Random Encounter
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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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Ghouls are the only monster on the Lost Mine of Phandelver’s Wilderness Encounters table (Chapter 3: The Spider’s Web) that does not call for a daytime encounter, and I approve! These are creatures of the night, and they’ll make for a more memorable encounter when they go bump in the dark. That being said, there’s…
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The nice thing about stirges is their ability to subvert expectations for what some players might steel themselves for during an evening spent out under the stars. For a nighttime random encounter, stirges don’t come crashing out of the bushes with a roar or a war cry. Certainly not when, under the cover of darkness,…
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During daylight hours, characters are most-likely to encounter stirges while the foul little beasties are sleeping, since the monster’s darkvision trait suggests a nocturnal nature. Like bats, stirges sleep upside down, hanging from the upper reaches of wherever they roost. In Lost Mine of Phandelver, that would likely be a mine, cave, or ruin. Or…
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When prepping for Lost Mine of Phandelver’s Chapter 3: The Spider’s Web, I would recommend Dungeon Masters put some forethought into how they would deploy each of the monsters found on the Wilderness Encounters table before it actually comes to a dice roll in game play. You’re the Dungeon Master, and you’re keeping enough in…
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Back here on Earth, I occasionally step in a pile of shit. Sometimes, it’s because someone doesn’t clean up after their dog. Other times, it’s having a run-in with toxic client at the office. Today was the latter. And since the experience is still on my mind hours later, I may as well work with…
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Woot! Finally got this done. Now available on Dungeon Master’s Guild: Between The High Road & The Long Road, available for download. As with my other Dungeon Master’s Guild titles, this is a free/PWYW offering. Between The High Road & The Long Road offers 20 daytime and nighttime encounters along the Triboar Trail. As with…
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Another example of taking inspiration from things I find on Pinterest, and then making an encounter out of it: Every encounter with a skeleton during an adventure doesn’t need to be a matter of life or death. Especially along the Triboar Trail, where you’re likely to find them just laying around from time to time:…