D&D 4E Random/Wandering monsters in 4E

[Storminator]

That is typically what I did in previous editions - and I've been DMing since the late 1970s. However, those would typically be one encounter with one group of monsters or bad guys. For example: On a three week journey by sea, a group of sahuagin attack the ship. Works well as one big encounter, but not quite so well as 3-4 waves of attacks.

You can change the rate at which rests happen. If I were to do a series where the journey was important and I didn't want to cover it in a single skill challenge, I would tell the players that they won't get an extended rest until the end of the journey (or at a suitable waypoint if the journey was long and clear break points).

That removes the clearly optimal nova strategy.

PS

 

[Mengu]

That is typically what I did in previous editions - and I've been DMing since the late 1970s. However, those would typically be one encounter with one group of monsters or bad guys. For example: On a three week journey by sea, a group of sahuagin attack the ship. Works well as one big encounter, but not quite so well as 3-4 waves of attacks.

Maybe I misunderstood the question, perhaps your question is, how to make a one encounter day interesting. Or perhaps I'm still misunderstanding...

There are several ways to go about this as well.

Don't allow extended rest. Perhaps the sea is churning all night, there is a constant storm, or the ship crew is rowdy, and won't let you get in a good night's sleep. Or if they are in a jungle, constant rain through the night, or the howling of wolves, or some major threat that forces them to move around constantly may prevent an extended rest. You could even reward a partial benefit if and where needed, like everyone recovers a healing surge or some such.

There are also those who run games, redefining the meaning of extended rest to be "a week's rest", or "in between adventure's rest." This allows you to have as many time as you want pass by between encounters, for it to make sense to your story. I haven't tried this approach, but it works for some.

Another way is to make the noncombat encounters through the day, costly. There could be grueling tasks, that cost healing surges, force people to expend daily powers, and the like. You could have exhaustion set in. And just when things seem to calm down, you could spring your one combat encounter of the day.

And my preferred method... don't make one encounter days Even if there is supposed to be combat, you can narrate through the party sailing through Sahuagin infested waters, and skirmishing several groups of them along the way without major losses. It gets the point across without meaningless dice rolling.

 

[delericho]

right, but the problem is, that is kind of boring unless it's a nighttime surprise while resting encounter. Then, at least you create tension because the group will think in a metagame sense that "ok, we've lost our extended rest for this night, how is NewJeffCT going to mess with this now?"

Indeed.

But the purpose of such an encounter is probably not to challenge the PCs, but rather as a change of pace, perhaps to break up a long investigation/exploration scene. Basically, the excitement comes not from a life-or-death fight, but rather simply from starting to throw dice in quick succession.

Basically, it's the D&D equivalent of "if in doubt, have someone kick in the door".

In such an instance it's not actually important that the PCs aren't really challenged - the point is that they're being forced to react, and they're being forced to react right now, dammit!

(Such an encounter can also be used to give the PCs a chance to show just how powerful they are, in a way that a combat against matched opponents doesn't really show. That is, a bunch of orcs show up, and the PCs mow them down. And that can be fun too.)

 

[NewJeffCT]

Maybe I misunderstood the question, perhaps your question is, how to make a one encounter day interesting. Or perhaps I'm still misunderstanding...


And my preferred method... don't make one encounter days Even if there is supposed to be combat, you can narrate through the party sailing through Sahuagin infested waters, and skirmishing several groups of them along the way without major losses. It gets the point across without meaningless dice rolling.

well, my point was how do you make the 4E preferred method of several encounters per day into something that also works with random wandering monsters that traditionally are a one-shot encounter.

However, your last method does sound like it has potential to work:

For example, if the party is exploring a forest, they can first encounter a group of orcs. Combat ensues and the players win fairly easily.

Then, behind that, is a group of ogre hunters, who (unknown to the PCs) just finished rooting the orcs out of their caves and were running down survivors.

When the ogre hunters don't return, an hour or two later, an ogre war party comes looking and tracks the now dead ogres and then finds the PCs.

