Page 86 - Dungeon Master's Guide

CREATI NG R AN DOM E NCOUNTER TABLES
Creating your own random encounter tables is
straightforward. Determine what sort of encounters
might occur in a given dungeon area, figure out the
likelihood of a particular encounter occurring, then
arrange the results. An "encounter" in this case could be
a single monster or NPC, a group of monsters or NPCs,
a random event (such as an earth tremor or a parade),
or a random discovery (such as a charred corpse or a
message scrawled on a wall).
Assemble Your Encounters. Once you've established
a location through which the adventurers are likely to
pass, be it a wilderness area or dungeon complex, make
a list of creatures that might be found wandering there.
If you're not sure which creatures to include, appendix B
has lists of monsters organized by terrain type.
For a sylvan woodland, you might create a table
that includes centaurs, faerie dragons, pixies, sprites,
dryads, satyrs, blink dogs, elks, owlbears, treants, giant
owls, and a unicorn. If elves inhabit the forest, the table
might also include elf druids and elf scouts. Perhaps
gnolls are threatening the woods, so adding gnolls and
hyenas to the table would be a fun surprise for players.
Another fun surprise would be a wandering predator,
such as a displacer beast that likes to hunt blink dogs.
The table could also use a few random encounters of
a less monstrous nature, such as a grove of burned
trees (the handiwork of the gnolls), an ivy-covered
elven statue, and a plant with glowing berries that turn
creatures invisible when ingested.
When choosing monsters for a random encounter
table, try to imagine why the monsters would be
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encountered outside their lairs. What is each monster
up to? Is it on patrol? Hunting for food? Searching for
something? Also consider whether a creature is moving
stealthily as it travels through the area.
As with planned encounters, random encounters
CHECKING FOR RANDOM ENCOUNTERS are more interesting when they happen in memorable
You decide when a random encounter happens, or you locations. Outdoors the adventurers might be crossing
roll. Consider checking for a random encounter once a forest clearing when they encounter a unicorn or
every hour, once every 4 to 8 hours, or once during the be pushing through a dense section of forest when
day and once during a long rest-whatever makes the they come across a nest of spiders. Crossing a desert,
most sense based on how active the area is. characters might discover an oasis haunted by wights or
If you roll, do so with a d20. If the result is 18 or a rocky outcropping on which a blue dragon perches.
higher, a random encounter occurs. You then roll on an Probabilities. A random encounter table can be
appropriate random encounter table to determine what created in a number of ways, ranging from simple (roll
the adventurers meet, rerolling if the die result doesn't ld6 for one of six possible encounters) to complicated
make sense given the circumstances. (roll percentile dice, modify for time of day, and cross-
Random encounter tables might be provided as part index the modified number with the dungeon level). The
of the adventure you're running, or you can use the sample encounter table presented here uses a range of
information in this chapter to build your own. Creating 2 to 20 (nineteen entries total), generated using 1d12
your own tables is the best way to reinforce the themes + 1d8. The probability curve ensures that encounters
and flavor of your home campaign. appearing in the middle of the table are more likely to
Not every run-in with another creature counts as occur than encounters placed at the beginning or end
a random encounter. Encounter tables don't usually of the table. A roll of 2 or 20 is rare (about a 1 percent
include rabbits hopping through the undergrowth, chance of either), while each of the rolls from 9 to 13
harmless rats scurrying through dungeon halls, or occurs a little over 8 percent of the time.
average citizens walking through the streets of a city. The Sylvan Forest Encounters table is an example
Random encounter tables present obstacles and events of a random encounter table that implements the ideas
that advance the plot, foreshadow important elements or mentioned above. Creature names in bold refer to stat
themes of the adventure, and provide fun distractions. blocks that appear in the Monster Manual.

CHAPTER 3 I CREATING ADVENTURES
86