d20 Necromancer Games The Mother of All Encounter Tables.pdf

The Mother of

All Encounter Tables

Credits

Design

Bill Webb and Greg Ragland

Layout and Typesetting

Charles A. Wright

Author

Greg Ragland

Developer

Bill Webb

Interior Art

Heather Hudson

Front & Back Cover Design

Ed Bourelle

Producer

Clark Peterson

Playtesters

The numerous players in Bill’s, Greg’s,

and Clark’s games!

Special Thanks

Our fans who visit our website for input

and assistance.

Editor

Bill Webb

D20 Content Editor

Scott Greene

Art Director

Davis Chenault

This product requires the use of the Dungeons and Dragons®

Player’s Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast®.

permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. Necromancer Games, Necromancer Games, Inc. and the

Necromancer Games logo, The Tomb of Abysthor, Bard’s Gate, Demons and Devils, The Crucible of Freya,

The Wrath of Orcus, Rappan Athuk and The Dungeon of Graves are trademarks of Necromancer Games, Inc.

Games, Inc. Creature Collection, Creature Collection 2 and Relics and Rituals are trademarks of Sword

and Sorcery Studio and are used by permission. “D20 System” and the D20 System logo are trademarks

owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used under the terms of the D20 Trademark License. Dungeons and

Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast and are used in accordance

with the Open Game License contained in the Legal Appendix.

This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements

are ction and intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.

Check out Necromancer Games online at

http://www.necromancergames.com

And check out Troll Lord Games online at

http://www.trolllord.com

NECROMANCER

GAMES

THIRD EDTION RULES,

FIRST EDITION FEEL

PRINTED IN THE USA.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

isn’t great). I don’t know about you, but I always nd

myself using a normal group of “staple” monsters in my

encounters. Undead. Ogres. Trolls. Using these tables,

we believe, will help you break out of your encounter

design rut if you are in one and perhaps try monsters

as encounters that you would not ordinarily use even if

you weren’t in a rut.

3. Idea Resources. Unlike session prep where you

know the type of encounter you need, idea generation is

just taking a random result or two and using that idea

to create a story or a lair or an adventure. Use these tables

to help you create fresh ideas that you wouldn’t ordinarily

come up with yourself. You will nd this a really great

inspiration as well as a refreshing change. Your players will,

too. So use these tables to give you ideas for encounters.

And then, once you have generated the encounter, come

up with a reason for the existence of the encounter. Turn

it into an adventure, or maybe even a mini-campaign.

Get creative. Twist things around. Let’s say the encounter

you randomly generate are some treants. Make them evil

treants. Better yet, infernal treants. Then generate some

servant creatures for them. Come up with a reason why

they are working together. It is surprising how quick

these random ideas get your creative juices owing in

new directions. Now all of a sudden you have a cool

adventure idea. All that from a few rolls to generate

ideas. Amazing.

Welcome to the Mother of All Encounter Tables!

I think you will agree this book lives up to its title.

It contains nothing but tables, tables and more tables

full of encounters and special events. This book is a

DM’s best friend.

Find yourself preparing for a game session and noticing

you tend to create the same type of encounter again and

again. Need some ideas to help you break out of the normal

orcs and ogres type of encounter? Perhaps your players

wandered off somewhere you hadn’t planned for them

to go and you need an encounter right away. Or maybe

they are roaming the shadowed alleys of their favorite

fantasy city and you want to know who or what they run

into. Are your players exploring the dark caverns beneath

the earth or a deadly dungeon of your own devising?

Then this book is for you.

This is not just a random book of tables, but a well

thought out DM utility that makes wilderness travel,

city streets and dungeon corridors all more interesting. It

contains encounters for each terrain type from mountains

to seas, in each climate from arctic to tropical, and has

separate tables for day and night encounters. Also factored

in are relative rarities of individual encounters. Space

has even been left for you to insert new monsters from

your own favorite books.

In addition to encounters with monsters and men, there

are tables for unusual weather events, strange occurrences,

accidents, and encounters with NPCs. Trade routes and

caravans are detailed as well as trolls and dragons. After all,

you never know when ants will infest your players’ food, or

when the cleric will get struck by lightning!

When To Use This Book

We love tables. And if you picked up this book then

chances are you do, too. Though there are probably

hundreds of reasons why you might use this book, we have

found three primary times that we wind up pulling this

book off the shelf or out of our backpacks.

1. Random Encounters. The most obvious use for

a series of random encounter tables is, of course, for

random encounters. Your players wander into an area

that you hadn’t expected them to go and you need an

encounter. No problem. Follow the rules below and you

will have a few encounters suitable for the appropriate

situation in no time.

2. Session Preparation. You know that your players

are heading through the Jungle of Death and you want to

prepare some encounters ahead of time. Roll a few results.

