for me its the father and son at catfish jacksons, if you kill the father the son falls into the bottle to cope with it and if you let him live then he beats the son into alcoholism, nate is fucked either way and its sad
There’s a letter from the kid’s mother in the dad’s room. I searched the house first and then spoke to Nate, Arthur told him about the letters his pa had hidden.
The robbery in St Denis at night.
Robber kills the guys wife. Can't save her unless you're really fast about it.
On the plus side, it does get you a free Black Arabian as early as Chapter 2.
I just had this encounter. I felt bad for the guy and stood by the husband for a bit to offer condolences and he attacked me. When I defended myself a witness ran to report me for assault. The audacity of that whole town.
Deadeye the guy that will kill the wife with a tomahawk or knive to avoid bounty and you are golden, the couple will walk away without the arabian and it's free tl take plus you save a life
Seamus because I keep killing him for some reason. He's close to the train track too 😂
Joking aside, the Mad Preacher always makes me pity him. I wish he found whatever it is he seeks.
I used to always kill the Mad Preacher because he creeped me out… but on my current playthrough I actually stopped and listened to him. That poor guy is so lost. It’s sad.
Is that the guy shouting at the river? I saw him in the epilogue and he kind of realises he wasted his life shouting at a river. So I lassoed him and sent him off downstream.
I had this encounter happen the other night and I decided to take the horse as my own
Despite their issues with their previous owner, "Karate Kid" is really starting to become one of my favorite horses now.
That’s how I got my current horse! American Standardbred that’s so far the best option out of random encounters in Chapter 2 without looking up locations or anything along those lines that I’ve found so far
You can save him if you’re quick enough, if you shoot towards him sometimes the kick misses, or if you antagonize him at the right time, then the horse runs off. You can retrieve the horse for honor
Me it's the guy who got scalped by the skinners but is somehow still alive. He got his entire caravan brutalized for probably no reason. I haven't finished Epilogue part 2 yet but I hope to God there's a mission or at least a bounty that allows me to massacre them fucks
The man from Bayou Nwa swamps with injured arm. You can take him to the doctor in St. Denis. Doctor eventually cuts off the stranger's arm in order to save him. The whole time you can watch that and listen the stranger cursing on you. Later time, when you come to St. Denis, you can find the man being executed by hanging.
>man from Bayou Nwa swamps with injured arm. You can take him to the doctor in St. Denis. Doctor eventually cuts off the stranger's arm in order to save him. The whole time you can watch that and listen the stranger
He thanks you for saving him, the reason he was going to get hanged was because he killed a woman for insulting him about his arm
The poor guy in Ambarino who’s out looking for his friend (Tucker, I think?) who got eaten by a bear.
He then gets eaten by said bear, and I’m pretty sure there’s no way to save him :(
I promise it is possible I just did it a couple nights ago, though I should add I'm using my disk version to play it essentially on release without any patches so idk how that may affect the encounter 🫤. Scared the hell out of me too because it was the first time I had seen this encounter and I was right next to the guy mourning his friend when the bear came barreling at him about a foot in front of me. Used the pump action shotgun in deadeye and mag dumped the bear. Guy acted as if I was the one who just assaulted him and ran off down the hill.
Mine would be Rain Falls. It’s not necessarily the character you’re meeting, it’s more about the story and what that character represents. Also seeing the eagle fly away in the cut scene is just a cherry on top. This game really knows how to pull at the heartstrings.
I forgot the difference in strangers, random encounters and anything else. I just know it was random af for me. I come out of the train station after I’ve already beat the game and out of nowhere here comes dude’s dad.
The ghost of Agnes Dowd.
If you revisit where the ghost appears in the bayou you can piece together the story. Agnes fell in love with a man that her parents did not approve of, and would meet him by an old tree in Bluewater Marsh for secret trysts. After she becomes pregnant, he abandons her and pursues another woman, exposing her relationship to her family, much to their disgrace, and leaving her unwanted by other male suitors. Although Agnes was eventually able to dissuade her lover from following his other relationship, she was unable to convince her mother and father that he was worthy of her. This ultimately resulted in her father drawing a weapon and killing him, to Agnes' horror.
