RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLES AS ADVENTURE RAM: Adding “Memory” To Encounter Checks

artist: Stefan Poag

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What if we design the random encounter table to function as computer RAM- to store short-term information/change without having to dig into the module or track on another sheet? This is a space for innovation given that the random encounter table is one of the three most DM-referenced tables in an adventure outside of the dungeon map and the room keys. 

Now let me back up a minute to explain how this arose. A dungeon I am working is a wizard’s home in a barrow that was subjected to a magical explosion. Some areas of the dungeon are cracked and falling, especially the entrance, which is cracked, slumped and in danger of collapse. Traditional ways of handling this might be:

1. The entrance is a trap. Rocks fall, hireling (or PC) dies- too cheap, too sudden

2. The entrance can collapse right when PCs enter the first room of the dungeon- eh, too haunted house

3. The entrance collapses after the first exit from the dungeon- too delayed requires remembering

Then I thought, “What if the entrance collapse is an event on the random encounter table?” That seems to have potential because it permanently changes the dungeon, but I don’t know it will occur. But this could also still invoke #2. Okay, so let’s put a countdown clock on the random encounter table. I can just check off circles until the entrance collapses until then its a free breather for the PCs. Again, the dungeon changes which is interesting, but I’m not having to track it or review it in the next session prep outside of what I’m already looking at at during play. Here’s a basic example:

BASIC (RAM)DOM ENCOUNTER TABLE: Crypt of the Orc Hole Level 1

1. 1d6+2 Skeleton Orcs

2. 1d6 Zombie Grave Makers

3. 1d6 Hobgoblin Desecrators

4. 2d8 Stirge Throat Lovers

5. 2d4 Robber Fly Defilers

6. Unstable Entrance in Rm #1 (_)(_)(collapse!)

But then I started to wonder if there was a place for factional activity, patrols, and/or other permanent states that operate in a local area (the dungeon). Or permanent events that impact during the shorter time frame the dungeon is played that are natural extensions of play and player choice? 

Let me explore this idea first before considering this “RAM” idea in light of the overloaded encounter die (i.e. “dungeon weather”) and faction turns which are two other popular ways of tracking change for dungeon campaigns. I will revamp the table above by adding another change in the dungeon (black) and adding a factional event in two places (gold):

EXPERT (RAM)DOM ENCOUNTER TABLE: Crypt of the Orc Hole Level 1

1. 1d6+2 Skeleton Orcs

2. 1d6 Zombie Grave Makers

3. 4 Hobgoblin Desecrators continue to loot crypts, increase #, & gain treasure:
   (_)+1, +150gp (_)+2, +300gp (_) +3, +600gp (_) leave Crypt

4. 2d8 Stirge Throat Lovers

5. 2d4 Robber Fly Defilers

6. Unstable Entrance in Rm #1 (_)(_)(collapse!)

7. Leaning Statue of Ishtar Rm #15 (_)(_)(falls! Bridge to Room #23)

8. 2d4 Kobold Sappers, mercenaries (_)(_)(_) creates additional hallways trap

Alright, so we have a more dynamic encounter table, but entries are a little ambiguous. Is the intent that a check-mark occurs AND an encounter in the case of factions (#3 & #8)? And does nothing happen on a roll of a dungeon event (#6 & #7)? Let’s move these events into the “Random Encounter Check” procedure in lieu of the precise “Random Encounter Table”. I don’t think you are really creating any more work for yourself and it is simple enough to have a column or sheet listing both. Rarely are random encounter tables so extensive they might preclude a modified check procedure. Here is our example reformatted a third time:

