D&D 4E Random/Wandering monsters in 4E

[NewJeffCT]

How do people run wandering monsters in 4E? In past editions, the DM would roll his percentile dice and you'd have a set chance of having a "wandering" monster encounter - maybe 5% or 10% per day or something.

I would handle this by prepping a few terrain/regional appropriate monsters that could challenge the party while they wandered about, and if the dice indicated a random encounter on Day 7 of the 15 day journey across the Desert of Burning Sands, I would roll out the monster and the party would have a showdown for that day.

However, in 4E, it seems more geared towards waves of several encounters per day, rather than 1 big challenging encounter. However, several waves of encounters seems to lose the "random" feeling, I think.

How do people handle wandering encounters?

Thanks

 

[Storminator]

I avoid it entirely. I do traveling scenes as a skill challenge, and I'll throw in a group attack roll. If half the group misses the attack roll, everybody loses a surge. Then narrate the "combat".

Alternately, I'll have a semi-pointless set piece fight that I treat like I used to treat random encounters.

PS

 

[S'mon]

I use wandering monsters where it seems appropriate, typically a 1 in 6 chance per 4 hours or 6 hours. In 4e I'm more likely to use a prepared encounter group than roll them up randomly in play, though I have done something like that - eg I rolled up a random encounter with 3 Troglodytes on the Vault of Larin Karr Underdark table, so I chose 3 suitable trogs from MV.

 

[Mengu]

I don't do "random" encounters either. But to create that tension and possibility of wondering monsters, I will prep encounters to pull out and play. Perhaps the PC's are exploring some woods, looking for an old ruin. Before they set out on the journey they will hear of some threats in the woods, like perhaps gnolls, and the occasional dinosaur. They won't hear about the band of trolls, the insect swarms that come out at night, the dark fey that protect their territories vigilantly, or the mad wraiths of those who died in the woods, and haunt their scenes of death. So I prepare a few of these as combat encounters, maybe some as skill challenges, and some as simply tracks or clues they see, to keep them on their toes. I would likely be running the "search" as an extended skill challenge, and at appropriate points of failure, I might pull out one of the encounters I have prepared. And eventually, they will go through everything I have prepared, so my work is not likely to go to waste. I'm a lazy DM and don't want to put in time for things PC's will never do.

The difference between "random" and "predetermined" is pretty inconsequential when you are in the player chair. Monsters appear, you fight them. Whether the DM rolled them randomly before the game, or during the game, is irrelevant, the monsters are there, and you're fighting them. The randomness can simply be built into the story, rather than a DM mechanic.

 

[Verys Arkon]

I skip the random encounters too. Combat in 4e takes so long that if I'm going to invest that much time in it, it had better have significance.

I wrote up a set of "Combat Challenge" house rules that make the filler combats go quickly, but still let players throw a few dice.

Verys

 

[NewJeffCT]

I skip the random encounters too. Combat in 4e takes so long that if I'm going to invest that much time in it, it had better have significance.

I wrote up a set of "Combat Challenge" house rules that make the filler combats go quickly, but still let players throw a few dice.

Verys

Interesting - one of the biggest pros of 4E over 3.5E to me was that combat was so much quicker in 4E than it was in 3.5E.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I don't do "random" encounters either. But to create that tension and possibility of wondering monsters, I will prep encounters to pull out and play.

The difference between "random" and "predetermined" is pretty inconsequential when you are in the player chair. Monsters appear, you fight them. Whether the DM rolled them randomly before the game, or during the game, is irrelevant, the monsters are there, and you're fighting them. The randomness can simply be built into the story, rather than a DM mechanic.

That is typically what I did in previous editions - and I've been DMing since the late 1970s. However, those would typically be one encounter with one group of monsters or bad guys. For example: On a three week journey by sea, a group of sahuagin attack the ship. Works well as one big encounter, but not quite so well as 3-4 waves of attacks.

 

[delericho]

I can see two good ways to do wandering monsters in 4e.

The first is to have full-blown wandering encounters, complete with tactical maps, interesting terrain, and carefully selected monster groups. When the PCs are travelling, if a wandering monster is rolled, then it just happens to take place in an environment that looks oddly planned. In this case, a wandering encounter is just like any other encounter, and probably no less significant.

The second is to do pretty much what was done in previous editions, and write up a bunch of simple adversary groups ("6 orcs", "one ogre", that sort of thing). When an encounter is rolled up, you just throw together a quick sketch of a battlefield, and have at it. In the case, you should probably go for an encounter a few levels below the PCs, and go very heavy on minions - you want a quick, fairly easy fight to get some excitement into the game, but don't want to overdo it!

Or, alternately, just don't bother with wandering monsters at all. That seems to work!

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm also in the "I don't use wandering monsters in 4e" camp. If you're going to do something like this on a long journey, you'll have to think about how you want to handle extended rests. By RAW, the random encounter isn't going to have any meaningful impact on the party unless it happens just as they're getting to their destination and they won't be getting an extended rest before taking action there. Otherwise, they fight their little random fight and then fully heal up overnight for day 8 of their 15 day trek.

I agree that this is a good place to use a skill challenge rather than an actual combat encounter. 4e combat just works better as set-pieces in my experience. If your players just love fights, I guess you can throw a meaningless one at them from time to time, but I personally don't.

 

[NewJeffCT]

The second is to do pretty much what was done in previous editions, and write up a bunch of simple adversary groups ("6 orcs", "one ogre", that sort of thing). When an encounter is rolled up, you just throw together a quick sketch of a battlefield, and have at it. In the case, you should probably go for an encounter a few levels below the PCs, and go very heavy on minions - you want a quick, fairly easy fight to get some excitement into the game, but don't want to overdo it!

Or, alternately, just don't bother with wandering monsters at all. That seems to work!

right, but the problem is, that is kind of boring unless it's a nighttime surprise while resting encounter. Then, at least you create tension because the group will think in a metagame sense that "ok, we've lost our extended rest for this night, how is NewJeffCT going to mess with this now?"