OBSERVATION
The monster lists in the 1st Edition Monster Manual are basically 100 pages long (page 6 to page 103).
CONCLUSION
Gimme a d100. Let’s see what’s lurking in these 124 miles of wild mystery.
Thought of the Day: The Poor Man’s Hex Stocker
March 10th, 2011
10 Responses to “Thought of the Day: The Poor Man’s Hex Stocker”
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Completely randomly?! You might end up pitching a wandering beholder against first level characters!
… Although that could prove to be completely hilarious if the beholder ended up killing the only character that spoke a mutual language with other characters leaving the other characters days from home and unable to communicate.
The cool thing about randomizing, in a non-established setting, is you can fold and adjust the world to fit the random result. That ends with things you would not have thought up on your own.
I think there is also some flexibility, as there are multiple monsters on a page.
I think another cool thing about this is the focus is on the world, not the characters. So this territory has been claimed by a beholder–what creatures would it allow in a symbiotic relationship? Is there a wizard’s tower here that has the beholder trapped beneath it, but has other levels? Is the beholder issuing commands to underdark minions who are raiding the surface?
I would not take this system to mean “the characters fight x monster as they travel through here.”
Players have more respect for the wilderness when it is not tailored for them, I think. And this randomization is to kick-start the imagination and compel rationalizing Gygaxian naturalism. Which is fun!
Hey, beholders don’t have to be mindless killing machines, maybe its bored and wants to talk to the frail little meat sacks. 🙂
Or maybe the beholder just wants to talk, but then gets tired of the charmed little meat sack’s incessant babbling and kills it anyway.
It’s a possibility.
I think as long as you have players who know when to negotiate or hide or do anything other then attack head on, that kind of randomness makes for some awesome sessions.
If all they know how to do is attack, it makes for some awfully short sessions.
@saracatherine: Good point. Lord of the Rings would have been a pretty short saga with a game group who figured the encounter level was fitted to them, so they should be able to beat whatever they encountered!
“It’s a Ringwraith! Get it!”
Doesn’t that basically describe Gandalf in the books? “It’s a Balrog, I can solo that!”, “It’s Sarumon in his home, I can solo that!”, It’s an army of Uruk-Hai, Charge!”, “What? A bunch of orcs and evil men led by the Witch King himself? No problem!”. He always struck me as the most reckless wizard of them all, even if you can make the argument that he was trying to save his friends in each instance.
Vampire. Middle of the day , it explodes.
Wandering beholder meets 1st level PCs? Yeah, cool.
I have had a blue dragon meet 1st level PCs. They hoodwinked it and started a whole cat and mouse with it that lasted for many, many sessions.