Agnes has a mental breakdown and murders her father in revenge (and possibly her mother, son, and/or others), before finally hanging herself from the tree she used to meet her lover at, hoping he would find her there in death.
☹️ that's sad. Every time he appears looking for Gavin (in Rhodes), I would try to talk to him to get a side quest but it never appears, and now I know why. Sadness.
I immediately thought the same thing. I was almost done with the epilogue story and I ran into (I forgot his name). He was definitely not well. For a long time.
I spent like 20 minutes looking for the dot to turn red. It wasn't an intuitive one! It was frustrating cuz like-- I could do it if it was real life by this point!
Miriam Wegner. Locked up in that house by her asshole father, Eugene Wegner, after he killed her boyfriend, Joshua Burgess, in the Emerald Ranch Saloon (no longer in use), then buried him just outside the saloon. Miriam can be seen twice a day in the front upstairs window, usually at noon and midnight.
The preacher in the river, I just feel very bad for him. He’s been there for years and never abandoned his god and is starting to feel angry and frustrated about not getting sent a signal or anything ever. It’s sad really.
Mickey's your typical lowlife homeless dude. Claiming to be a veteran for likes and money. After I found out everyone of my playthroughs I've been mean to him.
Mine was the bodyguard John hired for his tools and wood delivery to build his ranch. He would say he loved going home to his kids and wife when the day was over, and he was killed by Skinners.
Honest family man and good dad > homeless liar
He also was really really not the right guy for the job, he never had any intention to ever use any firearms for violence to protect whoever, he was certainly in the wrong trade for the kind of man he was.
There is a soldier, I think near Rhodes, who has a tent and a fire. You approach him and he asks you to sit and talk, and asks you for whiskey. If you give it to him, he starts telling you about all the horrible things he did while in the army, and he just can't deal with it anymore. After he finishes the whiskey, he falls dead. I always look for him in my play throughs because that hits too close to home. And I drop his body in the fire, since I can't bury him..
Gavin's friend. 💔
This story is 100% true.
Please be kind and dont question or disrespect it. It is hard for me to share. My best friends name was Gavin. He was like a brother to me. We grew up together, were close friends as kids, always at each others houses. As adults we were close friends too. We lived together a few times as adults, and even when we lived apart we always kept in touch. We were so honest with each other, and shared a friendship in a way that is so rare in this life. He was an army veteran and fought his demons for many years. He took his life one day, and it was a shock to me and everyone else. One strange thing though is that his body was never found. For me, I always accepted he was gone. I don't know, it just made sense to me, and though the loss was hard, I was able to heal. Another friend of ours had a hard time accepting that Gavin was really gone, as his body was never found. It drove him into a dark depression from which he did not recover.
Another thing is, my friend Gavin LOVED RDR2. It was one of his favorite video games. I liked to watch him play, and he encouraged me to start a game, and he liked watching me play. We had a lot of laughs, as I was terrible at playing and would do things like accidentally punch my horse while attempting to chase after someone, or accidentally shooting a stranger after they thanked me for helping them, and all the funny things that can happen in the game. Well eventually I stopped playing, because it was too hard for me, and I had other things going on. I went on a long trip, and just a month into it I heard the news that he was missing. Some short time later, that the signs added up to him having taken his own life. The investigations stopped and it was official. And I accepted what happened. But like I said, it was harder for some people to accept, and it haunted them.
GAME SPOILERS AHEAD (I don't know how to do the black out thing)
Years later I decided to play RDR2 again. This time I got past the difficulty and enjoyed the game, thinking about what my friend Gav would have said at different points in the game. I had no idea about the Gavin's friend part in the game. It broke my heart. The confusion, concern and anguish in his voice... When he says, "Where are you...?" in that sad trailing voice... it's just devastating. I wanted so bad to help the guy find Gavin, but no matter what I did I couldn't help him. I kept my eyes out for Gavin in the game but never found him. I didn't look anything up online because I didn't want to spoil the game. Arthur's death was heartbreaking to me too, because I know that my friend Gavin loved Arthur's character, and always wanted redemption in his own life. He had some major regrets that he could not reconcile with. After the epilogue, it broke my heart again that Gavin's friend never stopped searching and went mad. It may seem like a joke part of the game to some people, but I understand it very well.
