Understanding the Politics and Secrets of Saltmarsh
After writing the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh article (link), I thought it would be helpful to give you a clearer understanding of the relationships and secrets of Saltmarsh’s major NPCs for our rewrite. I changed a lot but also kept some things. I wrote a blog post to help people understand the major npcs and their motivations better. Like ever I hope you steel what you like and throw out what you don't like.
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Damn it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this blog. Having just run my first game of Dungeon Crawl Classics (to my players who might be reading this, love you guys), I’ve realized that DCC is in need of more monsters; or rather, it’s in need of monsters repurposed from things I enjoy, including other games. That sent me spiraling down the rabbit hole of reading through the original 1e AD&D Monster Manuals and Fiend Folio, meticulously cataloging the monsters and treasure types, cursing Gary Gygax’s lack of consistency regarding how individual treasure versus “in lair” treasure is formatted, and once more appreciating what the RPG community can do, even forty years in the future, as the Fiend Folio (which is mostly a compiled list of monsters from the UK Magazine “White Dwarf”) is pretty consistently written when it comes to formatting at least.
That then led me to admiring the encounter tables in the DM’s Guide, and the use of overland encounters and treasure maps as a sort of perpetual motion machine for quest generation. Don’t need to have some haggard old man deliver a little monologue and beg for your players to help them when those greedy bastards are looting treasure maps (with more overland encounters between them and the treasure, not to mention whatever monster lair or crypt the treasure is in) and coming across pilgrimages of cultists out in the dangerous wilds.
Which brings me to my final point, that the encounter table format in the back of the 2nd Monster Manual is actually quite nice, and I felt inspired to make one today. The monsters given are for 1st edition D&D, but many of them exist in other editions of D&D, retroclones, and other fantasy games, so it shouldn’t be impossible, or even difficult, to repurpose this for your own use.
To use the following chart, just roll 1d8 and add it to 1d12, creating a large flat spot of probability in the middle of the chart, ensuring those results will be equally common
Caverns, Primeval
Roll Monster
2 Medusa
3 Demon, Type I (Vrock)
4 Ant, Giant
5 Beetle, Giant Fire
6 Norker
7 Grimlock
8 Ochre Jelly
9 Lizard, Minotaur (80%), or Protein Polymorph (20%)
10 Caveman
11 Troglodyte
12 Centipede, Huge
13 Black Pudding or Zombie
14 Gray Ooze
15 Xorn or Centipede, Giant
16 Ghoul
17 Caveman (Hero) 70% or Grimlock (Villain) 30%
18 Slime, Olive
19 White Pudding
20 Dragon, White, AN
The table above is meant for a large system of caves somewhere so remote as to be totally unsettled, and even untouched by time. Where early humankind dwells in caves, dwarves have not expanded into every nook and cranny, and the elves do not tread. Specifics and further detail on each kind of encounter are as follows:
The Medusa, likely just one, though if the caverns are truly huge enough there may be multiple, exists to answer the question of where humans get their primal fear and distrust of serpents from; it is from her, the serpentine witch that turns men to stone with a hiss and a fatal glance. The Medusa would no doubt be a known (or rumored) terror of the caves to those cavemen who live nearby.
The Type 1 Demon (the Vrock) is on the chart solely as a servant of the Grimlocks or Troglodytes detailed below, likely conjured to wage war or to serve as a guardian for something precious or of religious significance. They do not live here naturally, and will never come to such a place of their own accord.
Giant Ants have not yet overtaken the primal caves, but as some of the oldest insects, they’ve certainly gotten a head start; where they are found at all, they are found in tremendous numbers. Similar things may be said of the Giant Fire Beetles, which do not form groups quite so large, but work in natural opposition to the ants. The centipedes, of which there are many in all sorts of sizes, colors, and shapes, are kings of the cavernous arthropods, and will happily eat both.
Norkers are one of the only two humanoid races besides Humans (next to the Troglodytes). As written in the Fiend Folio, they are a primitive relative to the hobgoblin in much the same way Cavemen or Neanderthals are to humankind.
