Chapter 3: The Spider’s Web
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In case you haven’t noticed, I save my nighttime wilderness encounters for those who pull a watch overnight as the other characters sleep. It’s a fun way to give players a moment to shine and participate – especially if they’re uncomfortable with the roleplay aspect of the game. This is a similar encounter to my…
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Random encounters don’t always need to be combat encounters. There are three pillars of adventure, mind you (Combat, Social, and Exploration) – and the random encounters you run will be more interesting if you modulate between the three. Cooler heads will not prevail when an owlbear spots the characters out in the wild. There will…
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If you want to tie the adventuring party in knots, throw a combat encounter at them that involves a monstrous child. It’s interesting to watch as they try to figure out how to handle the situation without turning into monsters themselves. When it comes to werewolves, there’s often an assumption that anyone afflicted with lycanthropy…
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Once upon a time, orcs were a quarrelsome race of humanoids, who were as likely to stick the pointy end of a blade into friends, neighbors, and leaders as they were an enemy. But alas, that was then and this is now. These days, orcs are no longer a monster you’ll find in the current…
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What if instead of wakey wakey eggs and bakey, the party woke up to a daytime wilderness encounter? Or, how about all three? Where would one find eggs, bacon, and a daytime wilderness encounter along the Triboar Trail, anyway? Why, Abner Feldman’s farmstead, of course! Oh Abner. You poor, unfortunate bastard. The morning is heavy…
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We can repurpose Abner Feldman’s farmstead (see yesterday’s hobgoblin daytime wilderness encounter) as the stage for a hobgoblin nighttime wilderness encounter as well. Everything doesn’t need to jump out of the bushes at the party once they bed down beneath the stars for the night, you know. In fact, who’s to say this couldn’t be…
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I’m rather fond of hobgoblins. In my mind, I see these mid-tier goblinoids as the Uruk-hai of Faerûn. Militaristic. Disciplined. Fearless. To me, the portrayal of hobgoblin vs. goblin is something akin to the Uruk-hai of Isengard vs. Mordor and Moria orcs. The former are larger in stature and operate as a disciplined fighting unit…
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I’ve never been a fan of the Goblin Trail encounters in Chapter 1: Goblin Arrows. They feel like incomplete encounters or, dare I say, lazy game design. Yeah yeah. The game was designed with new Dungeon Masters and players in mind, so why not introduce both parties to the Wisdom (Perception) mechanic by tossing a…
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If you’re going to encounter goblins along the Triboar Trail, it will likely be along the western half of the trail, or as I like to refer to it: “Cragmaw Country.” As one of the stealthiest creatures in the Monster Manual – further blessed with darkvision to make their sneaking in the dark even more…