Get creative. Choose the best ones. This is perhaps our

favorite way to use this book (not that using it on the y

Generating Encounters

Generating encounters with this book could not be

easier.

1. Turn to Section 1: the Master Tables at the front of

this book. That is where it all starts. There, you determine

if you want an Overland, Urban, Trade Route, Overseas,

Underwater or Subterranean encounter.

2. Roll on the appropriate Master Table using d100,

meaning you roll two ten-sided dice reading the rst die as

the tens digit and the second die as the ones digit. 00 is 100.

For example “9, 6” would be 96. “0, 8” would be 8. Using

two different color ten-sided dice helps you remember

which is the tens digit and which is ones digit.

3. Cross-reference your roll on the Master Table to

determine the type of encounter you have. This refers you to

the next table. Several of the Master Tables have sub-types.

For instance, Trade Route Encounters and Subterranean

Encounters require you to specify if the encounter occurs

on a Major Road, Secondary Road or a Trail (remember,

if there is no road, it is a Overland Encounter); or for the

THE MOTHER OF ALL ENCOUNTER TABLES

Subterranean table if the encounter occurs in a Primary

Passage, Secondary Passage, Tertiary Passage or if it is

in an Aquatic setting.

Your roll on this table then leads you to the next table

where you roll your actual encounter. For example, let’s

say you need a Subterranean Encounter and you determine

your PCs are traveling along a Secondary Passage. You roll

d100 on the “Subterranean Encounter” Master Table and

look under the “Secondary Passage” column. If you roll a

59, that means you have no encounter. If you roll a 13, that

means you have a Creature Encounter and must roll on The

Creature Encounter Table, Table 2-7.

4. Determine your climate type, be it arctic, sub-arctic,

temperate, sub-tropical or tropical.

5. Find the appropriate sub-table, if any. Some tables

have sub-tables. For example, the Subterranean Monster

Table is divided into Table 2-7A and 2-7B, the rst is for

close to the surface and the second is for truly deep below

ground (like the Underdark).

6. Roll on the indicated table using d1000. That’s

right, d1000. All you have to do is get one more d10

(preferably of a different color than the other two d10s you

used above). Go to the table indicated from the result on

the Master Table you rolled on above. Roll all three d10s.

One is the hundreds digit, the other is the tens digit and the

last one is the ones digit. 000 is 1000. Easy as pie. Now

cross-reference that result in the relevant column of the

table you were guided to from the Master Table.

For example, the “13” you rolled above on the

Subterranean Encounter table led you to the Creature

Encounter Table (Table 2-7).

7. Determine intent. This is mostly up to you. You

don’t have to have every encounter be a combat encounter.

Perhaps the creatures want information. Or perhaps they

need help. Maybe they want to spy on the party. Or maybe

they want to trade with the party. Consult the Player’s

Handbook and the DMG for more about NPC attitudes or

see the sidebox to randomly generate attitudes.

8. Lather, rinse, repeat until your players have had

enough or until you have generated the needed number

of encounters.

Attitudes

The DMG and the Player’s Handbook detail

several types of attitudes the monsters and NPCs

you encounter may have towards the party: hostile,

unfriendly, indifferent, friendly and helpful. You

should always choose the one that best ts the

encounter and the particular situation. Most people

encountered are indifferent. Most monsters are

unfriendly but not necessarily hostile. Characters

may make Diplomacy or Charisma checks (or Wild

Empathy checks on animals) to inuence attitudes.

Refer to the Diplomacy skill in the Player’s

Handbook for more information.

Sometimes, though, it is fun to generate

attitudes randomly. This can create interesting

story ideas. Remember, though, that your common

sense should control.

d20 Attitude

1-4 Hostile

5-9 Unfriendly

10-15 Indifferent

16-18 Friendly

19-20 Helpful

Modiers (cumulative)

Same general alignment or ethos, if obvious +4

Opposite alignment or ethos, if obvious

-4

Predatory or naturally warlike creature

-2

What This Book Does Not

There are a few things this book does not do.

1. It does not dictate how often you should have

an encounter. You should refer to the guidelines from

the DMG, as detailed in chapter 3, under “Wandering

Monsters,” “Random Wilderness Encounters,” and “Urban

Encounters” to see what they suggest. Then just do it

however you want.

2. It does not divide tables by Encounter Level

(“EL”). We leave that to your discretion. It would have

been way too confusing to have a sub-table for all 20+

possible ELs for each of the tables in this book. So

we decided the best thing was to put them all together.

