Methods & Madness: Monster

Showing posts with label Monster. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

Mass combat: broken units

I had a brief mass combat idea that solved most of the issues I had with PCs fighting a few dozen goblins at once.

This assumes there are only a few (say, one to ten) fighters in one side, and several (say, ten to a hundred) in the other.

We already have the usual combat rules for smaller combats, when there is fewer than a dozen foes on either side.

In addition, if you have 60 knights against 150 orcs, you can just treat it almost like a fight of 6 knights against 15 orcs, adapting as needed.

But when you mix everything together, you might have a small issue - still easily fixable.

Say you have four individual PCs, plus 60 knights against 150 orcs. Ten orcs can attack ten knights with a single roll (treat this as one or against one knight); the knights either die or don't.

Ten orcs can attack a single PC instead, with a +10 bonus.

The problem is if the PCs attack a group of ten orcs. Usually, they can only kill one or two (which might break morale and thus the whole unit, but that is another matter). Let's say they are reduced to nine orcs.

Now they can attack the PCs with a +9 instead of +10 bonus—all very intuitive.

But what if nine orcs decide to attack ten knights?

Simply give them a -1 bonus due to the difference between nine and ten, and give the knights a +1 bonus when attacking them.

But let's say we get into a more difficult situation: there are just four orcs, fighting to the death, against ten knights in plate.

They'd attack with -6, making a hit impossible. Instead, they could choose to make an attack against a single knight, now with +4. Now it is more likely that they'd kill at least one before being wiped out by the remaining knights.

Another option, maybe even easier, is saying that the 4 orcs can attack 4 knights - no bonuses or penalties. Treat this as one orc attacking one knight. Either the ten knights are reduced to six, or remain unharmed [this works somewhat similarly to the game Risk].

Conversely, if 7 knights attack 3 orcs, treat this as a single knight, attacking a single orc, with a +4 bonus. If that single orc is slain, it means all three orcs were defeated.

This system looks a bit complicated until I organize it, but it is very intuitive to me, and the results are not terribly far from the what you'd get but making each single attack separately - or at least close enough for my taste.

My goal, here, is never having to keep track of "minor NPC" HP, and never needing another set of rules - just roll 1d20, consider THAC0 and AC, use damage as written, etc. No need to convert to d6s, roll handfuls of d20s, and so on.

[BTW, if you own handfuls of d20 and d10s, you can easily use them as pawns, altering the digits as the units dwindle - for example, a d20 on 7 means 7 knights, and a d10 on 3 means 3 orcs. But you can also use any chips or counters, including the ones from Risk].

Now I want to playtest this. Looks promising.

Monday, November 17, 2025

The progenitors (Prismatic Planet)

The progenitors are a nearly extinct species, and little is known about them. Humanity’s knowledge comes mostly from the observation of ruins and half-forgotten legends - fragments often twisted by time and error, that few humans know.

Whatever remains of the progenitors that can be found lie deep within damp, shadowed caves. They seemed to shun the scorching sun and suffered greatly from the scarcity of water. They might have been amphibious, or at least partially so, as their lairs contain vast networks of pipes, basins, wet chambers, and pools.

Their minds were far more advanced than those of any amphibian, reaching extremes that not even human intellect can fathom without risking madness. Their tools have often been salvaged for human use, suggesting the presence of hands and feet, though some of these artifacts may have been crafted for their human thralls instead.

The way their bodies are depicted in art and myth reflects this dual humanoid and aquatic nature. A common motif is a powerful human-like body crowned with the head of a water-dwelling creature such as a crab, octopus, or lizard. Others portray them as disembodied heads or brains suspended in liquid, connected to robotic shells or grafted onto decapitated human hosts. Wilder storytellers speak of tentacles, bat-like wings, bioelectronic appendices, claws, or amorphous blobs twisting into unnamable shapes that defy all classification and analogy.

Progenitors were mostly solitary and arrogant beings. They viewed other creatures as mere tools for their purposes and their own kind as little better. Though they seemed to share a common language, they rarely shared common homes. Their lairs were cloaked in secrecy and often protected by cruel locks and traps, their experiments jealously guarded from even their peers.

They possessed powerful, but limited, means of communication across vast distances, aided by strange machines and immense psionic abilities.

They appeared obsessed with experimental science and technology, using humans as guinea and creating incredibly intelligent machines, on the verge of artificial intelligence, to serve their whims. The planet itself, like all other life, was exploited with little regard for the future. The regions surrounding their dwellings remain especially grim and lifeless even by the standards of this already hostile world.

The Progenitors and Humanity

Humans were very likely the progenitors’ favored thralls. Their versatility and aptitude for tool use made them ideal servants. Any inclination toward rebellion or resistance seems to have been suppressed through psionic or technological means, though bloody uprisings and wars certainly occurred.

Humans were likely bred, cloned, and altered to better serve their masters. They were also subjected to endless experimentation, their capabilities tested and catalogued. The abhorrent treatment that lingers in humanity’s collective subconscious would appear as wanton cruelty and sadism, but in the eyes of the progenitors, it may have been explained as scientific curiosity akin to what a human would nurture for an unusually clever group of mice.

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As always, all feedback is appreciated!

Monday, October 13, 2025

Prismatic Worms (Prismatic Planet)

Did you ever notice how purple worms are listed under “P” in the D&D monster manuals, but red dragons are under “D”? Not sure where I’ll file my entries.

Purple worms are such a cool creature, I decided to add some variations. If purple is the biggest, red could be the smallest—maybe with a touch of Paranoia-style inspiration. The rest basically wrote itself.

I like the idea of monsters with common origins. Not just “it’s magic,” but something with vaguely scientific explanations, which fits the sci-fi setting. You can put aboleths, snakes, rot grubs and all kinds of creatures as mutated worms.

And the best part is... they create dungeons as they burrow!

The Great Grey Worm concept is an old one—I might’ve borrowed it from Dune, Lovecraft’s dholes/bholes, Bahamuth, etc. It is also discussed in my Teratogenicon.

For more ideas on worm cults, check Obscene Serpent Religion.

Anyway, here are the prismatic worms!

