Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

The 3rd Edition Wandering Monster tables don't provide:

1) Wilderness encounters that are level-appropriate, that is, level 1 adventurers can come across vampires that, unless the players are very canny, will easily consume the entire party.
2) Region-appropriate dungeon encounters, so swamp denizens appear alongside desert dwellers.

Hence, I thought I'd start some expanded encounter tables that are region-appropriate and provide increasing levels of challenge.

Attached is the very much in-progress initial version for comment.

First region (Deserts and Badlands) is complete.
Grasslands are next.

OP updated with completed tables for desert encounters.

Would you be able to upload a PDF as well? I often use a phone/tablet to read things here, and it's a lot easier if it's a PDF.

I like what I've seen so far. I think I have a table of monsters by HD somewhere if That would make this easier for you.

PDF uploaded.

I looked at using HD (from Mike Roop's creature list) but certain monsters have abilities that are more challenging than HD would indicate; for example, Rust Monsters are a right pain to deal with but have few HD. I don't think I can escape flicking back and forth through the rulebook.

Just FYI, the wilderness encounters don't have level breakdowns by design. Monsters in the wilderness don't sort themselves out by challenge rating... they live where they like.

I noticed this in the original game, and it's also completely missing from Mutant Future (ie it offers no guidance on how to match the PCs against creatures in combat).

Wilderness wandering monsters live where they like; for this reason, levels aren't taken into account. There is a sort-of pseudo-justification for levels in a dungeon (the tougher they are, the deeper they hide) but no such rule applies in the wilderness.

I can imagine a TOUGHER wilderness, though...

Solomoriah wrote:Just FYI, the wilderness encounters don't have level breakdowns by design. Monsters in the wilderness don't sort themselves out by challenge rating... they live where they like.

This does make sense. From an old-school perspective and for dungeon-delving-focussed adventures these tables are definitely overkill.

I tend to run games with a lot of outdoor time and like to think of areas around the origin town being pretty safe compared to those the adventurers will reach as they travel on their adventures. So for me, being able to quickly generate an appropriate random encounter is pretty useful.

It's also handy if you use something like Mythic GME, or fold in elements of Dungeon World, where you don't start out with a specific quest but bring things together as you go.

jonathon wrote:I tend to run games with a lot of outdoor time and like to think of areas around the origin town being pretty safe compared to those the adventurers will reach as they travel on their adventures. So for me, being able to quickly generate an appropriate random encounter is pretty useful.

An excellent rationale. It's always better to have custom encounter tables for a campaign area rather than "one size fits all" versions; what's given in the Core Rules is meant for those who don't have a deeper background to work with.

Or who are just lazy, like me.

I just wanted to say thanks for making this! It's super helpful, and lots of years later. Right on for doing rad acts of awesomeness!