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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
    
 | | 04/17/2006 1:28 PM |
| | Could some please point me in the direction where I can find some printable lists for wandering monsters in different terrains and random encounters? | |
Champion of Flint Fireforge
Knight of The DarkMantle
KoK: The Easily Swayed
"I use to have a working probelm, until it got in the way of my gaming." | |
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Luisjoey
Underboss
1704 Posts
Caracas Venezuela
| | 04/20/2006 8:04 AM |
| well many setting books comes with one list, like sandstorm and frostburn, i guess monster manual have them i´m not sure.
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Knight of the Quori
Champion of King Kaius III of Karrnath
 Purple Knight of Venezuela
Venezuelan Site For D&D minis Calabozo Criollo Venezuela
Venezuelan Site for SW minis VeneMinis.com | |
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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
| | 04/20/2006 8:59 AM |
| | Thanks. I think I have came up with a better way its just time consuming and I was trying to go for no time consumption. | |
Champion of Flint Fireforge
Knight of The DarkMantle
KoK: The Easily Swayed
"I use to have a working probelm, until it got in the way of my gaming." | |
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Cosworth
Warrior
215 Posts
| | 04/21/2006 3:47 AM |
| I've been searching for the same thing with no luck. You can get a long way with "The mother of all encounter tables" (google for it), but it doesn't cover WotC beyond the SRD critters.
Let me know if you find anything useful. It would be nice to supply my DM with say a:
"Random encounter table for a desert, matching a level 5 party and only containing monsters for which there are miniatures available."
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Sorry Maxminis - find me at Hordelings from sep. 14 2006 | |
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proudft
Sneak
109 Posts
| | 04/21/2006 3:58 AM |
| The sample tables in the DMs guide, the page-long d100 ones, are fine and all, but they take forever to make yourself (and the old d8+d12 ones had the same problem, to a lesser extent).
Something easier and fairly fast is to just make a short list of the monsters for the area, covering the common categories:
- one harmless but interesting animal-type thing (for the druids/rangers to fawn over)
- one local predator that eats the harmless animal
- one humanoid band of whatever type is in the area
- one or two weird monsters or undead
- maybe one iconic D&D thing (trolls or whatever)
- two or so encounters related to the plot of the adventure
That's about 10 or so things, roll a d10 when needed (or just pick) and you're set.
The sad part about random encounter charts (and I'm speaking as someone who has made huge, elaborate encounter tables for many years) is that (A) 90% of the stuff on the big table never appears in-game and (B) your fancy table becomes level-inappropriate very quickly as the party gains experience.
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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
| | 04/21/2006 9:07 AM |
| | Yeah I took all that in to acct. So what I'm doing is make sta cards for each monster seperated by CR's. Then make a table for each by terrain. As they battle one, I take it out and replace later. Like I sadi time consuming, but thats part of being a dm I guess. | |
Champion of Flint Fireforge
Knight of The DarkMantle
KoK: The Easily Swayed
"I use to have a working probelm, until it got in the way of my gaming." | |
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wildmage
Sneak
123 Posts
| | 04/21/2006 10:30 AM |
| | I'm all about having a short list of pre-gen encounters, then rolling on the short list. Optimally this involves ~10 possible encounters (the d10 idea given above, d8 or d12 would be fine too, d20 if you want extra work) for each different terrain type, with CRs from about +/- 2 compared to your party's level. Then I use sandwich-sized ziplock bags to separate out the appropriate miniatures for each encounter. I also have a series of sheets printed off with each creature's stats for an encounter (1 sheet per encounter- the ddm stat cards would work too). Each encounter is given a name, then the names are listed on a sheet of paper for rolling purposes during the game. The ziplocked miniatures are kept in a container within easy reach during the game. Need an encoutner? Roll (or pick), grab the appropriate ziplock, have the PC's roll spot/listen checks, determine surprise, roll iniative, place miniatures, and commence battle- quick and efficient. | |
Champion of the Bone Naga
(There's just so much roleplaying to be done with a large skeletal snake!) | |
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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
| | 04/22/2006 9:29 AM |
| | Yeah that basically was what I came up with. The ziplock idea is really good it would save time during game. Thanks for the advice. | |
Champion of Flint Fireforge
Knight of The DarkMantle
KoK: The Easily Swayed
"I use to have a working probelm, until it got in the way of my gaming." | |
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kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 04/22/2006 11:01 AM |
| Well, I wanted to become more familiar with the Monster Manuals, and took the opportunity to make some random encounter tables. I just went through the books, and decided whether monsters were "interesting," "lame," "inappropriate for my campaign," and "capable of killing the party in one round." I then took all of the "interesting" monsters and then divided them up by terrain type, making adjustments as I saw fit. I think it not only helped me get some tables together, it also helped me become more familiar with the monsters as a DM. It wasn't that hard, once I got rolling.
