I added the color boxes to highlight what I wanted to talk about. Let's start with the green box, which is the random city encounter table. According to this chart half of all city encounters will involve Men (meaning bandits, brigands, berserkers and various high-level NPCs with entourages) while the other half of all city encounters involve a run-in with various undead. Obviously this simple chart predates the more elaborate and awesome options in the 1st edition DMG, Ready Ref Sheets/City State of the Invincible Overlord, or Midkemia Press's Cities. And while this particular chart omits the all-important random harlots, I really like the suggestion that OD&D cities are positively crawling with ghosts and skeletons.
Consider for a moment the fact that some cities in our world are thousands of years old and we don't even have elves around. If even a small percentage of the dead return to the world of the living each year, how many will be lurking around a city after ten generations? A hundred generations? Under such circumstances ancestor worship might be a practical necessity, to keep Uncle Lou's spectre from getting out of hand.
Moving on, the purplish oval shows that referring to the "Giant" sub-table is an equal possibility in all terrain types but the city. The blue box contains the Giant sub-table. Looks like this table is the origin of the term "giant class" as a means of referencing the evil humanoids that rangers are extra skilled in beating up. The original "Giant class" of humanoid consists of all the critters on that list starting with Kobolds and stopping with Giants. The last four items on the list, Gnomes, Dwarves, Elves, and
So under these rules you can encounter a dwarf in a swamp, an ogre in a desert, and elves in the mountains. In fact, you have an equal chance of finding them there as you do of running into such creatures in what we nowadays consider their native environs. I don't know about you, but this situation immediately suggests to me the possibility of secret races such as Desert Dwarves and Hillbilly Trees. Or maybe elves and kobolds get out a lot more than I normally suspect.
By the way, I can't find halflings/hobbits on any of the OD&D wilderness encounter charts. I think I'm okay with that.
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You should also note the uniform distribution in the tables. For example, an undead encounter is equally likely to be with skeletons as with vampires.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I can't find halflings/hobbits on any of the OD&D wilderness encounter charts. I think I'm okay with that.
ReplyDeleteThey're not in Volume II at all, either.
I note that you used the tables from the Reference Sheets. I say that because I have the sixth printing, but my copy of Vol III includes "ents" as the last entry on the Giant Types table (and Balrogs as the last entry on Fliers!)
Just a curiosity, nothing special.
Interesting that you never see undead outside of a city, too. Unless you're in a swamp, of course. And that there are no lycanthropes in the city.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little unclear on the difference between buccaneers and pirates, though.
Also note that "Mars" is a terrain type.
ReplyDeleteWhen I promised to Map 19 Wild North I realized I bit off a lot. For the two Points of Light I die I averaged about 50 entries per map. For map 19 I had to do 250 entries for ONE map.
ReplyDeleteThe truth of the matter is that for and of the PoL maps I have about a dozen to two dozen ideas for locales. The rest I use a series of random tables that I computerized. I take the result and come up with an explanation.
Well since Fight On! is a OD&D Fanzine. I decided to go back to the source. So I coded up the Monster Generation tables (including Treasure Types).
A couple of comments. The tables are revised in the supplement to include later monsters. I believe it is in Eldritch Wizardry. Greyhawk has extended treasure tables.
Having used a lot of random table, I have to say the table aren't bad. Looking over the dozens of lairs and wilderness encounter I rolled for the Wild North it produces a good mix that isn't nonsensical and feels like a D&D world.
Even using the extended tables of the supplement I think a big part is that the limited selection of monsters. I also have the Mother of All Encounter tables from Necromancer and the fact there are SO many entries make the results feel haphazards. While using the OD&D tables feels like well D&D.
Oh and yes I rolled Dwarves in a swamp too. Luckily because I was using Russian Myth as my background the answer to what they were doing was easy. Poaching Amber Nodules.
ReplyDeleteI'd be tempted to take the word giant literally, and have a lost valley or island where gigantism is rampant among humanoids (and the occasional talking tree). Against the Kobolds of Skull Island!
ReplyDeleteYou know how those elves—with their ridiculously long life-spans—can lose track of time. They were just crossing the mountains to visit grandmother’s house and made camp for the century.
ReplyDelete