Encounters don't actually have to be in tall grass and such. It's not the game so we have creative liberty on how we encounter Pokemon.
You can easily keep these encounters brief though, so long as there's not too much underlying circumstance beneath it.
I have another idea that may suit someone in your position
@MissFortuneHow about a way to make the encounter 100% for whatever it is you are looking for? For instance, you can do the things I listed, like listening for signs of the Pokemon, asking Pokemon if they've seen them, and so on. It'll set up a 100% chance of meeting it eventually, sooner or later depending on how you want it to go.
Basically it's like filling out an event sequence. I'll give you an example.
It's a sequence of... Say 4 events, one Pokemon encounter each time. Only the 4th and final event is the Pokemon you're looking for.
But the first three, are all random, and will all lead up to the Pokemon you're looking for. Kind of like a quest I guess.
Would that be good?
You can speak with whoever will be your Environment for the sequences to roll the 3 random ones in advance and you simply play it out, or you can just keep it a surprise with each random event.
Though I think the best part is that if there are more than 1 Pokemon you're looking for in the same area, you have a chance of meeting two or more of them. So say you're looking for Rattata and Pidgey, and you roll a Rattata or Pidgey for one of the random events, plus the 100% encounter event at the end, two birds with one stone.