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The prismatic worms are strange annelid creatures that can reach enormous sizes, changing colors and shapes as they grow. The smallest ones, rarely seen, resemble large earthworms and are almost featureless. They might be obsidian, white, or grey soon after hatching, but they are rarely—if ever—observed in such colors. Typically, the smallest are blood red, the most common are orange or yellow and about the size of snakes, and the largest grow to green, blue, and eventually purple—reaching nearly 100 feet in length and six feet in diameter.

They lay eggs beneath the earth and sand, where they can hatch and wait for an unsuspecting victim. Sometimes, a previous victim or carcass serves as a host. People attacked by mature worms may find themselves infected with their eggs, which hatch and produce larvae that consume the victim from within after a few days of hallucinatory fever. One such also be careful to avoid eating the meat of infected animals.

The worms are highly susceptible to mutation. Some individuals develop wings, small arms, or amphibious traits. Others are blind or covered in innumerable eyes. There are scorpion-like, eel-like, and bat-like variants, but the biggest specimens seem to lose these features as they grow. All of them share a round mouth with sharp teeth and typically a poisonous stinger. They suck blood and burrow into living or dead creatures while young, but once large enough, they devour their victims whole and regurgitate unused materials.

Most prismatic worms live underground or underwater. There are burrowing versions that prefer deserts or any kind of softer soil, although some seem powerful enough to leave stable tunnels beneath the earth and even through solid rock.

Their bodies are harvested as ingredients. Each color yields a different rare substance. Eating them may cause sickness, mutation, or death. The venom is deadly but also has calming and hallucinogenic properties.

An alternative theory about the existence of the worms suggests that each type belongs to a distinct species, possibly sharing a common ancestor. Intermediary forms—with underdeveloped wings or multiple colors—are rarely seen, which could indicate that they are separate creatures.

Many cults worship prismatic worms. Some sacrifice people to the great worms, while others seek to mutate themselves or others in pursuit of creating superior races. One heinous ritual involves human sacrifice—willing or not—alongside either a cluster of eggs or a single mature worm, roughly the size of a person’s throat.

Legends tell of a great grey worm living far underground (or deep in the oceans, or frozen in some glacial nation) that one day might eat the core of the planet until it collapses unto itself. While few claim to have seen such an aberration, some tunnels are greater than any worm in known memory.

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As always, all feedback is appreciated!

Friday, September 05, 2025

Reconsidering random encounters (again)

I'm reconsidering D&D random encounters... again.

OSE (B/X) says this about the chances of random encounters:

Clear, grasslands: 1-in-6.

Barren lands, hills, mountains, woods: 2-in-6.

Desert, jungle, swamp: 3-in-6.

The idea that mountains and deserts should have lots of encounters feels both unrealistic and unnecessary.

Forests probably deserve more frequent encounters, but honestly, we could just equalize encounter rates across all terrains without much loss. You’d still end up with more fights in mountains and forests anyway, simply because travel is slower there.

Again, from OSE:

Some types of terrain modify the speed at which characters can travel:

Broken lands, desert, forest, hills: 33% slower.

Jungle, mountains, swamp: 50% slower.

Maintained roads: 50% faster.

Plains might have fewer beasts, sure—but they tend to have more humans, so the total number of encounters could stay about the same.

Here is one alternative: 2-in-6 chances for every terrain. If you are in terrain that could fall under two categories (forested mountains, a river in a swamp, a settlement in the desert), a 1 means you roll on the first table, a 2 means you roll on the second table.

What else?

Do we really need different tables for each terrain? It makes some sense, but when I started reading the AD&D tables, I noticed something odd. In alphabetical order, there are no giant ants, badgers, beetles, or beavers listed for mountain terrain. That’s not very precise either. In B/X, there are no undead in forests and no insects in mountains. Is there a reason? This probably deserves some revision.

Rivers are trickier. If you’re in a boat, you’re likely to miss or ignore most fish, and even common alligators or snakes. Most rolls end up feeling wasted. So maybe rivers need their own table too—unless you’re swimming, which isn’t all that common in my experience.

Then there are city encounters, which clearly deserve their own separate treatment - the reasoning is completely different (distance, surprise, reaction, numbers found, etc.). Same goes for the sea.

In the end, we’re left with intricate encounter tables that don’t always mean much.

Well, anyway, I've been looking for the perfect random encounters and I haven't been able to find them. I fixed some things I disliked in Basic Wilderness Encounters, if you want to check it out. I've also made a small app to quickly check for encounters and weather. But I guess I'll keep looking for ways to improve these procedures.

Friday, August 15, 2025

B/X random encounter/travel generator

So I've made a small dice roller / random encounter/ travel generator for B/X, OSE and other "Basic" games.

Here you go.

This is a tool I wanted to have for my own games; I realized it takes too long to roll during the game. Now I can do most of the work with a click (or a few clicks; see below).

I've tried several solutions, including rolling 1000 (!) encounters for my games, many of which I used with great success - they are in the Basic Wilderness Encounters book.

But I also wanted an automated tool for weather (I often forget to roll/describe it) and encounter checks. The weather checks are just descriptive unless they roll terrible weather. I created them inspired by the reaction table.

This isn't as complete as Basic Wilderness Encounters (which also includes NPC names, number and type of monsters appearing, etc.). It is more agnostic, however; you can combine it with your favorite random encounter table, table of random names, etc.

Here are some fine tools for OSE. I've seen some other tools out there in the format of apps and spreadsheets, but I prefer having one link, that I can "roll" with one click.

And it is very transparent, you can ignore any roll you want, add Charisma to the reaction check, let PCs roll for surprise, etc.

I might fix some stuff if I had similar tools formatted for perchance. I especially wish I had a generator that also gave me the number appearing immediately; the rest is often not as important, because the PCs can sometimes choose to ignore the encounter, for example.

I hope this tool helps you experiment running B/X or OSE encounters as originally written, taking distance, surprise, reaction, etc., into account.

This has LOTS of room for improvement, but it takes work. Anyone can edit it (give me credit if you find it appropriate), and I hope there are other generators out there which we can use, add, remix, etc.

