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This is the dialog I don't want to have:
Players: We head out east over the hills
Me: You see more hills
Players: *fill in their hex map* Does anything else happen?
Me: Umm... the hills are getting taller and rockier as you get closer to the mountains.
Players: Anything else?
Me: No.
I don't think I can run Kingmaker unless every hex is a bit different. There needs to be something that happens wherever they go even if it's a bit of flavor. I can come up with that on the fly to a limited degree. But I can't do it all night. It seems like other DMs out there must also be facing this.
I refuse to run random encounters. I have stolen some of the marvelous additional encounter ideas from that other thread.
What I really want now is just minor unique features I can sprinkle into hexes. Have any of you come up with material like this?
Or is there some alternative approach I should use?
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In lieu of random monsters, think of the random encounter chart as one part of a group of unique features and events. The chance to encounter something on the chart is quite small(5-15%), so why not roll up a creature every time and turn it into a RP opportunity(many of the encounters are difficult to run as combat as it is), with only the small chance the encounter starts hostile. If you add in other random factors like the ambient encounters and a daily weather roll, there's potential for memorable sights without turning every empty hex into a slugfest.
As an example, you roll up trolls, fog, fey laughter. The party sees a group of trolls at a distance utterly unnerved by childlike laughter coming from all directions as an unnatural fog rises to swallow them. Maybe the laughter stops abruptly and the trolls turn on each other, slicing each other up until they realize how pointless it is. Lots of things you can do with just the three elements arranged in interesting ways.
Creative Director
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I'd like to repeat/rephrase the previous points: Wandering monster encounters are only as boring as you let them be. When you roll up a wandering monster, it's ALWAYS best to take a few moments and figure out WHY those monsters are where they are. It might just be a wild animal, in which case you can spice things up by having the PCs make lots of Perception checks to ramp up the paranoia and the feeling of being stalked, or you can say that the wild animal is wounded and might befriend the PCs if they help it, or you can say that the wild animal is running from an even BIGGER wild animal, and so on. It gets even easier to come up with stories for wandering monsters once they start getting intelligence scores, of course.
And if you aren't comfortable with coming up with on-the-spot ad-lib personalities for encounters, then you can fix that by taking a few hours before the game. Roll up five or so wandering monster encoutners and then take five minutes for each jotting down some quirks and bits of fun, unique bits of complexity for each. Add unusual terrain features (like a huge fallen tree, or a broken wagon, or a dead adventurer, or whatever), build customized treasures, come up with personalities for NPCs, and so on. Then, during play, if the PCs step into a new hex, you don't have to roll for an encounter. You can simply grab one of your quickie pre-made encounters and go to town.
And finally, not every encounter needs to be a fight. A randomly rolled up owlbear could be a dead owlbear that has a bunch of giant-sized arrows in it (foreshadowing eventual encounters with giants). A randomly rolled troll could simply be a troll's twitching severed arm that got washed down a river and got lodged in some branches on the bank. A randomly rolled thylacine might be a currently-empty thylacine lair that the PCs might end up wanting to use as shelter, only to have the angry owner of the den return in the middle of the night. Little flavorful encounters like these might feel quick and slow, but during play even the tiniest mention of flavor from a GM can get the PCs' imagination going, and once their imaginations are going and they start trying to figure out what you're up to, they'll also be giving you ideas on where to go next.
Well, honestly, I just rolled up all the random encounters well ahead of time so that I could give them a little more substance than trying to do it on the fly. I just sorted them by terrain type (you'll only need 2-3 for each) and randomized the order.
Then, when I feel like I need something for a given hex, I just take the next one off the list. It makes things seem a little more seamless than "you encounter 1d6 wolves"
Some examples include:
Mischevious fey interupt the party's night sleep by creating the illusion that an owlbear is storming towards their camp.
A rather custom kobold hunting party tries to follow and ambush the party.
A hunter who had been recently robbed by the bandits managed to get away with his life and trying to make his way back to safety.
Around dusk while the party is looking for a good place to camp, a will-o-wisp tries to lure them towards a sleeping troll by a river side (but otherwise doesn't get involved in a fight).
Time for the players to add to the narrative...let them say what theyd like around the next hill
Ive been suprised with just how content the players have been with
"the trees in this area some more sparse, and the ground somewhat drier. There is very little bird song, or insect life"....the pcs then make there own assumptions that not a lot lives here so they make get a good nights sleep
A GM who isnt confident with making stuff up on the fly, is gonna need his players help, or may struggle.
and as others have said, i tended to go into each session with maybe 6 or 7 non-random random encounters
Actually I had the same basic thought as the OP when setting out, if there's no wanderer does that mean a repetitious line of explored 'empty' hexes?
That would get old quickly.
I also feel the wanderer table is very basic and weighted toward pretty unbalanced monsters. How many pcs seems to have met will-o-the-whisps or shamblers in the obitury thread for example?
So firstly I've expanded the wanderer table, using some of the Mother of All Encounter Tables, which also includes interesting events (ie non-monster encounters).
