Tripwire or timer?

Encounter check overhaul.

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Encounter checks are part of many rpgs, particularly NSR/OSR games. There’s lots of ways they’ve been implemented over the years, from the classic approach you’d find in Old School Essentials to Goblin Punch’s Underclock. Here’s an approach I’ve been circling around.

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Turns

I realised I don’t want to track how many turns have passed to trigger an encounter check e.g. every three turns in a dungeon. I’m finding ‘scheduled’ encounter rolls don’t feel diegetic to me (I stress feel, there’s nothing objective about it).

I want to do encounter rolls in the way ‘Dungeon Events’ are triggered in Cairn 2e. Which in short, is whenever it makes sense e.g. player characters make noise, spend too long in one place, go somewhere very dangerous, or act without caution. I roll an encounter when it makes sense, not because it’s time to.

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Quicker rolls

The traditional method is rolling a check for encounters (the first roll) then rolling on the encounter table (the second roll). I prefer the one-roll approach, where you use an encounter table with some entries that have no encounter.

Take the table below from Tephrotic Nightmares for Mork Borg - if you roll a 5 you get a Dustilion encounter. If you roll anything above 46, there is no encounter. It’s quicker and simpler.

Image Credt: Tephrotic Nightmares

I find a d20 table more manageable than the example above for smaller scale preparation and also easier to roll up with physical dice.

Fill up as much of the encounter table as you need to represent the risk of the area i.e. for a 50% chance of encounter, fill entries 1-10. As a baseline I go for 6 entries.

20: Encounter 1

19: Encounter 2

18: Encounter 3

17: Encounter 4

16 Encounter 5

15: Encounter 6

14-1: Nothing

Another option is a d66 table with encounter entries for doubles:

11: Encounter 1

22: Encounter 2

33: Encounter 3

44: Encounter 4

55: Encounter 5

66: Encounter 6

Chris McDowall goes for six entry encounter tables in Into the Odd. Six-entry tables force you to pick thematic stuff, and don’t feel like a big task. You’ll also find 4-entry tables in the starter adventurers for Mork Borg and Cy_Borg, which are even more straightforward to craft.

A d100 table works for a large region, and though I’d be tempted to make tables for subregions instead, I see the appeal of having a d100 table for a big hexcrawl.

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Risk

I’ve tried to build in risk granularity into encounter rolls before. However, when players trigger encounter rolls through events and circumstances, the risk granuality isn’t really needed. No rolling at advantage or disadvantage, I just roll when it makes sense. ~less work for me~

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What goes in the table?

It’s old school, but my encounter tables are only for creatures. If the area is safer, less dangerous encounters go in it. If an encounter is ‘spent’, I cross it out and write in something new for next session.

I pre-roll creature reactions for encounter tables where I want the inspiration, using my Reaction Table Overhaul, and refresh these once an encounter is used (where needed). Or I might make a table of wants for a creature, like in my Mork Borg module M1: Blood and Salt, and roll on that.

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Wrap up

I’ve simplified my encounter procedure and I think it’s a good move for both my prep and also for running sessions. It might work out for you too.

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Recommendation

Blog: I was trawling through the Bastionland blog and found a post about travel from last year. Overland travel has been on my design mind for months at this point, and Chris does a good job of talking about building decisions into overland travel.