Set Encounters? Use Wandering Encounters Instead!

I'm building a dungeon. This dungeon is a ruined temple complex, and it's occupied by two forces; a tribe of lizardmen, and a band of gnolls. I've designed the lizardman side in a traditional manner; building an area, assigning monsters and placing hazards and traps, etc. And now I'm working on the gnoll side.

I want the two sides to feel very different, even more than the differences between the monsters. Gnolls are very mobile monsters; they each have speed 7 or higher, which makes them fast, and they hunt in packs. Why would they sit still and guard a room?

The plan is this; I'm going to draw up about six complete encounter groups. Each room in the dungeon will have a random chance for an encounter assigned to it, and if an encounter shows up, I will roll on the chart for which encounter it is. As the encounters come up, they are crossed off the list, and when that number shows up, there is no encounter.

Has anyone ever tried this sort of system in a dungeon before? Any thoughts on how it might play out?

MortalPlague said:

Has anyone ever tried this sort of system in a dungeon before? Any thoughts on how it might play out?

Click to expand...

No, I haven't, but it seems like it would be transparent to the players. In other words, I don't think it will be "wandering" as much as you think. Instead, the hassle of rolling and looking things up may simply appear to them like you are winging it. The fact is that as the DM you can preplan anything to "appear" to be random. You certainly don't need any surprises, so rolling on a chart is only an attempt to make things interesting for the DM if the encounters themselves are boring. Maybe what you should do is having the gnolls encounter the PCs as the PCs are investigating an empty room (for example). Even then, that 'trick' will not work often.

MortalPlague said:

Why would they sit still and guard a room?

Click to expand...

This is the real question. If you can't answer this one, then don't try to manipulate the encounters. You need to justify why those gnolls are hanging around and what are they doing the whole time.

When I first starting reading your post, I thought your question was going to be something like, "What will the gnolls do to maximize their speed advantage?" If this is the road you want to go down, I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions. I'm not sure if these are good, but here's a start:

1. Knock down a wall or two, perhaps between all their connecting rooms. Reinforcements will therefore arrive very quickly.

2. They might hang out at the back end of a big room and clear the area for charging. 14 squares is a long way to charge.

My initial thought is: what is the actual situation between the Lizardmen and the Gnolls?

I think the answer to this question will dictate the direction of the Gnoll encounters.

Without any other information I am having to assume a stalemate between the two sides, or that they are not interested in driving out their opposite force once and for all.

However you imply that the lizardmen have organised rigid defences that they guard while the Gnolls are more interested in patroling their territory.

What I would probably do would be to create a no-mans land or uncontrolled area between the two factions, this would be the main battle ground when or if the two factions fought and would contain a few creatures that could flourish or at least scavenge in the area (ideal for lurkers or vermin)

The Lizardmen could still have their fixed defences on their side.

The Gnolls could have a couple of guard posts that are always manned and ready to sound the alarm. With the rest of their forces as you described acting as seperate packs - patrolling, resting, training, hunting outside the complex etc.

I don't think I would bother with the whole random encounter thing. I would stick with your packaged Gnoll encounters but instead of randomly checking for which one to use I would decide how and when they were encountered depending on what the characters did and if any dramatic moments became apparant.

I don't think a random system would give as good a result as a conscious decision that can react to the context of the actual game situation.

As to the differences between the two sides I think in essense the difference will be that:

the PCs will attack the lizardmen who are organised and prepared, and will use standard defencive tactics.

while

the Gnolls will ambush and attack the PCs as they move through their territory, and use more guerilla, or hit and run tactics.

MortalPlague said:

Has anyone ever tried this sort of system in a dungeon before? Any thoughts on how it might play out?

Click to expand...

I'm always using that system with a small but important difference:
I make those rolls before the session.

In that way I can better plan for the session, develop tactics that fit the environment and maybe modify the encounters slightly to make more sense in the greater picture.

So in a way I'm 'just' using the random element to generate ideas.

I'm also using set encounters for a few key areas and (of course) the BBEG.

The skill challenge in my blog (here on ENWorld or at dungeon-crawl.blogspot.com) does go over some of the same kind of thoughts, so I'm very much like you: have "pre-planned random encounters," which sounds odd but is totally alright in my book!

