We need more advanced random encounter tables. And by more advanced, I mean more suited to telling the kinds of stories we want to play, not the kind with modifiers based on current rainfall. There is not much to work with, as the mechanic has seen little use for rarely-discussed reasons (much like reaction rolls), so our starting point is much more primitive than with other rules design.
Random Encounters are a major facet of the old-style hex crawl and dungeon crawl. The idea is that when travelling, there exists a chance of triggering an encounter. More often than not, this means a fight scene likened to those random fights in CRPGs that use the world map. They are occasionally still seen in gaming products to this day, unceremoniously slapped in the back, rarely much else spoken of them.
Reaction Rolls are an old mechanic, used in place of many social systems, but are primarily seen in OD&D rules. The rundown is that just before rolling initiative, you would decide what how the NPC or monster would feel about the party. Whether they be hostile, neutral, or welcome to join in making friendship bracelets, would be decided on a random roll. Originally, it would be slightly influenced by the Charisma of one or more members of the party, but there are obviously more complex variations on this mechanic.
Both are signs of an older era, and both have been wordlessly dropped from the scene. Many other mechanics have been dropped from the old days, but their exclusion came with much discussion. THAC0 is one of the more infamous examples of a game rule whose removal had discussions (largely in favour).
As they're not built into the rules anymore, asking someone why they don't use reaction rolls is akin to asking a Texan why they don't put tomatoes in their clam chowder. They probably haven't even heard of the practice, and there's an inherent inertia to changing how things function. For those rare few that are versed in the rule sufficiently to have an opinion, they use the same arguments as you hear surrounding the Diplomacy skill; superiority of GM advocacy, role-vs-roll, unbiased decision-making, etc.
Random Encounters don't see this kind of debate. They're in the corner, used by some, unused by many outside of deciding what the party will fight today (making the process simpler by just opening your monster book to a random page and rolling initiative). The arguments for and against, I suspect, follow a similar pattern to that of Diplomacy. DMs feel more confident in their ability to tell a story, and feel they are hampered by such arbitrary dice, and might as well play a boardgame if the human element is removed.
What's important here is that random encounters shouldn't be seen as a crutch, but a tool. The position of DM carries the danger of bias and favoritism. This is a subtle danger. Even if you manage to not play favorites, your impressions and reactions to PC behavior are going to be the same from NPC to NPC. I'm not saying it's impossible, but actors face a similar hurdle and the best ones take lessons and practice for years in doing only that, while the role of DM is one of unguided discovery amid a sea of other roles. Much like the other rules of the game are used rather than just throwing it all to the wind for Cops & Robbers, an encounter table properly designed, serves to enhance the game.
Relevant Links
The Alexandrian's Game Structures
Online Encounter Generator
Improving Random Encounters
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session IX
This is basically a mini-session, as Pat was still coming down from bronchitis, Larry (armiger) was visiting family for spring break, and Mary didn't wake up until 3pm and we figured there wasn't enough time to run a proper session. In our boredom, we ran a two hour deal for Adam and Jon, since they actually had the decency to show up.
Finally suiting up for departure, Ino came to them in adult form, telling them to be careful on their trek and acting generally worried. Just as they crossed the barrier at the 5-mile mark, the land changed into something otherworldly. The sky was engulfed in clouds, the mountain range expanded to cover the entire horizon, and the landscape itself sprouted the corpses of angels and other extraplanar entities. They were overcome with a sense of regret and sorrow on a supernatural level. Off in the distance, they could see a copse of crystal towers that seemed to be a castle, surrounded by a large and lush garden.
Jon recognized this to be Cornoust, the legendary realm where the supernatural minions of Law go when they die. From what they could tell, Oog-suer (the beholder villain they defeated) kept the town he controlled between planes as the primary means in which to keep others from remembering it; but his death caused it to land in an uncontrolled manner, and was thrown to a random realm.
Deciding to travel to the castle, they were greeted by an angelic minion of Law. She claimed to desire to help them return the town to its rightful plane, and spoke of a deceased minion by the name of The Mender, who wielded a sword that could repair the planar tear. Since she was a minion of Law, she could not speak with him, but the party could. The Mender would likely be near the castle, assuming the urge to pass on hadn't overtaken him.
Jon recognized a hidden accent, only possessed by minions of Chaos, but kept quiet (for the most part) until she was gone. Deciding that it was the only lead they had, they took her advice anyway and began to travel. They were interrupted by a naga-like minion of chaos out of the blue, but took her down swiftly.
Eventually, they came upon a band of humans that were sifting through the wreckage of broken weapons amidst the piles of corpses. Cautiously, they hailed them and discovered they were scavengers, seeking powerful weapons that could sold to prospective clients. Not wanting to speak much in the open, the band began lead the party to a safer area, but Adam noticed an oddity.
