Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Let me see if I got this down:

1. On the third turn and rolling 1d6 for a chance encounter, I roll a one?

2. Then roll 1d6,1d12,or whatever the adventures calls for to determine what type of monster?

3. roll to see how many monsters?

4. choose what HP they should have?

I think my last steps are wrong but I don't know.

I seldom do truly random encounters on the spot. Usually I will have a table or series of predetermined random encounters ready to go (meaning I have their stats and numbers already determined)... I just need to figure out when/where these make appearances via the 'wandering monster check'.

This helps when you want things to be a tad more logical. Deep into a Hobgoblin lair after slogging through room after room of guards, shamans, and sub-chiefs, to have a wandering group of treants randomly walk by might be wacky. It could work with enough innovative thought, but sometimes my brain won't put it all together quite so efficiently at the table.

if you build your own dungeon/campaign or even with a ready made one you can set how many of each wandering monster is in the place. Then you roll to see what creature shows up and how many in this random encounter. If the party kills them you subtract them from the total. If they escape they go back on the shelf to be used again. They are also useful when the party decides to do something you weren't prepared for. Instead of working up sopmething new, just grab something off your encounter chart.

Wandering treeants in a hobgoblin lair.. thats D&D!

I like the way its done in most of the BFRPG modules. The stats are done, you roll a quick set of dice to determine how many there are in the encounter and away you go. Most PDF readers come with markup tools so once I am done using a creature I put a line through it. If I do trigger a random encounter I'll quickly look at where the party is and place the monsters accordingly.. are they going back through a room they've already been through? Thats going to be a good spot. I say just have fun with it.

You have the rules, such as they are, down pat. Your procedure has no flaws in it. But:

When rolling a random encounter, you have full control over the situation. You do not have to roll at all. You can choose what monsters are encountered without rolling, or roll again if you don't like the first roll. Likewise, you can choose how many monsters appear, and even choose their hit points if you wish.

After generating the encounter, you should decide how it happens. Surprise rolls will tell you who knows who is around. You SHOULD roll surprise for the players (they should not be automatically surprised) but you may choose not to roll for the monsters. Perhaps the player characters have been very loud, so you decide the monsters will not be surprised. Perhaps the monsters are napping. Perhaps the monsters are stalking the party!

You are running the game. You make the decisions. If you roll dice, it's because you decided to do so.

Solomoriah wrote:You are running the game. You make the decisions. If you roll dice, it's because you decided to do so.

I love this quote.

Solo.. I've had some fun with Wandering Monsters in your Iron Fortress module. I decided that while they held the jewel I would do monsters on 1-2 on a d6.