Convention D&D ruined my approach to random encounters

I used to run random encounters as random until I went to GenCon 2023 and played in a game where the DM pre-planned every single wilderness encounter. It felt so much more organic and tied to the story. Now I spend about 30 minutes before each session picking 3 encounters that connect to the plot instead of rolling on a table. My players actually care about fighting the bandits now because they stole a family heirloom, not just because the dice said so. Has anyone else ditched random tables after trying this approach?

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the_jana15d ago

Oh man, I tried this exact thing and my players ended up ignoring the plot bandits entirely because they got distracted by a weird tree. Then I spent 20 minutes improvising a whole side plot about a sentient oak that just wanted to complain about squirrels. I think I put more effort into pre-planning three encounters than I used to put into actually running the session. But you know what, at least we got a good story out of that tree before a player set it on fire.