My stomach turns at the thought of random encounters. Hate them on tabletop, and any video games, even in pokemon (I think the newer games are a huge improvement on that front. Give me the old games, but visible pokemon in the grass that I can walk around to skip, and I'd be a very happy nerd!).[...] But random encounters is not a solution in any shape or form IMO. It's just annoying filler that doesn't drive the story. And if it's chance-based, I'd hit F5 before travel, travel, and reload if random encounter, and try travel again to avoid random combat :P
You do realise there's a certain irony in your statement that you hate random encounters because of how they're chance and not story driven in a discussion on a game that forces you to roll dice on literally everything in combat en often in dialogues too ? Why not let some world events be dice driven too? Like you first come on a crosspoint. Dice roll, d6 , anything between 0-3 bad luck, 3-6 good luck , the higher lower, the more beneficial or dangerous. How would that randomness differ from the randomness in attacks hitting or missing, or your charisma checks to succeed. If the issue is losing rolls (or losing to randomness), just add an option of few negative encounters, no random encounters, or story mode where you succeed any roll everywhere... ?
YES!! Exactly!! That literally everything in D&D is driven by the randomness of dice-rolling is what makes me so dislike D&D mechanics. Literally everything. Some dice-rolling would be okay, but in D&D all the choices you as the player make, up to and including character creation and development choices, are ultimately of little relevance because outcomes will ultimately be driven by a die roll. A truly egregious example is that even the healing power you get from drinking a healing potion is driven by a die roll. Ditto the healing received from a healing spell, which therefore says your God is choosing to play dice with your life and the lives of anyone depending on that God's spells. It's just plain silly:
Player: "DM, my character needs to pee." DM rolls a D20: "Nope. Sorry. The die roll says you don't get to pee. Better luck next time."
Wow. What DMs do you play with. I don't make my players roll for everything. I only make them rule for important things. Shoot, even if they are trying to persuade someone and they give me a good, persuasive argument, I just run with it, rewarding them for good roleplaying. I make them roll for things when they're like, "I don't know what to say or do."