Now how do I use them? Well, if I know that the party will be going on a long trip, I decide approxmately how many hours that's going to take. Then, to prep for the session, I roll encounters ahead of time, and set them up. If encounters occur one on top of the other, I sometimes try to see ways to combine them.
For example: once I rolled three random encounters in four hours. The results came up: hobgoblin, gauth, bugbear. So I created a scenario where a group of hobgoblins and bugbears (and I threw in a goblin wizard for grins) are being employed by a gauth as guards. The gauth and the wizard are doing magical research on a particular herb that grows in that area. The players stumbled into their territory on their journey, and so they were attacked a couple of times during the night, and the next day tracked them back to their lair. The players really enjoyed the encounter. I was even able to tie that encounter to *another* encounter with some Mountain Orcs that I had rolled up on the tables as well -- the orcs had had some altercations with the better-equipped goblinoids, and the party actually found themselves fighting *with* the orcs.
With enough prep, you can weave some nice stories out of a bunch of die rolls.
I usually don't bother with random encounters in dungeons. My guys aren't terribly stealthy, and so usually have the whole complex stirred up in pretty short order. [:D]
Wolfsbane, if you'd like to look at my tables, I could e-mail them to you.
JIM
aka kyrin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
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kyrin
Commander
3171 Posts
| | 04/22/2006 11:05 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by proudft
The sad part about random encounter charts (and I'm speaking as someone who has made huge, elaborate encounter tables for many years) is that (A) 90% of the stuff on the big table never appears in-game and (B) your fancy table becomes level-inappropriate very quickly as the party gains experience.
That's not as much of a problem as it was in earlier editions. Goblins can have levels, for example, and can make for a paradigm-shifting encounter. And all beasties can be advanced to some degree. This has limits, naturally, but you have a little more versatility in 3rd-ed.
Now having said that, it is probably time for me to re-visit my encounter tables now that my party is getting to double-digit levels. Include a few of the "will slaughter the party" monsters I left out before... [}:)]
JIM
aka kyrin | |
My Have/Want List <-|-|->My Trades and References 1 <-|-|->My Trades and References 2
Pronounce "Drow" like "crow"! Viva la Revolution! We Shall Overcome!
Vindicated Champion of the Stirge! Vindicated Champion of the Githyanki Knight on Red Dragon!!
Vindicated Champion of the Androsphinx! | |
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wolfsbane114
Warrior
327 Posts
| | 04/22/2006 3:07 PM |
| quote:
Wolfsbane, if you'd like to look at my tables, I could e-mail them to you.
I would appreciate it. I'm starting a new campaign in about a month. So I have started prepping now. I have the villianous handbook and used it to create their main opponent. So now I'm working on some random encounters so its not so boring between point A and point B.
I wanted to say thanks to everyone for their great ideas. They have been very useful. | |
Champion of Flint Fireforge
Knight of The DarkMantle
KoK: The Easily Swayed
"I use to have a working probelm, until it got in the way of my gaming." | |
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