The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters: 500+ customizable maps, tables and story hooks to create 5th edition adventures on demand (The Game Master Series)

I picked this up on a whim as it was on a sale price of under 17 bucks and looked interesting. The moment I opened the box I was immediately impressed with the quality of the book. The hardcover and binding is really nice, especially for a book in this price range. I'd say the initial quality of the book surpasses what you get in WotC offerings that cost much more. After sitting a couple of weeks I finally got a chance to start going through the contents. It has several one shot adventures that you could incorporate into you campaign with ease. What really caught my eye when I was looking at it on Amazon was the locations. Those did not disappoint as there are numerous locations, complete with maps and tables for random activities going on in the location. I thought that was pretty cool and will make the areas come to life. You get some good NPCs and magic items in the book as well but some of the magic items seem as if they could be a tad over powered. In the end this book is well worth the money if you want to add some flavor to your world. More thoughts below on why I like this and what 5E is lacking in my opinion but my main reasons for liking the book are already noted above. Like the title of the review says, this is what was lacking in 5e for me. I did most of my playing and DMing in the late 80's early 90's in high school. I ventured back briefly in the early 2000's with 3e coming out. What I recalled for source material of the 2e days was campaign boxed sets that gave you general locations and maps and ideas for your own story hooks. They usually had NPCs of note as well. It gave you the world and useful tools to help pre populate it. The campaign settings were augmented by monster compendiums and stand alone modules to augment the world and give the DM some premade adventures to work into their take on the campaign setting. A year or so ago my son expressed interest in role playing so I started picking up 5e books. I've been a little disappointed that most of it is books of ready made adventures that are linked together to form a very linear campaign. They are like campaigns in a box. I was expecting more of what there was in the 2e days with a lot more left up to the DM. The new stuff works and seems a great way to get new players and DMs into the game but seems to be mostly ready made. With the time constraints of a full time job, running an outside small business, and raising two teenagers this seems like it would be perfect but I have found what I really wanted was just some general world info that I could just customize with my own flair. You can still do this but it just seems a little harder. This particular book is more what I had in mind as an aid. After running some of the premade stuff I decided my next attempt will be a complete homebrewed world starting with the small town the party starts out in. I'll populate that town with a lot of the stuff in this book and some of my own as well.

Every DM runs into the same problem; coming up with a new idea on short notice. It usually takes most of us with experience about an hour or more to write down a quick adventure scenario for even a simple gaming session. That’s why I LOVE this book. Everything I need to start a campaign or provide my players with a fun detour adventure is already in the book. Everything is written out with goals, details, maps, and even random tables for story twists and rewards. There’s ALL KINDS of really fun ideas for any group, any situation, and any character level. You really don’t have to “plan ahead” when your game changes or your players want to “try something different”. Just get this book and you’ll always be ready to play with great ideas. In fact, I’d go so far as to say this book can EASILY replace the Dungeon Master’s Guide for most DMs needing inspirations and ideas.

I bought this as a first time DM to run a oneshot for a group of first time players. I ran the first oneshot so I read that and only skimmed through the rest of the book. As someone inexperienced with DMing, the book had all the information I needed to get set up for a short session. In the end, all we needed to start playing was this book, pregenerated character sheets, and a set of dice for each person. Our session ran for about 3.5 hours, but I was speeding through some parts because we were under a time constraint. A party that wanted to dedicate more time to that oneshot could easily spend 6 hours playing if they spent more time role playing. There was enough structure to the campaign that I could know where to guide the players, but it was still open enough to improvise and tailor the game to the players. I improvised the layout of and encounters in the sewers. It was great for first time players because first there was an encounter where they had to restrain an NPC, then I improvised an encounter with sewer rats, and then the boss fight at the end. The progression helped to teach the players how the mechanics worked At the end of the day, everyone had a great time :)

Nervous about starting your campaign? Not sure how to describe that first tavern your party walks into? Maybe you don't quite know what a solid adventure should consist of? This book is for you! I have 5 books out of this series, and Random Encounters is the book I reference the most! Instant tavern ideas, hooks, npcs, even full on adventures this book has been great! I ran one of the 1 shot adventures for my low level party, it was easy to plug into my world, the players (3 of which are dnd veterans and I'm a newb dm) loved it, and there are so many ideas and tips to help a new dm get acclimated and build confidence crafting their own world and improvising when the party takes a sudden turn! The layouts are beautiful and well thought out. You get plenty of context while still remaining concise, the book is gorgeous, and the NPC generator and other tables have saved me so many times already being a new DM because I'm just not practiced enough to generate NPCs on the fly. Also with 8....EIGHT one shot adventures at varying levels, new DMs have plenty of content to carry them before they build the confidence to craft their own adventures. If you see this series and are wondering where to start I think Random Encounters is the 1st book to get. I have 5 books out of the series and I'd say: 1) Random Encounters 2) Non Player Characters 3) Villains, Minions, and their Tactics if you're getting started. Absolute 10 out of 10. This is my favorite book in the series and I plan on buying another copy that I haven't destroyed with notes and tabs just to look nice on my shelf and certainly this will be an auto-gift for aspiring DM friends in the future. And it's less than $20?! Are you kidding me?! Amazing.

Livro excelente pra quem é GM e precisa criar uma aventura ou uma localidade. Um livro cheio e repleto de ideias novas. Contêm mapas, aventuras, e diversas localidades/NPC's prontos. OBS: não é um livro focado em Random Tables.

Husband/DM is over this moon about this. Great for quick encounters with ratings for battle difficulty.

A great tool to create locations, stories and encounters with.

Libro que todo DM debe tener

One of my favourite third party supplements. So far everything I've purchased from this series of books has hit the mark in terms of generating new ideas for a game.