COMPANION (RAM)DOM ENCOUNTER TABLE: Crypt of the Orc Hole Level 1

Encounter Check

1. Encounter!

2. Spoor…

3. Hobgoblin Desecrators loot crypts: (_)+1, +150gp (_)+2, +300gp (_) +3, +600gp (_) leave Crypt

4. Kobold Sappers place additional hallway trap: (_)(_)(_)(_)Eat 3rd Breakfast in Room #7

5. Unstable Entrance in Rm #1 (_)(_)(collapse!)

6. Leaning Statue of Ishtar Rm #15 (_)(_)(falls! Bridge to Room #23)

Random Encounter Table

1. 1d6+2 Skeleton Orcs

2. 1d6 Zombie Grave Makers

3. 1d6 Hobgoblin Desecrators

4. 2d8 Stirge Throat Lovers

5. 2d4 Robber Fly Defilers

6. 1d6 Kobold Sappers

So how does this fit in the scene alongside of the overloaded encounter die, underclock, and overclock? In terms of the overloaded encounter die, the “COMPANION” table above quite similar, but the entries are endowed with “memory”. For instance, I could easily put “weather” events in there too: “SLIME BLOOMS: Green slime appears in the hallway outside the current room (_)(_)(_)”. For the overclock, there is a 6 x 6 grid that James uses to denote when a random encounter occurs, so one could easily place a mark for each faction or event in unused squares. Finally, in terms of the underclock, a “3” in this method causes a spoor or clue, similarly another number could be keyed to events so that when rolled or passed, a check is made on some event and the underclock ticks down.

What if I’m already using faction turns? Isn’t this the same thing? Faction turns are mostly an in-between session activity that is used to track campaign factions' operations on a world level. I view the mechanism here as more “faction actions”. Its a way to have different factions, here I mean relative to the dungeon and irrespective of the world, do things as the players are moving about. Returning to the central premise, it requires a memory of what the players are doing to employ effectively or generate real-time feed back. A more explicit example that could be added to the “COMPANION” table above could be: “* Special: Replace +2 with +4 to Skeleton Orcs if PC break 3 crypts open (_)(_)(_)”

In summary, I am not advocating here that designing the encounter tables with memory is superior to other methods of encounter table design, but more as an interesting alternative strategy. By endowing a table with memory I believe it can help increase the dynamism in a dungeon as well as provide feedback to players resulting from their actions inside the dungeon. This inturn helps create opportunity for more meaningful choices- the fuel for old-school play. As a reviewer pointed out, the method here provides an opportunity for story while other methods focus more on the “right now, in front of you”.

PRAISE THE DRAGON OF THE PIT: Building An Encounter On The Fly

The shrine as seen by the players

This past weekend I ran session 27th of Where Hell Comes to Prey, my home campaign set in Miranda Elkin's Nightwick Abbey. This "100-minute megadungeon" session centered on the party attempting to destroy a rumored profane shrine that had appeared in the Fog-bound Forest. I want to talk about building this encounter to cement this procedure in my head, but also because I think there is a paucity of posts demonstrating how to tie it all together when DMing. How does one use all the tips and tricks in concert like a conductor to create an adventure symphony? 

This post covers: (1) random events as a seed, (2A) variation on basic enemies, (2B) set piece and adding a "clock" to a challenge, and (3) shrine as NPC or how to extend utility beyond destroy this "bad thing".

1. RANDOM EVENTS AS A SEED: The Shrine

I've started using a regional events table as method of making the world breathe and walk independently of the players' actions. The big yearly event was "volcano" and for this month it resulted in changes in the Abbey as a new demon emerged (Session 26). For this month "shrine" was rolled.

Aside: At this point, the game is on in 20 minutes and I've gotten little done on the shrine portion after reviewing session 26, generating hirelings, writing down other rumors, and restocking.

Okay, so I've done shrines before, but I wanted not to make this one passive. Let's make it an active threat instead and connect it to the emerging new cult in Nightwick. So "shrine" has become "a shrine to the Dragon of the Pit" with the themes of never-ending hunger, fire, sacrifice, and domination. I wanted the shrine to represent the new cult's rapid reach to the outside world, especially with the still active volcano in the Nameless Mountains. What’s the connection between dragons and hell? From inplacesdeep:

The Infinite Layers of the Pit are made of the different chambers of the Dragon of Hell's infernal gut. Most chambers have their own individual lord of hell, with some chambers or even whole organs belonging to a great prince or president. The chambers tend to be themed, but beyond these broad strokes it is difficult to describe the Pit as it is the essence of chaos contained

2A. VARIATION ON BASIC ENEMIES 

To "active" in this case, means something that is a threat to the players versus a "passive" shrine which would just be offering a sacrifice and gaining a boon/bane. The easiest way to make a shrine "active" might simply be to have it surrounded by crazed cultists. Meh. The PCs certainly encountered that before. The players have seen that before. If there is not a cult to defend the shrine, why has it hung around? Why hasn't the local population of woodsmen not destroyed it yet. 