I too agree that it's seamless.

A great way to change things up in your position would be to populate several of the dungeon rooms/areas as you would any other, but then just have an idea of what forces exist beyond this, and have those be the "makeup" of the random encounters which you will roll-up only in "border areas" of the dungeon; i.e., areas where the Gnolls and Lizardmen occupy rooms very close to the enemy camp.

So, you might have the Gnoll lair room, the Gnoll armory, and the Lizardman underground river rooms prepped as normal, but the Causeway and the Antechamber -- two connected rooms -- are constantly shifting ownership, and thus you make it a random encounter area where the PCs could find Gnolls, or Lizardmen, or Gnolls fighting Lizardmen.

If you find yourself rolling an excessive number of Gnoll encounters, you could then just say "Hey, the Gnolls have gained the upper hand during the battles, so now they start raiding deeper into the Lizardman area." This keeps the dungeon's setup constantly changing in a way that may inspire you with different changes, and keeps you on your toes just as much as it does the PCs. It'll feel a little more "natural" and like the dungeon is constantly evolving.

Infiniti2000 said:

This is the real question. If you can't answer this one, then don't try to manipulate the encounters. You need to justify why those gnolls are hanging around and what are they doing the whole time.

Click to expand...

Mesh Hong said:

My initial thought is: what is the actual situation between the Lizardmen and the Gnolls?

Click to expand...

These are related questions, so I'll address them both. Initially, a small band of gnolls took refuge in the ruins to hide from a group of human soldiers who were hunting them. The ruins offered them a formidable hiding place, where they could easily lose their pursuers, loop around, ambush them, and fade away into the ruins once more. The surviving soldiers left them alone, and the gnolls were content to bide their time, lairing in a small part of the ruins.

The lizardmen, led by their mighty chief, stumbled onto this ruined temple and thought it would make a grand fortress. It's considerably more impressive than a cluster of mud huts, and the chief feels it reflects on the glory of his tribe.

The gnolls discovered the lizardmen, and fought a brief, bloody skirmish in which the gnolls were defeated. They realized that the lizardmen were entrenched, and more were coming by the day, so they sent runners to other packs. The gnolls showed up in force, and formed a formidable horde. They moved to attack the lizardmen, and a series of bloody battles saw each side form a grudging respect for the other.

As it stands, the lizardmen control the western ruins, while the gnolls hold the eastern ruins. The two sections are separated by a middle ground, a section of grass and mud with a river running down the middle, with three bridges connecting each bank. To the north, where a penninsula juts out into the river, a large tower overlooks the whole complex. Neither faction dares to go near, for therein resides a fearsome sorceress.

Infiniti2000 said:

1. Knock down a wall or two, perhaps between all their connecting rooms. Reinforcements will therefore arrive very quickly.

Click to expand...

This is something I'll certainly be doing. The temple's layout lends itself nicely to this sort of plan.

Mesh Hong said:

As to the differences between the two sides I think in essense the difference will be that:

the PCs will attack the lizardmen who are organised and prepared, and will use standard defencive tactics.

while

the Gnolls will ambush and attack the PCs as they move through their territory, and use more guerilla, or hit and run tactics.

Click to expand...

This is true. The idea would be that the PCs would be on the defensive against the gnolls, but on the offensive against the lizardmen. To an extent, anyway... there will certainly be situations when the roles are reversed.

Jhaelen said:

I'm always using that system with a small but important difference:
I make those rolls before the session.

Click to expand...

That's not a bad idea... if I do end up using a system like this, I'll have to take this advice to heart.

neuronphaser said:

A great way to change things up... ...like the dungeon is constantly evolving.

Click to expand...

I like that idea... the struggle between the gnolls and the lizardmen should definitely play into a few encounters. I have a couple of encounters on the lizardman side with gnoll prisoners (who definitely should not be let out, they are ferocious and hungry). I'd love to make it possible for the PCs to pit the two sides against each other, and to even change ownership for certain parts of the dungeon.

It would be interesting to have the gnolls react to the PCs clearing out the lizardman side by staging a takeover, or vice versa.