A Tale of Two Encounters

Or, overturned DM expectations and what to do about it.

This session I tried to run a scary encounter. I set the scene by having NPCs in town describe the place the PCs were going as deadly. The locale was a half sunken derelict ship and I happened to roll bad on the weather chart so they boarded the ship under dark clouds in rain.  All was going well and at first it worked. The monster creeped out of the dark, the players made the quick decision to run, everyone was engaged. But then a regular combat broke out. The players got some good rolls and they made their saving throws against what I thought would be its devastating attack. The monster, injured and inept, slunk back into the darkness and the PCs when on with their looting. (you know, like they do)

Later I thought about the previous session when a random monster encounter at night (a throw away encounter really) turned into a tense and deadly fight ending with the Magic-User casting her most powerful spell. The PCs were aboard ship and at anchor at night, when sea scorpions crawled onto the deck. Those scorpions got a string of amazing rolls.  There were five of them and they rolled 4 or 5 natural 20s in two rounds. 20s are criticals in our game for both the PCs and the monsters.

In light of the two above contrasting examples, I've got some advice for myself and anyone else who has had similar experiences.


How to make putz monsters entertaining but not necessarily deadly:

Monster Maneuvers:
I've made inconsistent efforts to give monster "maneuvers" to spice up combat.  Maybe for putz monster encounters a natural 20 is a good opportunity to exercise this. Since my Players are used to monsters getting the same critical damage they get, I don't think they'll complain too much when something besides them loosing extra HP happens. In the example above, the scorpions could have grabbed the characters and started to drag them off the deck. That would have made the fight more gripping (ahem) and less deadly at the same time.

Monsters are Dumb:
The really scary villains are the smart ones. If some monsters aren't supposed to be all that scary by all means make them dumb. For example, when the sea scorpions rolled the first 20 against the hireling, sure that drops him but then they all move in to eat him and/or fight over the food! That makes it easier for the PCs to take them out with out putting on kid gloves, because mechanically it may be less deadly (in terms of the number of attack rolls made against the PCs) but it's still grisly.


How to make the Big Bads truly Big and Bad:

Area Attacks:
Multiple lower powered monsters can be more deadly than a single Big Bad because of the sheer number of attack rolls. One way to address this would be to give the Big Bad an area attack.  Outside of a dragon's breath weapon this is 4e style thinking that I'm going to try out in my B/X game. Sacrilege!

Dead if you don't Save, half dead if you do:
If a monster is really fearsome and it's attack causes a saving throw to be rolled, something bad happens even if you make your saving throw.  The first PC who makes a successful save may be incredulous, but if you tell them something worse would happen if they hadn't made the saving throw, then they'll be scared. And there's precedent in old school D&D, half damage from a successful save vs. dragon breath.


How to make things scary:

Do it like the movies:
Scary things are half seen in the dark before they attack.  Give them the chance to run, struggle with the door, all the horror movie stuff, and when they attack they're deadly fierce every single time. See above.

Warn them:
When all of the villagers tell the PCs how terrible and nasty the thing they're heading of to face is they'll listen.  Even if they don't, they'll remember what the villagers (or whoever) said when things go south.

This is a DM's diary kind-of post. I realize none of this is a major revelation but after having both of these encounters go the exact opposite of the way that I intended or thought they would I wanted to collect my thoughts. Of course it's not the DM's job to be set on encounters going a certain way but I think if I can implement the above I'll be able to make encounters more consistently exciting and interesting without tweaking die rolls or sacrificing player agency.

Moon Beasts and Ghouls

I feel like celebrating the return of the Dungeon Dozen to the internets so here's a few super specific encounter tables:

These use regular old d6s rather than the exalted dodecahedron.


What does the Moon Beast do this round?
1 run away. They'll stop in the next room and attempt to ambush anybody who follows.
2 knock stuff over, onto PCs if possible. If the only thing available is a person, they'll knock them over and stand on them. Save vs paralysis/fortitude/yeti stompin or take d4 dmg. Save again to act or wrestle free.
3 amazing leap onto the largest inanimate object nearby and screech/howl loudly. The following round a return call of screeches/howls may be heard. Another 1-3 Moon Beast 4-6 two Moon Beasts shows up in d6 rounds.
4 pick up one PC and throw them at another PC. Both PCs Save vs paralysis/fortitude/yeti stompin or take d4 dmg
5, 6 attack w claws, two attacks: d6 dmg. each.

Moon Beasts are big uni-horned, white furred yeti type critters with a primitive inteligence. (stat as bugbears exept as noted above)


What's up with the Ghouls in this room?
They are:
1 Ravenous. as many as possible will attack and attempt to devour whoevers in front. Attacking them back will draw their attention away.
2 Curious. They're throwing everything not nailed down around as if they were 2 year olds. If spoken to they will grunt back in imitation, and speak Ghoulish. they'll continue this for d3 rounds at which point they'll realize the PCs are food an attack.
3 Sullen. Theyll fight but 1-2 on d6 chance of running away every round.
4 Fighting eachother over a 1-3 live 4-6 dead thing.
5 Stalking something else, roll another wandering monster.
6 Awaiting the PCs in ambush.