The Grimlocks that appear on this table are not actually their own species, rather they are those cavemen who in desperation, greed, or sheer malice have found acceptance in the waiting arms of Abyssal powers or Chaos lords, and among them can be found more advanced arms (such as swords and axes of strange material) and armor (no heavier than scale mail) as well as Chaotic (or Chaotic Evil) Clerics and Magic Users. “Villains” may occasionally be found, which will have the best arms and armor available to the tribe, 4 hit dice, and the spellcasting abilities of 3rd level Wizards (or Magic-Users, Shamans, or Elves), as well as a 10% chance to have a magical melee weapon (generate as if it were a magic sword, but it may be a sword, axe, mace, or spear).
The Minotaur Lizards on this table are huge, pale, broad headed lizards which creep through the caverns, eating whatever they can fit into their gullets, be it bug or man. They are plentiful enough, however, that the exceptionally brave (such as large groups of cavemen) may hunt them for food.
Perhaps more plentiful are the Protein Polymorphs, Ochre Jellies, Black or White puddings, Olive Slimes, and Gray Oozes, found all throughout the caverns amidst the many puddles of bubbling, gurgling, proto-biological crud, the primordial soup from which life emerged. Because of the frequency of such foul puddles (many of which are not such slimes), any slime encountered doubles any chance for surprise (I.E. it surprises on a 4 in 6 for most parties, 2 in 6 for those with elves, etc.). Protein Polymorphs are an outlier beside the other slimes, being dangerously clever, and capable of changing their shape and dividing their mass to appear as all manner of inanimate objects or even entire groups of creatures.
Cavemen are cavemen, it’s not that complicated. Heroes exist among them, the biggest and strongest, with up to 4+2 hit dice and saving as 6th level Fighters. These will no doubt have cavemen followers, their friends, companions, and caveman groupies.
Troglodytes exist even in ancient caves as these, and any encountered here will be marginally smarter and well equipped, perhaps these haven’t fallen as far as their more mainstream counterparts; they still bear the same stench, but are 10% more likely to possess magic items and may even have works of writing, magic, or textile art, though these will be crafted without any use for human language or aesthetics, and will thus be alien to those who find them.
Xorn, oddly enough, are plentiful compared to other places on the Prime Material. With only the fading Troglodytes as enemies, and no local industry, expansionist dwarves or modern humans, or need for currency, precious metals and gems are incredibly plentiful, so the xorn flock here to swim through stone, gorge themselves, and sometimes give strange wisdom to those who can understand it.
Ghouls and Zombies appear more often in areas controlled by the Grimlocks, as foul energies flood the caverns and animate the dead that lie there, but the ghouls in particular appear in the same way they usually do; as the result of humanoids resorting to cannibalism in the cold and lightless tunnels.
The Ancient White Dragon will always be the only one of its kind; how and when it got there, not even the Troglodytes can guess, but the weirdest and wisest (if they can be called that) of the Grimlocks may know. Regardless, it has slept here for quite a while, slumbering at the heart of a subterranean expanse of ice and stone, with cruel, simple deathtraps to guard its hoard.
I hope the above encounter table and implied adventuring location is of use to anyone. I might post more in the future :)
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This is a heads up for other DMs or even dedicated players, especially for those interested in detailed, interconnected notes that need to be organised.
Try out Obsidian. It's a stellar note-taking application/program that HAS FULLY SUPPORTED MODS (plugins) in the app itself
This isn't an advert or something, the app is just exactly what I've been wanting for a long time, that I never really acknowledged until someone showed me how insanely useful it could be.
Why does that matter?
The reason 'mods' are so good in such an application is that, usually in note-taking apps, developers stick to a vision and scope and don't go beyond it to keep it all simple for newcomers to pick it up.
The problem with most is that eventually, you get deep into using a note-taking application, and you find an extreme limitation that almost completely roadblocks your progress, and is very infuriatingly annoying to work around.
