To my knowledge, there are two types of random encounters. Ones that occur on the roads, and ones that occur in the wilderness. Unfortunately, I can't find very many reliable trigger spots for the wilderness encounters. Can somebody recommended a "gauntlet" I can run that will trigger a certain number of them? I can recommend a good road encounter gauntlet in-turn. Leave Riften through the west gate and follow the road west past Snow-Shod Farm. Keep following that road until you reach a fork with a sign that points to Iverstead in the left and Whiterun on the right. Take the right, and follow it across the bridge, and then follow the road a little bit more until you reach the dirt path that leads to Sarethi Farm. That's the end of the gauntlet. I just ran it and I encountered the following encounters. M'aiq. Patrolling Vigilants. Stormcloak Farmer. Patrolling Stormcloaks. Revelers. Bandit Khajiit. Dark Brotherhood Assassin.

You can go back to Riften afterwards and wait a day or so, then run it again. On a previous character, I used this path to get 20 Sleeping Tree Saps for my party chest. I just wish I knew of a surefire path to run to trigger a lot of the wilderness type encounters. I've been trying to trigger the encounter where Thalmor Justicars attack me so that I can get their execution order as a trophy, as I have with many characters, but they've only shown up on one of my characters and that was back in November or December. I'm convinced that they might be a wilderness encounter. I think the dark brotherhood assassin might be as well, as in my run described above, is happened last - on the dirt road near the farm.

Can anybody at least tell me where they encountered the Thalmor Justicars - the ones that have the execution order?

They're random. That means it happens...randomly.

I've been accosted by theifs on a mountain pass far away from any road...or civilization, for that matter. I've been ambushed by Thalmor assassination squads outside dungeons, on the roads and even during the battle for whiterun (outside the city walls).

You won't trigger the random encounters at specific areas because, they're random.

I know, but the premise of this thread is that there are two types of random encounters. I need to know if I should follow the roads or just run around in the woods. By getting data from players, I can put two and two together...

It doesn't work that way.

I'm a persistant foot traveler, meaning I rarely fast travel anywhere and I've spent days IRL without triggering random wilderness encounters.

dsa

do you mean 24 hours of skyrim played, or 24 hours in real life, meaning you did something like sleep and then come back

Anyway, as to OP, you have to do this manually Im afraid, just go to the wilderness, record the frequency, type of random encounters, then do the same with roads, you would have to do it alot, talk to a statitian first

There is also an encounter I have only seen in cities/towns and that is the Student who ask you to train him in the usage of wards. And there is the Challenger who I have only meet in the cities/towns.

It does. There are some encounters that only trigger on roads and some encounters that only trigger in the wilderness. The wilderness ones are just harder to find. There are a few spawning points near Riften.

I've encoutered the bastards on the roads and in the wilds !! I'm afraid they're totally random.

I know that there are two different types.

What I was referring to, was your insistence that if you "go to this specific location" you'll trigger "this specific random encounter". They do. not. work. that. way.

I never said anything of that sort. I said there are spawn points, which there are. You can save your game near a spawn point, run over there and see what random encounter appears, and then reload if you don't like it. I've done it many times. The gauntlet that I've described has seven-or-eight spawn points. The list I posted was just an example of what I found in one run.

I get these guys two-thirds of the time I fast travel to my cabin on Lake Illinalta, and nearly one third of the time it's Talsgar, lol. In the Creation Kit you can see the triggers (labeled "w/e marker"). I have one just up the road from where I placed my cabin (due west of the Guardian Stones). There are many, and you'll get a feel for where they are if you travel around enough.

I find Thalmor all over the place. Patrolling the roads. Escorting prisoners. I just can't get the one where they are hunting me down. I don't get it.

I ran into them twice in the reach on my way to solitude from whiterun and once in the wilderness between whiterun and fellglow keep if that helps.

I got attacked by them West of Solitude but I can't recall the exact location. I *think* it was... okay, coming from Solitude heading west on the "upper road" that goes North of Meridia's statue / Kilkreath Temple, go straight past the turnoff with the troll, the dead deer and the big puddles of blood. A ways down the road from there there is a spawn point that seems to be pretty busy because I got attacked by the invisible Khajit, and while I was taking him down, the Talmor assassin squad showed up to kill me, and when I was down to the last Thalmor, a criminal tried to hand me a sword or something that he stole. Then the guy he stole it from showed up while I was still trying to kill the last Thalmor.

