D&D 5E How to make an awesome Underdark encounter table in 5e?


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As a side note, I do not think encounter tables should just be about wandering monsters, add some other elements into the tables. Rock sides, flash floods, dead monster being ate by clean up monsters, old camp sites, etc. Some of these can be hooks.
 

I've experimented with this myself a few times, using the 1d8+1d12 method from the DMG, which creates an interesting bell curve allowing you to put the most common and level appropriate monsters in the middle and rarer encounters at the extremes.

Mine can be found here: http://www.5mwd.com/archives/2718

Looks good. I've been wondering what the bell curve difference is between 2d10 and 1d8+1d12?

Hand of Evil said:
As a side note, I do not think encounter tables should just be about wandering monsters, add some other elements into the tables. Rock sides, flash floods, dead monster being ate by clean up monsters, old camp sites, etc. Some of these can be hooks.
Yes, we've established that already.

The question is HOW and WHAT now. As in, how to organize the table(s) and sub-tables, and what specific sorts of entries (or inspiration for entries) should I consider.

For example, in a large detailed random encounter table(s) like I'm proposing (remember: for a game based in the Underdark) would there be a sub-table result for non-monster encounters? Would they be inline with the rest of the table?...etc, etc.
 
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Looks good. I've been wondering what the bell curve difference is between 2d10 and 1d8+1d12?
Ran those through Excel. After a few thousand rolls, it looks like with 2d10 the chances of rolling a 9, 10, or 11 are slightly higher than with 1d8+1d12. But that could be a quirk of the program or some statistical variance from not rolling a few million times.
 

For example, in a large detailed random encounter table(s) like I'm proposing (remember: for a game based in the Underdark) would there be a sub-table result for non-monster encounters? Would they be inline with the rest of the table?...etc, etc.

I would use sub-tables, that way you can expand your encounters as you see fit. Example Sub-Table would be environmental encounters; Gases such as poison, explosive, sleeping, corrosive, etc. or Obstacles; chasm, river, cave-in, alternate route, etc.
 

Okay. Been kind of thinking about this on the backburner for the last few hours while doing some house work. Here's how I'd do it:

1. Create a list of monsters, and their relative frequency (Common, Uncommon, etc). Tie those to your various "terrain types" of the underdark. I'd go with something like Aquatic, Dead Caves, Wet Caves, Fungal Forest, Cliff/Canyon. You'll be using these to fill in empty spots in other tables you make. try to make these monsters either unintelligent, or organized in small tribes.

2. When you do tables for a region with intelligent rulers, such as drow, kuo-toa, svirfneblin, duergar, or whatever else, you'll be making tables where about 25% of the table will be centred around these groups directly, and 25% will be centred around the group indirectly. What I mean here is, if you've got 20 entries on your table for drow lands, 5 entries will result in encounters with drow, and 5 entries will be encounters with people that have dealings with drow or otherwise factor into the drow lands (so, driders, escaped slaves, quaggoths, etc).

3. Balance your table how you'd like, in terms of "combat, exploration, social". I'd suggest 50% are predisposed towards combat, and 25% to the other two. But that's just me. If you're doing a bell curve table, make sure that you don't put all the encounters of one type in the same area of the bell curve.

4. Fill in the encounter table with the encounters related to the region you're statting up. At this point, you'll have 50% of the table done. Afterwards, just plug in the monsters you set up in step 1, and you'll quickly have a table put together.

5. Make at least one or two entries something that will trigger a mini adventure. So, myconid colonies, escaped slaves, or a drider NPCs who wants revenge. Stuff like that. Having an entry of "Beholder's Lair" could be fun, for example.

***

This is assuming you want a weighted, d8 + d12 table. If you want a d100 table, you can get really fun, and have the tables have subtables like "Ruins", "Fungal Forests", "Nonhuman village", and stuff like that. Go really in depth, and you can run the entire campaign from the tables. If that's the approach you want, check out The West Marches if you haven't already. It has some nice starting points.
 

Great ideas, thanks [MENTION=40177]Wik[/MENTION]!

Logistics-wise, what sort of program do you guys use to make big random encounter tables?

I'm wondering whether a spreadsheet can connect a monster with various "tags" like rarity & terrain, so that when I move the monster entry the "tags" move with it, or so that I can order them by "tags"?
 

Great ideas, thanks [MENTION=40177]Wik[/MENTION]!

Logistics-wise, what sort of program do you guys use to make big random encounter tables?

I'm wondering whether a spreadsheet can connect a monster with various "tags" like rarity & terrain, so that when I move the monster entry the "tags" move with it, or so that I can order them by "tags"?

Hm. That's something I never thought of. Conceivably it's doable. What's the new MS Program that does lists? I can't remember its name, but it's probably what you'd be looking for. In any case, I'd make each tag also tied to level so you can make "ECL" groupings for tables of varying levels (I don't think 5e really needs this as much as, say, 3e, but it's good in a larger sense... high level zones and all that).

I'd pull a 1e and have things like "ruins" and "adventuring parties" and whatever else key into master tables.
 

Hm. That's something I never thought of. Conceivably it's doable. What's the new MS Program that does lists? I can't remember its name, but it's probably what you'd be looking for. In any case, I'd make each tag also tied to level so you can make "ECL" groupings for tables of varying levels (I don't think 5e really needs this as much as, say, 3e, but it's good in a larger sense... high level zones and all that).

I'd pull a 1e and have things like "ruins" and "adventuring parties" and whatever else key into master tables.

So far I'm using a spreadsheet that my friend and I are sharing via iCloud, and it seems to be working. Once it's finished I'll be able to sort monsters by rarity, terrain, and CR. Not perfect, but good for now. We may end up programming it later.

The master table looks like this so far (though I like your "ruins" and "adventuring parties" ideas!) and refers to the corresponding sub-tables:

1-57 Monsters (roll on corresponding terrain sub-table)
58-61 Monsters + Hazard
62-72 Hazard
74-76 Monsters + Wondrous Terrain
77-87 Wondrous Terrain
88-91 Hazard + Wondrous Terrain
92-96 Recurring Merchant
97-100 Weird Stuff??

For monster terrains in the Upperdark, we're using...

Abandoned Mines/Settlements
Aquatic
Chasm/Cliff/Canyon
Dead Caves
Fungal Forest
Wet Caves

May add more (e.g. geothermal vents, crystal caves) as they go deeper.
 
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