In an attempt to point it out, he shot an arrow into the odd collection of armor he saw, causing it to stir and rise to reveal a 14' wide demonic spider and zombie-like minions. After a fierce battle, where Jon barely managed to strike down the creature before it took down Adam, they showed sufficient prowess and trustworthiness for the scavengers to bring them to their camp closer to the Mountains of Grief.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Pony Day
While I like Twilight Sparkle more, it's hard not to love Pinkie Pie in her chicken costume for Nightmare Night.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session VIII
We had a guest player today, Larry. He will be playing an Armiger, a veritable tank (down to the taunt), made all the tougher once we got this one rule figured out properly (for those that know what this means, AC 31).
Character summary: Background will be in the session summary. He himself is a former captain of the guard for his home village, and does his best to protect all around him. He also has quite the singing voice, along with a talent for comedy, which is used heavily to taunt the opposition into wasting their attacks on him. His fighting style is to outlast his opponents through a long and painful grind against two spike-covered shields that deflect even the mightiest of blows.
We also took a break at about 8pm to go watch a movie, then played until 1AM.
As the party travelled towards the northeast, Adam noticed that they were moving parallel to the remains of a road, which was expertly broken and scattered to only seem like it was disused for decades. This was curious, as both he and the arcanist knew of no city that existed in this direction for a road to be bothered to be built.
As they got closer, the air shimmered, and suddenly the peak of the nearest mountain of the range erupted in flame with an eye seeming to open out of it. There lay a half-abandoned mining town at the base of the mountain, with armed troops patrolling, and giant floating eyes scouting the perimeter of the town.
They also noticed a shack about five miles from the town, behind a hill and hidden amongst the plant growth. Sneaking closer, they find a lone warrior clad in heavy armor, bristling with spikes and sharpening his javelin. After a bit of uneasy parlay, they discover that this town is called Zorcin, a mining town that unearthed semiprecious stones and does basic metalwork of a notable style.
Upon hearing the name, they suddenly remember about this town and its trade with the crossroads back to the southwest. The stranger tells them that the entire land is enchanted so that none remember the town and its contents if outside the light of the eye atop the mountain. He then continued on and told them his tale.
Several months ago, a Pan Tangian arcanist came to down with demons under his power, slaughtering man and woman alike if they stood in his way as he entered the cavern complex. The arcanist himself had but a single eye, and wore a large hood. The demons bore many arms and wielded their bows with inhuman strength and accuracy. None dared to enter the mining area to try and save the kidnapped women until the next day, when suddenly he and three gorgons emerged, petrifying large portions of the town. None were able to halt his takeover, and a burning eye was erected shortly thereafter, eliminating all hope for salvation.
The captain of the guard, along with a few other fighters, managed to escape and gradually attempted to mount resistance against Oog-Suer (the cyclopian arcanist). Every attempt failed, losing more and more men with each attempt to the stare of the medusa or the shaft of the demon's arrows, or even the dark magicks of Oog-Suer himself. His head had slowly grown too large for a hood to cover, and his body withered and shriveled, until his head was four feet across and the body was a vestigial flap of flesh on the back as he floated about.
This was to be his last attempt at assaulting the town, when the party arrived and said they would in taking him down. They asked if there were any other entranced into the mines besides the front entrance, so that they could skip the guarded town and strike Oog-Suer alone. There were several sinkholes, but the armiger did not know the precise way of the tunnels of the mines and could not guide them himself.
The arcanist disguised the armiger and executioner as demons and they snuck into the town to find one of the enslaved miners to rescue and use as a guide into the mines themselves. However, the armiger got too long a glimpse of one of the gorgons and succumbed to her gaze, breaking their cover before even getting a prisoner out of chains.
Moving swiftly, the executioner killed the meduse where she stood and before the demon could even react. A floating eye moved overhead and unleashed a ray upon him, but was resisted, unlike the hail of arrows from the demon. The rest of the party, watching from afar (with the archer's recently purchased spyglass), saw that the cover was blown and began to charge in to rescue them.
To make a long story short, the party ended up hiding inside one of the buildings and barricading the doors. The demon was too powerful for them with its veritable hail of deadly arrows. They waited for what seemed forever as they bandaged themselves and waited for the inevitable assault.
Meanwhile, the armiger's petrified form was dragged into the mountain to the presence of Oog-Suer, who taunted him for his failure. He magically releashed him from his petrified state, removed his eye & stored it in a pendant. Strangely, the armiger was able to see out of his eye socket before an eye patch was applied and noticed that Oog-Suer was missing an eye in one of his eye stalks. Later, he would have the party check on him, and all they could see was an empty eye socket. The room was then enveloped in darkness and the armiger was wrapped up in bindings and felt weights hung on his sides.