I decided that was because the shrine itself was alive and could defend itself with the bodies of its sacrificial victims.

Aside: By this time the game was already in motion. Players were starting to focus on the shrine instead of their previous attempt to infiltrate the Abbey and deal with an undead judge.

To make the shrine a "monster" I used a combination of three different previous posts covering reskinning, layering, and "punnett squares". Since the shrine's elements are charred skeletal sacrifices and fire, its easy enough to borrow from Nightwick's Blind Dead and Children of Stone.

The Blind Dead are an average of 5hp, damage as weapon (1d8), and have typical skeletal immunities from slashing and piercing. While the Children of Stone have an interesting breath weapon. Perfect, let's just smush these two together:

Shrine to the Dragon of the Pit: A profane totem carved in the shape of a phallic wurm sitting on top of a pyre and glowing with an internal fire that seemingly causes knots in the wood to blink and flare as if living eyes; around the base are chained 3 charred skeletal figures.

Shrine Sacrifices: Those sacrificed or who die in the presence of the shrine become its guardians; AC 12, HD 1+1, HP 5, Atk 1 breath of embers (15' cone), Dmg 1d6 save for half; Sacrifices must stay within 30ft of the shrine itself.

The shrine as seen by the players

When the party arrived at the shine itself. They spent a couple of turns investigating the shrine leading to the death of a hireling who was supposed to throw some holy water on it, but missed, awoke the shrine, and immediately got a face full of hot embers. But they learned something!

It was after this investigation turn, I decided that the guardians of the shrine were contained to a 30ft radius area around the shrine. Why? (1) Because I didn't want it to feel like a zombie spawn point. And I wanted to potentially be able to convert the shrine into a usable location should PC perhaps want to align with the shrine or use it for some purpose. (2) Related to this is that "Hell Always Wants to Make a Deal" and so has to be present to do so. If the shrine becomes too regionally aggressive it certainly is a target for attack and destruction. We have a set piece with a radius. 

Why don't the players just stand right outside the range and plink away at it? It's a good strategy and exactly what my players decided to do, however, they were slightly under-prepared and tried to throw rocks and use slings to destroy the skeletons. If given infinite time this would be successful. But that is boring.

The coursing fire inside the shrine flares tearing the top off in a gout of flame and smoke, in your ash-stung eyes, visions of thundering hooves of skeletal horses appear, but as you frantically clear your vision no sign of the corpse cavalier appears- yet...

So, I decided to add a "clock" to this encounter. Why? Entering into steady-state situations where success is possible if the party only waits long enough is boring. It is not what characterizes good adventure to me which is more composed of cunning plans, stunning victories, and harrowing escapes. 

The visions of the dire horseman presented a gamble to the players: can your "safe" plan work quick enough before this horseman arrives? The players' answer was "hell no" and they bounced after destroying a few skeletons of risen companions.

3 SHRINE AS NPC OR EXTENDING UTILITY BEYOND DESTROYING THIS "BAD THING"

At one point, the players decided to use an extra PC to try and talk with the shrine. Unfortunately, this PC was killed by the shrine because they had not come with an offering and the 2d6 reaction roll was quite poor. However, this action did make me thing about what is the shrine giving to the people that built it.

I needed a "give" to help the shrine become more like an NPC. Why? If the shrine can be fought, talked to, and plays a continuing role in the region when left alone turns an encounter thrown together in ~20 mins into a potentially long-lived piece of worldbuilding. That is a fantastic creative economy. And its creates a dimensionality to the “thing” and enhances its believability because it doesn’t or no longer exists simply as a PC obstacle. Multidimensional existence is important for creating a realistic, fantastical world instead of a colorful video game setting.

The Give: On first offering, gain 1 "sin" (takes up 1 equipment slot)

• Daily Prayer: Hot Temper as Resist Cold
• Silver Offering (200sp): Eye of Avarice as Locate Object
• Flesh Offering (1 heart): Stomach of Fire as Magic Missle  

So there you have it. How I threw together a set piece encounter in ~20 minutes using existing stat blocks that has expanded to become a notable piece of world-building that ties back to the setting and factions.

