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Out of the Abyss: number of encounters per day in the Underdark?
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<blockquote data-quote="devincutler" data-source="post: 7195764" data-attributes="member: 6684551"><p>The wandering portions of OOTA are the weakest part of the adventure...and it is a horribly weak part. I don't think you have any conception yet how much wandering there is in that adventure. I didn't until I got to the later parts where the PCs are taking multiple 60 day long journeys! It is an absolute grind and basically unworkable. Not sure why they even bothered with the tables. If you used the tables as indicated, the PCs would probably encounter every encounter on it literally 20 or more times. Possibly close to a hundred or more times for the table in Chapter 2. </p><p></p><p>My advice, having run the scenario, is this:</p><p></p><p>#1) Go to DMs Guild and get some of the many well designed side encounters made specifically for OOTA. There will not be enough, even if you buy all of them, to populate the encounters, but they will give you some good centerpiece encounters to break up the wandering monotony.</p><p></p><p>#2) Pre-roll about 100 encounters per session. Roll them and then massage them to make each one slightly unique. If you get 3 grell for example, just add a twist...say a fight between the 3 grell and a hook horror. Just twist every encounter at least slightly to keep interest. In fact, preroll the encounter chances each day (see below) as well. You want no dice rolling messing up the pacing.</p><p></p><p>#3) This is a big one....you have to have a mechanism for more than 2 encounters per day. My recommendation is to assume 6 periods per day (4 while travelling, say every 3 hours, and while camped). Make the encounter chance 15% per period. And, if you roll an encounter for a period, allow a 15% chance of a second encounter in the same period. And keep rolling a 15% chance for yet another encounter in that period until you miss the 15% chance. So, for example, I check for period #1 and roll a 13. An encounter. I roll again for that same period and roll an 02...another encounter. I roll again for that period and lo and behold I roll a 10...so a third encounter. I roll again for that period and get a 62, so that's it for that period...3 encounters in a 3 hour period. How they are spread out amongst those 3 hours is up to you. You can roll 1d6 to determine the half hour interval each encounter occurs (and if they occur in the same half hour...it can be a combined encounter!).</p><p></p><p>The point to #3 is that the PCs have to feel that they cannot rest or use resources with impunity. There is really only about a 2.25% chance of 2 encounters in a single period...but that is enough with all of the rolling to keep the PCs on their toes.</p><p></p><p>#4) Design a list of about 200 weird little nothings that the PCs find along the way. Really....nothings. A skeleton. A discarded mine pick. Just a bunch of meaningless but possibly interesting found items to punctuate the travel.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="devincutler, post: 7195764, member: 6684551"] The wandering portions of OOTA are the weakest part of the adventure...and it is a horribly weak part. I don't think you have any conception yet how much wandering there is in that adventure. I didn't until I got to the later parts where the PCs are taking multiple 60 day long journeys! It is an absolute grind and basically unworkable. Not sure why they even bothered with the tables. If you used the tables as indicated, the PCs would probably encounter every encounter on it literally 20 or more times. Possibly close to a hundred or more times for the table in Chapter 2. My advice, having run the scenario, is this: #1) Go to DMs Guild and get some of the many well designed side encounters made specifically for OOTA. There will not be enough, even if you buy all of them, to populate the encounters, but they will give you some good centerpiece encounters to break up the wandering monotony. #2) Pre-roll about 100 encounters per session. Roll them and then massage them to make each one slightly unique. If you get 3 grell for example, just add a twist...say a fight between the 3 grell and a hook horror. Just twist every encounter at least slightly to keep interest. In fact, preroll the encounter chances each day (see below) as well. You want no dice rolling messing up the pacing. #3) This is a big one....you have to have a mechanism for more than 2 encounters per day. My recommendation is to assume 6 periods per day (4 while travelling, say every 3 hours, and while camped). Make the encounter chance 15% per period. And, if you roll an encounter for a period, allow a 15% chance of a second encounter in the same period. And keep rolling a 15% chance for yet another encounter in that period until you miss the 15% chance. So, for example, I check for period #1 and roll a 13. An encounter. I roll again for that same period and roll an 02...another encounter. I roll again for that period and lo and behold I roll a 10...so a third encounter. I roll again for that period and get a 62, so that's it for that period...3 encounters in a 3 hour period. How they are spread out amongst those 3 hours is up to you. You can roll 1d6 to determine the half hour interval each encounter occurs (and if they occur in the same half hour...it can be a combined encounter!). The point to #3 is that the PCs have to feel that they cannot rest or use resources with impunity. There is really only about a 2.25% chance of 2 encounters in a single period...but that is enough with all of the rolling to keep the PCs on their toes. #4) Design a list of about 200 weird little nothings that the PCs find along the way. Really....nothings. A skeleton. A discarded mine pick. Just a bunch of meaningless but possibly interesting found items to punctuate the travel. [/QUOTE]
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