Perhaps a skill challenge in between to figure out what is going on and/or to stay hidden from the ogre war party.

 

[Ktulu]

I don't do "random", but I will occasionally go, "I'd like to put an owlbear in their travels"... so I'll design up that combat in a quick & dirty fashion (usually using a battlmap and such so I don't have to do any real prep), then I'll insert it during a lull in the game, at some point when the players just appear to be ready for something to happen.

I'll often then insert a quick skill challenge for players interested in avoiding/dealing with the creature that can provide a surprise magical item find, or shorten their over-all trip, etc...

Lets the players determine which option they'd like to tackle.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't run 4Ed, but speaking as a player, replacing the possibility of random encounters with things like skill challenges seems like a bad trade. It's like expecting a ribeye steak (good) and being given chicken fajitas (good, but not what I wanted).

 

[Balesir]

I can see two good ways to do wandering monsters in 4e.

The first is to have full-blown wandering encounters, complete with tactical maps, interesting terrain, and carefully selected monster groups. When the PCs are travelling, if a wandering monster is rolled, then it just happens to take place in an environment that looks oddly planned. In this case, a wandering encounter is just like any other encounter, and probably no less significant.

The second is to do pretty much what was done in previous editions, and write up a bunch of simple adversary groups ("6 orcs", "one ogre", that sort of thing). When an encounter is rolled up, you just throw together a quick sketch of a battlefield, and have at it. In the case, you should probably go for an encounter a few levels below the PCs, and go very heavy on minions - you want a quick, fairly easy fight to get some excitement into the game, but don't want to overdo it!

Or, alternately, just don't bother with wandering monsters at all. That seems to work!

I would add to that "include the minor combat encounter as part of something else". For example:

- I have found that small combats make good consequences of failed rolls in skill challenges that are about searching or navigating/travelling. These combats don't give extra XP - they are each ~1/2 the XP value of the skill challenge and are just the 'price of failure'.

- Traps mix well with "wandering monsters", as they always did. If the party spend too long being ultra-cautious with a trapped area, have a time at which "company" will arrive.

As others have said, another element lies in defining when an "Extended Rest" is possible at full efficacy. Sleeping in the open, or aboard ship, in stormy weather need not amount to an "Extended Rest", in my view. Just set the bar as high as you need to to make the campaign work - and make sure the players are well briefed about it - would be my advice.

 

[S'mon]

well, my point was how do you make the 4E preferred method of several encounters per day into something that also works with random wandering monsters that traditionally are a one-shot encounter.

For wilderness travel I'd much rather have encounters that are rare, but tough. I don't mind spending the session on 1-2 encounters, if they're good 'uns.

 

[MrMyth]

I don't run 4Ed, but speaking as a player, replacing the possibility of random encounters with things like skill challenges seems like a bad trade. It's like expecting a ribeye steak (good) and being given chicken fajitas (good, but not what I wanted).

I don't tend to view it as a replacement as much as a supplement. At least as I tend to run it, the skill challenge doesn't replace the 'random encounter' itself, it replaces the 'random chance' element.

So if the party is traveling through a dangerous forest, this would be an extended skill challenge involving finding safe camp spots, avoiding dangers, scouting, etc. Whenever they hit a certain treshold of failure - they roll on the random encounter table (having attracted notice, stumbled into a monster den, etc).

Which, at least in my experience, makes for a more robust scenario than having them travel through the woods and the chance of running into a monster being "roll a 1 on 1d10", regardless of what precautions they might take or how cautious they are when traveling.

Honestly, I tend to see more favoring of the pure random element by DMs rather than by players, since it is undeniably easier to prepare for. There certainly are games (one-shots/dungeon-crawls/etc) where just randomly running into foes is perfectly palatable, admittedly, but I don't think those tend to be the default.

 

[The Human Target]

well, my point was how do you make the 4E preferred method of several encounters per day into something that also works with random wandering monsters that traditionally are a one-shot encounter.

Don't let PCs take extended rests whenever they please.

I make mine wait until they've had at least 4 meaningful encounters under their belt.