KNOCK! Vol. 1: A compendium opening the door on the best of old-school thought

 

KNOCK! Vol.1 from The Merry Mushmen

Is KNOCK! the best RPG thing of 2021? Could very well be. Do you need it? Yes! Its worth 100% of the money. This is a collection of blog posts, writings, and "bric-a-brac" from the old-school scene helpfully bound into an analog print format. Here is Questing Beast's video on the book. And here is Chris McDowell's review.

I agree with both Ben and Chris that, like the hip-hop beats used to promote the Kickstarter, KNOCK! conveys the scrappy-to-slightly-feral, easy, free-flowing, imaginative nature of running an old school DIY game. This is important because frequently the scene gets dragged for its various drama rather than the exciting content and sound advice it produces; this book wonderfully showcases both strengths.

The additional beauty of this collection is that, like the 1e AD&D DMG, it meanders across so many topics: monsters, treasure, traps, player classes, theory behind play, and interrogative thought on older modules. Randomly roll a d200 and you are going to land on an interesting, informative article.

In fact, it is so complete in covering all the topics you need to run a fantasy adventure game, that if KNOCK! had included Knave in a two page spread, this collection would have been a complete RPG!

However, what I can say with most certainty is that you can build, stock, and run a really good dungeon designed with the most current old-school thought on the matter using KNOCK!

The basic advice in Moldvey Basic D&D is to draw a map, place special monsters and treasure first (so the items the dungeon is known for or weapon its rumored to have guarded by the monster rumored to have killed the last chump), then stock using the table below:

Its confusing, but the chance a room has treasure is:
50% if contining a monster, 33% if a trap, & 16% if empty

This gets you going, but how do you make all the above "good"? What is a "good dungeon" anyways? Well, answers to these questions are exactly the sorts of articles that comprise KNOCK! Let me demonstrate:

Dungeon Design

030: Dungeon Check List- 8 things that make dungeons more interesting; allows self-grading
054: OSR-style Challenges- The nature of what you are trying to achieve in old-school design
082: The Overly Thematic Dungeon- How to balance the fantastical with the realistic
112: Livin' Up Those Corridors- Hallways are an interesting places to explore too

Monster Design

016: Monster Design- Using the Lich as a template, how to switch up classic monsters
039: Wandering Monsters- Those 1d6 skeletons can be used to tell the dungeon's story or spark interest
086: Dungeon Geniuses- You always need "special" NPCs to fight, talk to, or bribe or all 3!
140: Complete the Dungeon- Great faction table with goals and secrets
144: Just Use Bears- Want a special monster but agonize over the stats? Just use bear stats.

Neat Traps & Special Not-Traps

080: 8 Statue Encounters- Part of the Dungeon Check List is stuff to interact with-- here's eight.
113: 34 Good Traps- "Save or die" can frustrate players, here's how to keep traps exciting but fair

Good Treasure

089: Better Treasure- "Sword +1 and 500 gp" is not doing it in 2021, here's how to spice it up.
104: D20 Magic Helmets- Switch out all "Sword +1" with these instead; armor- criminally underutilized
116: 300 Useless Magic Items- Dead wizard in a (now more exciting) hallway? Check her pockets.
133: 12 Magic Blades- Better than "Sword +2" & you gotta have your dungeon geniuses packin'

And that's not even half the damn book! I've left out articles on player classes, monsters, dueling, essays about the Keep on the Borderlands, how to create impact in your game, make the stakes matter, a series of beautiful maps, the demon generator, and the 3-4 small adventures!

I hope this series gets at least 6 issues so we can create an omnibus that is all d6 tables. The production is sharp; art beautiful; advice sound; and a great way to fossilize the scene output as digital media preservation becomes unreliable.

"KITCHEN SINK" RANDOM TABLES: Provide everything but context & description

Last time I wrote about the overloaded encounter die (OED) and "dungeon weather". Another reason I like the OED is that once a DM completely fleshes it out, you have a pretty good description of your adventure. Of course one of the biggest parts of the OED is the "Encounter!" result on a 1.

