Examples: setting up a planar site / pocket dimension type of thing plus 'gang of orcs and a flail-snail' from the original ask.
1. I knew there were going to be a bunch of locations with access ways between them. Most of the locations were known from previous information, most of the connectors were safe and uninteresting so I laid out these nodes, figured out where I needed some others to be connectors and then did a point-crawl.
2. I repurposed various tables where possible to save work. I placed the things I knew existed from discovery at the table then went back and used the Garden of Ynn tables to fill out other locations with stuff.
3. For the nodes, each of these had potential to be an encounter - i.e. populated by something active as opposed to an empty site to be rummaged about. Once those locations were filled out I blocked them out as 'occupied/unoccupied' depending on the nature of the local inhabitants. This was the feywild so I said the locals are going to hang about in the connected, airy places, less likely to be in the dead ends, tombs, etc.
4. Next I used d100 on the First World encounter table from pp101 in Pathfinder Planar Adventures book to get feywild inhabitants - I had most of the bestiaries from a Humble Bundle but where there was one I did not have (#6), I substituted down the table to something I had the stats for. This lead to a broad mix of challenge ratings among the encounters ranging from 20% - 500% the players level. Typically, unless there is good reason to limit it, I do not restrict what HD creatures can be randomly encountered, just more HD are more rare on the encounter table.
5. Once the inhabitants of locations were set, I had a think about what the more intelligent beings were up to & what they might have wanted. I wrote some more on using easy NPC motivator / goal generators to set up NPC attitudes but in short for intelligent NPCs you can use backgrounds from the 5e PHB or villain plans from the 5e DMG to get quick and easy motivations.
6. For the moment of encounter with the players I use 2d10 on the AD&D chart on the inside of my Planescape screen - I prefer it to the 3.5e / 5e 'just pick' or 'assume indifferent' since it gives weight to the manner in which the players approach. Other than that, the table is run with 3.5e rules - so attitude could be adjusted based on diplomacy rolls ~ DC15 to improve a step - harder depending on how many steps to improve, how negative the creatures starting attitude is.
Snapshot of my ancient Planescape screen
7. This is enough for social / negotiated encounters but if things go to blows then how it plays out depends on:- the creatures commitment to the fight; many of these encounters were low-CR, highly mobile creatures who would have almost certainly flee from a fight to return once the danger has passed. This might lead to a chase by the players.
- whether the creatures had a lair to defend or reckoned they could win the fight: here they would try to drive off or kill the interlopers so I would run to half HP before they start morale checks at all. 3.5e says 'DM decides' when creatures surrender or keep fighting; I prefer the 5e version (as per pp273 in 5e DMG) and use DC10 Will saves to see if the creature can make a clear headed decision - should it surrender / flee, can it get away, will it be killed. Fail the save, it just keeps going in a frenzy and needs to be subdued or killed, if it makes the save then I would have it do what seems reasonable to it.
- if the creatures outnumber the invaders: then similar to thinking they can win but with 'half my buddies are down' as another point where the remainder may test morale to see if they stay in the fight or not.
- the 5e rules also have 'creatures unable to damage foe' as a condition to potentially test morale.
This is my set up where there is high risk of players talking to the encounters - I would skip 5 and 6 and assume hostility on sight where it makes sense like guards on the alert for marauders or soldiers on a battlefield. For things like constructs or the undead which lack a sense of self-preservation, skip step 7 - they fight until they drop.
For the original question of "a band of orcs herding a flail snail" as a set piece encounter in a woods I would pick my terrain, dice up how many are in my band of orcs as they appear in the Monster Manual, throw in the Flail Snail and then a) lay out traces that the players can find to clue them in ahead of the encounter and b) figure out what the orcs are up to - settling here, getting ready to raid, moving the flail snail to pasture. As I understand 5e RAW, you the DM would decide their attitude once they run into the PCs, no dice required. Assuming for whatever reason, things kick off then they would fight until they hit a morale test condition and assuming at some point they seek to surrender, up to the players how to respond.
As a wrinkle within this scenario, I would have the flail snail act independently once riled up - it will need to go to half HP before it test morale, no matter what the orcs do - it could well keep fighting after the orcs have given up or could be forced to cower in its shell while the orcs fight on..
For setting up encounter tables in the first place, I wrote up this example about doing it at solar-system level for Spelljammer.
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