Yup. I warned of EXACTLY this earlier, when events were being anounced. How a lot of angry reviews of The Banner Saga wrote of random events which penalise the player, without him having any influence on the outcome of the events. And it was precisely because of those angry reviews that I decided NOT to buy The Banner Saga, because I hate it when a game randomly puts spanners in the works, when I have tried to carefully manage a team. Just like having a random “Hugo just died of a stroke”, and there goes your lvl9 knight, event thingie… A big no-no!
It’s not that simple.
While some people might dislike random elements there are a lot of games that use random factor as making game less predictable and thus more interesting – that’s exactly how chance to hit works, for example. Problem is not with having chances but with being unable to influence them. It’d be much better if more factors were introduced that’d spice up the event system. Having same events happening and doing exactly the same stuff isn’t too interesting after you see them a few times.
That’s what makes Crusader Kings 2 choice system much better: your character can have a trait that forces him/you to pick up a specific outcome (or forbid taking the other). Or you can randomly gain and lose traits that grant bonuses and penalties to various tasks, effecting your characters’ efficiency.
That’s why I think that the event system in itself is a good thing, but that potential is still waiting to be fully unlocked.
