Link here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFnJDUPcmTM
As usual, don't bother.
The video opens up with a slick transition, so I know this video person knows how to make videos. That's cool and all, but it doesn't in any way translate to intelligence when it comes to RPGs. This will become readily apparent.
So, the video begins with some asinine presumptions. It opens with PCs bedding down for the night outside and encountering "Nightime Encounters" via page 29 of Curse of Strahd. Bonus points for not using the cucked paperback version that comes in a paper coffin that's not fit to grace a Halloween store in early August. Those points are forfeit because this dude is using one of the two modules worth keeping in the entire 5e library to try to shit on random encounters. He rolls, breaks the fourth wall which he only did pre-transition meaning ok he's not THAT good at making videos (as he ruins the initial point of the transition by not transitioning back for the fourth wall break). And tells me that rolling 3d6 wolves on a random encounter table is "not inspiring". Then he rolls, gets 10 wolves, and flatly explains that they all rush out of the woodlands He commits more faux-pas regarding fourth wall breaks but suffice to say I'm not here to critique his video creation.
The "players" at his table say they are sixth level and the mage could just throw a fireball and end the fight, even though they lost initiative they will survive the initial onslaught. Our narrator says this whole thing was a big waste of time. And that's true, because he's stupid and this was either an invented scenario that didn't occur at a table or he's double stupid because it did happen at the table and he didn't consider the ramifications of all the statements he's made up until this point. He somehow thinks the overarching question imposed by the scenario is this;
Will these PCs die to some random wolves? And the answer is No.
That's because he's asking the wrong question. There are three enormous problems with 5E that Curse of Strahd is too good to actually consider. You see, Curse of Strahd still thinks it's I6 Castle Ravenloft. Tomb of Annihilation is the Tomb of Horrors coming to 5E on 5E's terms, which is why it's a better module than Curse of Strahd which is a faithful regurgitation of I6. The difference between I6 and Curse is that I6 is for AD&D and Curse is for 5E AKA WotC Fantasy Gayme 3E.
When writing I6 there wasn't a thought of PCs resting once to get back to 100%, or having multiple death saves failed before death actually occurs once you get to 0 HPs, And as I've recently shown HPs were a lot fewer and further between in AD&D on both the monsters and PC's sides. But let's not get into that. Let's get back to random encounters.
A random encounter is supposed to do two things:
1) Diminish PC resources in an unexpected way. In the before times when a "short rest" of 15 mins didn't restore you to full HP, there were two ways to get back HP, one was with a cleric of some sort getting their daily spells back, and the other was a slow laborious process of resting likely in town. If you hit 0 HP and were revived from that brink of death, you were not in fighting shape for HOURS. It was nothing like the current Gauntlet Legends style play where tossing a potion or another quarter in the arcade machine brought you right back into the fray. Death was possible and a consequence.
2) Inform the players about the setting. What haunts the night in Barovia? There's an entire table to tell you. It's not there to inspire shit. It's there to present actual fictionalized realism in an objective way. Because the game is a game first, one about surviving in a simulated environment. Not a storytelling exercise. Not a power fantasy. Especially not when it comes to Ravenloft. Ravenloft wasn't made for the pussy DMs of this generation. I'm off track again.
This was all a lead up to the idea of "inspiring (random) encounters". I'm going to put a pin in that bad idea for just a second and step back to actual random encounters, and in fact the scenario in example:
There are some facts in the scenario:
The PCs are bedding down for the night.
The PCs are in Svalich Woods, near Lake Zarovich
They are sixth level. One is a wizard who still apparently somehow has Fireball prepared. I'll let it go.
There are 10 wolves coming in to attack them.
They lost initiative to the wolves.
