, you should go with a Linear Chart. A Linear Encounter Chart would have an equal chance of bumping into an Owlbear, fleeing from a Dragon or welcoming a refreshing highway robbery for once. You create peaks and valleys to add excitement to your game, instead of regularly giving your players an average result.
2d6 Deez
I don’t eschew 2d6 entirely. It has uses when I want probably normal results. The two most common are Morale and a Reaction Chart.
Morale is a simple test to see if the baddies flee from the field or surrender. I give them a score between 2 and 12; you roll 2d6 and see if the result is equal to or under their Morale score. If it is, they keep on fighting. A 12 would be Constructs or Undead, they’ll never give up while a 2 might be a bunny. The average result of 2d6 is 7 if you want an average fighting force, that should be their number. Sometimes you’ll get wacky results, like fleeing berserkers or implacable bunnies but at least it is regulated chaos.
The other option is the Reaction Chart, which is how does the NPC feel about the players upon meeting them. Most of the results are Cautious, with a few on either end being hostile or friendly. If you think about your day, most of the time most people just want to be left alone to carry on to carry out their tasks. Occasionally, you’ll come across someone who is entirely hostile or friendly. Or if you’re only coming up against assholes, perhaps it is you that is influencing their perspectives.
An alternative, Reaction Tables Reworked by Murkdice, is inspired by Maslow’s Hieracy of Needs. Instead of whether they’ll be friendly, a jerk or somewhere in between, the Linear Chart he has made asks what they want when they bump into your NPCs. Shelter and sustenance are some obvious results, but recognition or respect gives the Director some interesting prompts to work with.
The Other Normie
Giving out predicable treasure makes for an exciting discovery whenever a the players high roll. With my Treasure Charts, I typically use d8 + d12 to get a nice distribution of items that can express the Faction. I put in some ludicrous extremes with some Factions, like a Scroll of Wish or a Legendary Item. It is highly unlikely that they’ll hit that, but if they did, it certainly would be memorable. On the other hand, if the chart was Linear then it would be possible to make yet another Wish Scroll a boring discovery.
Executing the Linearity
How do I execute my Linear Random Encounters? With nested charts!
Whenever my players Random Encounter roll triggers on the ‘Overworld Zone’, I would roll a d20 and see what the results are. With having Factions be repeated, I can weight what the Random Encounter might be but the odds of landing on any result are the same. I have a few Factions that can appear anywhere, such as the Summer or Winter Court Fey to the Boar Boys. By setting up these Factions, I help reduce my Prep and Page count.
In my overview of the Farrow, you can see that I have a Chart with different results. That is an example of a nested chart. While I am flipping pages, I ask a player to roll a d6. The results of 1 to 5 lead to a standard Encounter with the Faction, while a 6 is with the Leader. Instead of slowly working your way up, you can through some lucky dice get to meet the head honcho. Again, that is far more exciting for your players than having to do a bunch of fetch quests to kiss the ring. If you don’t have a leader planned, ask for a d10 roll and divide by two.
If the party bumps into beasts, I have divided that by territory and season. I also have four different Factions listed by who owns what territory on the Overworld. I even have behaviour listed if I want to lean onto that for cues. If an area is known for being particularly wild, you can have the animals be considered a Faction if you’re pressed for attempting to interpret what has come up.
