Wilderness Encounter Tables

I have been emptying out my Northern Marches binder so that it may serve as my Borderlands Binder. I found the table below in that binder. It was the wilderness encounter table for a small coastal mountain range called the Goblin Teeth.

Roll d6:
1 & 2: Encounter (roll 2d6):

2 - roll twice
3 - Griffons
4 - Giant Hawks
5 - Mountain Goats (see Antelopes)
6 - Black Bears
7 - Goblins
8 - Hobgoblins
9 - Mountain Lions
10 - Brigands
11 - Neanderthals
12 - Roll on Dim Forest Encounter Table

3: Obstacle (roll d6):

1 & 2 - Coastal storm (rain, snow, low cloud, freezing temperature, etc)
3 - Rock slide / Avalanche
4 - Box canyon
5 - Goblin snare
6 - Crumbling ledge

4: Clues / Signs (roll d8):

1 & 2 - Goblin totem
3 & 4 - Hear goblin drums
5 - Griffon feather / abandoned griffon or giant hawk nest
6 - Hear griffon or giant hawk call
7 - Goblin trail
8 - small forgotten shrine to (d6) 1&2 Orcus, 3&4 Zeus, 5 Ares, 6 Demeter

5: Special (roll d6)

1 - 15ft tall statue of (d6) 1&2 Orcus, 3&4 Zeus, 5 Ares, 6 something bizarre
2 - Stone stepped pyramid (stock as dungeon, level = 1d4)
3 - Statue of Athena - will answer 1 yes-no question per day, asker will be struck by a 6d6 lightening bolt of question is not a yes-no question
4 - Pile of rusted goblin swords, spearheads, etc
5 - Small 3-level tower (stock as dungeon, level = 1d6)
6 - Abandoned climbing gear

6: Good fortune (roll d6):

1 to 3 - find enough wild food to eat, don't have to use any rations for next 1d4 days (10% poisonous)
4 & 5 - Find hidden cache of 1d6 items of normal adventuring equipment
6 - Find medicinal plant that will cure poison (1d6 doses that will keep for 1d6 days)

Castles in the Wilderness

I have been reading my OD&D books again in anticipation of receiving my Swords & Wizardry White Box in the mail - it still hasn't arrived yet = {

I have also been browsing my B/X rulebooks for the Red Box Calgary game.

Each of those versions of D&D have information and rules about encountering a castle in the wilderness. This is another one of those "gameist" things about early D&D that I love.

In the OD&D books, the text specifically mentions the Outdoor Survival playing board and that ponds indicate castles.

B/X doesn't have the same relationship with a board game so I have always used the random wilderness encounter tables to indicate when a castle is encountered. The B/X wilderness encounter tables give chances to encounter "Fighter", "Cleric", and "Magic-user" in addition to "NPC Party" and "Adventurers". When the result was one of the singular I would often use that as a castle encounter.

The part that I like best is that each of these editions has a very simple table to determine what happens. I actually somewhat prefer the OD&D tables as they are crazier that the B/X versions.

The OD&D tables give a chance that the Lord or Necromancer or Evil High Priest (EHP) that owns the castle to have retainers such as Giants or Manticores or Vampires.

The B/X tables are much more boring in that they just list the horsemen patrols. It does give a suggestion that the "rest of the force" may include trolls or superheroes mounted on Griffons but I like that these types of things are the default in OD&D.

I also love that the OD&D rules say that Fighting Men will demand a jousting match and will demand the loser's armour if he wins. Magic-users are complete dicks and send passersby on errands by using Geas. And Clerics demand tithes and use a Quest spell or just try to kill the passersby if they are unable to pay.

The B/X rules are more staid with the castle owner either chasing the party off the lord's land, ignoring the party, or being friendly (either feigned or genuine).

Of course, as with all things in D&D (especially older editions), the imagination of the DM and the reactions of the players are the only limiting factors to these types of encounters but I love the fact that the default setting of these early editions includes this kind of stuff.

What I did today - besides watch hockey

I sat down at the local gaming store and played B/X D&D with A Paladin in Citadel and his son and Roger of Stirges Suck. Hopefully one of the players will post a session summary over at Red Box Calgary. Of course, I forgot to take a picture...

They did an excellent job in the Caves of Chaos using the tactical opportunities available from the cavern layout and killed 23 orcs with only one party fatality!

I had a great time. It was good to sit down with a couple of guys whose blogs I have been following and get some gaming in.

Of course, then I watched the hockey game. I am a very proud Canadian.

Yes They Are!

They are indeed beautiful!
Along with my black on white Labyrinth Lord dice.

Cal-Con and International Traditional Gaming Week

The local gaming convention, Cal-Con, is held during the final weekend (March 26th-28th) of International Traditional Gaming Week. Last year was the first time I had ever been to a con and I had a great time.

I have been pondering what I am going to run at the con this year and I decided that I am specifically going to run two separate things:

1. I am going to run two sessions of either A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity or S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth using Labyrinth Lord and the new Advanced Edition Companion. Which do you think I should run and why?
EDIT: I am also still considering running Stonehell with the base Labyrinth Lord rules.

and





2. I am going to run two sessions of Keep on the Borderlands using 4E.





I am also a herald-level DM so I will likely get roped into running some RPGA stuff as well.

Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion

I don't do reviews. My taste is likely different than yours. My likes and dislikes are often emotionally based instead of determined by analysis and careful thought. I also don't want to deal with whatever legal hassles the U.S. government may decide to impart on me.

But I will tell you what I think about it...

I received the art-less pdf copy of the AEC for being a member of the Labyrinth Lord Society. I liked it so much I ordered the hardcover from Lulu even with the shipping costs. As mentioned in actual reviews, it does a fantastic job of recreating the way my group of friends played "advanced" Dungeons & Dragons when we moved on from B/X.

The Odds are Stacked in Favour of B/X Characters

There is a thread over at RPGnet where a DM asks for advice in helping reduce the fatality rate of the characters.

There is an excellent reply by Galadrin which focuses on the subsystems in B/X that really help improve character survival. These are things I have mentioned a number of times here but I liked the way that he put it.

PC's actually have a very high survival probability, when you think about it. Here is my argument, with page citation in bold.

1) If you think about it, by the book, every 1st level character except Magic-Users and Thieves is running around with AC 2 (Plate Mail and Shield is only 70 of the average 110 gp for starting characters, B12). Assuming the average party size of 7 (B19), that means 5 of the 7 characters are only hit 20% of the time (and with an average 5-6 hit points, thanks to the last line of B6, they need to be hit twice on average to inflict a casualty). That means a character must be attacked 10 times (on average) to kill him.

2) Combine this with the caveat that allows a Magic-User to pick his first spell (B16), very likely "Sleep", and you have a pretty tough party.

3) But who needs Sleep, when monsters only attack 28% of the time (B24)?

4) Even when a fight does break out, monsters tend to flee when they take their first casualty (B27).

5) All of these factors make it more likely that you can snag the treasure without a hard slog for it. The lair treasure of 24 Hobgoblins is already more than a quarter of a level for that group of 7, with even more for unguarded treasure, monster XP and so on.