Back outside, the party set up a coat rack to look like a person if not scrutinized too much and shoved it out the door. Moving out after the dummy was instantly blasted with nine arrows and an energy ray from one of the eye golems, they began to attack the demon with its two medusa assistants. the arcanist unleashed the illusion of a more skilled version of the executioner, imbuing it with a sliver of reality so that its strikes would actually do some damage.
After a heated battle, they killed their opponents, freed most of the town, and began to creep their way into the lair of Oog-Suer. Once they got into his central chamber, the arcanist created a light demon for illumination, while Oog-Suer floated behind two demons.
As an aside, Ino had so far been sizzled by an eye golem, petrified, and trapped in a collapsing tunnel.
The archer saw something fishy with one of the demons and told the rest of the party focus on the other first. Fortunately, the armiger disguised as an immobile demon managed to finally break from his bonds (tearing some muscles along the way), and wasn't shot by the party. What followed was quite the brawl as the demon unleashed volley after voley of arrows and Oog-Suer lit up like a disco ball with various rays of death. Eventually, they persevered and overcame what proved to be their most powerful foes yet.
Character summary: Background will be in the session summary. He himself is a former captain of the guard for his home village, and does his best to protect all around him. He also has quite the singing voice, along with a talent for comedy, which is used heavily to taunt the opposition into wasting their attacks on him. His fighting style is to outlast his opponents through a long and painful grind against two spike-covered shields that deflect even the mightiest of blows.
We also took a break at about 8pm to go watch a movie, then played until 1AM.
As the party travelled towards the northeast, Adam noticed that they were moving parallel to the remains of a road, which was expertly broken and scattered to only seem like it was disused for decades. This was curious, as both he and the arcanist knew of no city that existed in this direction for a road to be bothered to be built.
As they got closer, the air shimmered, and suddenly the peak of the nearest mountain of the range erupted in flame with an eye seeming to open out of it. There lay a half-abandoned mining town at the base of the mountain, with armed troops patrolling, and giant floating eyes scouting the perimeter of the town.
They also noticed a shack about five miles from the town, behind a hill and hidden amongst the plant growth. Sneaking closer, they find a lone warrior clad in heavy armor, bristling with spikes and sharpening his javelin. After a bit of uneasy parlay, they discover that this town is called Zorcin, a mining town that unearthed semiprecious stones and does basic metalwork of a notable style.
Upon hearing the name, they suddenly remember about this town and its trade with the crossroads back to the southwest. The stranger tells them that the entire land is enchanted so that none remember the town and its contents if outside the light of the eye atop the mountain. He then continued on and told them his tale.
Several months ago, a Pan Tangian arcanist came to down with demons under his power, slaughtering man and woman alike if they stood in his way as he entered the cavern complex. The arcanist himself had but a single eye, and wore a large hood. The demons bore many arms and wielded their bows with inhuman strength and accuracy. None dared to enter the mining area to try and save the kidnapped women until the next day, when suddenly he and three gorgons emerged, petrifying large portions of the town. None were able to halt his takeover, and a burning eye was erected shortly thereafter, eliminating all hope for salvation.
The captain of the guard, along with a few other fighters, managed to escape and gradually attempted to mount resistance against Oog-Suer (the cyclopian arcanist). Every attempt failed, losing more and more men with each attempt to the stare of the medusa or the shaft of the demon's arrows, or even the dark magicks of Oog-Suer himself. His head had slowly grown too large for a hood to cover, and his body withered and shriveled, until his head was four feet across and the body was a vestigial flap of flesh on the back as he floated about.
This was to be his last attempt at assaulting the town, when the party arrived and said they would in taking him down. They asked if there were any other entranced into the mines besides the front entrance, so that they could skip the guarded town and strike Oog-Suer alone. There were several sinkholes, but the armiger did not know the precise way of the tunnels of the mines and could not guide them himself.
The arcanist disguised the armiger and executioner as demons and they snuck into the town to find one of the enslaved miners to rescue and use as a guide into the mines themselves. However, the armiger got too long a glimpse of one of the gorgons and succumbed to her gaze, breaking their cover before even getting a prisoner out of chains.
Moving swiftly, the executioner killed the meduse where she stood and before the demon could even react. A floating eye moved overhead and unleashed a ray upon him, but was resisted, unlike the hail of arrows from the demon. The rest of the party, watching from afar (with the archer's recently purchased spyglass), saw that the cover was blown and began to charge in to rescue them.
To make a long story short, the party ended up hiding inside one of the buildings and barricading the doors. The demon was too powerful for them with its veritable hail of deadly arrows. They waited for what seemed forever as they bandaged themselves and waited for the inevitable assault.