It was memorable.

And I just gave Skyrim directions that were clear enough to make me wonder if I'm playing too much Skyrim...

Here's something that I have encountered.

My Conan character is using Anise's Cabin for a temporary home. It's slightly southwest of Riverwood, across the river and up the hill. On multiple occasions I have Fast Traveled there. When I do, I am facing the Cabin from a little ways to the east, roughly. If I turn around as soon as I spawn there, there is a little copse of trees to the west. Several random encounters have spawned there.

- Bandits dressed in Imperial Armor, with two dead Imperial soldiers at their feet. When i approached them, they tried to make me pay them money. This has happened once.

- One or two hunters chasing a deer or elk. This has happened several times.

- Two Necromancers hanging out with a dead body on the ground. Happened once.

- A Fire Atronach just hanging out. Happened once.

- The last encounter was a guy named Balbus, who talks about the Great Chef, or just the Chef. He is not hostile. He has remained there the past few times that I've Fast Traveled back to Anise's Cabin.

I don't know how random encounter scripting works. So I don't know if my experiences are the result of specific scripting for that location, or if Fast Traveling scripts an event and it's just coincidental that I only really Fast Travel to this one spot, and the game says, "Time for a random event" and it just happens there. Hope this somehow helps. Sorry if this is confusing. Long night at work and I'm tired.

Yeah, the spontaneously attacking type is way less frequent it seems. I haven't met them a lot either. The patrol on the other hand ... I even encountered them in the city of Riften once.

I've only encountered the executioners twice iirc. Once west of Falkreath. A little ways WSW (?) of Twilight Sepulcher. It was just in a meadow, I can't really remember.
The second time was pretty much around the corner from Shearpoint, to the west. I was nearly killed by a Thalmor Patrol and then got there to see a Dragon Priest. That was my first Letter from a Friend.

About an equal number of times, I've seen the Thalmor prisoner transport, and the "Noble" on a horse escorted by an Imperial.
Once after telling me to beat it, the noble was attacked by a dragon, lol.

As you say I think you might have more chance of a random encounter on the road.
The wilderness encounters in my game, while being more rare, tend to have more of a mini-story; like the guy who doesn't know how to use the raise zombie staff (I've seen him near the Steed Stone, as well as out on the tundra west of Whiterun).

I don't think I'd appreciate either type as much, if I were able to "find" them somehow.

i've encountered a "old orc", asking me to give him a good death on the road to whiterun from solitude.

There's a few different Thalmor wilderness encounters, and the Thalmor versus the player one would probably be the most rare. Thalmor can spawn on the road or in the wilderness, although there is one that is specifically 'traveling on the road'. The revenge type encounters where there's hired thugs, etc, have a larger scope than just the wilderness, and can occur somewhere like outside the inn of Riverwood.

There's a run of non-road spawn points in a rough line along the low hills NW of Whiterun. (A line that eventually runs behind the Loreius farm). I sometimes just run out there to see what I'll run into, and I have seen the Thalmor trio there before.

If you really want the Thalmor to come after you, you could always get their attention by smacking them about a bit?

i once encounted a vampire and its thrall outside on a dirt road along a river and they didnt attack me , i walked up to the vamp and he was like " can i help you ?"

my favourite enconters are dark brotherhood assassins .

Thank you. I haven't come across those Thalmor yet, but I did find the hunter who needs a cure disease potion because of a vampire attack. I've been hanging onto that cure disease potion since the beginning of the game, so it's nice to have finally gotten that out of the way. I'll keep checking those spots later.

I kill them whenever I can. I even assaulted their prison in the northwest and freed their prisoners as part of that one quest. Hopefully they show up soon.

I just encountered the Thalmor hit squad trio in the wilderness just West of Volskygge. If you stand facing the small stone hut at the front of the ruin there's a wilderness spawn point to the left of you, which was where they just spawned.

I'm curious, if you complete the Civil War on the Stormcloak side, do Thalmor encounters suddenly stop? Or do they continue because I've seen Imperial patrols maybe once or twice afterwards.