Please let me know! I'd love to have a good perchance generator for B/X or AD&D encounters that I can incorporate to this one!

Additional reading:

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-painful-procedure-of-random.html

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Brief mass combat idea

Here is a brief mass combat idea meant for old school D&D or OSR games. I'm using ascending AC in my examples because that's what I use in my games.

Here is the idea:

10 1st level fighters count as a single fighter with a +10 attack bonus until the end of the round.

They attack as one. They deal one die of damage (say, 1d8 if they're using swords).

They add one point of damage for each point over the AC (if using ascending AC).

By Dean Spencer

Let's say 10 bandits are attacking your 5th-level PC, who has AC 17. They roll 9. Adding a +10 bonus, this means 19, two points more than needed to hit. They deal 1d8+2 damage.

The best part about this idea is how it vastly simplifies things.

If you decide only 4 or 6 fighters can attack the PC at a time, just reduce the bonus to +4 or +6.

If the PC slays a couple of bandits, reduce the bonus to +8. And so on.

In some cases, you can just add up all HD. If your PC is attacked by a 3rd level fighter and 3 bandits, they can make one single attack with +6.

It also makes goblins, etc., dangerous though all levels. If your PC in magical plate and shield gets attacked by ten goblins, it is VERY LIKELY that ate least one of them will get a good stab!

This will probably be useful when PCs have multiple henchmen too. One roll, period.

Is this similar to actually rolling each attack individually? Well, it varies a lot depending on AC, number of foes, etc. Apparently, the bigger the group, the smaller the damage each individual adds (which might be explained by fewer people being able to attack at the same time).

Let's try with six goblins attacking a fighter in plate [AC 16], using B/X (or OSE) rules. The usual damage per round (DPR) would be around 5.25. With my proposed rule, it would be about 4.4.

If the fighter is unarmored, DPR is also similar (11.55 versus 9.78, more or less). Not bad.

And if the fighter has plate, armor, and some magic bonus to AC? Let's say AC 20? An extreme case, but... Then damage doubles from about 1.05 to 2.28. So the rule works as intended!

(These numbers were calculated with the help of AI... let me know if they're wrong!)

I probably wouldn't use such a rule if you're fighting a couple of giants, for example; just for low-level foes. Likewise, allowing 15 goblins to attack you at once sounds unwieldy; I'd keep the limit at 10 for now, and you ever fight 20 goblins at once they cannot attack you as a single unit (treat them as two groups).

I probably COULD use this idea for huge mass battles, just adding a few zeroes when needed.

Say, a force of 90 knights clash with 50 enemy knights. The 90 knights attack with a +9 bonus, etc. They deal 1d8 damage (or whatever) plus the margin of success. Then just multiply damage (or casualties) per 10, and reduce the opposing force equally.

I haven't played-tested this. But I have a good feeling about it...

Additional reading:

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-hd-game.html

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Monster taxonomy and organization

It seems that the new 2025 Monster Manual organizes EACH monster alphabetically. This means a "Green Dragon" is found under "G". In the 2014 Monster Manual (and most MMs before that), all dragons were found under "D", for dragon. The same happens with giants, demons, etc.

I think this is an awful decision.

Not that this is simple. One reason there's so much debate over monster classification (and issues like orcs being inherently evil) is that taxonomy itself is complex. In the real world, we classify living beings into categories like Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Can a green dragon interbreed with a red dragon? There is no "right" answer, but I'd guess they can. What about a gold dragon? Applying real taxonomy to fantasy creatures is not easy or ideal.

But let's look at this from a practical standpoint

Should we have one single entry for each species? That is impossible because we need many entries for humans (bandits, clerics, druids, etc.).

Besides real taxonomy, how can we organize monsters?

One alternative I really like is monster type. This is one of the main points of my Teratogenicon. Undead have LOTS in common to each other, and if you ever want to create your won, looking at existing undead is more useful than calculating CR.

There are other practical reasons to use monster type.

First, let's assume you are new to D&D, and you don't really know the difference between demons and devils. Or maybe you vaguely remember playing 2e and you don't even KNOW there are monsters called either of these things.

You go looking for an explanation in the MM. You turn to "D" and... there is nothing.

Can you see the problem?

On the other hand, let's say you're an experienced DM and you want to build your own dungeon! This is going to be a hellish cave, full of demons... Now let's find some o populate it! Where do you look for them? Again, you've got nothing. At best, the MM has a list of "fiends" that include demons, devils and others.

And what if - unimaginable though it is - you forget the name of a particular demon you once saw and want to use as the villain?

The only way this is useful is if you use strictly for reference. You never create your own adventures, but maybe you're running a module that lists "1d4 green dragons" on the encounter table and you have to check it in the MM (that is not great either; most adventures should provide you with the relevant stats to avoid page-flipping and book-flipping, but modern D&D is so crunchy that this is nearly impossible).

This might be a radical, but I think a good MM could be divided in 20ish chapters, including the 14 monster types with a few subdivisions. For example:

Aberration

Beast

(Giant beasts)

Celestial

Construct

(Golems)

Dragon

(True dragons)

Elemental

(True elementals)

Fey

Fiend

(Explaining differences between demons, devils, etc.)

Giant

(True giants)

Humanoid

(maybe separate species from professions)

Monstrosity

Ooze

Plant

Undead

(maybe corporeal/incorporeal)

To clarify, "true" dragons, elementals and giants have that word in their names: e.g., Green Dragon, Hill Giant. To make things even clearer, D&D could use different names for wyverns and trolls. For example, "draconians", "dragon-like", "draconic creatures", "gigantic humanoids" (notice that troll is a "giant" but "giant bat" is not).

Calling a wyvern a "dragon" makes the idea of "natural language" impossible, since you'd have to explain (or assume) the meaning of the word "dragon" every time you find a "dragon-slaying sword", etc.

There are a few obvious problems to this approach.

First, the monstrosities are so numerous that the alphabetical approach just feels easier. In addition, they are not always easy to separate from aberrations (gricks and grells - what are they?). In fact, when I wrote Teratogenicon I had to go back to 3e to find a good definition of aberrations.