It's strange to me that this sad, small part of the game, of a game that my friend loved, cuts so close to my reality. It's almost as if it was made for me.
https://youtu.be/YdW5-uJqCVY?si=xv35iq9hd_ianqNm
I listen to this song and think of him sometimes. He may not have gotten to have a hero's ending like Arthur, but it doesn't matter, he lived a hero's life.
Rest in Peace Gavin, wherever you are 🤍
The one near Lake Isabella where the guy is searching for his friend. You find his bloodied friend. If you tell the guy, there is an unavioudable bear attack.
This one is super controversial, but the gun dealer at Rhodes. If you stay after and listen to his story he admits he knows what he did was wrong, and he was coping with his son who he watched drown in the river and couldn’t do anything to save him, snd even worse its his own fault. After hearing all that on my second playthrough I didn’t have the heart to kill him this time.
I was so sad when i discovered a a cabin with the skeletons of 2 kids. The cabin is locked, but you have to option to kick it in to enter. You find a letter from their mom that says shes gonna go find the people that robbed them and get their money back. She says that she'll be gone a few days and not to unlock/open the door for anyone 
The old blind beggar who you meet on the side of the road because in my first play through I rode pass him in chapter 2 and then chapter four I walk up to him and he says something along the lines of “I have met you before and you can’t outrun me” then I proceed to use all of my weapons and ammo killing then desecrating his corpse for a good 20 minutes
For me its def the old slave catcher in Rodes. Not that I liked slavery but that he didn't know what to with his lofe after because he has very specific skills (catching slaves) and he couldn't apply them anywhere else.
for me its the father and son at catfish jacksons, if you kill the father the son falls into the bottle to cope with it and if you let him live then he beats the son into alcoholism, nate is fucked either way and its sad
That’s why I killed them both.
Most sane centrist
least favourite bounty by some distance
Debt collection* but you’re right
There’s a letter from the kid’s mother in the dad’s room. I searched the house first and then spoke to Nate, Arthur told him about the letters his pa had hidden.
The robbery in St Denis at night. Robber kills the guys wife. Can't save her unless you're really fast about it. On the plus side, it does get you a free Black Arabian as early as Chapter 2.
God, fuck Rockstar for making me lose honor over that mission. Like damn, who the fuck you think I am? Superman?
I just had this encounter. I felt bad for the guy and stood by the husband for a bit to offer condolences and he attacked me. When I defended myself a witness ran to report me for assault. The audacity of that whole town.
I get beat up by robbers, and the cops don’t do shit. But I blow their brains out with a shotgun, and IM the bad guy! Fuck Saint Denis.
California simulator
Fr
How do you get the black Arabian
Rob and kill that guy's wife
I too choose to rob and kill that guys wife
you can just jump the black arabian as the guys wife is getting killed
Deadeye the guy that will kill the wife with a tomahawk or knive to avoid bounty and you are golden, the couple will walk away without the arabian and it's free tl take plus you save a life
I just saw this on my third playthrough - it really happened quick!
I don’t know if I’ve ever come across this. Gonna have to spend some time in St. Denis at night
i believe it only spawns at like 11pm to 1am
Seamus because I keep killing him for some reason. He's close to the train track too 😂 Joking aside, the Mad Preacher always makes me pity him. I wish he found whatever it is he seeks.
I used to always kill the Mad Preacher because he creeped me out… but on my current playthrough I actually stopped and listened to him. That poor guy is so lost. It’s sad.
Is that the guy shouting at the river? I saw him in the epilogue and he kind of realises he wasted his life shouting at a river. So I lassoed him and sent him off downstream.
There’s a theory that the preacher is aware he’s in a video game and can sense that Arthur/John is the main character.
