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View Full Version : Help planning monsters and events - no one joining my campaign please



Cogidubnus
2010-09-22, 12:29 PM
I'm doing a New World style sandbox exploration campaign. Thing is, I don't know how packed with events to make the map. I have a fair few cities, which will all have their own events, and some outlying farm villages/wild tribes to encounter as well. There is also a collapsing empire to face and some old temples and whatnot.

But how much do I put in? And what other ideas do people have? For things to do and for monsters (including wandering encounters when exploring).

Ertwin
2010-09-22, 05:05 PM
lions and tigers and bears oh my. The untamed wilds will definitely have it's fair share of wild animals. So pick a few wild animals that would be apropriate to the locale, and fluff them up to be a threat, or an irritating harrassment to a party. (monkeys stealing equipment might not be dangerous by themselves but combined with other threats....

Thrawn183
2010-09-22, 06:09 PM
The real question is how do you handle CR? Are there low and high CR things everywhere, or are regions fairly homogenous?

It can get a little weird to be running around gaining levels and then all of a sudden the area that you started out in is filled with significantly higher CR monsters.

My solution to the idea of how dense encounters should be was simple. I made an actual adventuring guild. The idea was that if I'm doing something sandbox-ish, I need to make it as easy as possible for the players to actually locate missions to undertake. Sure, some things like slavers or assassins would take a little more work, but a mission for the mercenary guild? Piece of cake to find. After all, you can handwave a lot of travelling if nothing important is happening. I mean, 12 days of travel is not really any different than 6 days if you have the same number of encounters.

Cogidubnus
2010-09-23, 02:19 AM
Monsters in the wilds will never get up to really high CRs, so they can't stumble across them too easily and die. They'll start off at the right CR for the PCs in the area they start in, then get tougher deeper into the wilds.
Thing is, it's an exploration campaign, so there needs to be adventurer style stuff to explore.

Angelmaker
2010-09-23, 06:26 AM
But how much do I put in? And what other ideas do people have? For things to do and for monsters (including wandering encounters when exploring).
-----------------------
Thing is, it's an exploration campaign, so there needs to be adventurer style stuff to explore.
Things that pop to mind:

- What game system? For example 4E is assuming, your average "adventuring day" has 3 to 4 encounters. Other systems like rolemaster may be ok with only one encounter where you use up all of your ressources. You have to build encounters around the system you play them in. Having only 1 encounter a day in 4E for example leads to your players using all their dailies abd having ultra easy encounters.

Themes/Possibilities:
- Abandoned wilderness fortress

- Following and exploring a river upstream to itīs source. Maybe it has even been poisoned?

- Logging camp that has been raided

- witch in the forrest that traps the players.

dsmiles
2010-09-23, 06:38 AM
- witch in the forrest that traps the players.

In her gingerbread house...She has to fatten them up for dinner. :smallbiggrin:

On a more serious note, exploration can present non-encounter difficulties in addition to encounter difficulties. Unmapped mountain ranges that you have to pass through (or over, or under), lack of supply outposts (if without create food and drink), extreme environments (hot/cold deserts, badlands, jungles, oceans, etc.)

Those ancient temples could be the ruins of a greater, fallen empire than the one that is currently in decline. An evil empire of illithids or other nasties.