Some subdivisions would need further reflection. Should dragons be listed alphabetically, or should chromatic dragons be separated from metallic? Not sure.

But, from a learning or world-building approach, this would be nearly perfect.

It also gives the MM a more "in universe" feel. When an average peasant sees a "dragon", "green" is not the first thing that comes to mind. Similarly, a "death knight" is an undead first, and for the untrained eyes it is not that different than other ghosts or apparitions. People will just run and call this place "cursed"!

The "monster type" division, therefore, is also teleological.

In addition, you could easily create an alphabetical index of each creature for easy referencing (with page numbers, of course), and this list could include both "dragons" and "green dragons", under D and G. You could add page numbers to modules and encounter tables too, but maybe that'd be too much to ask...

In conclusion, I dislike the new organization. It makes it more difficult to find some monsters and put them into proper context. It makes the game less coherent and more difficult to learn. I will not say I have the perfect answer, but I can say I find the former approach preferable to the current mess.

Thursday, February 06, 2025

Weapons vs. monster

We discussed weapon versus armor in several posts. I think it is an interesting subject, but I'm still not sure it is worth the effort.

It probably works better when you're running troops of humanoids against each other, a la Chainmail. But what about dragons and ogres? AD&D suggests the table doesn't apply to them.

But, arguably, knowing if you foe is a dragon or ogre is more relevant than chain versus plate.

So maybe we should do "weapon vs. monster" tables instead of "weapon vs. armor"?

Of course, we already have something like that at least since AD&D. I don't remember if if it is from some OD&D supplement (let me know!), but even in Chainmail the weapon versus armor table has a couple of columns for horses (and also different hit probabilities against ogres, dragons, etc.).

Could we create a minimalist version for B/X and other OSR games?

I think it would be a good idea. Let's see. Instead of specific monsters, I like to think of monster types.

- Giants are resistant to small weapons, but more vulnerable to large weapons, especially swords and polearms. Same for oozes. (although I think giants also deserve an HP boost for that). The downside is that David vs. Goliath becomes harder.

- Golems are resistant to cutting and piercing weapons, plus weapons made of wood. You need a mace of pick for that. Of course, a golem made of straw is weak against cutting and strong against bludgeoning.

- Plant creatures and wood golems are more vulnerable against cutting weapons, especially axes.

- Arrows and daggers are weak against ALL these creatures (you're unlikely to reach their vitals), plus undead, but maybe daggers are good against unarmored and defenseless humanoids. Would give thieves a reason to use them over longswords.

- Blunt weapons are good against skeletal undead and similarly brittle creatures.

- Lycanthropes require silver weapons. Demons, fey and golems have magic resistance. Elementals resist most weapons and certain elements, and so on. Swarms resist all weapons.

Dragons and other monsters are treated according to size.

How to enforce that? I think a simple -1 to +2 to both attack and damage will suffice. Anymore than that would probably be a headache.

If we only had giants and oozes to deal with, I'd give them some damage resistance - maybe 4 points? - but allow a weapon to roll two dice instead of one. So a dagger would have a hard time but a 2h-sword would deal more damage than usual (2d10-4).

And then we'd have to consider giants in armor... sigh. Maybe doing a simple version is not so simple after all. But it might be worth the effort, at least to different weapons and make the monsters more... tangible?

Monday, February 03, 2025

D&D 2024 monster stats

Here is an example of monster stats in 2024 D&D:

This is... not bad.

Of course, we could reduce it by half while keeping the information we need 90% of the time. How often do you need to know this monster's Charisma score?

But it has a few advantages over the D&D 2014 stat block: it abbreviates AC, HP and CR, it includes saves right next to abilities, and it removes the armor type since it rarely does anything.

It adds Initiative to monsters, which I don't get.

Here, it is "+5 (15)". I'm assuming that 15 means that:

- You can use that instead of rolling.

- They found it useful to save you the trouble of simply checking Dex modifier.

- They found it useful to save you the trouble of simply adding 10.

- They made a mistake (it was supposed to be 13, due to Dex) and I'm spending more time thinking about this stuff than they did.

But it wouldn't be D&D without some errors and redundancies, right?

It also has a few weird things.

For example, it mentions "Gear Daggers (10)". This is somewhat useful, but it almost creates more questions than it answer:

Are these ordinary daggers or whatever "umbral daggers" are? Does this creature (that has claws) has any unarmed attacked when it runs out of throwing daggers? Assuming it does, can it attack twice when unarmed?

(There is also an apparently baffling concept: this is a dagger that cannot kill you according to its description, but only poison and paralyze you. I'm assuming vampire's prefer warm blood...)

Some creatures that have attacks with swords and bows ALSO have these listed as gear, which looks redundant.

And the "Vampiric Connection" part is a bit baffling, since it seems to be a power particular to the MASTER and not the creature.

Now, about he ability scores... They LOOK fine, but I'm wonder if this wouldn't be more useful:

It LOOKS horrible in comparison, but at least it emphasizes what needs emphasizing: the fact that THIS monsters, contrary to most, has saves that are different form modifiers. And I'd guess that is the reason why they botched the "initiative" bit, BTW.

Similarly, it wouldn't be hard to rewrite the attacks to something simpler:

Umbral Dagger (x2), +5. Melee (5 ft) or Ranged (20/60 ft).

Damage 5+7 (1d4+3 piercing +3d4 necrotic). If reduced to 0 HP by this attack, the target becomes Stable but has the Poisoned condition for 1 hour. While it has the Poisoned condition, the target has the Paralyzed condition.

Anyway, the whole thing feels a bit cumbersome but has a few advantages over AD&D, since it lacks the several "none" and "nil" lines found there.

I do miss some of that 2e information (morale, terrain, etc.) but maybe "number appearing" should be included in the random encounter tables instead (does 2024 have those?).

Apparently the MM indicates that D&D 2024 is what we expected: a small improvement over 2014 in some areas, a bit worse in a few, and still maintaining a vague compatibility and lots of redundancies and inconsistencies.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

AD&D DMG cover to cover - Part XI, p. 174-215 (Appendices C, D, E - Random monsters)

We've been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here.

Today we discuss random monsters!