I also have been preparing (not wholly finished yet) a 'empty hex-non combat random table', that I plan to use whenever the party explore a hex without wandering monsters or set events. The thinking being to merge wanderer rolls, set encounters, and non-combat random events, seamlessly so the party never knows whether they're meeting something pre-planned for that area or not.
I've also begun giving the Stolen Lands regions the pcs are travelling through more colour, as I feel it's very blank indeed as presented in the modules. I have merged Darkmoon Vale (minus the settlements) to the south of the Kamelands, and rather than Jernashall being a Dwarven city ruin (which felt a little overdone), in my setting it's an old Fire Giant city ruin. Droskar's Peak (a stratovolcano as per Darkmoon Vale Module) can be seen pretty much anywhere in the Kamelands, and is used as a navigation aid accordingly.
Here's the sort of colour I mean, this is a story attached to the ford below the Trading Post (this is for my homebrew setting of course, but you'll get the gist);
The Ford of Bones - Related by the Trapper 'Elven-Shoes' -
"It is said that long ago, that the elf-loving (human) Canabri ruled to the north of here. The Canabri were friends of Alfheim and greatly blessed, they fortified Chathola, which was called Chathis in those times, and fought wars alongside the undying elves.
It was these Canabri Jarin, rich, wise, but also foolish and proud from their generations of alliance and friendship with the Alfheimr, who followed maps first made by Rithian explorers near a thousand years before them, and came here south, to this very place seeking the treasures left behind by the Rithians in the ruins now called the Empty Citadels. There was no ford here then, just a very crude ferry raft, and so the explorers shipped across the Thorn and into the Kamelands.
Back then however, the giants still ruled from the Volcano, though their city of Jernashall was already lost to the molten rivers of Droskar's Peak. The giants were dying out it's said, but still their ire and reach was long and strong, and they didn't take kindly to men and elves trespassing in their grave-gardens, as they still saw the Kamelands. There was eventually a great battle out among the kames near the northern fringes of Darkmoon Vale, at a place that later became called the Field of Splinters, between the army of the Canabri, their elven allies, and two score or more giants that stormed down from the mountains.
Whole troops of Canabrian knights were hewn asunder by giantish rage and burning steel, elven arrows barely pricked the massively thick giantish armour, men were stamped under great booted feet, ground into the dust and dirt. For years after the splintered bones littered that place, whitening under the sky, and giving it it's later name.
The elven and Canabrian survivors of the Battle of Splinters fled north making for this place and it's ferry station, but they were harried the whole way by the pursuing giants. Turning at the ford, the men and elves thought to make a last stand, but they were perhaps lucky, as one of their few remaining arrows felled the leader of the giants, a mountainous Fire Giant Prince clad in burnished searing hot brass scalemail, his skin cole black and smouldering, his eyes red flames, his beard brass wire, his teeth sharpened diamonds.
No ordinary Princeling either, this was the last heir to the Furnace Throne of Jernashall, Ignathrum the Walking Holocaust, who had ever thought to restore his realm to it's past glories. When the enchanted elven arrow that felled him found it's mark in his eye, and his bulk smashed into the river wrecking the ferry station and causing a great fume of steam to boil into the air, his followers cried out in despair, for they knew their Kingdom finally died with Ignathrum. Broken they turned and scattered, heedless and without hope, they had let their last Prince fall and by their laws they went away to die, each alone with his shame.
Ignathrum's corpse though swallowed by the waters of the Thorn, and eventually covered over by silt, riverweeds and mud, as the years passed, eventually created the shallow crossing point that now allows us to ford the Thorn here. Most of the time there is no sign of Ignathrum's body, but on the driest of summers, when the river is at it's lowest folk still sometimes see the glimmer of still unrusted scale armour, and more the massive red-iron bones of the giantish prince jutting up out of the riverbed and so this ford became known as the Ford of Bones.
Some claim that the river becomes boiling hot here once a year, on the anniversary of the day Ignathrum fell, and that steam once again hisses over the river waters for a time. Others that Ignathrum's belongings, his armour, his wargear, his jewels and gems, represent a trove that would make a man as rich as a king. But the river keeps what it takes, and they say there is a giantish curse that prevents any man or woman from disturbing Ignathrum's watery grave.
As to the truth of that I cannot say, but I did once watch a man try to dig into the riverbed at the ford, after four hours he slipped on weeds, went under the waters and vanished. We found him four miles downriver, drowned, perhaps after knocking himself out. Weird thing was ... his skin was pink and puckered, like he'd been broiled for hours in a simmering cauldron."
Here's the work I've done so far on my (unfinished) 'empty hex non-combat event table'. These events were adapted from events I found in the Wilderlands of High Sorcery book, I plan on plundering other such books for similar ideas.
'Empty' wilderness square event or thing -
1 - Maggots in the Balance: A small sod-covered hut has a balance hanging on a peg. A bowl of rotted fruit is on a three-legged table under the balance. Thousands of flying maggots are on the ceiling and in the fruit. They swarm on anyone coming in. The maggots are harmless.
