During my last session, the party encountered a 12-headed hydra while walking along the Bandit Pass within the Outlaw Forest. While this encounter was pretty cool (and very scary) it felt kind of off to me. I admit that there is something really cool about being able to randomly stumble upon a hydra while walking along a road but at the same, I don't think it's exactly what I want out of my wilderness encounter tables.
I've seen a few videos and read a few posts about creating dynamic encounter tables using two, or sometimes more, columns. The general idea is to have one column for NPCs and another for actions. You then roll twice on the 1st column and once on the 2nd and you end up getting results like "orcs enslaving pilgrims" and "mercenaries fighting berserkers."
What I'm thinking of doing is implementing these kind of dynamic encounter tables specifically for "civilized" regions and along roads, trails, etc. Civilized regions are anywhere that is only a couple of hexes away from a settlement. This is because these settlements will likely have patrols that help keep the surrounding area relatively clear of monsters. If we go by OD&D, it says that "Territory up to 20 miles distant from a stronghold may be kept clear of monsters once cleared - the inhabitation of the stronghold being considered as sufficient to maintain the monster-free status." This ends up working out to a range of 3 hexes away from the stronghold since I'm using 6 mile hexes.
I know this isn't anything new or revolutionary but I think it will greatly improve my game and make the world feel a little less random while still allowing for those menacing encounters where the party stumbles upon a dragon or something.
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| I think this should work fine for now. |
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