APPENDIX C: RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS

This includes extensive tables for random monsters. These are bigger, more detailed, and overall a bit better than the weird B/X / OD&D tables. Whales are not encountered in any kind of "water", but only in "deep water", etc.

"the only monsters which are included are those in MONSTER MANUAL. Two notable exceptions to this are those the mezzodaemon and nycadaemon which are found in the AD&D module D3, VAULT OF THE DROW (TSR Games, Inc.). If you do not have this module, simply ignore results calling for these monsters and roll again."

A weird choice, but okay; the author found these two creatures important enough to be part of the core.

This section includes encounters in dungeons, outdoors, water, underwater, airborne, astral, ethereal, and also psionic encounters, whatever these are.

I'll admit this looks like it is too much for me. Underwater adventures are maybe 100 times less common than forests, at least in my campaigns.

First, there are random dungeon encounters. I do not think this is a great idea but the tables are detailed enough that they may help you create your own dungeon, with a proper theme and hopefully some coherence.

There is a big focus on balance here; in theory, players can only find the strongest dangers if they travel deep enough (alike wilderness encounters, where they can suddenly face a couple of dragons). This has indeed some "mythic underworld" vibe, with little regard for naturalism/realism/etc: the deeper you go, the bigger and more numerable the monsters become. You can find a dozen bandits on level 1, but there is 120 of them if you find them on level 10.

You can also find adventurer NPCs, each extremely detailed, including random magic items. It is not clear how - and why - are these tables different from the ones in the appendix P.

The book recommends you prepare several parties/NPCs in advance. Looks like a lot of work, but fortunately we might have some tools like this one to make it automatic.

Underwater encounters are simple enough, but detailed - they are "are divided into those which occur in fresh water and those in salt water (seas and oceans). Each division is further broken down by depth - shallow and deep water encounters". Not much to comment here, and not much use for me as noticed above.

ASTRAL & ETHEREAL ENCOUNTERS are next. These are completely baffling to me. The explanation might be elsewhere; I might have read and forgot about them, or skipped it (probably they are the result of some spell?). The glossary indicates there is an explanation in the PHB, so its my fault for not reading it first.

After some research, it seems these pertain to a certain spell, so maybe they should be include in that context. Like underwater encounters, I feel these won't be used often.

In any case, these are evocative and very interesting. It makes astral/ethereal travel feel dangerous and exciting.

PSIONIC ENCOUNTERS may happen if PCs are using psionic powers - these apparently can attract demons and other entities, which is sinister. These seem to manifest out of thin air (since the yellow mold doesn't move IIRC), so I'm not sure why the book suggests "Roll until an appropriate encounter occurs, ignoring inappropriate results" for this particular table only.

OUTDOOR RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS is the meat of the chapter. It has tables and subtables for Inhabited areas, Uninhabited areas, Castles, multiple types of terrain in various climates (artic, subartic, temperate, etc.), plus some setting conditions like "faerie", "Pleistocene" and "Prehistoric".

Well, Pleistocene is part of "Prehistoric", but here it means "Age of Dinosaurs", as indicated by the table. The book adds: "Feel free to devise your own encounter matrix for Jurassic, Triassic, or other period with non-aberrant creatures.".

Why are there no mountains, hills river or seas in the age of dinosaurs? No idea. Probably it is the other way around: in D&D-land, you'll only find dinosaurs in these places.

Pleistocene conditions are somewhat to Sub-Arctic Conditions, without fantasy creatures such as trolls, etc.

I can IMAGINE the Pleistocene/prehistoric tables could be combined for a pulp/S&S campaign, but then you'd also need a river/sea table without nixies, hobgoblins and such. as written, maybe they are meant to apply to certain "lost world" parts of your settings - despite dinosaurs and mammoths being found in the regular tables too.

Putting everything together looks like a bit of a headache, but hopefully this too can be automated (I am sure there is an online roller somewhere, please let me know in the comments!). This one is based on 2e.

AIRBORNE RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS is short and sweet: "simply use the appropriate

OUTDOOR RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS table [...] but an encounter occurs only if the creature indicated is able to fly or is actually flying."

CITY/TOWN ENCOUNTERS are meant for unexplored cities, basically. They seem to happen incredibly often ("every three turns"), probably because you meet people all the time in a city, but many will simply ignore the party.

Checking that often must be a bit of a hassle in practice; maybe we could just check a few times a day for "memorable" encounters that are likely to approach the party.

Also worth noticing that ordinary people seem to be a small percentage of encounters. I'd assume there are more, but unlikely to make memorable encounters. As written, these tables make cities extremely dangerous, full of demons, undead, and bandits, maybe even more than the cities of S&S like Lankhmar.

BTW, this is where you can find the infamous "harlot table" that describes encounters with "brazen strumpets or haughty courtesans".

We also get ANOTHER table to generate magic items for NPCs, for reasons I cannot fathom.

APPENDIX D: RANDOM GENERATION OF CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES

This is, basically, a generator of random demons, devils, etc.

I LOVE this chapter. This is a precursor to Teratogenicon and all similar books.

Basically, it makes each creature weird and unique, from head to toe, including stats. Here is one example created by this generator:

Demon #1
---------------------------------------------
Frequency: Uncommon
No. Appearing: 3
Armor Class: 0
Move: 15"
Hit Dice: 9
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage: 3-9 (Mouth), 2-12 (Each Arm),
Special Attacks: Summon/Gate, Spell-like Abilities,
Special Defenses: Acid Immunity, Weapon Immunity, Cold Immunity,
Other Abilities: None
Magic Resistance: 45%
Intelligence: High
Size: L
Psionic Ability: Nil
Strength and To Hit/Damage Bonuses: 18 (00) (+3/+6)
---------------------------------------------
Appearance:
Head: Human-like / Knobs
Overall Visage: Wrinkled - Seamed
Ears: None
Eye Color: Metallic
Eyes: Huge, Flat; Two-Eyed
Nose (If Necessary): Slits Only
Mouth: Tusked; Tiny
Bipedel Torso: Ape-like
General Characteristics: Short and Broad
Tail: None
Body Odor: Urine
Skin: Leathery/Leprous
Skin Color: Reddish
Back: Normal
Arms: 2Hands: Taloned
Legs and Feet (As Applicable): Suctioned

Pictured by Grok using data above.

