Mournblade94 said:
It is still in use but think current fashion is to go ahead and make a wandering monster into an event within the module.
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Has the Wandering Monster concept died?
- Thread starter Mournblade94
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It is still in use but think current fashion is to go ahead and make a wandering monster into an event within the module.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
I still use 'em, but then I'm not running a "new-school" game.
That said, I think the trend is toward not including wandering monsters in modules; particularly in the 4e modules I've read. In fact, with only minor exceptions there is little to no consideration for monster movement at all in those modules; it's up to the DM to make it happen if it's to happen at all.
Fortunately, most decent DMs make it happen.
Lan-"skip the monsters and just go straight to wandering damage"-efan
That said, I think the trend is toward not including wandering monsters in modules; particularly in the 4e modules I've read. In fact, with only minor exceptions there is little to no consideration for monster movement at all in those modules; it's up to the DM to make it happen if it's to happen at all.
Fortunately, most decent DMs make it happen.
Lan-"skip the monsters and just go straight to wandering damage"-efan
Published modules in 3e and 4e often don't use them, yup. This leads to modules which are incredibly static as written and encourage the 5-minute-day - go in, do 1 encounter, rest, do the next, etc.
Personally I will always use the possibility of wandrering monsters, especially if the PCs are spending a long time in the dungeon. If necessary I'll roll to see if 'static' monsters in nearby locations come wandering by, which can be as much a benefit as a detriment to the PCs.
Running a sandbox wilderness I don't know where or when the PCs will go, so wandering/random monster encounters are a vital GMing tool. But for 4e, rather than a huge d% monster table, I'll often pregenerate a small number of detailed monster encounter groups and use one of those when a random encounter is rolled.
Even with 1e, depending on the complexity of the tables I may often roll up several wandering/monsters prior to the session which I can use as appropriate, this helps prevent me being wrongfooted by something in the session I'm not prepped for. Eg running City State of the Invincible Overlord, the city encounter tables are very complex, and can be hard to use 'cold' in play, whereas a simple d12 dungeon wandering monster table can easily be used ad hoc.
Personally I will always use the possibility of wandrering monsters, especially if the PCs are spending a long time in the dungeon. If necessary I'll roll to see if 'static' monsters in nearby locations come wandering by, which can be as much a benefit as a detriment to the PCs.
Running a sandbox wilderness I don't know where or when the PCs will go, so wandering/random monster encounters are a vital GMing tool. But for 4e, rather than a huge d% monster table, I'll often pregenerate a small number of detailed monster encounter groups and use one of those when a random encounter is rolled.
Even with 1e, depending on the complexity of the tables I may often roll up several wandering/monsters prior to the session which I can use as appropriate, this helps prevent me being wrongfooted by something in the session I'm not prepped for. Eg running City State of the Invincible Overlord, the city encounter tables are very complex, and can be hard to use 'cold' in play, whereas a simple d12 dungeon wandering monster table can easily be used ad hoc.
Doug McCrae
Legend
There are wandering monster tables in H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth. P1 King of the Trollhaunt Warrens and P2 Demon Queen's Enclave both have a list of additional encounters (about half-a-dozen) that the DM can use to spice things up, but there's no random roll.
Tiberius is right that, with most xp coming from encounters, not gold, they are less of a 'punishment'. However if they carry no treasure, then they are worth less for the PCs to attack than normal monsters. Last session in my game the PCs encountered a bunch of goblin wolf riders, decided there were too many to fight, and paid them 50gp for passage. Money is a major resource in 4e so that ended up being a punishment. It was sort of random, I didn't have a table for the area exactly (tho I did have a list of monsters that live there) but the encounter was a result of a PC rolling a 1 on his Knowledge Nature check.
Tiberius is right that, with most xp coming from encounters, not gold, they are less of a 'punishment'. However if they carry no treasure, then they are worth less for the PCs to attack than normal monsters. Last session in my game the PCs encountered a bunch of goblin wolf riders, decided there were too many to fight, and paid them 50gp for passage. Money is a major resource in 4e so that ended up being a punishment. It was sort of random, I didn't have a table for the area exactly (tho I did have a list of monsters that live there) but the encounter was a result of a PC rolling a 1 on his Knowledge Nature check.
I take a "The true warrior knows when to fight and when not to fight" approach, and I am fairly generous in awarding XP for avoiding/evading unnecessary combats. So depending on circumstances I will typically give XP to PCs who talk & bribe their way out of an unnecessary fight. In many cases giving half the XP they would have got for killing the monsters seem right, but anything from 0 XP to full 'kill' XP may be appropriate.
I still use 'random' encounters but I don't roll for them (or at least not during a session).
Instead I use predetermined 'random' encounters to spice up overland travel or inject some excitement when things start to get slow. In 4e they're almost always embedded into a skill challenge.
Ideally, each 'random' encounter still serves a specific purpose, offering a side-quest, providing additional details to strengthen an adventure's theme or provide additional background info.
I also like adventures that draw from a fixed list of encounter groups to populate an area more or less randomly to make it appear more dynamic.
Instead I use predetermined 'random' encounters to spice up overland travel or inject some excitement when things start to get slow. In 4e they're almost always embedded into a skill challenge.
Ideally, each 'random' encounter still serves a specific purpose, offering a side-quest, providing additional details to strengthen an adventure's theme or provide additional background info.
I also like adventures that draw from a fixed list of encounter groups to populate an area more or less randomly to make it appear more dynamic.
Back when the only school was old, some folks still ignored the random encounter tables, so skipping them isn't exactly "new".
I always wondered about wandering monsters. Aren't there enough monsters around in the adventure? It isn't like it increases the # monsters per unit time you deal with, or anything. They add one more step between you and the final goal, if there is a final goal.
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We use them regularly in our OD&D megadungeon campaign - they are a major motivator that discourages pixel hunting and encourages smart play. In aggregate, we don't receive as much XP from wandering monsters as from lair monsters, as wandering monsters don't have as much treasure (which also counts for XP). After a few sessions, we grew to appreciate the benefits of moving quickly and carefully so as not to waste resources fighting wandering monsters. We certainly COULD spend all of our time clanging metal pots in hallways, trying to lure monsters to us (because what we do is really up to us and the DM doesn't have any plan for us), but the cost-benefit analysis doesn't really make sense. We don't run any sort of pre-planned plot storygame, so interrupting that arc isn't really relevant.
Back when I played 4E, between the massive amount of time an encounter usually took and the more plot-oriented nature of the campaign, wandering monsters were not employed at all. Every encounter was planned out ahead of time. We were basically just going through the motions as indicated in the modules.
Really just totally different games and playstyles.
Back when I played 4E, between the massive amount of time an encounter usually took and the more plot-oriented nature of the campaign, wandering monsters were not employed at all. Every encounter was planned out ahead of time. We were basically just going through the motions as indicated in the modules.
Really just totally different games and playstyles.
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I'd use then in ovberland travel scenarios but more rarely in dungeon environments. Unless the dungeon is very large I would more than likely made the existing creatures react to the PCs depredations.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Wandering monsters don't really help with the 5/10/15-minute adventuring day, though, unless you have multiple random encounters per day.
I usually never have more than one random encounter per day, for example, which means that the PCs always face them fresh, since they've rested during the night between yesterday's encounter and today's.
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