I also claim my two platinum stars.
In some senses, I think a false dichotomy is being created between story-telling and combat. In the context of a DC design, they are not and probably shouldn't be mutually exclusive. However, there are different interpretation of what combat may or should entail.
I'm going to be bold and say that random combat has no place in a design, but only with what I shall define random as. Random in the context of this statement is that it appears for an unknown reason at an unpredictable place and time. There should not be one single thing in a design, be it combat or a bit of punctuation in a text event that is not there for a reason. Let me give an example: Tim the game designer makes a 2-level dungeon. In the far corner of the bottom level is the boss for that level. In Tim's story, the level two boss has complete control over it's level, but nothing to do with the first level. Tim puts zone combat all over the second level to represent the creatures placed there by the boss to protect it. Tim creates a complex and interesting chain of combats that fire on a percentage chance if the event above it in the chain does not fire. This is what I think most FRUA/DC afficianados think of as 'random' combat, but it is far from it. Tim chose every creature, how likely they are to appear and in what area they are likely to occur, and most importantly they are there to support the story. It turns out that they're not random at all. But, let's say Tim runs out of steam and can't think of anything for the first level. He makes the level all one zone chooses the random combat event for that zone. Tim knows something will happen in that zone, but he doesn't know what and he doesn't know why. This is random combat, and this is what I'm saying doesn't belong in the design or any design. "WAIT!" You say. "Tim picked where the random combats were going to occur, doesn't that work under your definition?" No, it doesn't. Tim has no reason as far as the story is concerned nor does he know anything about the combats. "But, what if Tim decides that an evil wizard wants to keep the PCs away from the second level b/c he has a lair on the third level?" If the player can find this out at some point, the combats are no long random.
I am saying random is in the intent. If it's filler, it's random and you should cut it from your design. Note, this is aimed at the designers. A player doesn't need to necessarily know why something is happening when it's happening, but they will need to know at some point. Not to be rude to any members of the community who are just interested in playing, but the talk of creation is the realm of the designer.
Some more examples of appropriate, non-random combat:
You create a forest where various wild animals may engage the PCs on their adventures. - It is completely plausible that a designer would fill a forest full of animals to make it seem more real.
That's not random
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