Setting aside the fact that surprise is a thing (as it's probably ignored in 5E if not in rules than in play), there are some factors that are completely ignored in this scenario which complicate everything:
Are the PCs in a weakened condition? Is it possible that a round of attacks from 10 wolves could at least down a PC? He tosses out a "no" but I feel the scenario doesn't have the intelligence behind it to justify that position as it was made to be a hyperbolic strawman failure scenario with only one outcome. Random encounters in CoS occur TWICE every 12 hours with a 25% chance per half hour off road, which virtually guarantees two random encounters every 12 hours and they don't appear to be NEAR the road. Depending on how gay you are with Short and Long rests, and this is set up for a Long rest, there might really be some expended resources and the idea of fighting at less than 100%. Even less than that if this is occurring as they're bedding down IE Fighter-type PCs are out of armor and couldn't reasonably put it back on in time. But this is 5E so likely everyone sleeps in their armor. Yes that's ONE thought that went into my head.
Secondly (yeah): There are 10 wolves, they are absolutely not going to conform to the shape of an expended fireball, that being a 20' radius circle. These Wolves will strike from a circle, coming in at every direction, and target whoever they feel is the weakest threat because that's how wolves operate. Meaning that Wizard is likely getting more than his fair share of incoming attacks. If any of those hit it's likely buh-bye fireball, unless the idea of spoiling spellcasting via a successful hit is similarly gayly ignored. Let's say it is.
Let's say everything works out in this scenario exactly as planned. The PCs even toss a fireball and kill all 10 wolves who nonsensically came in a circular 20' radius sphere formation. You're in dense forest and and there are Druids with Twig Blights about (see random encounter table). What happens if your fireball catches the woods on fire? During the dead of night? I'd say it'd attract that encounter like moths to a flame.
Let's even say that worked out. All wolves dead, no foliage harmed. You just caused decent-sized explosion near the shore of a lake in the dead of night. What a lake is - is a large reflective surface and a flat plain all rolled into one. Literally every single creature near the shore of the entire lake now knows where you are camped. So if you're smart you're moving now. If you're dumb and stay where you're at, well it's time to roll on the encounter table again and again. No rest just yet because the world isn't a goddamn video game. Actions have consequences if you think about it for a second. You don't need an "inspiring" random encounter. What this random encounter just did was exactly the right thing - it gave the PCs enough rope to hang themselves with. This party would not survive a modest AD&D1E DM's campaign. It takes Super Weenie Hut Junior 5E to coddle them into survival.
Back to this genius's inspiring encounter - taking away the numbers of wolves is the bright idea and instead putting canned text on a spark table:
"A wolfpack circles the camp and charges the characters if they think they can take them on. Each of the beasts bears the singed mark of Strahd on their paws. Indicating his control over the beasts. The pack consists mostly of wolves but there might be some dire wolves, or a werewolf pack leader. If the party is particularly high level considering adding a dire worg! Alternatively they might find a single wounded wolf pup. A character could, with a successful DC 18 animal handling check, spend a ration to endear the wolf to themselves. This might lead to the wolf becoming a sidekick!"
So, this is the dude's intelligent replacement for "3d6 wolves". This is one of those times where you can out an armchair gamer because a table of multiple entries of this shit would not survive contact with the table. Before even getting to the contents, we're talking about reading a goddamn paragraph after a dice roll, then proceeding to basically wing an encounter. Having wolves rove in packs of 3d6 is just more sensical when considering the world itself. It's faster and gets to the point. All the extraneous stuff I considered and this video person did not because they aren't actually at a table or if they are they have the most boring basic-bitch railroad bullshit power fantasy activity equivalent to bowling with the bumper guards engaged. You can't even call it a game anymore. It's just collaborative storytelling, so just put away the dice and stop pretending you're even playing a game.
