Wilderlands too old?

[JoeGKushner]

SO what happens when the players want to take the left fork of the road instead of the right. Or go off the road and see what beyond the other side of the hill and they keep persisting on doing this.

Well, if you have something like the Mother of All Encounter Tables by Necromancer Games or the 3.0 Forgotten Realms screen with it's massive encounter table, you're set.

Knowing that if the party moves to 00xx and meets Giant Frogs isn't really that impressive to some.

 

[DaveMage]

Something that gave me a list of cities would be nice for example. Or monsters.

Heh. You want an index so you can find *all* of the giant frog encounters, don't you?

I agree, though, a city index would be nice.

 

[Psion]

SO what happens when the players want to take the left fork of the road instead of the right. Or go off the road and see what beyond the other side of the hill and they keep persisting on doing this.

I have a difficult time seeing my players make such a decision unless they didn't know where they were going anyway. If that were the case, I'd prepare an event for either eventuality.

An event that I could roll randomly (if it didn't matter) or, as mentioned in an earleir post, pull from one of the aforementioned books: Foul Locales, Cities & Settlements, En Route, etc.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Heh. You want an index so you can find *all* of the giant frog encounters, don't you?

I agree, though, a city index would be nice.

I was thinking cities, castles, ruins, dungeons, and the mosnters woulc have to have the ECL by 'em too and could act as "inspiration' as the Mother of All Encounter Tables is meant to do.

 

[Mystery Man]

I think to actually index this thing you'd need almost another book entirely. It would make finding those giant frog encounters much easier though.

 

[The Shaman]

But the encounters are so... pointless. I mean it's like this, "A portal to the dark realms has opened up here and it has inflicted the local wildlife with the fiendish tempalte. Currently at the top of the food chain are six fiendish (CR 4)* giant frogs! If the party overcomes the giant frogs, they discover the undigested remains of 4 bloodstones at 50 gp each.)

That doesn't do a lot for me.

When I read this description, I start thinking: is the portal still open? who or what caused the portal to open? if it's a "who," is s/he still around? why open such a portal? there are giant frogs in the hex with the portal, but what sort of other animals have been affected and where did they go? what happens if the players' horses or other animal companions are exposed to the still-active portal? has the existence of this portal and its effects had an effect on the surrounding settlements, such as game that's been corrupted causing starvation among nearby villagers who rely on hunting as a significant part of their subsistence? who else knows about the portal? who's likely to be interested in the existence of the portal, and why? how is the portal closed?

Some people see an encounter with a bunch of giant frogs. I see a seed for a half-dozen adventures, or even an entire campaign. The Wilderlands appeals to the latter sort of GM.

 

[Krypter]

There seems to be a misconception forming here. Wilderlands is not just a random listing of random encounters. It is a very detailed list of locations which are connected together with subtle plot threads. For example, town X may produce a mineral F that is shipped to a city in hex Z, but a wizard from hex B is scheming to steal it. It's an integrated world without being a hyperdetailed setting like FR. But it has no metaplot, and for many people that's a good thing. There are hundreds of interesting little plot hooks interwoven like a fine carpet throughout the world, but you can ignore them without damaging the structure of the world. Ignoring metaplot and setting plots in FR, on the other hand, can have nonsensical results. That's hard for one GM to do unless they have a teenager's infinite amount of free time.

It's a skeleton framework that you flesh out, and that's fun. Many people don't have the time to build even a skeleton, but don't want a muscular package like the FR because it interferes with their own plans. Wilderlands fills that gap.

 

[JoeGKushner]

There seems to be a misconception forming here. Wilderlands is not just a random listing of random encounters. It is a very detailed list of locations which are connected together with subtle plot threads. For example, town X may produce a mineral F that is shipped to a city in hex Z, but a wizard from hex B is scheming to steal it. It's an integrated world without being a hyperdetailed setting like FR. But it has no metaplot, and for many people that's a good thing. There are hundreds of interesting little plot hooks interwoven like a fine carpet throughout the world, but you can ignore them without damaging the structure of the world. Ignoring metaplot and setting plots in FR, on the other hand, can have nonsensical results. That's hard for one GM to do unless they have a teenager's infinite amount of free time.

It's a skeleton framework that you flesh out, and that's fun. Many people don't have the time to build even a skeleton, but don't want a muscular package like the FR because it interferes with their own plans. Wilderlands fills that gap.

So if you have the free time of a teenager you can modify the Forgotten Realms but at the same don't you don't need to flesh out the Wilderlands with that same amount of Freetime?

All these years I've been playing the Forgotten Realms wrong by ignoring huge swathes of canon! My poor players. Denied!

 

[Cam Banks]

So if you have the free time of a teenager you can modify the Forgotten Realms but at the same don't you don't need to flesh out the Wilderlands with that same amount of Freetime?

So what happens if your adventurers go to the same hex again?

Aren't you kind of out of encounters for that place? And need to do your own work? I mean, it's cool that these hexes are all interconnected but is there built-in replay value that still doesn't need additional work?

Cheers,
Cam

 

[JoeGKushner]

So what happens if your adventurers go to the same hex again?

Aren't you kind of out of encounters for that place? And need to do your own work? I mean, it's cool that these hexes are all interconnected but is there built-in replay value that still doesn't need additional work?

Cheers,
Cam

Undead giant frogs!