Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="feartheminotaur" data-source="post: 6847806" data-attributes="member: 6801354">We started the hexcrawl this weekend with a simplified rule set (Thanks, btw, for the Open Page reference.  Really helped).The encounters started off too...same-ish.  We paused and thought up ways to spice it up.  One player noted: "How often do a monster and the party walk into the same clearing at the same time?" So, for random encounters, we added an "Ambush Chance". It worked out pretty awesome.  They were able to see, and then hide from, a group of demon slave hunters as well as get the drop on a poor chimera drinking at a mountain stream.The rule we came up with: "Ambush Chance - Encounters have a chance of ambush, for both PCs and creatures, based on the terrain and movement.  Hills, dense foliage, how careful players travel; all these can affect who sees who first and can affect the outcome of the encounter. Once a random encounter has been rolled, have the player with the highest passive perception roll 1d20 (no modifiers).  On an 11 or higher, the PCs see the creature first and may act accordingly (set up an ambush, hide until it passes, etc.).  On a 10 or lower, the creature sees the PCs first and may act accordingly (See the MM for creature behavior notes).  [Variant: On a 1, the creature automatically ambushes the PCs; on a 20 the PCs automatically ambush the creature.]  Players moving at a Fast speed have disadvantage on the roll; while players moving at a Slow speed have advantage.  The DM can apply advantage or disadvantage based on the party's behavior - imposing disadvantage for talking loudly or traveling in heavy rain, for example.This roll is not a roll to determine surprise, it is intended to give the players and DM a chance to shape the encounter.  Dexterity (Stealth), if travel pace allows, as well as Wisdom (Perception) can still factor in the DM's determination of surprise.  The PCs may see the creature first, but make enough noise to draw its attention, for example.  Instead narrate the outcome as the result of pace and terrain.  The creature may be in a copse along a field and able to notice the PCs first as they emerge into the open or the PCs may follow a trail to the top of a hill and see the creature drinking from a stream at its base".</blockquote>

Verification