Justisaur:
Depends on what game & edition.
The specifics do, sure. I'm thinking more generally. Full disclosure though: if I used this concept, it would be with 4th Edition D&D. I know that system well enough that I think it can work, but that why I'm asking for some clarification.
Justisaur:
For 1e AD&D for instance I'll roll a reaction adjusted by the highest or party leader cha and racial preferences if necessary. Some creatures always attack (or run if outnumbered,) for instance orcs will always attack if there's elves in the party.
Okay, so you have a basic sense of the behavior of some creatures. Do you take this from their rules entry, or make it up based on your setting and the region, or what? Is it brief notes like "orcs hate elves" or do the behaviors get more involved?
Justisaur:
I also like to think or roll up a motivation for an encounter.
I think that's key. I think part of why wandering monsters became less of a thing is because the motivations either weren't there or didn't tie into anything or served to pull in a different direction from the "plot."
Justisaur:
I'll also note that Mentzer's commented he will often just say something like "You wipe out some goblins on the way" if he rolls some up when his very high level party are travelling.
I like that. It seems like it's all relative too. The high-level characters mop up some goblins, but the low-level characters might easily take care of some rabid dogs, or something.
Lord Gwydion:
Everything you need to answer those questions is provided in Classic D&D, too.
I believe that, I think I just didn't see them as a coherent whole back when I was using more classic stuff. Separately, it didn't make sense or seem fun to me.
Do you recommend a specific source for some good guidelines or examples?
Lord Gwydion:
If you roll for a wandering monster/random encounter, it gives you a die roll to determine distance between parties, a surprise roll to see if either side catches the other off guard, and a reaction roll table to get an idea of how the monsters will react to the party. Oh, and morale checks to determine if they lose the will to keep fighting.
One thing that worries me about wandering monsters since D&D 3.0 is how it should mesh with the skills that allow for detection. I'm concerned that I'll generate a distance between the parties and it will be within the range someone thinks they should have detected it. I can think of some general ways to handle that, but is there guidance in the rules anywhere, or does anyone have a good system they use?
LonePaladin:
But if there's a random chance at any time of having something come traipsing by, then the GM has to keep an eye out for that and be ready to run whatever turns up.
How do they make ready? Just have a good working knowledge of the creatures on the table?
LonePaladin:
With some dungeons, the chance of a wandering encounter is checked on a regular basis (like once per turn or once per hour). Others use that, but also include an immediate check if the group does anything particularly noisy (like a loud battle, or falling down in plate armor). Some even go so far as to make a wandering encounter automatic with loud noise, which means some fight scenes immediately get harder.
I like that approach more than time keeping. Using 4th edition, it could tie well to a skill challenge, I think.
LonePaladin:
Embrace randomness. There are plenty of tools online to streamline the process of rolling up random encounters.
Could you recommend some specific ones, either here or in a PM? I'll poke around too, but I haven't had much luck.
LonePaladin:
And run with whatever turns up -- it doesn't always have to be a combat, and those things that are looking for a fight don't have to be fair. If your 9th-level party runs into a goblin patrol, let them. Maybe they'll let them go by, or decide to slaughter them just to flex their muscles.
I think I'd generally want my tables
not to roll up additional fights, because that's part of what turned me off them originally. I'd much rather that it was an interesting and perhaps very quick situation. If I roll "red dragon" on the table, I assume I can determine exactly what that means. Maybe they see it overhead and have a chance to try to hide from it, but if it sees them it just takes note, roards and flies on. It's got a life, after all. Or, it's feeding, or caught in a trap, or wounded after killing some other group of adventurers. Or, I roll "red dragon" and what shows up is a wandering sorcerer (the dragon in disguise) who scopes the party out, or even offers them a job. Is that still in the spirit of the concept?
LonePaladin:
And if that 3rd-level party encounters a pack of trolls? Well, how it turns out depends on how much warning they get. If your PCs know this is a possibility, they should exercise caution when traveling.
I think this is another reason why wandering monsters are less popular. I remember seeing a table with "1d4 cockatrices" as a possible outcome. I looked up what cockatrices could do and decided I didn't ever want to use them, let alone as something that might just pop up randomly in the middle of a cool and waste the whole party, or enough of the PCs to take the wind out of everyone's sails. If everyone is prepared for high character turn-over (or I can think of something interesting for cockatrices to be doing other than attacking the party) that's something else, but at least in my younger days that was never the case.
Thanks for the advice and feedback. I'm open to more on this topic, if anyone has it.