Random Encounters: Where are they?

Arcanjo7Sagi · 10-11-2023, 11:48 AM

I was looking through my GURPS books (physical and digital) and noticed that I didn't find anything similar to random encounters. There are supplements for random treasures, yes, but I didn't see anything about encounters per se. And when I say encounters, I don't just mean monsters: it could be an event occurring, like a fire, a trap, or countless other things.

I understand that something doesn't make sense in every game or setting, but I expected to find something similar in the Dungeon Fantasy line... which wasn't the case.

Any player who has played D&D knows what it's like. You have tables, often targeted at specific environments: random encounters in forests, deserts, cities, etc. I understand that in D&D it is easy to have a lot of ready-to-use material (monsters, for example), but I can see the idea being implemented in GURPS without so many problems. And not just in Dungeon Fantasy (although that's the most obvious choice), but maybe even in Action and the like. In the Cyberpunk Red basic book (current edition of Cyberpunk 2020), we have, for example, random encounters in Night City based on the time range (morning, afternoon, night).

Any reason for this absence? Is it something from GURPS gaming culture? Lack of resources and time to dedicate some material to this? What do you think? Did I miss something?

10-11-2023, 11:48 AM	#1
Arcanjo7Sagi Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Random Encounters: Where are they? I was looking through my GURPS books (physical and digital) and noticed that I didn't find anything similar to random encounters. There are supplements for random treasures, yes, but I didn't see anything about encounters per se. And when I say encounters, I don't just mean monsters: it could be an event occurring, like a fire, a trap, or countless other things. I understand that something doesn't make sense in every game or setting, but I expected to find something similar in the Dungeon Fantasy line... which wasn't the case. Any player who has played D&D knows what it's like. You have tables, often targeted at specific environments: random encounters in forests, deserts, cities, etc. I understand that in D&D it is easy to have a lot of ready-to-use material (monsters, for example), but I can see the idea being implemented in GURPS without so many problems. And not just in Dungeon Fantasy (although that's the most obvious choice), but maybe even in Action and the like. In the Cyberpunk Red basic book (current edition of Cyberpunk 2020), we have, for example, random encounters in Night City based on the time range (morning, afternoon, night). Any reason for this absence? Is it something from GURPS gaming culture? Lack of resources and time to dedicate some material to this? What do you think? Did I miss something? __________________ “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”