telengard_t said:
I haven't figured out yet how to generate encounters from the cards and have them be more than just drawing cards off the top (i.e. lord and minions, or other combos). Maybe I'm just overthinking this stuff. I'm still in the initial stages.
Yeah, I've tried to think of different systems for this... Flyspeck23 is probably right- tables are the best way to go for maximum control and configurability of encounters. I'm inclined to try doing it entirely with the DDM cards, since the cards are going to be there on the table anyway, and are just so handy for keeping track of stats, so why not use them for encounter generation too? Might have to give up a little on the notion of having very "realistic" encounter groups though. I personally don't mind weird and wacky monster combos though- it keeps things from getting too predictable for the PCs, and can make things sort of challenging for the DM ("Hmmm, an Ogre Mage with a pet Giant Toad- interesting....")
One simple system I've been thinking of, which is sort of based on a card encounter system my group used to use with Advanced Heroquest, is this:
Determine a "minimum point value" for encounters, based on the party's average level (or maybe total level)... The exact formula would take playtesting, but for argument's sake, let's say four characters of level 3 would require a minimum encounter point value of 36 (I'm just using total levels x 3 in this example). You could fiddle with that number of course, if you wanted to present scenarios with varying difficulty levels (cakewalks vs suicide missions), but using total party level (or average party level) to start makes sense.
Prior to the game, the DM assembles a deck of cards from his CE and LE decks, ensuring that no single creature exceeds value of 36 (the minimum encounter value). This is her opportunity to decide what sorts of critters are going to be in the dungeon. Additionally, the DM can pre-fab the Quest Room "core" encounter group, using this same number as a point value limit. This mini deck gets put off to the side.
Roll for encounters normally during the game. When one occurs, keep drawing cards off the top until the total point value equals or exceeds the minimum encounter point value (in this case, 36). In practice, that could mean encounters of point value 36-71.
When the Quest Room is found, generate a random encounter normally, and then add the Quest Room core encounter group to that, effectively generating a double-sized, partially pre-built final encounter. This could be fun for the DM, as he gets to determine who the big villain(s) are, but still doesn't know exactly what else might be participating in the final fight.
There's a whole bunch of variation / tweaking you could do to this idea. Like, perhaps you'd actually create a number of pre-built, core encounter groups, instead of just one for the Quest Room, and use those as the basis for any room encounter. Or, pre-build all the encounters, and stack the mini-decks on top of one another into the main deck, and draw one encounter group at a time, instead of one creature at a time. That might work well.
I have another idea that's fairly different from this, but don't want to spam everybody =) Flyspeck, would this thread be bettrer off elsewhere? I know it's not directly related to the DB rules. If anybody would like to toss ideas around regarding a DB / DDM mashup, feel free to contact me : mike . mcgraw (at) gmail