But as Delta points out in his very excellent post, the "random" in random encounter should mean "procedurally generated" and not "whatever". Delta outlines the mistake Gygax made in expanding the random encounter table from a terse 8-10 entries based on what you'd find in Greyhawk Castle in OD&D to every monster in the book in AD&D.

This is a problem because as Delta puts it:

The fundamental problem here is that the random monster tables have become disconnected from any specific adventuring environment, such as Castle Greyhawk. Rather, the tables' primary function has become an encyclopedic index to list every monster in the game (and also indicate their power level). Encountering a particular monster from these tables likely tells you nothing about the ecosystem around you; there's no reason to think an associated lair exists, and chances are basically negligible that you'll ever meet the same type a second time (so no preparation or strategic response will help you). If you were adventuring with these tables in use for wandering monsters, actually, yeah -- there would seem to be no rhyme nor reason to what was happening. 

I think understated by Delta is that: players no longer can use the knowledge gained from random encounters to learn about the environment, meditate risk, and plan optimal future incursions. It's just all risk- boring, potentially punishing, and unfun.

Let's make a random encounter table. Are 6-10 entries too small? I think no. Because once you throw in encounter reaction checks, morale rolls, and objectives other than kill everything, then you have a lot of variety. Let try an example:

I want to create a random encounter table for the bailey of The Black Keep. So levels 1-2. In my head, I picture it in a "vanilla" D&D setting as a gathering place for evil forces of Chaos. But let us see if we can keep it human-centric and limit it to 8"monsters" as per the original OD&D tables. Eight also lets us roll a 1d8 or 2d4 (but 7 entries).

Here is what the BX encounter table gets us:

So... yes to 1-3, but 4-8 I will remove because they are fairly standard. Keep 9, 11, & 16. Stirge is good but used a lot. Finally 20... naw, let's substitute with 13 because giant shrews are weird (and actually have a lot of cool abilities). So that gives us a total of 7- great 2d4 it is.

2 |  Acolyte           Lead by a cleric of higher level

3 | Bandit              Trickery

4 | Fire beetle        Underground, bite 2d4

5 | Killer bee         Poison, fly

6 | Giant Gecko    Cling

7 | Crab Spider      Poison, cling

8 | Giant Shrew    A bunch of things

The table needs to be re-ordered, but two groups brought together in The Black Keep bailey. One is insect cultists (Acolyte, beetle, bee, spider) and the other group is sorta bandit sappers who use giant shrews like war dogs? Maybe the gecko is odd man out or could be ridden by the leader of the bandits. With a little re-skinning, the shrews could become something else: "dwarven wolves".

But the point is now the encounters of the Keep have more focus because of this distillation.

DUNGEON WEATHER: For your overloaded encounter die

DiTerlizzi 

 

I really love the "overloaded encounter die" mechanic described by Necropraxis. 

When the party moves into a new area or spends time on an exploration activity, roll the encounter die and interpret the results as follows.

1. Encounter
2. Percept (clue, spoor)
3. Locality (context-dependent timer)
4. Exhaustion (rest or take penalties)
5. Lantern
6. Torch

In particular, I think the entry for "Locality" (if used in the outdoors "weather") is a great way to further add personality to a dungeon. But what would typical "vanilla D&D dungeon weather" be?

I say "vanilla" because I guess it helps me think about what are the typical environmental changes I would want in a dungeon and what are typical dungeon PC actions complicated by this change (or helping; after all some days are sunny). It also reinforces the idea of the mythic underworld; the dungeon as a being unto itself. Here is my list:

DUNGEON WEATHER (d10)

1 | SLAM! All doors slam shut; 3-in-6 if staked; all doors now a flat 1-in-6 to open
2 | FOG: A gray fog rises from the floor, ankle to knee height, obscuring the ground; -1 to detect traps
3 | SLIME BLOOMS: Green slime oozes from the ceiling on all hallways leading from the current room
4 | DUNGEON RIME: Armor ages unnaturally; -1 AC to non-magical armor & shields
5 | DARKNESS EXPANDS: All light operates at 1/2 strength
6 | SHADOW of DEATH: -1 to all Save rolls
7 | SPONTANEOUS GENERATION: Each PC roll d10; 5+ rations are spoiled by maggots
8 | ALTERED PERCEPTION: Secret doors +1 to locate
9 | EUPHORIC SPOOR RELEASE: +1 to all rxn encounter checks; divination/illusion spells enhanced
0 | TOO STILL: Dungeon weather effect ends

Of course, if your dungeon has a strong theme, I think it better to tailor the above list to fit the aesthetics.

