Encounter Tables

[aco175]

Anyone realy use them. I'm thinking about trying to come up with some for a kingdom that I'm developing and find myself wondering if people would have a use for them. I have played with some people that just pick a monster they feel like throwing at us, and it is usually based on our party level.

I always found this approach boring and lacking real world feel. When the party became 5th level, there were no more goblins and orcs around and the world became full of giants or something. I was looking at devising some tables that had a mix of CR's and some emcounters that were more geared towards non-monster role playing. Say I'm on the road between two towns just a day apart, wouldn't I be more likely to run into wagons or pilgrims before a giant.

I'm just looking for some opinions on the matter.
Thanks.

 

[the Jester]

I like encounter tables like you're describing. In fact, I just detailed the island the low-level group I run was going to, and I made a point to include non-combat encounters and events as well as a range of CRs... maybe I'll cut and paste one of them in here in a lil bit.

 

[Turanil]

I'm just looking for some opinions on the matter.

As players it's a good thing to get the general ambiance and flavor for a particular region. As such, if encounter tables contain dozens of monster per region, chances are that nobody will notice anything but they encountered some monster.

So my suggestion is this: for each region or type of terrain, give just 3 to 6 creatures /inhabitants. Then write down a short stuff about these creatures in relation to the others of the area, and their general goals and behaviors. As such, the orcs in some forest act as if they were the undisputed leader of the place (which they are), while in some hills they act as fearful hunters always on their guard for fear of the dragon nearby. So you have to add some minimal roleplaying to the encounter to make it appear different, and tell the players what's this region is about.

 

[Gez]

In the no-man's-land known as the Neutral Ground lies a structure called the Hall of Diplomacy. Here, conflicting parties from all over the world, leaders, merchants, savants, can sit at the large round table and discuss. The place's magic protects everyone with a sanctuary effect, and facilitate conversation through a glibness-like effect for everyone too (+30 to Diplomacy instead of Bluff, no special effect on lies).

This table is known as the Encounter Table.

Or am I off-topic again?

 

[the Jester]

Okay, so my island has four main encounter tables: the Sere Lands, Dhali's Fists (the mountains), the coast and Sriti's Jungle. Three of the four charts have blood hawks on them; several other monsters appear on multiple charts (dire hawks, gnolls, etc). The charts really help to set the feeling of the area. For instance:

D% Roll--Encounter--CR--Average EL
01-10---Dwarven war party (3d4 dwarves led by a F4)-- ½ + 4--6
11-20---Gnoll raiding party (2d4)--1--6
21-30---Dire hawk (MM2)--2--2
31-35---Living volcano--7--7
36-38---Dragonne--7--7
39-41---Large Magma Paraelemental (MotP)--5--5
42-49---Spider eaters (1d4)--5--7
50-56---Gnome trading party (2d6 gnomes, half guards)--½--4
57-60---Hill giants (1d2)--7--9
61-75---Difficult climb (described under Red Shadow)--1--1
76-85---Minor temblor (described under Red Shadow)--1--1
86------Earthquake (described under Red Shadow)--6--6
87-92---Blood hawks (3d4) (MM2)--½--4
93-96---Mephit gang (3d4 mixed earth, fire and magma)--3--8
97-00---Giant eagle--3--3

The jungle encounter chart has disease exposures on it, too.

 

[Dog Moon]

One thing which is difficult is to use pregenerated encounter tables. If the desert contains a lot of Goblins, a normal desert encounter table might not have Goblins since they aren't normally found in deserts. Also, even if it did, I might like Goblins, but Joe over there hates Goblins. Unfortunately, these are basically impossible for one person to appease everyone with their own encounter table.

Realism is definitely important. Creatures of varying CRs do wander about, though higher CR creatures would roam more than lower CR creatures who use defenses/traps/etc to help them. Thus, encounters should not always be tailored to the group.

Noncombative encounters are definitely good. If there were only hostile groups [and evil creatures aren't always hostile either], especially ones tailored to the PCs even though their level 10, then normal people would never travel anywhere to trade and whatnot. Even something as 'Chirping birds' or 'A raccoon scurries across the trail before you.' This also adds to realism as well.

Mixed encounters are cool too, though I suppose they mainly come in these groups: Main person and mount/animal companion, main person and henchmen, main person and hirelings [hirelings more likely to turn on main person or even more likely flee], and main person and main person whose skills work together well [Or perhaps not]. This again also adds to the realism.

Variety is good [Sources from say, all WOTC sources instead of just the MM, for example]. I'm not sure about the size of the encounter table since everyone has their own preferences. Perhaps a quick list with a dozen or so encounters and also a longer list so those dozen encounters become the only encounters in the area. Admittedly, not all areas have a long list of creatures in that area.

Roleplaying options. Not a necessecity probably, but always useful. Allows for more variety as well because a forest creature could be found in a desert and the PCs would have to be like why is a forest creature in the desert? Doesn't have to be long, just a line or so, and not even a necessity.

Well, maybe I wrote too much, maybe not. I was kind of thinking of what I would put in it while I typed and if I ever do write up encounter tables, this is what I'll do, so I admit, this was as much for me as for anyone else. Perhaps more for me if they don't feel like reading all of what I wrote.

Btw, the idea of the disease in the jungle is cool. Environmental factors could also be a nice touch. Shows everyone there's more to fear than what you can stab before you.

 

[Thanee]

I used the encounter tables in the FRCS to roll up what kind of critter the party might encounter in the wilderness, then base a half-way reasonable encounter on that (instead of taking the numbers from the table).

I like wilderness encounter tables, which also include "normal" encounters and encounters that do not involve critters, and which are meant to provide a "real world" feel in the way, that the percentages are set in such a way to make common encounters common and rare encounters rare (well, ok, this should be obvious).

The FR tables fit that picture quite well.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Li Shenron]

I never really used encounter tables from books. The existing tables are usually too long, and the result is probably a series of different encounters with no consistence, that gives you the idea the setting just has a mish-mash of monsters. If a DM wants a random encounter, I definintely agree that the best you can do is write down your own tables, perhaps a different one for each environment during the adventures (in town, on the road, in the forest...).

The fact is that I don't even write those table and just pick the monsters myself, after all my mind is ofter working pretty much random anyway

 

[the Jester]

Btw, the idea of the disease in the jungle is cool. Environmental factors could also be a nice touch. Shows everyone there's more to fear than what you can stab before you.

Oh man! The poor pcs! They had a lot of disease while they were wandering around the jungle. I'd say that half the encounters I rolled were disease exposures.

 

[jester47]

Encounter tables are great. They can really pep up a game. The thing is that they do not have to be fights. In fact, they can be great ways to impart information on the party without it seeming contrived. Also a good thing to do is to work the encounter into the context of the game.

So if the characters have pissed someone off, an encounter of Orcs can be a band sent to finish them off. Or an encounter where a dragon has been sent to lead the party astray in a polymorphed form. Merchants and travelers could be swindlers or honest people who could impart inaccurate or helpful information. Or it could just be some wandering, fairly unintelligent, creature.

The reason I do it this way is that I really hate having to draw up the terrain for a fight. But terrain tables in the 3.5 DMG help with that.

Aaron.