Today I have for you some behind the scenes math on modeling encounter tables. Sometimes we want encounter tables in exquisite detail for when we're moving slowly, and sometimes we want encounter tables in very rounded detail for the big picture or fast movement. It's been some time since my 11th grade statistics class but with some googling and some doodling I was able to come up with useful figures.2nd edition AD&D has encounter tables based on an x out of 10 chance that you roll multiple times a day based on encounter location. For example, in a hilly environment there is a 2 in 10 chance of an encounter which is rolled 3 times a day (just before sunup, midday, just after sundown). If your party is going to travel for 3 days through hills, this is a fabulous solution. It gives you a nice pace and sense of danger as the DM rolls each set of dice and then looks up at the party and gives them a hint of what night be going on. However, if your party is traveling through this environment for 2 months, now we're looking at 180 dice rolls, which will take forever. It would be really nice to know what the percentage chance of having zero, one, two, or three encounters each day would be. That's where our math that comes into play.For this example, the math works out such that there is a 51% chance of no encounters, 38% of one encounter, 10% chance of two encounters, and a 1% chance of three encounters.To simplify even further we can round these to 50%, 40%, 10%, and roll one d10 per each day of travel to determine how many encounters will get. We could roll all 30d10 at once, and then write out a calendar for how many encounters we will have each day of travel that month.This math becomes even more useful when your party is traveling through a forest or swamp when you have to check for encounters six times a day. If we do generous rounding, our 2 in 10 chance rolled six times a day for a forest becomes a 30% chance of no encounters, 40% chance of one encounter, 20% chance of two encounters, and 10% chance of three encounters. This is much more useful than rolling over and over and over again each day and making notes of what time of day you're rolling for. If you're curious about encounter tables and second edition, you can check the Dungeon Master Guide > Chapter 11 > Encounters.That's all the behind the scenes I can give you now while I'm traveling. Back in Colorado shortly.gl hfNeal / Koibu