As a Nebula subscriber who knows whats to come, should I prepare with Bill and Ted Face The Music?

I made a centipede for a life sciences class out of aol discs. It looked pretty sick!

Ah yes. Terrorists are well known for their *checks notes* warm friendly approachable smiles.

Sorry you're dealing with nonsense.

Pretty sure thats one of the 4 food groups

In other replies I agree.

His original point also seems to be that they are essential, when they aren't

He also points at WOTC that they took it away, at a glance other notable games don't mention it either.

Better reasons to be upset at WOTC when the critique could be applied to many games

The expectation being that a new GM learning how to run encounters use a tool that by its nature complicates a world and could have them running any no of encounters at any moment is IMO unrealistic. I've seen it happen, they got overwhelmed by all the options and stress out rather than having fun

Read both provided articles.

I still disagree. Every time I've leaned on provided tables to help my prep they've hindered it.

If I make my own table Ive added to my own work load.

I can see their use and place. But I don't think they are required for new GMs to learn.

I believe this is achievable without them.

I will add @alexandrian.bsky.social has a point that at the very least, they should be mentioned and examples provided and advice on how to make your own if desired.
I don't think we need a section dedicated to it.
I made one myself. I have used them. But unless they are good Better to leave it out

I dont. The players dont need to be constantly fighting the wildlife or random thugs.

They generally don't add to the threat. They don't add to the overall story. And worse, they are boring.

An encounter table can make a new DM feel beholden to use them. Which is its own problem.

It doesn't necessarily. But it is additional time. And it does take longer to go get minis I didn't have. And set up the map.

And when it's over, clear it all off before we can continue.

I'd rather engage the players with something more intentional.

And then it'd be a swarm of bats, or 2 wolves...

I don't find other tables I've seen in other adventures any more useful.

I don't want to be prepared to run 10 encounters that only delay getting to the encounters I built. And the players don't seem interested in killing 2 wolves for the 8th time.

The only one I ever actually used was one I made, and it was because the one provided was bad.

It had too few options and they were useless encounters against easy enemies and it was boring.

I was annoyed that the book recommended using the table to show how dangerous the world is.

Are they useful? I often find them to be clumsy and interrupt the flow of a session. We lose a bunch of time setting up for a random encounter. And risk not getting to the stuff I actually prepped for.

I personally find encounter tables to be an old school and outdated way of playing the game.

One sword yes, but what about second sword?

I was a kid again for 90 minutes. It was a good time and was so fun hearing the reactions of kids in the theater too!

No joke a trauliler for your game was on the screen when I sat down!

About to walk into the theater to see the original live action movie! Let's goooooo.

Cowabunga!