D&D 5E Random Encounter by Terrain

[Reynard]

Hello again. I got a bunch of people (like a LOT) contacting me directly regarding the link I posted to my Wandering Monster Table (posted on Scribd.com) and I was asked if possible could I post it on Google Docs instead. So, I made Google Docs account, and for those that asked for it, here is the link to the same document but this time posted via Google Docs.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw1kyeBlBRE9Q1ludmxJVUFrRkk&authuser=0

Just as a side note, this information really should have been included in the DMG as everyone obviously wants it. I've had nearly 3000 hits on my Wandering Monster Table and Random Wilderness Encounter/Events table (on Scribd.com) since I posted the link to it yesterday. For such a good book as the DMG, it really is a glaring over sight and really would have been beneficial to DMs - especially new DMs.

Nice work, though I do not think one should consider APL when building encounter tables. The things that live in a place live there, whether the party is 1st or 20th level -- but that is just a matter of personal preference.

 

[Ivan Cannon]

Nice work, though I do not think one should consider APL when building encounter tables. The things that live in a place live there, whether the party is 1st or 20th level -- but that is just a matter of personal preference.

Thanks for the comment. Yeah I agree - it all comes down to personal preference - both the DMs and players.

I remember 1st Ed AD&D was like that. Your Party Level was irrelevant and you just rolled up what ever Random Wilderness Monster. There's good and bad points about that. I do remember reading somewhere though from one of the early designers of D&D that the reason for that it was a left over from OD&D days where travelling over land was supposed to be very hard and dangerous but you weren't expected to be out doing that until you were a much higher level as the intent was for you to be manly underground in dungeons. As each edition of D&D has come that philosophy and game intent has gone out the window so outdoor wilderness travel is something integral to the game from the first level to the highest level of the characters's life.

The reason I decided to make the tables this way, and I did consider both ways, was in the end I decided that a Wandering Monster Table that doesn't take Party Level into account seems to be a bit more chaotic. When your playing a specific adventure and they have included Wandering Monsters - they have selected ones suitable to the Level of the adventure both for fairness and to keep the encounters exciting.

As such, I went with the idea to avoid making travelling from adventure to adventure more dangerous than the actual adventures themselves, but at the same time having travel be a challenge that must be planned for. The issue is both high level characters running into trivial creatures for an encounter - it's just a waste of time for the players and DM - and low level characters being wiped out against an enemy that the players KNOW they have no chance - that's depressing for the players. I didn't want to have a TPK just from a Wandering Monster.

Having said that, I also wanted some Wandering Monster encounters to be hard, some easy and some just right. There is a wide enough range in the types and numbers of Monsters appearing that I hope I have achieved that. Some of the encounters that the party may face from these tables will be VERY hard and some will be on the EASY side. But they should all be doable and exciting enough.

Of course, for DMs that prefer the more traditional way of doing it, pick a random column for Average Party Level - you can then in theory get ANY encounter for the party.

 

[Reynard]

Thanks for the comment. Yeah I agree - it all comes down to personal preference - both the DMs and players.

I remember 1st Ed AD&D was like that. Your Party Level was irrelevant and you just rolled up what ever Random Wilderness Monster. There's good and bad points about that. I do remember reading somewhere though from one of the early designers of D&D that the reason for that it was a left over from OD&D days where travelling over land was supposed to be very hard and dangerous but you weren't expected to be out doing that until you were a much higher level as the intent was for you to be manly underground in dungeons. As each edition of D&D has come that philosophy and game intent has gone out the window so outdoor wilderness travel is something integral to the game from the first level to the highest level of the characters's life.

The reason I decided to make the tables this way, and I did consider both ways, was in the end I decided that a Wandering Monster Table that doesn't take Party Level into account seems to be a bit more chaotic. When your playing a specific adventure and they have included Wandering Monsters - they have selected ones suitable to the Level of the adventure both for fairness and to keep the encounters exciting.

As such, I went with the idea to avoid making travelling from adventure to adventure more dangerous than the actual adventures themselves, but at the same time having travel be a challenge that must be planned for. The issue is both high level characters running into trivial creatures for an encounter - it's just a waste of time for the players and DM - and low level characters being wiped out against an enemy that the players KNOW they have no chance - that's depressing for the players. I didn't want to have a TPK just from a Wandering Monster.

Having said that, I also wanted some Wandering Monster encounters to be hard, some easy and some just right. There is a wide enough range in the types and numbers of Monsters appearing that I hope I have achieved that. Some of the encounters that the party may face from these tables will be VERY hard and some will be on the EASY side. But they should all be doable and exciting enough.

Of course, for DMs that prefer the more traditional way of doing it, pick a random column for Average Party Level - you can then in theory get ANY encounter for the party.

Don't forget that not everything has to end up a fight. one of the genius bits of AD&D that gets forgotten is the reaction roll. Sometimes, the trolls are looking to murder you. Sometimes, they are on their way to a moot and just want to be left alone. Sometimes, their clan is under attack by a black dragon and need help. Similarly, non-enemies need to appear on the charts as well. i notice, just as an example, your "Patrolled Wilderness" chart does not actually include a patrol. It seems like an oversight. If it is clear to the players that not everything is an enemy, and even he enemies don't always mean a fight, then the non APL encounters don't seem so trivial or unfair. Imagine a 15th level party running into 30 goblins (very possible in the old days). As a fight it would be, at best, a light workout for the PCs and probably a boring slog for the players and DM. But if those goblins recognize the PCs and think they can get in their good graces, or perhaps trick them into eliminating the bugbear tribe that has been abusing them...