Meanwhile, the armiger's petrified form was dragged into the mountain to the presence of Oog-Suer, who taunted him for his failure. He magically releashed him from his petrified state, removed his eye & stored it in a pendant. Strangely, the armiger was able to see out of his eye socket before an eye patch was applied and noticed that Oog-Suer was missing an eye in one of his eye stalks. Later, he would have the party check on him, and all they could see was an empty eye socket. The room was then enveloped in darkness and the armiger was wrapped up in bindings and felt weights hung on his sides.
Back outside, the party set up a coat rack to look like a person if not scrutinized too much and shoved it out the door. Moving out after the dummy was instantly blasted with nine arrows and an energy ray from one of the eye golems, they began to attack the demon with its two medusa assistants. the arcanist unleashed the illusion of a more skilled version of the executioner, imbuing it with a sliver of reality so that its strikes would actually do some damage.
After a heated battle, they killed their opponents, freed most of the town, and began to creep their way into the lair of Oog-Suer. Once they got into his central chamber, the arcanist created a light demon for illumination, while Oog-Suer floated behind two demons.
As an aside, Ino had so far been sizzled by an eye golem, petrified, and trapped in a collapsing tunnel.
The archer saw something fishy with one of the demons and told the rest of the party focus on the other first. Fortunately, the armiger disguised as an immobile demon managed to finally break from his bonds (tearing some muscles along the way), and wasn't shot by the party. What followed was quite the brawl as the demon unleashed volley after voley of arrows and Oog-Suer lit up like a disco ball with various rays of death. Eventually, they persevered and overcame what proved to be their most powerful foes yet.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Commoner, Peasant, Mud-Farmer
Commoner Quickstats: HP 4; Init +0; AC 10, Grapple +0; Club +0 (1d6), Sling +0 (1d3); Saves +0/+2/+0; Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4
Commoner
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Human)
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 10, touch 10, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+0
Full Attack: Club +0 (1d6), or Sling +0 (1d3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Saves: Fortitude +0, Reflex +2, Will +0
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills*: Handle Animal +4, Knowledge (nature) +5, Profession (Farmer) +4
Feats*: Endurance, Skill Focus (Knowledge - Nature)
Environment: Temperate Plains
Organization: Hermit (1), Family (2 to 7), Hamlet (20 to 100)
Challenge Rating: 1/6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: By character class
Everyone knows what a commoner looks like. Watch one of the Disney movies set in medieval times and look at any of the unnamed villagers. They are the lowest of civilized life, not even deserving of a class level, their pitiful combat prowess making the ruthless adventurer question the point in suffering them to live. Literacy is not assumed, and only the commoners who are especially educated are able to do more than add up their tabs.
Variant Proletariat
Commoners at the bottom of the social ladder have varied ability based on the drudgery of their existence. The above assumes the most common lifestyle for the D&D human, a farmer. The following templates are to be used for alternate skill and feat selections, based on their lifestyle.
Cutpurse
- Skills: Hide +2, Listen +2, Open Lock +4, Sleight of Hand +4, Spot +2
- Feats: Idle Hands, Alertness
- Skills: Bluff +3, Perform (Dance, Sing) +4, Sleight of Hand +2
- Feats: Jazz Hands, Skill Focus (Bluff)
- Skills: Craft (any two) +4, Use Rope +4
- Feats: Endurance, Pack Mule
- Skills: Craft (any one) +7, Profession (Artisan) +4, Spellcraft +2 (+6 identify)
- Feats: Skill Focus (Craft), Iron Hands
- Skills: Heal +7, Knowledge (nature, religion) +4
- Feats: Healing Hands, Folk Lore
- Skills: Perform (oratory) +2, Knowledge (local) +2, Search +2
- Feats: False Pretenses, Omniscient Whispers
- Skills: Appraise +4, Diplomacy +4, Profession (merchant) +4, Spellcraft +4 (identify only)
- Feats: Iron Hands, Skill Knowledge (Appraise, Diplomacy)
- Skills: Knowledge (any one) +5, Decipher Script +5, Speak Language +2
- Feats: Skill Focus (Knowledge, Decipher Script)
New Feats
- False Pretenses [Spelltouched]: When successfully saves against a charm or compulsion, opponent believes the spell was successful.
- Folk Lore: You get a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (religion) checks.
- Healing Hands: You get a +3 bonus on all Heal checks, and it is considered a class skill.
- Idle Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Open Lock and Sleight of Hands checks.
- Iron Hands: You get a +4 bonus on Spellcraft checks to identify a spell or magically created/shaped material that's already in place, which you can do untrained.
- Jazz Hands: You get a +2 bonus on all Perform (Dance) and Perform (Sing) checks.
- Omniscient Whispers [Spelltouched]: Once per week, you can tune into the voices you hear, getting hte answer to a question much as if you had asked it with a commune spell. Using this feat renders you exhausted.
- Pack Mule: Your Strength is considered 5 points higher for purposes of carrying capacity.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
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