Obsidian has a solution to this. Community Plugins
The Community Plugins are basically mods that are created by other users like you to fulfill your needs and wants for the darn thing. They used it, found something lacking or something with potential and added it in.
So you can start it default to keep it simple, and when you find that you want something that you want or need, just search it up in-app and add it.
Et voilà! Low skill floor, very very high skill ceiling, extreme customisation as per your preferences and needs.
Any guidance?
There is a guide made specifically for TTRPGs below. The site and the first few videos from the series really helped me get into Obsidian and helped me to explore it all on my own later.
Importantly, they show you how to install the app from scratch, have you enable useful settings, guide you in the basics of plugins, and recommend a bunch of great, useful plugins catered especially to DnD.
For those interested, later parts of the series continue for a really long while as it gets into many intricacies of the app.
Hey all, This is my first Tumblr post ever! I'm pretty new here, but I'm hoping to share some DM techniques, tools and tips and to make some new friends as well! Feel free to send a chat request (an ask[?]) if you're interested!
With that aside, on with the post!
Better and More Meaningful Random Encounters!
Random encounters are a staple of DnD, they are expected to be there during exploration as a way to make the world feel alive, to have it have an aura of adventure and danger, to eat up party resources and put pressure on the PCs to make interesting and important choices, and also as a way for a DM to reasonably 'stall' the party with a quick and easy situation.
Usually, it ends up something like this:
There's just one problem with most random encounter tables though, it's so easy for them to be GOSHDARN BORING! Especially for a newer DM.
Making them interesting becomes gambled improv on the DM's part if they're not used to it, and it's hard to keep track of the important factors that need to be kept in mind
Luckily, I ended up finding a great source for random encounters from 'Dungeon Masterpiece' on YouTube, and I integrated it into my own DMing. I figured that I'd share it here for any that want to work it into their own sessions as well!
After adjustment, a single table can account for multiple entire sessions of in-depth worldbuilding and fun without getting dull!
Sources:
Source 1 (Creating interesting Random Encounter Tables):
Source 2 (Making Random Encounters reflect your Worldbuilding):
There's 4 major methods we can use to improve the Random Encounter table
1. Make the table a straight 1dx roll.
2. Adding 'depth'.
3. Adding meaningful encounters.
4. Prerolling and/or Multirolling.
You can also check out the "Where to Start?" section for some direction to make getting it down and prepped all easy peasy!
1. Straight Roll:
Its enticing to go for 2d6 or the such in order to add non-linearity to the rolls, but these sorts of adjustments only end up making one or two encounters extremely likely and leave all others in the dust, it often ends up defeating it's own purpose of interesting randomness.
In the previous example, it was extremely likely to only get Wolves, Barbarians, Orcs, or Spiders, from a table of 12! A straight roll would serve us much better. The rare rolls are already rare enough as is!
Simply enough, adjusting the original example by replacing the 2d6 with 1d12, it'd become something more like this:
#2. Adding Depth:
We can add more columns in the encounter tables. These columns will represent different aspects about the encounters that we can roll on separately!
Usually it can be difficult as a DM to naturally come up with motives for the encounters, showcase the worldbuilding and have it all come together.
This setup can give you a solid guideline on how the creatures/people think (if any), and also sets up the overall area so that you get an idea of what events tend to occur there as a result of its occupants.
We want to add 3 more columns to the tables to convey different aspects of the encounter. Fill in these new columns corresponding to the expectations of each encounter.
We'll roll each of these and combine them, then we'll interpret them to make a robust, in-depth random encounter with truly unexpected results!
I recommend rolling alot of complete encounters at once and interpreting the context to the vast general area the party is travelling in.
i. Behaviour: How the creatures act. Are they friendly, scared, aggressive, curious, mischievous?
ii. Complication: Something behind the scenes in the encounter. Do they have sick young? Broken equipment? Are they starving?
iii. Significant Impact: This is a tick box, and will only be present under ONE of the rows. It will be rolled like the other columns, but ONLY once. It signifies which encounter is the Significant Encounter
The Significant Encounter will have its encounter's presence prominent amongst all the other random encounters in the area. There could be burn marks and carcasses from a rampant dragon, or a goblin raid leaving tracks moving through the area. Which is the most impactful of the different encounters?