Random encounters should not be limited to "random fights."

 

[Ivan Cannon]

Don't forget that not everything has to end up a fight. one of the genius bits of AD&D that gets forgotten is the reaction roll. Sometimes, the trolls are looking to murder you. Sometimes, they are on their way to a moot and just want to be left alone. Sometimes, their clan is under attack by a black dragon and need help. Similarly, non-enemies need to appear on the charts as well. i notice, just as an example, your "Patrolled Wilderness" chart does not actually include a patrol. It seems like an oversight. If it is clear to the players that not everything is an enemy, and even he enemies don't always mean a fight, then the non APL encounters don't seem so trivial or unfair. Imagine a 15th level party running into 30 goblins (very possible in the old days). As a fight it would be, at best, a light workout for the PCs and probably a boring slog for the players and DM. But if those goblins recognize the PCs and think they can get in their good graces, or perhaps trick them into eliminating the bugbear tribe that has been abusing them...

Random encounters should not be limited to "random fights."

Yep I completely agree with you - not all Random Encounters should be fights. They should cover a wide gambit of possibilities.

However, the document you are seeing is just the COMBAT Wandering Monsters tables that I use. That document is only one part of a Master Random Wilderness Encounter/Events document that I use that has the non-combat stuff in it and also has the missing patrols you refer to.

If you want that other Master document too, here it is:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw1kyeBlBRE9RHJxdnRDN201VzA&authuser=0

Hope that makes sense. So basically I use the Master Random Wilderness Encounter/Events table and IF a Combat Wandering Monster is indicated then that's when I use the Wandering Monster Tables document.

 

[Reynard]

Yep I completely agree with you - not all Random Encounters should be fights. They should cover a wide gambit of possibilities.

However, the document you are seeing is just the COMBAT Wandering Monsters tables that I use. That document is only one part of a Master Random Wilderness Encounter/Events document that I use that has the non-combat stuff in it and also has the missing patrols you refer to.

If you want that other Master document too, here it is:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw1kyeBlBRE9RHJxdnRDN201VzA&authuser=0

Hope that makes sense. So basically I use the Master Random Wilderness Encounter/Events table and IF a Combat Wandering Monster is indicated then that's when I use the Wandering Monster Tables document.

Very Nice! That's the kind of thing I like to see. I run a continuous hexploration event at cons (5 slots at CarnageCon last year and 6 slots at TotalCon this February) and this is exactly the kind of thing that I use. It keeps things fresh and fun and takes a lot of the weight of from a prep standpoint. Love it. (I may in fact yoink it and rework for my specific needs...)

 

[Ivan Cannon]

Very Nice! That's the kind of thing I like to see. I run a continuous hexploration event at cons (5 slots at CarnageCon last year and 6 slots at TotalCon this February) and this is exactly the kind of thing that I use. It keeps things fresh and fun and takes a lot of the weight of from a prep standpoint. Love it. (I may in fact yoink it and rework for my specific needs...)

Thanks for that - glad to be of service.

 

[samursus]

Thanks!!!!

This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

It seems to me that most people who want generic random encounter tables would also want those tables to ignore party level and focus only on terrain, because the desire for such tables is based on both old school and simulationist sensibilities (at least it is for me). Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if encounters are going to be customized to the party, it doesn't make as much sense to create robust generic tables for them. Just make specific tables for an adventure that can be customized for your party and level.

Personally, I want big generic random encounter tables that ignore the PCs and describe what lives in the terrain. As far as customizing them to an area--it is way less work for me to have a generic table and just replace a few entries to customize it than to make 500 tables customized to specific locales. I run exploration heavy campaigns where the party might end up anywhere. I'm just not going to have a specific table for every forest in the world. But if I have "temperate forest" or even "forest", then when the party comes across a forest I haven't customized I can immediately use that table. If they hang around after that session, I can customize it. That's what I want.

In unrelated commentary--did anyone else notice that the urban encounters table in the DMG was done wrong? They used the weighted dice method (d12+d8), but the entries are in alphabetical order rather than sorted by rarity.

 

[Zak S]

There is some plausible realist argument behind random encounters which leave out low-level encounters for high-level parties:

-Hostile intelligent low-level creatures will assess the party as a major threat and avoid them
-Unintelligent encounters can (at least on long overland trips) be considered to have happened and gone off without any incident. A first level party encountering a wild boar is "You hear something in the trees...". A 13th level party encountering a wild boar is "Ok, you just had lunch.".


Also, in some cases low-level parties might not encounter high-level intelligent
hostiles because these creatures may assume the party has nothing worth stealing.

Also, on a larger scale, it is often reasonable to assume that, if a patron or rumor inspired a given
quest or assignment, it's because the party seemed suited to the danger-level of the area. This isn't
always how a party arrives at a place, however, particularly in a sandbox.

 

[Parmandur]

Seems to me that they did good job giving advice on random tables, but that something like Wilderness Survival Guide would be the sort of place for copious lists for both gamist and simulationist purposes...