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Wandering Monsters - yea or nay?
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5480758" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>I've been trying out an interesting wandering monster mechanism in my last couple of sessions. </p><p></p><p>Basically, the party is traveling through an area. I set the chance of random encounter (let's say 1 in 10 per day); if there's one encounter, there's a lesser chance of a second encounter that day (1 in 12).</p><p></p><p>If an encounter is indicated, I roll how many 'elements' it includes (typically 1d4+2). Then I draw from a deck of index cards I've set up for that area.</p><p></p><p>Each card indicates what it is (and references book & page number when appropriate), how many elements it counts for and whether to make 'further draws'.</p><p></p><p>So let's say I roll an encounter with 5 elements, and I draw a card that says "Merchant wagon". The card tells me this is one element, and to draw three more cards and keep any humans or halflings. I draw, get "human guards" and add it to the encounter. The human guards card says "1d4 human guards" and that they count for 1 element each. I roll 2 guards; so now we have 3 elements altogether.</p><p></p><p>My next card is "3d6 Goblins cutters"; it counts for 2 elements (regardless of how many I roll) and has a "Draw 2, keep goblins or wolves" but I don't get any. So my final encounter looks like this: </p><p></p><p>Merchant wagon</p><p>2 human guards</p><p>11 goblin cutters</p><p></p><p>And it's pretty clear what's happening- the pcs have stumbled upon a goblin attack with the harried guards fighting for their lives. So far it has worked out well; giving different monsters different numbers of elements lets me work in solo and elite monsters without ending up with 2 solo monsters in the same fight or something.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 5480758, member: 1210"] I've been trying out an interesting wandering monster mechanism in my last couple of sessions. Basically, the party is traveling through an area. I set the chance of random encounter (let's say 1 in 10 per day); if there's one encounter, there's a lesser chance of a second encounter that day (1 in 12). If an encounter is indicated, I roll how many 'elements' it includes (typically 1d4+2). Then I draw from a deck of index cards I've set up for that area. Each card indicates what it is (and references book & page number when appropriate), how many elements it counts for and whether to make 'further draws'. So let's say I roll an encounter with 5 elements, and I draw a card that says "Merchant wagon". The card tells me this is one element, and to draw three more cards and keep any humans or halflings. I draw, get "human guards" and add it to the encounter. The human guards card says "1d4 human guards" and that they count for 1 element each. I roll 2 guards; so now we have 3 elements altogether. My next card is "3d6 Goblins cutters"; it counts for 2 elements (regardless of how many I roll) and has a "Draw 2, keep goblins or wolves" but I don't get any. So my final encounter looks like this: Merchant wagon 2 human guards 11 goblin cutters And it's pretty clear what's happening- the pcs have stumbled upon a goblin attack with the harried guards fighting for their lives. So far it has worked out well; giving different monsters different numbers of elements lets me work in solo and elite monsters without ending up with 2 solo monsters in the same fight or something. [/QUOTE]
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