That means the Subterranean Monsters table has EL 1/8

encounters and EL 20 encounters. As the DM you know

your group and know what encounters will be best for

them. We do list the CR of each monster, however, so that

you can compute the nal EL of the encounter depending

on the number of monsters encountered. See the sidebar for

more on how to compute Encounter Levels and also refer

to the DMG, chapter 3, “Challenge Ratings and Encounter

Levels,” for details on what Encounter Level of encounter

is appropriate for the level of your group.

level characters wandering around in a dungeon. You need

an encounter. You roll on the Master Table and get a

creature encounter from Table 2-7. You use Table 2-7A

because they are not that far under ground. You roll

“102,” which is a result of 2-12 giant bombardier beetles.

You roll 2d6 (which gives you a range of 2-12) and

get 4, meaning there are 4 beetles. Each beetle is CR

2, so 4 of them is EL 6.

That is obviously not challenging enough for your PCs.

So you roll again. Lets say you roll a 815, a Roper (EL

10, still EL 10 with the beetles)! Perhaps you decide

that the Roper uses the beetles as a distraction to attack

large opponents, thereby making it easier to take down

unsuspecting larger prey. Perhaps he waits until opponents

are busy with the beetles, perhaps he has them “tamed”,

and has created a symbiotic relationship with them for

sharing food, its all up to you!

4. It doesn’t trump your creativity. The best ideas for

your campaign are always your own. This book is an aid.

If you roll a result using this book but you think that an

encounter that you thought up would be better, scrap the

random result and use your idea.

5. It doesn’t promote the idea of “random monsters.”

Again, this book is an aid. We aren’t intending to promote

the idea that campaigns should be nothing but a string of

random encounters. If you don’t want randomness, don’t

use this book for that. Use it as a preparation tool.

6. It doesn’t limit you to one roll. As discussed above

when you have generated an encounter that is too easy,

perhaps you roll a second time and add that second monster

as a “boss” monster over the rst monsters you generated.

Don’t limit yourself. Roll twice. Roll three times. Use

those results. Get creative. Come up with a reason for that

encounter. It will spark your creativity.

Encounter Levels

The ELs we have listed in the tables are for one

of the creature encountered (which is equal to the

creature’s Challenge Rating, see the DMG, chapter

3, “Challenge Ratings and Encounter Levels.” The

tables, however, provide for a range of numbers

of creatures encountered. Encounters with multiple

creatures obviously have a higher EL. Here is how

to gure the EL of an encounter. Once you get used

to it, it is real easy.

Rule of Thumb: for creatures above CR 1, doubling

the number of monsters increases the CR by 2. An

encounter with 1 doppelganger is EL 3. 2 are EL 5.

4 are EL 7. For creatures of CR 1, adding a second

CR 1 monster only raises the EL by 1. From then

on, doubling the monsters raises the EL by 2. For

creatures less than CR 1, whose CR is expressed as a

fraction, multiply the CR by the number of monsters.

For example, 8 CR 1/2 orcs would be EL 4. 8 CR 1/4

kobolds would be EL 2.

Mixed Pairs: an encounter that contains several

monsters of different CRs is more difcult to determine.

Generally, a monster that has a companion creature of a

CR 2 lower than the primary creature adds 1 to the EL.

Thus, a CR 7 monster with a CR 5 companion monster

would have an EL of 8.

Creatures as Groups: In determining mixed pairs

when there are large groups of monsters, it is best to

determine the EL for each group. For example, let’s

take an encounter with 8 orcs and 2 ogres. The orcs are

CR 1/2. 8 orcs are EL 4. Ogres are CR 3. 2 ogres are EL

5. Using the mixed pairs rule above, together they are

an EL 6 (adding 1 to the higher EL).

How To Customize This

Book

In today’s d20 world there are tons of monster books

out there, aside from the ofcial books. Different DMs

have different collections. And even DMs with the same

collections have different favorite monsters.

We wanted to create a set of tables that were

customizable. It will take a little work to customize the

charts. That couldn’t be avoided, since there is just no

way to know what books each DM owns. This way,

our tables are useful to every DM with just a little

tweaking. We hope you nd that exibility to your liking.

If you don’t want exibility, see the “Simple Solution”

section, below.

3. It is not a substitute for common sense. If you

generate an encounter that is certain death or (perhaps even

worse) wildly under-challenging for your group, discard or

modify it. This book is not an oracle that must be obeyed. It

is a tool for you to aid you prepare for sessions and help you

with unique encounters in a pinch. You should never, ever

justify an encounter to your players by saying “hey, that’s

what I rolled in the book.” Again, refer to the DMG, chapter

3, “Challenge Ratings and Encounter Levels.”

If you generate something you think is too hard or too

easy, either re-roll or modify what you rolled. If you rolled

an encounter that is too easy, you might just roll again

and add this new result as the “boss creature” leading the

creatures that you generated originally.

For example, let’s say you have a party of four 10th

Everyone owns the “MM.” The MM? MM stands for

“the ofcial monster book by the guys that make the game.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: