Random encounters would be great !
The easiest solution to the teleportation fast travel system is to simply cut gale's references to it and instead have your party say something along the lines of 'hmmm I marked the location on a map just in case we need to find our way back here again' , then "fast travel" by map/way-points would simply be an abstraction of real walking/travel over the map.
It would also be nice to not be too random in the encounters and keep them within reasonable limits so that they blend in to the world/story and do not frustrate players or incentivize xp/loot grinding. One way to do this is by dividing the map along "thematic" zones defining the random encounters you can get, by including both positive and negative random events ( bandits vs. traveling merchant), by minimizing loot carried to some frequently needed/bought items (some food, gold, perhaps a healing potion or low level scroll), by level-scaling the combat encounters, by decreasing probability of encounters after the first 2 ones (to represent the fact that once you killed the random bandits showing up at your camp, there is probably less of them around to come disturb you in your sleep).
For instance in the blighted village you could design random combat encounters with goblins (1 or 2 melee, and 1 archer/magic user), refugee/survivor that sells simple healing potions/magic arrows. Around the crypt, bandits/survivor of raided merchant caravan would be the logical/natural choice, in the crashed nautiloid area there could be brain eaters and a once saveable enthralled npc, etc. etc. etc.
Edit: basically, i'm arguing for something that gives the appearance of randomness/spontaneous world, but which is still very much a 'carefully' designed encounter a la Larian, only with some randomness incorporated in terms of event probability, and outcome (positive or negative encounter, concrete npc's that spawn - e.g. goblin mage or cleric). By making the probability of random encounters decrease sharply after a certain threshold value (let's say after first neg. and after first pos. in given area) it would effectively entail Larian adding few encounters made the way they like it without becoming a 'mob generator' or generic xp/loot grind/abuse mechanic. It would increase re-playability at a basic level and add an element of curiosity to each rest on top of the opportunity it would provide to Larian to help build in-world immersion and lore (actually meeting people simply living their banal forgotten realms fantasy stereotype lives).
Last edited by SerraSerra; 19/01/22 10:55 AM.