Adding this to our previous example would expand it to:
Rolling this would give us things like:
Significant encounter: Owlbears
Note that the significant impact shows that the Owlbears are a massive problem in the area. Perhaps the Owlbears are agitated for an unknown reason, and are unnecessarily aggressive.
The significance of Owlbears gives us context to the second one as well! Perhaps the hunters raided an Owlbear den, and adopted an Owlbear cub from there as well.
There could be uneaten carcasses, ravaged trees, less wildlife, etc around these parts.
Note how much sheer CONTEXT these columns add to our encounters. It's invaluable!
3. Adding Meaningful Encounters
Usually random encounters tend to be rather mundane and very one-note.
There's usually some general wildlife and monsters, different disparate factions without any rhyme or reason, and maybe a general non-combat encounter or two, but these don't really tell us about the area or its surroundings at all by themselves.
Instead, we can add in wildlife and monster encounters specific to the biome, non-combat encounters, and encounters of nearby factions and/or settlements to the table, and we can even add environmental encounters in there as well.
Note that we're not tied down to 12 encounters, and can expand it ad infinitum according to our need of diversity in our encounters.
Just add in specification and connection, and suddenly the dominos all fall into place.
Lastly, we'll also be adding in 'DOUBLE TIME' which will let us roll on everything twice, and make it so it's a double encounter!
Thus, the table can instead be adjusted to:
Note how each and everything has its relation in one way or another, but through the sheer variance, they remain truly random and novel.
4. Prerolling and/or Multirolling
Lastly and this is just something that I do, but that I found gamechanging. Be sure to pre-roll 5-7 encounters for each session, for the general area the players are going to be headed in.
Note that you don't need to really prep anything at all, just interpret all of them on a surface level as a buffer.
Also note that you don't need to use all of them if they're not needed. The foreshadowing and signs are worldbuilding and having secrets that the players don't unravel is just as useful as the ones that they do, perhaps even moreso. It adds depth and detail beyond the scope of what the party will encounter
It simply let's you get an idea of the connections between encounters, allows for foreshadowing, and acts as a deterrent to getting caught off guard.
Even if you roll mid-session, I recommend calling for a 5 minute break, rolling 5-7 encounters at the same time and interpreting them and their connections before resuming the session.
It WILL make a difference, trust me
Where to start?
It can be difficult getting inspiration or direction to get started in creating these random encounters, and sometimes you don't want to go through the hassle of thinking them up from nothing
For some great conceptual headstarts and examples for these tables, you can check out 'Worlds Without Number' and it's:
- Page 205 (Great general templates for encounters differentiated by broad creature types such as Beasts and Monsters, Sapient Monsters, and Humans)
- Pages 206-219 (For inspired locations to occasionally run rare encounters or groups of encounters in. This works best with flexible/discovered worldbuilding given the significance of some of these, and you also want to add these in sparingly to keep them significant)
- Pages 246-247 (These pages have great templates for the kinds of encounters and situation to be included in the tables, and it can be expanded vastly, and certain options can be selectively and repeatedly chosen to meet our needs. Mood works well as a complication.)
There might be other pages that are useful as well for these sorts of random encounters in the wilderness that I haven't come across yet. If so, give them a shout out and I'll be sure to add them in. It's worth checking it out in its entirety for some great tips!
Conclusion
Again, credit goes to Dungeon Masterpiece and Worlds Without Number for excellent adjustments. This has been quite long, but I hope you stuck around till the end.
Many a session have been made easy but complex ever since this was introduced and I hope that this helps you out as much as it helped me in my prep and improv!
Feel free to give any advice in formatting on Tumblr, or any feedback on the post itself. It really means a lot to me, thanks!
