I have never used the reaction table, I have occasionally rolled dice when I
have no idea of how a NPC will react.
However I do take reaction modifiers into account.  If (for whatever reason)
you have lots of positive reaction modifers then that helps the NPCs
overlook the fact that you are accompanied by an Orc who is armed to the
teeth.  Or it means they give you the benefit of the doubt when you say
something offensive.
The key factors that I keep in mind for reaction "rolls" are:
1) Appearance
 - Race
 - Clothing/Visible Equipment
 - PB
2) Situation
 - Apparent Danger Level
 - Time of Day
 - Location
3) Company
 - Their reactions to you are coloured by how they feel about your
companions.
4) Knowledge/History
 - Do they know you
 - Do you look like someone they know
 - Do you look like a type of person they feel strongly about
 - Recent Events
5) Interaction
 - Party/Player Actions
 - What is or isn't said
6) Skill
 - Appropriate Character Skills help make reactions more favourable
7) Other
 - Quality of Roleplaying
 - Magic and Special Abilities
 - Plot Devices
 - Whether I'm having a good day or not

Any or all of these factors will influence them to react somewhere along a
scale of:
  Hostile - Indifferent - Friendly
And whether the result is good for the party depends on what they're trying
to achieve.  If you want to discretely slip into town then any strong
reaction positive or negative is bad.

I wouldn't like to put numbers to any of these modifers as their relative
weight changes depending on the specifics of the encounter.
However if you were putting numbers to an item or spell then base it on a
1-100 scale with 1 as Hostile, 50 as Indifferent and 100 as Friendly.  With
results that are below 1 or above 100 being more extreme.

I have also never used random encounter tables.  I have pseudo-random
encounters.  If I'm not sure whether an encounter will happen then I roll to
decide.  But usually the nature of the encounter will be part of the planned
adventure or known environment.

What is useful in the nature of encounter tables is lists of what
animals/creatures are in an area and how common they are in the area.

Cheers, Stephen.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacqui Smith [mailto:flamis@ihug.co.nz]
Sent: Sunday, 11 November 2001 1:31 p.m.
To: dq@dq.sf.org.nz
Subject: [dq] Reaction Rolls


As I was working on Bardic College with a view to presenting a revised 
version in the near future, I discovered that we have spells and skills 
which refer to reaction rolls in the rules, but the reaction rules 
themselves are missing, presumably because they were found at the beginning 
of the Monsters section. My questions to you all are:

1. Do GMs use reaction rolls?

2. If not, is this because the rules are not in the book? Or are there 
other reasons?

3. Where should the reaction rolls section appear? In the rule book? If so, 
where?

In similar vein:

1. Does anyone use random encounters?

2. Has anyone used the DQ encounter table? How did it work out?

3. Where should encounter tables appear?

Jacqui


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Because a number of characters (and spells) have reaction modifiers, there
probably should be a quick section (say, one paragraph) explaining them to
those of us who don't have access to DQ2.

A terrain-specific list of common/uncommon creatures would be useful for GMs
and for Rangers. Of course, the list would be simple, and lead to anomalies
if treated as gospel. Earth analogy - plains could have lions or leopards,
but only in africa and dartmoor. Being attacked by a lion in the american
mid-west would be *unexpected*, but a ranger new to america may validly
expect lions.

I'm looking at revising the bestiary (spelling mistakes, inconsistencies,
and _if_people_want_, some more common ordinary creatures). Once I have a
better list of what I want to do, I'll run it past the group for yea/nay. I
can produce a terrain listing at the same time, to go in the front of the
bestiary - probably sort the creatures into the new ranger categories if
they differ from the bestiary cats.

If we ever get the gazetteer going, lists of creatures common to an area
would be nice, but maybe next millennium?

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
What is useful in the nature of encounter tables is lists of what
animals/creatures are in an area and how common they are in the area.

Cheers, Stephen.

-----Original Message-----
2. Has anyone used the DQ encounter table? How did it work out?

3. Where should encounter tables appear?

Jacqui


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