This technique is great to keep things fresh and keep players guessing, although all fiends share some traits (e.g., magic resistance).

Teratogenicon extends this reasoning to other creature types: undead, aberrations, monstrosities, etc.

APPENDIX E: ALPHABETICAL MONSTER LISTING

A list of monsters and their stats. Probably based on the Monster Manual. No stats for the mezzodaemon, but more than 20 lines for hydras with varying number of heads.

Overall, these appendixes are good, despite some redundancies, weird choices, and mixing things of dissimilar importance without clear distinction, which seems to be a common trend in the DMG.

NOTE: there is a California Wildfire Relief Bundle on DTRPG. It has lots of Savage Worlds (including Savage Worlds Adventure Edition) and a couple of OSR games. "By This Axe I Hack!" and "There and Hack Again" are the most interesting to me.

Contains affiliate links. By purchasing stuff through affiliate links you're helping to support this blog.

Friday, June 28, 2024

12 odd things about B/X wilderness encounters

While I was writing Basic Wilderness Encounters (now a silver bestseller!), I noticed lots of strange things in the B/X encounter tables I hadn't noticed before.

The B/X tables are inspired directly by OD&D tables. Notice that the OSE tables are identical.

In my book, I addressed/fixed some things to give the tables a more coherent feel, and I quite like the results.

Anyway, here is the list. Let me know if you have other items to add!

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1. A dragon encounter is about 100 times more likely than finding a group of halflings. They are more common than wolves and hawks. Dragons are encountered in all environments regardless of color; i.e., a green dragon encounter is not more likely in forests despite the fact they live in forests.

2. Adventurer groups are incredibly diverse, considering how difficult is to find dwarves and other "demi-humans" in the tables. Any adventurer in a group of experts in 36% likely to be a "demi-human".

3. Expert adventurers, up to level 10-12, still adventure in the wilderness (despite many people thinking you should start "domain play" sat level 9 and stop adventuring.)

4. There are parties of high-level clerics, MUs, and fighters, but no thief parties (thieves only appear in more mixed parties, or as groups of "bandits" that apparently have no thief skills/talents). This might be because there were no thieves (as class) in the original D&D.

5. Mountains are extremely dangerous - at least 50% chance of encounter per day, and 25% of encounters are with dragon-like creatures (mostly dragons but also hydras, etc.), not to mention the possibility of a 36-HD giant Roc.

6. Swamps are dangerous too... Troglodytes are horrific; 2 HD, 5d8 appearing, camouflaged and always murderous. Desert and "barren" encounters are just as dangerous and almost as frequent (2-in-6, like forests), which I find odd, as desert fauna should be scarcer.

7. Swarms of common insects only appear swamps, but killer bees are everywhere.

8. The "unusual" table contains basilisks, which are more common than bears or ordinary hawks - or Halflings, etc.

9. In fact, there are NO ordinary bears in the tables, only cave bears and werebears.

10. Pirates (Chaotic, Morale 7) and Buccaneers (N, ML6) are nearly identical. They are also the largest groups; fleets can have more than 200 people in it.

11. You can find sharks in lakes and rivers, and even whales aren't uncommon. I replaced some with big alligators (of similar HD), that were sorely lacking.

12. Giant scorpions dwell in deserts according to the monster description. But they can't be found in the desert table. Only in swamps, jungles, forest, plains and settled lands.

Anyway, check Basic Wilderness Encounters if you want some reflections about these tables and 1000 entries to simplify you job as a DM. It is half the usual price if you get it in one of our bundles!

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Unlimited D&D x Limited D&D

These are two different perspectives for playing D&D, or, more specifically, running/DMing D&D.

One is that your options are somewhat limited whatever is included in the game rules (I'll call this "Limited D&D" or LD&D).

The other is that there is no such limit, and the DM can come up with whatever he deems necessary for his campaign ("Unlimited D&D" or UD&D).

This is not about "House Rules x RAW", however.

It is about the number of pieces you get to build your setting: for example, how many monsters, races, classes, magic items or spells you can use in your creations.

I would guess most groups would quickly accept that the DM can include new monsters to the setting as desired, but this is an assumption that often gets ignored when discussing old school D&D.

For example, I always found that "immunity to ghoul paralysis" was a silly trait to give a class or creature because it is so specific. But if you are only using Moldvay's Basic - and not even expert - it could be an interesting advantage, since the total number of monsters is low. Still, people keep using it even when playing some form of UD&D.

Same for the cleric "turn undead" tables that include the NAMES of the creatures turned instead of their HD. If the number of undead are limited, this makes perfect sense; otherwise, it looks strange and impractical.

(A more extreme example is the blink dog and its hatred of displacer beasts. B/X tell us almost nothing about these creatures, but they attack each other on sight. How often will that happen? If you're playing UD&D, almost never).

There are other aspects of old school D&D that seem to be remnants of this limited mindset. For example, clerics and mages cannot use sword, which is important if most magic weapons are swords, but becomes less important if you have several magic maces or daggers.

Another example I've been struggling with lately is spells. I've been running a game slightly based on B/X, which does not contain "counter spell", exactly. But now I'm introducing an NPC for another system that has this spell. Is it fair to my caster that he didn't get to choose it?

(My solution for this is: if my player shows interest in Dispel Magic, I'll let it function as a counterspell. Fortunately, he hasn't got it so far).

Personally, I was always attracted to this "Unlimited" take on RPGs in general. I'm willing to add new monsters, spells and even the ocasional laser guns to my games, and always tried to accommodate every character concept the players suggest (although now I'm tempted to go mall-human for the next campaign).

But there are advantages of the "limited" perspective - it allows players to get more familiar with existing monsters, spells, etc., for example.

And, in general, I want to expand the boundaries rather than destroying them. I would definitely not limit the number of monsters I can use in my games, but I'm perfectly satisfied with running a limited number of monster types: undead, giants, humanoids, beasts, etc.

