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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4727774" data-attributes="member: 82106">Actually seems like a pretty interesting idea, and pretty much the first really original idea on the subject of wandering monsters I've heard in a long time. Here are a few thoughts. I've been using the 'Obsidian skill challenge' system for a while now, and I like it better than the official one for a few reasons. May be worth checking it out (there is a thread on this board about it, worth a read anyway).So what I was thinking is maybe having a sort of a mini challenge for each "encounter period" where each PC rolls one check and the number of successes indicates the overall success of the party in deterring wandering monsters (by whichever strategy they use). A wandering monster check can then be performed like you've outlined with the number of successes added to the roll, so a higher number is better. Any given area can then have a 'wandering monster difficulty' factor which indicates the value you have to exceed to not have an encounter in that encounter period. Not really different from what you've proposed except I think making it all d20 based is a bit cleaner.Obsidian dictates 3 results for a skill challenge, success, partial success, and failure. I'd say those could translate to +1, 0, and -1 on the check. Those could be cumulative on the encounter check roll, though that leaves open the question of how long you run the total before resetting it. Another set of factors could be how you actually handle any encounters that do happen. Defeating an encounter probably helps you, the local monsters become more wary, so maybe you get a +1 for that. If some monsters escape that could be a neutral result, the monsters are now a lot more aware of you, but they're also somewhat intimidated. Losing an encounter is bad, it encourages more monsters to come sniffing around to see if they can pick up your trail and finish you off.It is a great idea overall. Probably a few refinements that can be made. My suggestions certainly aren't the only possible variations that would work either. No doubt somebody will come up with better ones <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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