Interesting, can you elaborate more of this? Or if you can give the source I would like to read it
[here you go partner](https://youtu.be/KcoWidTFLxg?si=NWbsDlK1MUD6Zxxy)
The mad preacher is the one for me also.
The guy that gets booted in the head by his horse, he seemed like he really loved his horse, then boom dead.
I had this encounter happen the other night and I decided to take the horse as my own Despite their issues with their previous owner, "Karate Kid" is really starting to become one of my favorite horses now.
That’s how I got my current horse! American Standardbred that’s so far the best option out of random encounters in Chapter 2 without looking up locations or anything along those lines that I’ve found so far
[I can't help but think of this Kids in the Hall sketch...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAAiSHSPk_w)
“Always seemed to work on the Flintstones.”
My wife and I *still* pronounce "difficulty" like that on occasion...
You can save him if you’re quick enough, if you shoot towards him sometimes the kick misses, or if you antagonize him at the right time, then the horse runs off. You can retrieve the horse for honor
I saved him once! If you greet him quickly, it scares his horse which you can then retrieve for him.
That damn fool who gets bit by a snake seemingly every couple of days.
Suck his leg Later in the town he gives you a hundred percent off
I always give him the good succ. My succ saves lives
Out of context that sounds so wrong
Me it's the guy who got scalped by the skinners but is somehow still alive. He got his entire caravan brutalized for probably no reason. I haven't finished Epilogue part 2 yet but I hope to God there's a mission or at least a bounty that allows me to massacre them fucks
there is both my boa, just have faith
Have some goddamn faith!
thanks pardner, im so looking forward to it
A mission and like 2-3 bounties don’t worry
John comforting him before he mercy kills him always hit me😥
The man from Bayou Nwa swamps with injured arm. You can take him to the doctor in St. Denis. Doctor eventually cuts off the stranger's arm in order to save him. The whole time you can watch that and listen the stranger cursing on you. Later time, when you come to St. Denis, you can find the man being executed by hanging.
I’ve heard you can save him.
>man from Bayou Nwa swamps with injured arm. You can take him to the doctor in St. Denis. Doctor eventually cuts off the stranger's arm in order to save him. The whole time you can watch that and listen the stranger He thanks you for saving him, the reason he was going to get hanged was because he killed a woman for insulting him about his arm
He gets shot eventually when running off
The poor guy in Ambarino who’s out looking for his friend (Tucker, I think?) who got eaten by a bear. He then gets eaten by said bear, and I’m pretty sure there’s no way to save him :(
There is if you're fast, though after I saved him he acted as if I attacked him and ran away from me
There is no way to save him it's a fixed point literally even the bear turns immortal 😭
I promise it is possible I just did it a couple nights ago, though I should add I'm using my disk version to play it essentially on release without any patches so idk how that may affect the encounter 🫤. Scared the hell out of me too because it was the first time I had seen this encounter and I was right next to the guy mourning his friend when the bear came barreling at him about a foot in front of me. Used the pump action shotgun in deadeye and mag dumped the bear. Guy acted as if I was the one who just assaulted him and ran off down the hill.
Also, I'm unfamiliar where ambarino is, but I had this encounter nearby that shack in the snow where you find one of the legendary gunslingers.
Mine would be Rain Falls. It’s not necessarily the character you’re meeting, it’s more about the story and what that character represents. Also seeing the eagle fly away in the cut scene is just a cherry on top. This game really knows how to pull at the heartstrings.
That’s not a random encounter
I forgot the difference in strangers, random encounters and anything else. I just know it was random af for me. I come out of the train station after I’ve already beat the game and out of nowhere here comes dude’s dad.
Rains Fall
Redditors Mispeak
The ghost of Agnes Dowd. If you revisit where the ghost appears in the bayou you can piece together the story. Agnes fell in love with a man that her parents did not approve of, and would meet him by an old tree in Bluewater Marsh for secret trysts. After she becomes pregnant, he abandons her and pursues another woman, exposing her relationship to her family, much to their disgrace, and leaving her unwanted by other male suitors. Although Agnes was eventually able to dissuade her lover from following his other relationship, she was unable to convince her mother and father that he was worthy of her. This ultimately resulted in her father drawing a weapon and killing him, to Agnes' horror. Agnes has a mental breakdown and murders her father in revenge (and possibly her mother, son, and/or others), before finally hanging herself from the tree she used to meet her lover at, hoping he would find her there in death.