In fact, having fewer monster types reinforces their significance rather than diluting it.

(This is partly what Teratogenicon is about, BTW).

If every single monster, spell or item the PCs find is completely new, they can never learn anything except trough direct contact. There is no room for extrapolation, generalization, etc.

I have a similar feeling on classes. Yes, I like paladins, assassins, warlords, druids, avengers, and monks. But rather than having a dozen classes, I prefer having FOUR: fighter, mage, thief, cleric, each with a few variations. And I think the AD&D bard - a class that works in a completely different way from other classes - is an unnecessary mess.

(Maybe I'll reduce it to THREE classes for my Sword and Sorcery game, ditching the cleric).
Even 5e seems to have problems with this (correct me if I'm wrong; I don't play 5e anymore). For example, the "Staff of Charming" requires attunement by "a bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard". But what if I'm using a 3rd-party class, or even the very popular artificer? Are they automatically excluded? Or do including a class requires rewriting all magic items like that?

As you can see, seeing classes through a limited scope simplifies some aspects of the game.

(This is partly what Old School Feats is about, BTW - no extra classes but many additional options. You can look at the free previews to see how I treat fighters, for example: a framework to create warriors, paladins, rangers and warlords).

In short, my favorite approached to D&D is having unlimited choices within a limited framework that works as a common language between players and DM.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Basic Wilderness Encounters is now available!

My new book, Basic Wilderness Encounters, is now available!

It is 50% off for the first week or so - but if you bought ANY of my books before, see if you got my e-mail before buying.

I've been obsessing about random encounters for the last few months of my hexcrawl campaign...

I really liked adding them to my games, but there were some aspects that I found troublesome in practice: mostly, it took me too long to generate encounters and the results did not always make sense.

In this book, I try to tackle the whole idea of random encounters: the tables, procedures, terrains, and so on.

The first part of this book is a collection of thoughts, ideas and alternatives for creating random encounters - including reaction, distance, surprise number of monsters appearing, balance, and so on.

The second part is a list of 1000 random encounters (100 for each type of terrain), one line for each, including number, distance, surprise, and a few details, using this format (I added a summary of terrain features for easy reference):

The third part of the book describes a year in the wilderness – giving you a random encounter check, a succinct description of weather and some random details:

Each part can be used separately.

Take a look at the previews to see if you like it!

Writing this book has made using random encounters faster, easier and more fun in my own campaigns - I hope it does the same to yours!

Thursday, March 07, 2024

Update on the wilderness encounter book

I spent most of last weekend working on my wilderness encounter book for B/X.

The first part is a simplification of the random encounter procedure. I like how that turned out; I'll publish most of it in this post blog soon.

The third part describes 366 days in the wilderness. Basically, weather, encounters and a few details for variety.

These parts are mostly finished by now.

The second part is the hardest. It describes, very succinctly, ONE THOUSAND random encounters, with most necessary rolls (number appearing, surprise, reaction). This is how it looks right now:

This was a bit harder than I thought. Rolling dice thousands of times was easy with the help of apps and AI. Same for adding names to NPCs.

The hardest part right now is "confused wolves".

I had a hard time thinking of hundreds of variations for what's the monsters are doing.

I could certainly take some inspiration from this amazing blog d4 caltrops, but I still feel it will get somewhat repetitive anyway. Most aggressive animals and beasts are just hungry or territorial - I can think of a few alternatives, but not hundreds of them.

At least intelligent NPCs, dragons, etc. are looking pretty good IMO.

B/X descriptions are very terse, so I have to add a few details from other sources.

Anyway, it's lots of work, but maybe it is worth it if other people find the book useful.

Well, at least I've been using it in my own sandbox campaign.

And I've been learning a lot about B/X monsters and encounter tables (mountains are VERY dangerous, and troglodytes are SCARY - 5d8 appearing, 2HD, camouflaged, attack everyone).

So for now what I ask you to do, is let me know if that looks interesting/useful, or if you'd change anything.

If this looks interesting and you and want to provide even more feedback, consider joining my discord channel to discuss it.

The book will take a couple of moths or more to complete, but at this point I am pretty confident that it WILL be completed.

BTW: let me know if you have any reservations about the use of apps and AI for dice rolls, random names, etc.

Friday, December 29, 2023

Encounter balance - how I avoid using it

As I have mentioned in the last post, I've been talking about "balanced encounters" on X/Twitter.

I half-jokingly mentioned that if "encounter balance" was real, the monsters would win half the battles [I heard this one from @rbalbi, who credits Carlinhos Malvadeza].

Ended up having a great conversation with balbi, my friend @JensD29 and @optionalrule, which you can check here.

Balbi and Jens had a great back and forth, but I didn't feel X was a good medium for that, so I decided to write this blog post instead of elaborating there.

[Here is Jens' take, BTW; we disagreed].

First, Jens and optionalrule defended that a "balanced encounter" does not mean fair - it is only a way to measure how challenging an encounter is (usually, when compared to the existing party).

They are right. Most people use the expression to indicate how much effort or resources the PCs need to apply to win the fight (not usually to evaluate IF they can win the fight, or the odds of a TPK).

But if "balance" means the PCs always have the upper hand, it should be called "unfair advantage" or "plot immunity".

This is my main problem with "balanced encounters", IMO: it is a misnomer. “Challenge rating”, from 5e D&D, is a better term.

Balanced sounds like it means fair; a 10th-level warrior against a goblin does not sound balanced, but if you call it "very easy"it might make sense,

[While we're at it, a hard encounter should necessarily mean decent changes of defeat. If you do not have the stomach for this, you should call it a "costly" encounter becasue it costs you a spell slot or lots of HP. Anyway.].

"Balance" sounds like two sides are (or should) be similar in power.

Worse, the idea that the monsters the PCs meet should be previously measured against the PC’s capabilities also often carries a lot of (unspoken) assumptions I do not like, such as:

- The world revolves around the PCs. For me, this ruins the feeling of "immersion", or the idea that the setting is a real place and not a playground with clear limits (and height requirements).