Let's break down those contents:
"A wolfpack circles the camp and charges the characters if they think they can take them on"
This is the original encounter except it could be a full blown nothing burger. Why did you have the idea of circling the camp here but not with the initial entry of "3d6 wolves". It betrays that you put a modicum of more thought into this than interfacing with that. Also mentioning the camp itself is bad form, an encounter can come at any point every 1/2 hour, near-definitely occurring twice every 12 hours. The PCs don't necessarily have to be in a camp. Also these are animals, they operate on instinct and not what we classically consider "thought". Basically if they outnumber the PCs they would attack. If you rolled dice and got 10 of them, they would attack. if you rolled and got 3, maybe not. You didn't need that sentence to make this consideration. It's not extra work unless you're a complete idiot and don't consider encounters in a virtualized-realism way.
"Each of the beasts bears the singed mark of Strahd on their paws. Indicating his control over the beasts."
This is stupid. Strahd controls the entirety of the beasts of the realm. He doesn't need to brand them, and definitely wouldn't waste his time doing such or employing others to do such. So while it might "sound cool", it's actually illogical and stupid, makes no sense in the setting, and therefore breaks the main tenet of virtualized realism - respect your setting. Strahd is such a large part of Ravenloft that he should be used very deliberately. But I'll get to that later.
"The pack consists mostly of wolves but there might be some dire wolves, or a werewolf pack leader. If the party is particularly high level considering adding a dire worg!"
This is just "scale the encounter to the party" in way more words. It's videogame bullshit like this that is one of the other huge problems with the D&D game as it is. A good part about the current table is that you learn that wolves, dire wolves, and werewolves in wolf form do not travel together. They don't hunt together, they don't form packs together. Presumably whatever a dire worg is (besides redundant) would similarly pack and hunt separately from the rest.
"Alternatively they might find a single wounded wolf pup. A character could, with a successful DC 18 animal handling check, spend a ration to endear the wolf to themselves. This might lead to the wolf becoming a sidekick!"
This is more stupid theater kid shit. Strahd (again) controls all the beasts of Barovia. They will not "turn good". Even though I hear about the modern craze of making goblins into sidekicks, and how much that doesn't make sense, in this case it makes even LESS sense. Goblins are generally evil so will help the party as long as the party's existence helps the goblin (and not one second longer). Strahd is actively antagonistic to the party. A wolf is just a mere pawn in his game, easily sacrificed, and has no power or will of it's own. Now I could see subverting expectations and watching this trusted doggie friend becoming Cujo when Strahd wills it, but someone with above room temperature IQ in Barovia and has seen how Strahd operates or gets ANY information from non-Vistani villagers about how Ravenloft works would not fall for it. To put it simply Barovia is hell and Strahd is the devil. He is the one true master of the domain. He may not leave, but has no equal. So in a sense, this result COULD be a subversion but you shouldn't treat your players like they're morons.
Video person drops his own ignorance at just after 3 mins in:
"Random encounters are by definition random, and random is, by definition, kinda meaningless"
He then backpedals and says that he does not "author his encounters", even though the only encounter he's presented was 100% a fully authored encounter. He all but states that he lies to himself and builds tables to essentially pretend like he's not authoring every encounter when in fact he's doing just that, only he's doing so at the table instead of beforehand. Then he pretends the prep dm and play dm are different people. This is, again, complete poppycock stupidity. This amount of mental gymnastics is not necessary to DM a game. What he wants is group storytelling but he doesn't have the balls to just go that route and leave D&D in the rear view. Probably because he won't get as many clicks on Youtube.
Anyway, he then accidentally talks about basically running random encounters as normal. Taking the result of a die roll and actually thinking about it in relation to the world, but ruins it with extra steps and added authorial bullshit and discussions of plot and story and all that crap that makes D&D a farce nowadays.
At some point before he gets to the point he says the banger: "Restriction hems in creativity". This is actually utterly false. Want to see an artist or writer get block? Hand them a blank page. "Write whatever you want". "Draw whatever you want". This doesn't happen when you introduce an element of restriction. Any restriction is also inspiration. This guy thinks he's deep but doesn't know what he's talking about and pretends he does. He's full of shit. I would even say that his encounter of "not actually saying what's in the encounter" is less creativity inducing than 3d6 wolves. God knows I talked more about 3d6 wolves and it's repercussions than he did his "wolfpack" entry.
