FallenRX
Adventurer
People these days talk a lot about how Wilderness Encounters, don't feel reliable to challenge the party on a journey, but recently reading through the original edition of DnD, wilderness encounters were not just random monster fights like the current believe tends ot make you believe, but instead Wandering Adventures, you see back in older editions when you rolled for random encounters, you didnt just roll up one small monster or fight, but you rolled up a whole organization! With whole Tables to quickly show a bandit crew gets not just a few mooks, but 100s of men with some amount of them being clerics, warriors and a special magic item tied to them, usually tied to a stronghold.
" BANDITS: Although Bandits are normal men, they will have leaders who are supernormal fighters, magical types, or clerical types. For every 30 bandits there will be one 4th level Fighting-Man; for every 50 bandits there will be in addition one 5th or 6th level fighter (die 1-3 = 5th level, die 4-6 = 6th level); for every 100 bandits there will be in addition one 8th or 9th level fighter (die 1-3 = 8th, die 4-6 = 9th). If there are over 200 bandits there will be a 50% chance for a Magic-User (die 1-4 = 10th level, die 5, 6 = 11th level) and a 25% chance for a Cleric of the 8th level. If there are exactly 300 bandits there will absolutely be a Magic-User, and the chance for a Cleric goes up to 50%. There is also a chance that there will be magical accouterments for the super-normal types […] "
This meant that the original intent of "Wandering Monsters" as we know it were not, just running into a few monsters in the areas and slaying them, but instead encounter just a few men of this giant Bandit Stronghold in the wilderness, or a large group of monsters in a lair where they lingers, and their treasure lies.
This is clearly gold, because it not just provides a whole new side quest offer for the players even in a more plotted game, but also scales incredibly well into higher level play because your just not dealing with 1 or 2 bandits or mooks but your taking on a whole nest, hives of random monsters in this wild area. This makes this heavily scalable from high to lower level play, even allows for if your players to get their own kingdom you can ride in there and deal with the bandits.
This is not just resource draining stuff, no this is adventure inspiring stuff, leads to whole new type of campaigns adding to the story, its quite amazing.
I recommend you try it, in any edition of dnd you run, you dont even need to change much, just start thinking of those monsters on the wilderness table, you roll once a day and once a night, and when they are encountered just try to think of a large lair where there is a much large number of these creatures there, that the PC's can potentially raid, or do whatever with, and a way to track back the location of their lair, or search around the area for it.
Completely changes how you think of wilderness adventures entirely, and makes it something special.
Reactions to OD&D: Wandering Adventures
Here is an article talking about this going far more into depth about the topic matter than i ever could.
TLDR: In the original DnD, when you rolled encounters it wasnt just a one of encounter, but a whole adventure in itself since your rolled quite a few lower level monster lairs not just one squad but 100s of them, a whole stronghold tied to them, meaning these stand alone as adventures in their own right.
Whats your thoughts on it?
" BANDITS: Although Bandits are normal men, they will have leaders who are supernormal fighters, magical types, or clerical types. For every 30 bandits there will be one 4th level Fighting-Man; for every 50 bandits there will be in addition one 5th or 6th level fighter (die 1-3 = 5th level, die 4-6 = 6th level); for every 100 bandits there will be in addition one 8th or 9th level fighter (die 1-3 = 8th, die 4-6 = 9th). If there are over 200 bandits there will be a 50% chance for a Magic-User (die 1-4 = 10th level, die 5, 6 = 11th level) and a 25% chance for a Cleric of the 8th level. If there are exactly 300 bandits there will absolutely be a Magic-User, and the chance for a Cleric goes up to 50%. There is also a chance that there will be magical accouterments for the super-normal types […] "
This meant that the original intent of "Wandering Monsters" as we know it were not, just running into a few monsters in the areas and slaying them, but instead encounter just a few men of this giant Bandit Stronghold in the wilderness, or a large group of monsters in a lair where they lingers, and their treasure lies.
This is clearly gold, because it not just provides a whole new side quest offer for the players even in a more plotted game, but also scales incredibly well into higher level play because your just not dealing with 1 or 2 bandits or mooks but your taking on a whole nest, hives of random monsters in this wild area. This makes this heavily scalable from high to lower level play, even allows for if your players to get their own kingdom you can ride in there and deal with the bandits.
This is not just resource draining stuff, no this is adventure inspiring stuff, leads to whole new type of campaigns adding to the story, its quite amazing.
I recommend you try it, in any edition of dnd you run, you dont even need to change much, just start thinking of those monsters on the wilderness table, you roll once a day and once a night, and when they are encountered just try to think of a large lair where there is a much large number of these creatures there, that the PC's can potentially raid, or do whatever with, and a way to track back the location of their lair, or search around the area for it.
Completely changes how you think of wilderness adventures entirely, and makes it something special.
Reactions to OD&D: Wandering Adventures
Here is an article talking about this going far more into depth about the topic matter than i ever could.
TLDR: In the original DnD, when you rolled encounters it wasnt just a one of encounter, but a whole adventure in itself since your rolled quite a few lower level monster lairs not just one squad but 100s of them, a whole stronghold tied to them, meaning these stand alone as adventures in their own right.
Whats your thoughts on it?