Random Encounters (BG3 Scripted Alternative of follow up encounters at some locations)

[jokerahh]

One feature that I believe is conspicuously absent from Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3) is the concept of random encounters—a hallmark of role-playing games and even a staple of the BG franchise. In traditional RPGs, the journey between two locations can be perilous, even if you've previously cleared both areas. In BG3, however, this element is missing due to the lack of a travel or exploration feature; the game primarily consists of transitioning from one map to another. Thus, a pure implementation of random encounters cannot be added to the game simply because of it's style.

Now I don't argue for pure random encounters, as that might be something that we are happy is leaving RPG's but curated scripted post-clearance instances instead as an alternative.

I suggest adding situations that introduce elements of risk and uncertainty when returning through precious areas as an alternative to the pure random encounter feature.. For example, in Act 1, if you've already cleared the blighted village of goblins and then return after a long rest, you might find a new group of goblins led by a challenging mini-boss. They could be on a mission to find whoever was responsible for wiping out the earlier group of goblins.

Similarly, if you clear an area of gnolls, you might return to find a wild bear scavenging the remains. Or if you've cleared the Gith Creche, returning later could mean facing a trap set up by additional Gith Inquisitors who have come to investigate. Typically these should also be possible after having cleared the area and then having had one or two long rests.

Incorporating sporadic post-clearance encounters like these would make the game world feel more dynamic and less predictable and add a sense of danger.

What do you all think?

[jokerahh]

Forums moving a bit quick right now so I will bump this.

[zero]

i'd rather have a curated experince then random encounters ill be honest.

pathfinder km/wrath had them and while i don't "care" per se, they didn't add anything to the game besides me getting some wolf pelts to sell.

by and large i think setting up encounters is a far more enjoyable experience, for me anyway.

now a days a lot of DM's outside of adventure leagues don't really do random encounters anymore, especially since many of them also do curated leveling rather then tracking experince.

[AssassinZX]

Yeah, Witcher 3 did this way better and had none of the woke BS.

[jack_of_tears]

Random encounters are a terrible idea in the tabletop game and they are a terrible idea in crpgs. Especially since Larian has gone the other direction and hand crafted each encounter so it will be more engaging than a random mob.

The game would lose a lot if it added random encounters.

[jokerahh]

Originally posted by zero:

i'd rather have a curated experince then random encounters ill be honest.

pathfinder km/wrath had them and while i don't "care" per se, they didn't add anything to the game besides me getting some wolf pelts to sell.

by and large i think setting up encounters is a far more enjoyable experience, for me anyway.

now a days a lot of DM's outside of adventure leagues don't really do random encounters anymore, especially since many of them also do curated leveling rather then tracking experince.

Well the example I have used is curated, because you couldn't do random in the game anyway, but its a middle ground that might be fun is it not? To have some extra life in areas of the map post clearance. Currently once you clear any area everything starts feeling a little safe. I think it would be fun to have the occasional surprise.

[jack_of_tears]

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Well the example I have used is curated, because you couldn't do random in the game anyway, but its a middle ground that might be fun is it not?

The "monsters move into an area you've cleared" isn't bad, so long as it isn't randomly generated mobs, but that would probably throw the xp curve out of wack and you'd be hitting lvl 12 well before Act 3.

[zero]

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Originally posted by zero:

i'd rather have a curated experince then random encounters ill be honest.

pathfinder km/wrath had them and while i don't "care" per se, they didn't add anything to the game besides me getting some wolf pelts to sell.

by and large i think setting up encounters is a far more enjoyable experience, for me anyway.

now a days a lot of DM's outside of adventure leagues don't really do random encounters anymore, especially since many of them also do curated leveling rather then tracking experince.

Well the example I have used is curated, because you couldn't do random in the game anyway, but its a middle ground that might be fun is it not? To have some extra life in areas of the map post clearance. Currently once you clear any area everything starts feeling a little safe. I think it would be fun to have the occasional surprise.

i mean yes, yours specifically are curated in a sense but they don't really "add" anything beyond just being a second encounter in each area for the sake of a second encounter.

if the reason why there was a boss in blighted village was because we had to return to act 1 for Mcguffin:tm: reasons then i could get behind it, but narratively there is no reason to do it, so its ultimately just a random encounter cause the reason they are there is "just to fight" at that point.

i do like combat so i wouldn't inheritly be opposed to it, but at the same time i dont think it adds much to the game that just adding more story related encounters wouldn't also provide.

[jokerahh]

Originally posted by zero:

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Well the example I have used is curated, because you couldn't do random in the game anyway, but its a middle ground that might be fun is it not? To have some extra life in areas of the map post clearance. Currently once you clear any area everything starts feeling a little safe. I think it would be fun to have the occasional surprise.

i mean yes, yours specifically are curated in a sense but they don't really "add" anything beyond just being a second encounter in each area for the sake of a second encounter.

if the reason why there was a boss in blighted village was because we had to return to act 1 for Mcguffin:tm: reasons then i could get behind it, but narratively there is no reason to do it, so its ultimately just a random encounter cause the reason they are there is "just to fight" at that point.

i do like combat so i wouldn't inheritly be opposed to it, but at the same time i dont think it adds much to the game that just adding more story related encounters wouldn't also provide.

Well I dunno about you, but I go back a fourth over the map, and that village is central so specifically that village a lot. I just think it would add to the experience if I clear that village, head into the spider nest below and clear all that stuff then when I come topside I find that more goblins have turned up and are looking for me. It would make the environment feel more alive rather than just a string of stage sets.