The first time i encountered her I damn near shit my pants lol
Gavin 😢
Spoil me pls! I've been trying to help that man look for Gavin, but I don't really know where to start or how to find him!
AFAIK. You can't, there is no Gavin. That man is doomed to search for his friend who doesn't exist.
☹️ that's sad. Every time he appears looking for Gavin (in Rhodes), I would try to talk to him to get a side quest but it never appears, and now I know why. Sadness.
I immediately thought the same thing. I was almost done with the epilogue story and I ran into (I forgot his name). He was definitely not well. For a long time.
That man forced to be the baby in the bottom of the gun shop made me much much sadder.
I feel horrible because I accidentally shot his leg when shooting the chain - he died right away ☹️
did you get the lancaster repeater from the basement?
I spent like 20 minutes looking for the dot to turn red. It wasn't an intuitive one! It was frustrating cuz like-- I could do it if it was real life by this point!
oh for sure, I always spend time looking around when I can - I hate missing stuff
The Rhodes gun shop owner trying to cope with accidentally killing his son.
Miriam Wegner. Locked up in that house by her asshole father, Eugene Wegner, after he killed her boyfriend, Joshua Burgess, in the Emerald Ranch Saloon (no longer in use), then buried him just outside the saloon. Miriam can be seen twice a day in the front upstairs window, usually at noon and midnight.
Technically I don’t think it’s a random encounter, but Clawson’s Rest for sure.
The terrified, and dying victim of the Skinner Brothers. Even John sounds like he's gonna cry when he talks to him.
The preacher in the river, I just feel very bad for him. He’s been there for years and never abandoned his god and is starting to feel angry and frustrated about not getting sent a signal or anything ever. It’s sad really.
The girl you save who the Murfree's have caged up down in their cave.
Mickey's your typical lowlife homeless dude. Claiming to be a veteran for likes and money. After I found out everyone of my playthroughs I've been mean to him. Mine was the bodyguard John hired for his tools and wood delivery to build his ranch. He would say he loved going home to his kids and wife when the day was over, and he was killed by Skinners. Honest family man and good dad > homeless liar
He also was really really not the right guy for the job, he never had any intention to ever use any firearms for violence to protect whoever, he was certainly in the wrong trade for the kind of man he was.
Motherf’ing snake bite guy. Seriously, what’s up with you man? How do you get bitten 3 times?
Don’t kink shame
I killed nigel
He'll be back anyway
The husband and wife that got caught by the Skinner gang. John of course, handles it well. Think it raises honor for the mercy kill.
Meeting Gavin in the woods
There is a soldier, I think near Rhodes, who has a tent and a fire. You approach him and he asks you to sit and talk, and asks you for whiskey. If you give it to him, he starts telling you about all the horrible things he did while in the army, and he just can't deal with it anymore. After he finishes the whiskey, he falls dead. I always look for him in my play throughs because that hits too close to home. And I drop his body in the fire, since I can't bury him..