Then he introduces his improved Barovia table. It's one table instead of two. It's got a much narrower field of potential options (11 vs 19). It has a subtable for every entry, a steep pyramid at 2d6 meaning the lion's share of results will be 5-9 (66% chance). So over half the time we're looking at a 5 entry table. And he thinks he doesn't author every fucking encounter. What a joke.
The original tables were a much looser pyramid at d12+d8, meaning the most likely results were 9-13 (41.6%), but the dice were big enough you're gonna see a lot of variance (OVER half the time the result won't be 9-13).
People who don't understand math really love to write tables and never consider why things are as they are. It always seems to be stupid 2d6 tables, too. There's a lot of pretending to math this stuff going on in the D&D space, it never seems to hold water. Arcane Library and this fucking guy have no idea how to make random tables to save their lives.
He added a 5% chance of vampires and 2.5% chance of Strahd to show up. Let's say he actually has a second table for daytime, just to give the benefit of the doubt that I probably shouldn't. Strahd on a random encounter chart is another bad idea. The adventure again has this right - He could be encountered in the castle because the PCs are invading his home. Outside the castle you don't run into him willy nilly. If he's coming at you, it's by his choice. Strahd is an expected tool of the DM in CoS, it's written in the manual to basically have him and some spawn show up at inopportune times to test the players. Strahd plays with his food. He toys with PCs. His arrogance may be his downfall, but it's an earned arrogance due to his power over the domain's beasts, peoples, and the land itself.
He also shits on the Grave encounter. This encounter only occurs 4.7% of the time when rolling on the encounter table. He shits on it because "it's a bummer". There is a 25% chance the grave is in tact (that's ~1% overall chance of encountering), otherwise it's violated. It then tells you that if it's in tact, the PCs can essentially violate it but will get basically nothing for doing so (they don't know this prior to doing so). This is actually one of the better encounters in in this book and therefore one of the best in 5E I would say. Because the point isn't to give the PCs something. It's to see what they will do when given the opportunity in an unholy land. Allow a grave to pass unmolested or defile it in hopes of some trinket. It teaches them a lesson when they do it as well. They just essentially helped Strahd further spoil his land and didn't get jack shit for doing so. It's hilarious how this very thematic judgment call is lost on this idiot.
His solution? Give the PCs something "interesting" within the graves. For one, none of the graves encountered are violated now. Within these always in tact graves are either a map, a magic item, or a coin purse. This is all stupid. There are multiple encounters in the game that exist to reiterate the themes of the module. They have a purpose and the PC's interactions fulfill it. These rewrites literally ruin the tone of the module entirely. For the sake of "fun".
And this power fantasy claptrap should not ruin the integrity of the module. If you're sitting down to play Ravenloft, be ready for a fucking "bummer". The Vistani are gypsy spies, the Barovians are mostly doomed and insane, and curiosity is generally a bad thing. Take the Barovian Scouts and Corpse encounter. A legitimate set up and payoff inside of random encounters. During the day you might run into Barovian Scouts out looking for a missing person. You can help them. That brings us to the Corpse entry. Either at day or night you can run into a corpse. There's a 50% chance that it's the man, woman, or child the Scouts were looking for. They were torn to pieces by dire wolves. There are no entries for finding the missing person alive. They will always be either dead or missing. If you refuse to help either the first Barovian Scouts you run into or any future ones, they leave without word or incident. They realize they're almost certainly looking for a body so it's not worth arguing about. This is how you inform a setting properly with a random encounter chart.
I think I've made myself abundantly clear that he's just horrible and has his brain rotten by YouTube armchair DMs and the 5E crowd at large. What a waste. At least he's passable at making videos.