[Sugarwolf]

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Originally posted by zero:

i mean yes, yours specifically are curated in a sense but they don't really "add" anything beyond just being a second encounter in each area for the sake of a second encounter.

if the reason why there was a boss in blighted village was because we had to return to act 1 for Mcguffin:tm: reasons then i could get behind it, but narratively there is no reason to do it, so its ultimately just a random encounter cause the reason they are there is "just to fight" at that point.

i do like combat so i wouldn't inheritly be opposed to it, but at the same time i dont think it adds much to the game that just adding more story related encounters wouldn't also provide.

Well I dunno about you, but I go back a fourth over the map, and that village is central so specifically that village a lot. I just think it would add to the experience if I clear that village, head into the spider nest below and clear all that stuff then when I come topside I find that more goblins have turned up and are looking for me. It would make the environment feel more alive rather than just a string of stage sets.

I agree with this. If you kill all the goblins and then go in the caves for a while, it would make a lot of sense for at least scavengers to show up by the time you emerge.

[zero]

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Originally posted by zero:

i mean yes, yours specifically are curated in a sense but they don't really "add" anything beyond just being a second encounter in each area for the sake of a second encounter.

if the reason why there was a boss in blighted village was because we had to return to act 1 for Mcguffin:tm: reasons then i could get behind it, but narratively there is no reason to do it, so its ultimately just a random encounter cause the reason they are there is "just to fight" at that point.

i do like combat so i wouldn't inheritly be opposed to it, but at the same time i dont think it adds much to the game that just adding more story related encounters wouldn't also provide.

Well I dunno about you, but I go back a fourth over the map, and that village is central so specifically that village a lot. I just think it would add to the experience if I clear that village, head into the spider nest below and clear all that stuff then when I come topside I find that more goblins have turned up and are looking for me. It would make the environment feel more alive rather than just a string of stage sets.

i can agree with that if there is some sorta trigger for why they're looking for me, that would be tying it to the story in some way.

[Paroe]

As someone who has put a good couple hundred hours in divinity original sin 2: The mod that adds exactly this is one of the single most unfun content mods ive ever tried for a turn based, party CRPG. If this were solo and you could scale better with a faster gamespeed (like pillars of eternity) then sure, whatever. But this is a slow, turn based party game where encounters can take a long time.


Please trust experience - you dont want this.

Also, scavs would come weeks later if not months later to some of the sites. Unless youre around a slum or a proper city scavengers, beasts, or malcontents wouldnt come until LONG after the smoke clears.

[jokerahh]

Originally posted by zero:

Originally posted by jokerahh:

Well I dunno about you, but I go back a fourth over the map, and that village is central so specifically that village a lot. I just think it would add to the experience if I clear that village, head into the spider nest below and clear all that stuff then when I come topside I find that more goblins have turned up and are looking for me. It would make the environment feel more alive rather than just a string of stage sets.

i can agree with that if there is some sorta trigger for why they're looking for me, that would be tying it to the story in some way.

yeah so all I am arguing for is maybe a 20 or so encounters such as this through the game. We can probably easily think of where it would fit. They don't all have to be hostile either.

To rattle a few quick ones off.

1. Blighted Village and second Goblin Encounter.
2. Gnoll fight and caravan raid location and wild animals follow up (lots of bodies for to attract some wolves and bears).
3. Gith Creche follow up investigation force after killing the inquisitor or return to find it is overrun with undead from Moonrise.
4. Drow hunter squad investigating a cleared Grym Forge.
5. A follow up fist patrol at the gith patrol fight scene where the bridge was destorying checking up on their missing patrol killed by the dragon (could be non-violent or violent depending on your involvement).
6. Some of the absolutist fighters investigating the sites of all 3 of Ketherics family members if you kill them.

And a handful more of the same.

[jokerahh]

Originally posted by Paroe:

As someone who has put a good couple hundred hours in divinity original sin 2: The mod that adds exactly this is one of the single most unfun content mods ive ever tried for a turn based, party CRPG. If this were solo and you could scale better with a faster gamespeed (like pillars of eternity) then sure, whatever. But this is a slow, turn based party game where encounters can take a long time.


Please trust experience - you dont want this.

Also, scavs would come weeks later if not months later to some of the sites. Unless youre around a slum or a proper city scavengers, beasts, or malcontents wouldnt come until LONG after the smoke clears.

I am not talking about what that mod did that is more like pure random encounters, I am talking about a handful of crafted follow up encounters post clearance.

[Beautiful Ham Sandwich]

I don't necessarily hate the idea of random encounters, I just don't see how it'd work here. Some CRPGs are able to have them, like the Pathfinder CRPGs can have them when you're on the map traveling between areas. Games like this and PoE though, how would that work? There's no in-between, you're going from one curated map to another curated map. Just occupying specific spots on the map with an RNG determined encounter feels kinda clunky.

But if they were able to add them in, I probably wouldn't complain even if it was clunky. Most of us are playing the game for more than one playthrough, would be nice variation so long as they can come up with a way to integrate them without breaking up the flow.

[jokerahh]

Originally posted by Beautiful Ham Sandwich:

I don't necessarily hate the idea of random encounters, I just don't see how it'd work here. Some CRPGs are able to have them, like the Pathfinder CRPGs can have them when you're on the map traveling between areas. Games like this and PoE though, how would that work? There's no in-between, you're going from one curated map to another curated map. Just occupying specific spots on the map with an RNG determined encounter feels kinda clunky.

But if they were able to add them in, I probably wouldn't complain even if it was clunky. Most of us are playing the game for more than one playthrough, would be nice variation so long as they can come up with a way to integrate them without breaking up the flow.

Yeah I addressed those points in my original post, you can't have a pure random encounter system due to game design, but some curated follow up encounters at certain sites is more than doable and I think adds replay ability and a sense of danger to traversing the map.