OBJECTIVES FOR COMBAT BEYOND "KILL EVERYONE"

Into The Breach

D&D Combat Objectives

Into The Breach continues to influence how I think D&D combat should be run. Its because in addition to varried terrain, Into The Breach uses a limited set of turns and variable objectives: Kill X, Guard Y, Hold Z, Destroy A, Don’t take B total damage. This makes each round section of combat a short tactical puzzle. Your “party” in this game consists of 3 mechs with limited movement, HP, and 1-2 attacks that do damage, push/pull enemies, freeze them, set them on fire etc.

Often D&D combat can devolve into a sluggish exchange of blows between sides with the only objective being to kill one side. This is often unrealistic- most people don’t want to die and really only the most zealous will fight to the death.

B/X provides tools to help a DM guard against this outcome by employing three checks: Suprise (2-in-6), Encounter Reaction (2d6), and the Morale Check(2d6).

Another tool to add would be eliminating “kill everyone” as the default objective to combat once its determined the encounter is hostile and involves conflict. Here is my stab at such a thing:

INTELLIGENT CREATURES (Goblins & Gnolls, Orcs & Ogres)
01 | Grab the gold/valuables
02 | Capture the caster & spellbook
03 | Sacrifice the cleric in the name of foul gods.
04 | Hit & Run! Reduce 1+ PCs to 50% HP then withdraw
05 | Loot the party for supply and equipment packs
06 | Push the PCs out of the room/area/bridge; then guard it
07 | Capture the animals/NPCs/Hirelings
08 | Hold position until more dangerous reinforcement arrives.

INSTINCTUAL CREATURES (Animals, Beasts, Basilisks & Hydras)
01 | Attack the nearest NPC/pack animal-- drag into the underbrush
02 | Attack the weakest/smallest PC-- drag into the underbrush
03 | Hold a specific territory
04 | Bloody the largest PC in a territorial display
05 | Fight until hit with magic
06 | Ravage backpacks for food
07 | Hit & Run-- next three encounters will be with this creature
08 | Territorial display, but will yield ground quickly

UNINTELLIGENT CREATURES (Oozes, Constructs, (Most) Plants)
01 | Attack nearest PC
02 | Consumes one PC then goes dormant or leaves
03 | Probe each PC looking for X: gold, nectar, metal, stolen jewels
04 | Attacks until PCs issue a command or says “stop” in creature language
05 | Moves to inconveniently occupy a space the PCs want to move to/through
06 | Covers or grows around an object of significance for reasons unknown
07 | Attracted to PC with specific color/sound/smell/taste/astral aura
08 | Attack those who stole something

CREATING CONTROL PANELS

Great post and fantastic template for creating your own control panels- or a single landscape sheet spread of information to be used at the table.

https://blog.thesconesalone.com/2019/01/referee-control-panels-for-red-pleasant.html

AS OPPOSED TO THOSE FOUND IN FANTASY, SPIDERS IN REALITY ARE QUITE WEIRD

Here is a nice post from Ars Magisterii on all the weird ways IRL spiders capture prey. Given that giant spiders are a (particularly low level) staple of D&D games with skeletons, goblins, orc, and traps, it's always helpful to have ways to freshen them up.

I especially like trapdoor spiders because its a nice way to combine pit traps and giant spiders.

PUNNETT SQUARE OF CREATURE COMBAT

Influenced by Darkest Dungeon & Into The Breach, here is a way to remind myself to mix in melee and ranged units with intelligent antagonists. I think there are really four basic components: Melee, Ranged, Damage, Effect. This gives four combinations:
Melee X Damage; Ranged X Damage; Melee X Effect; Ranged X Effect.

Thinking of the Beastmen in my Thracia campaign and keeping it simple:
Ax-1d6 dmg; Bow-1d6 dmg; Ram!-Push 1d4 x 5'; Caustic Spit- 1 dmg; blinded 1d4 rounds.