All Ghouls used to be elves. They are 1-12 feet tall, and are from an invisible moon, where the elves sent them. They are not very bright, but they do have their own language, Ghoulish, which is a gutteral perversion of ancient elvish.
Their claws cause paralysis just like the book says.

Now is the best time to be a gamer ever

A while back there was a thing floating around about the ten gaming books you'd most like to have if you could only have ten.  I recently did some gaming/camping (my favorite kind of camping involves gaming and my favorite kind of gaming involves camping) so I got to actually make this decision.  I didn't need ten.  We brought:

Moldvay/Cook B/X.

tucked into  Moldvay Basic was this.  It came in handy.

That's two.

We also brought:

Raggi's Random Esoteric Creature Generator.

The 1e DMG, but mostly because since we were camping I thought it might be useful to have something hard to write on.

We brought this:

Everything in this I either made or found on the internet! Here's a breakdown of the indispensable dungeon master tools in here:

Pages 1 & 2:
megadungeon missions

random swords and sorcery name generator 

movement, encumbrance, light & vision, reaction roll chart, foraging & hunting, xp

Pages 3 & 4:
the Ravaged Ruins charts from Wilderlands of High Fantasy (worth three bucks for these two pages alone)


Pages 5 & 6:

MegaDungeon Area Name Generator

MegaDungeon - Doors

Page 7 & 8:
the Dismal Depths Trap Tables

random rooms and d100 things in a pit from here

 Pages 9 & 10:

MegaDungeon: Random Trap Disarming Table

Pages e11 & 12:

Trick effects and "big ol' list of tricks from C

Pages 13 & 14:

Wilderness and dungeon wandering monster tables 

Pages 15 & 16:

Creepy combat commentary and "what are the monsters doing" from Telecanter

and a list of Shakesperian insults, just in case!

pages 17 & 18:

od&d castle inhabitants, my Treasure Map Generator, and Redbeard's Faction Connection Diagram  

Pages 19 & 20

My treasure hoards, looting and random magic item charts.

pages 21 & 22:

Talysman's 20 sided quickie tables 

 We also had my Arcane Stress and Spell Mutations (which got used by the DM, there were no M-U PCs. There was an Elf, but he got taken out by a black pudding before he got to cast any spells) and my critical injury table. 

 

I buy gaming books, adventures etc. but I sure don't need to.

DMing tricks vs. rules changes

Sometimes I think about how to fix the D&D combat system to maintain the granularity of varying skill levels while removing the "whiff factor".  But maybe the problem isn't the system, its the DM style.  Or in other words, the abstract nature of basic D&D combat allows for/requires creativity from the DM. (duh, right?)  Here are some things that I want to try or that I have tried but that I want to consistently implement that I think will help me be a better DM: 
1.  Keep the initiative system in place, but roll the attacks for all combatants in a melee before narrating the scene. 

2.  Don't feel obligated to narrate an attack roll as an attack

3.  Don't feel obligated to narrate an failed attack roll as an actual missed or parried attack.

4.  Don't feel obligated to narrate a hit as an actual hit or physical injury.  (Given that I currently view HP as completely abstract fatigue and luck and NOT actual injury.  I use a critical/wound chart when a character get's to 0 HP.  Injury and Recovery will have to be a future post.)

5. If two opponents facing eachother both miss, give whichever one rolls higher a slight advantage in the narration.
Take this sample combat between a lvl 1 fighter and a giant rat:

 DM and player roll initiative.  Player wins.

The player attacks and rolls a 7.  DM says, "that's a miss"

DM atacks and rolls a 3.  Says, "the rat tries to bite you but misses"

The player rolls to attack again, gets an 11.  DM says, "You just miss."

Player says, "Dang dice!"

DM rolls an attack gets a 13  Says, ““What's your AC again? Ok that's a miss.”
Player rolls a 9. “Dang it!”

DM rolls a 17. “Hit.” Rolls a d6, "it does 2 points of damage."

Player rolls a 15. DM says, “roll damage.” Player rolls a 4. “Ok you kill it.”

Now the same combat if I'm taking my own advice:
DM and player roll initiative. Player wins.

The player attacks and rolls a 7.
DM atacks and rolls a 3.
The DM says, "As you advance the rat runs away.  you close in further and now you have it cornered."

The player says "ok, i'll widen my stance to keep it from getting away again and attack it." he rolls to attack again, gets an 11.
DM rolls an attack gets a 13.
The DM says, “just as you are about to strike the rat runs between your legs and scurries up a pile of crates against the wall.  From the top of the crates it hisses at you menacingly."
The player says, "dang wiley rat! is it low enough that I can reach it with my sword?"
The DM says, "yep."

Player rolls a 9.
DM rolls a 17.
"You poke at it with your sword, but it squirms away and leaps at you!  you raise your shield and it bounces off.  Take off 2 HP and it's now on the ground at your feet."

Player rolls a 15. DM says, “roll damage.” Player rolls a 4.
The DM says “before it can get away again you run it through.  It wriggles and claws at the ground for a few minutes before finally collapsing.”

Player: "Gross.  Now, what's in those crates..."