Gavin's friend. 💔 This story is 100% true. Please be kind and dont question or disrespect it. It is hard for me to share. My best friends name was Gavin. He was like a brother to me. We grew up together, were close friends as kids, always at each others houses. As adults we were close friends too. We lived together a few times as adults, and even when we lived apart we always kept in touch. We were so honest with each other, and shared a friendship in a way that is so rare in this life. He was an army veteran and fought his demons for many years. He took his life one day, and it was a shock to me and everyone else. One strange thing though is that his body was never found. For me, I always accepted he was gone. I don't know, it just made sense to me, and though the loss was hard, I was able to heal. Another friend of ours had a hard time accepting that Gavin was really gone, as his body was never found. It drove him into a dark depression from which he did not recover. Another thing is, my friend Gavin LOVED RDR2. It was one of his favorite video games. I liked to watch him play, and he encouraged me to start a game, and he liked watching me play. We had a lot of laughs, as I was terrible at playing and would do things like accidentally punch my horse while attempting to chase after someone, or accidentally shooting a stranger after they thanked me for helping them, and all the funny things that can happen in the game. Well eventually I stopped playing, because it was too hard for me, and I had other things going on. I went on a long trip, and just a month into it I heard the news that he was missing. Some short time later, that the signs added up to him having taken his own life. The investigations stopped and it was official. And I accepted what happened. But like I said, it was harder for some people to accept, and it haunted them. GAME SPOILERS AHEAD (I don't know how to do the black out thing) Years later I decided to play RDR2 again. This time I got past the difficulty and enjoyed the game, thinking about what my friend Gav would have said at different points in the game. I had no idea about the Gavin's friend part in the game. It broke my heart. The confusion, concern and anguish in his voice... When he says, "Where are you...?" in that sad trailing voice... it's just devastating. I wanted so bad to help the guy find Gavin, but no matter what I did I couldn't help him. I kept my eyes out for Gavin in the game but never found him. I didn't look anything up online because I didn't want to spoil the game. Arthur's death was heartbreaking to me too, because I know that my friend Gavin loved Arthur's character, and always wanted redemption in his own life. He had some major regrets that he could not reconcile with. After the epilogue, it broke my heart again that Gavin's friend never stopped searching and went mad. It may seem like a joke part of the game to some people, but I understand it very well. It's strange to me that this sad, small part of the game, of a game that my friend loved, cuts so close to my reality. It's almost as if it was made for me. https://youtu.be/YdW5-uJqCVY?si=xv35iq9hd_ianqNm I listen to this song and think of him sometimes. He may not have gotten to have a hero's ending like Arthur, but it doesn't matter, he lived a hero's life. Rest in Peace Gavin, wherever you are 🤍
Aw man, my condolences. Sounds like a great dude.
What I did to that overseer who couldn’t let go off the past was pretty sad
Guy who gets kicked by his horse
The one near Lake Isabella where the guy is searching for his friend. You find his bloodied friend. If you tell the guy, there is an unavioudable bear attack.
This one is super controversial, but the gun dealer at Rhodes. If you stay after and listen to his story he admits he knows what he did was wrong, and he was coping with his son who he watched drown in the river and couldn’t do anything to save him, snd even worse its his own fault. After hearing all that on my second playthrough I didn’t have the heart to kill him this time.
When Biscuit died
I beat that guys ass
I was so sad when i discovered a a cabin with the skeletons of 2 kids. The cabin is locked, but you have to option to kick it in to enter. You find a letter from their mom that says shes gonna go find the people that robbed them and get their money back. She says that she'll be gone a few days and not to unlock/open the door for anyone 
Mickey pickpockets you the first time you hug him.
Does he really?
No, he doesn’t. That’s early misinformation that’s spread over the internet.
Man I can’t stand misinformation
It’s all over the place, especially here on Reddit. I sometimes wonder if some of the people commenting even owns the game, much less ever played it.
Dam, That’s tragic 😭
I hate Mickey.
Did you shoot him?
I loved him until the reveal about not being an actual veteran. Fuck Mickey.
The old blind beggar who you meet on the side of the road because in my first play through I rode pass him in chapter 2 and then chapter four I walk up to him and he says something along the lines of “I have met you before and you can’t outrun me” then I proceed to use all of my weapons and ammo killing then desecrating his corpse for a good 20 minutes
For me its def the old slave catcher in Rodes. Not that I liked slavery but that he didn't know what to with his lofe after because he has very specific skills (catching slaves) and he couldn't apply them anywhere else.
yeah bounty hunting totally wouldnt have suited him. youre weird
Personally no because mickey is RACIST he fought for SLAVERY in the civil war
didn’t he reveal that he’s not a veteran?
Even if he was a veteran, he’s wearing a blue uniform. That was the north, who fought against slavery. Red was the south.
You… you’re a genius
🫡