- The PCs can solve anything with a fight - since all creatures they encounter is level-appropriate. This may also lead to the belief that every encounter is a fight, which impoverishes the game as it discourages other creative approaches, such as negotiation, planning, sneaking, finding allies or even escaping.

- Every fight is winnable. If the PCs ever see a dragon attacking a city, they know they CAN win. They lose the sense of progress that they would get by encountering a foe that's just too strong for them at first... But that they can defeat later, after they get more XP and magic items.

- The GM picks the fights for the PCs. This is an implication that ties balanced encounters to railroading: why would the GM need to ensure balance if it was up to the PCs to decide if they'll fight a goblin or a dragon next?

Now, I'm not 100% against balanced encounters, as they are useful in a number of ways – for example, writing “for 4-6 characters of levels 5-8” in the cover of an adventure module, or to give you an idea of how many orcs were needed to destroy the kobold city the PCs have just entered.

By the way, I think saying a module is “unbalanced” is fair criticism IF the module indicates the PCs have to fight impossible odds to win (if there are ways AROUND those challenges, the module should disclose that to the GM).

But my games did become a lot better after I stopped worrying about “crafting balanced encounters” for the PCs. Instead, I scatter challenges around, and let the players choose where to go. If they choose violence, well, I have no kobold on this fight - now it is up to the dice.

However, I think that balanced encounters are a (sometimes misguided) solution to a real problem: nobody wants the PCs to be thrown into a fight that they have no chance of winning against their will.

If feels unfair and unfun. It robs the players of choice and even of their own PCs through no fault of their own, and can end a campaign for no good reason.

I think we can avoid this issue without having to worry about how “balanced” the encounters are.
Here are a few suggestions:

- Information – To avoid entering unwinnable fights, the PCs must have some ways to gain access to information about the capabilities of their foes. There are innumerable ways to do that.

Some are obvious (they expect giants to be stronger than goblins), some are more indirect (charred reamins of several people are found near the cave entrance), and part of the information is in the players' memories (from previous adventures, experiences and even pop culture - "did you say Tomb of Horrors?"). Foreshadowing is a popular tecnique.

Consistency is important – if the PCs fought a giant, they know what to expect when they face his biger cousin. Monster stats do not vary that much under most circumstances (which is one of the reasons I disliked 4e minion rules).

The easiest way to balance fights to the PC's capabilities is probably using something similar to dungeon levels (i.e., the deeper you are in the dungeon, the more dangerous the monsters become). In this case, it is up to the players - not the GM - to decide how far they are willing to go ("wilderness levels" is a subject I am tackling soon...)

- Options – Once the PCs have information, it will become obvious that they have options (conversely, if they have NO way to acquire information, their choices about where to go or which door to open are meaningless).

But the players do not simply pick their encounters - they must know they have options even after they encounter a creature. They can avoid, parlay, escape, etc.

- Freedom and responsibility. Now that the PCs have all the tools (and freedom) to make informed choices, encounter balance becomes their responsibility. It takes this load from the GM's back while empowering the players at the same time.

Of course, adding unpredictability to this mix can occasionally be lots of fun. Even with the best information, the PCs can fail.

For example, I was recently playing in another GM's campaign and a critical hit almost caused a TPK in a hard, but otherwise ordinary, encounter (that the PCs were "supposed" to win without heavy losses).

The GM apologized, but I insisted this is part of the game - and, TBH, it was quite fun.

But this is another matter, for another post... maybe in 2024!

Happy new year!

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Skeleton with a bow

I was playing Castlevania and thinking of fun encounters. It got me thinking...

A skeleton in B/X is a 1 HD monster, maybe with 4-5 HP - relatively weak, unless you find half a dozen at once (which is likely).

But picture a skeleton with a bow in a place you cannot access easily - a tower, castle wall, or behind a chasm or river. Maybe you could climb it in, say, three rounds, less if you're a thief.

Now let's give him some resistance to arrows, since it has no flesh or organs. Maybe arrows do 1 point of damage to it at most (or half damage if you don't want to be mean to archers).

And put him in armor. To evil wizards, they are better than mercenaries, since they require no food, sleep, pay, or overtime. No morale checks either.

He is now a bit of a challenge to a group of first-level PCs by himself.

You could use turn undead if you have a cleric. That is, if there is no range/area limit.

But throw a robe over the skeleton and maybe the PCs are not even sure what they're dealing with - until they get close!

Now put ten skeletons with robes and armor over the wall an this becomes a challenge to a level 5 party. We don't even need to raise HP.

A fireball might explode one of them - they are scattered. Charm, hold person, sleep, etc., are all useless here.

Arrows are of limited use, but slings and magic missiles get a chance to shine (even if a longbow has slightly better reach). The thief gets to use his climbing skills in an action scene - maybe even moving silently in the process while his allies take cover.

Come to think of it, is it fair that the skeletons can "see" the PCs? Well they are probably programmed to shoot at anyone who comes near the castle or try to cross a bridge.

If they run out of arrows - they probably only have a few - they might climb down the walls (sounds reasonable but the armor might make things difficult; some may fall and be destroyed in the process, which is a cool scene by itself).

And when the PCs find out what is happening, then the evil wizard unleashes the Bone Golem, to see all the usual tactics (turn undead, fireball and lighting bolts) fail spectacularly.

Sounds like a fun game to me!

Monday, October 23, 2023

Teratogenicon is the DEAL OF THE DAY - 50% off!

Dear friends,

Teratogenicon, our most impressive book, is the DEAL OF THE DAY on DTRPG. - 50% off!

The books is a collection of tables and essays on how to create your own monsters.

It contains one chapter for each of the fourteen most famous monster types (aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, and so on). Each chapter examines specific habits, appearance, goals, traits, powers, origins, and many other topics.

In addition, the appendixes will help you to create stats (for both old school and contemporary games), to roleplay monsters, and to include all monster types into a coherent whole, among other things.

If you haven't got it yet, this is your chance. It is compatible both with OSR and modern RPGs.

If you buy it - or if you already got it - you can also buy my "everything bundle" for a discounted price, after you buy Teratogenicon.

Just check the previews to see if it piques your interest!

And please share, like, upvote and retweet if you can!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/317448/Teratogenicon