Who uses Wandering Monsters?

[MerakSpielman]

I don't like wandering monsters in closed areas, like an established "dungeon" location. I generally work out the population of the entire place out ahead of time, and make sure the economy/ecology works. There's no room for random monsters. I can even figure out what happens if the characters stop exploring after killing half the beasties and don't return for a few months.

The wilderness is different. I like to imagine all kinds of critters running around at random, looking for juicy adventurers to eat. It doesn't have to make sense in a closed system like dungeon encounters.

One of my big beefs about the core books was they didn't have COMPREHENSIVE WILDERNESS RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLES!!!!! They had only one "sample" encounter table - to show you how to try to do it yourself.

Well, I tried doing it myself. I really honestly tried to make a comprehensive encounter table for all terrains, with separate columns for Common, Uncommon, and Rarely encounted creatures. Every monster in the monster manual was to be included.

I got through a few terrain types. It took me weeks. Then I just gave up, because I realized the difficulty of what I was trying to do.

SO does anybody know where I can find some really comprehensive wilderness encounter tables? Those of you who do random encounters, what charts do YOU use?

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes, I use wandering monsters/encounters (though it depends on where the PCs are). However, I don't use a random encounter chart - I choose what the encounter will be.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I've used 'em for as long as I've gamed. Fun stuff.

 

[cptg1481]

I am a wandering monster

I loove the wandering monster, I use them when I think that the party is starting to get complacent. My favorite is on the way home from some mission or another when they are beaten-up and low on rescources.


They are most always something (or things) that are would appear at the place and time I roll the encounter. I too always pick, never leave them to chance.

 

[navriin]

I check for random encounters, but I have no chart for it. Basically if a random encounter occurs I determine a few like meetings based on the region and time, and randomly select from those. It makes sure I know *why* the monsters/npcs/travelling villiagers are there. Also I generally only check for one night and one day encounter, with a low chance of it happening. By the book PC's encounter so many things that you would come to the conclusion that the wilds are filled with dangerous beasts who patrol their given acre.

 

[Ruined]

Not really. Even though some of the encounters may seem random or happenstance, I like to have them all planned and plotted out. Sometimes I do take differenet routes though. For example, the group was left at the end of one session with three routes to travel towards their next destination. I had a certain type of creature encounter planned for one route, a different group of creatures for another, and an interesting find/RP encounter for the third. I left it to chance what the PCs would run across. It worked out well, IMHO.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

By the book PC's encounter so many things that you would come to the conclusion that the wilds are filled with dangerous beasts who patrol their given acre.

My backyard is about an acre. Now you have me imagining a bugbear endlessly walking around the borders of my backyard, waiting for some adventurer to jump the fence.