2 - The Prolific Unwishing Fountain: A small fountain with contaminated water squirting out of the mouth of a stone sprite stands amidst some rocks. If a coin is tossed in the fountain and a wish is made, the opposite of the wish happens. The fountain contains 12 sp, 45 cp, and 149 tp.
4 - The Mystic Eye (EL 4): A stone arch partially covered by vines has a large eye carved in it, set within a Triangle emble (Lore check to recognise as Rithian). Pushing in the pupil of the eye causes a secret door on the inside of the arch to slide open. This reveals a small red box with a poison dart (CR 4, +5 ranged, 1d4 plus deathblade poison [DC 20, 1d6Con/2d6 Con for 1D6 days - fever - CON checks each day to be able to act at all - if all CON checks failed dies on last day], search DC 20, Disable Device DC 20) ready to shoot out when the box is opened. A golden bracelet of snake form worth 15 gp is inside. A miniature sword suitable for a jinxkin is wedged in a crack.
5 - The Finch that lays the Golden Eggs: A giantish stone spear 20' tall, with a barely discernable adamantite blade is stuck straight up and down in some rocks. A goldfinch bird has built a nest on top of the spear. It is nesting on three golden eggs worth 8 gp each. Known as the Big Spear, trappers and bandits avoid this place, due to legend telling that the ghost of the spear's wielder, a stone giant out of the mountains, will awake to slay any who disturb his weapon.
6 - Stag Head Soup (EL 3): A partially sunken wooden statue of a man with a stag head (the god Erastil) holds a clay stoppered vial (containing potion of cure light wounds) over his head. If the potion is taken out of its hands without a prayer of thanks to the god, the statue's head animates and cast a curse (DC 14 POW save avoids). Victims missing their saving throw suffer sudden excrutiating pain in their thumbs, which wither into painful husks - preventing the victim from drawing a bow until cured.
7 - The Lost Wagon: A petrified, overturned wagon is partially buried in the ground. There are 50 sp (dating back a century or so - to the time of the last River Kingdoms colonisation attempt) hidden under the seat, and a few tattered remnants of clothing.
8 - Bees: Several thriving colonies of bees hang from the branches of a small copse of hickory trees. There is a great deal of honeycomb to be had here.
This thread might be something for you: "Ambient" Encounters in the Stolen Lands
This thread might be something for you: "Ambient" Encounters in the Stolen Lands
Ah cool, hadn't seen that, thanks. :-)
I shall have to merge the tables I think.
I'd like to repeat/rephrase the previous points: Wandering monster encounters are only as boring as you let them be. When you roll up a wandering monster, it's ALWAYS best to take a few moments and figure out WHY those monsters are where they are. It might just be a wild animal, in which case you can spice things up by having the PCs make lots of Perception checks to ramp up the paranoia and the feeling of being stalked, or you can say that the wild animal is wounded and might befriend the PCs if they help it, or you can say that the wild animal is running from an even BIGGER wild animal, and so on. It gets even easier to come up with stories for wandering monsters once they start getting intelligence scores, of course.
And if you aren't comfortable with coming up with on-the-spot ad-lib personalities for encounters, then you can fix that by taking a few hours before the game. Roll up five or so wandering monster encoutners and then take five minutes for each jotting down some quirks and bits of fun, unique bits of complexity for each. Add unusual terrain features (like a huge fallen tree, or a broken wagon, or a dead adventurer, or whatever), build customized treasures, come up with personalities for NPCs, and so on. Then, during play, if the PCs step into a new hex, you don't have to roll for an encounter. You can simply grab one of your quickie pre-made encounters and go to town.
And finally, not every encounter needs to be a fight. A randomly rolled up owlbear could be a dead owlbear that has a bunch of giant-sized arrows in it (foreshadowing eventual encounters with giants). A randomly rolled troll could simply be a troll's twitching severed arm that got washed down a river and got lodged in some branches on the bank. A randomly rolled thylacine might be a currently-empty thylacine lair that the PCs might end up wanting to use as shelter, only to have the angry owner of the den return in the middle of the night. Little flavorful encounters like these might feel quick and slow, but during play even the...
I like that you argue random doesn't have to suck by advising someone take a little time to PLAN out the random encounter... ;-)
I don't use random encounters either because I find something truly random always sucks. I do however plan out a short descriptive text for many hexes and I've added "something" to all the otherwise blank hexes pretty much exactly as you've described.
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I'm seeing a lot of "Truly Random Encounters always suck" being bandied about here.
I'd like to present a counter-argument.
I used to be in the camp that random encounters always suck, now I've realized what Random Encounters are. Creativity sparks. I can't prepare for every direction the PCs might take (I'd spend all day preparing and never seeing play). So now I go by this rule of thumb:
Players enter hex: "Guide roll a survival check, everyone else aid".
DC < 20 Roll on Random Encounter Table and set up as a combat. (Roll 1d20 - 1-5 - PCs Surprised, 6-10 Monster Surprised, 11-20 - Everybody is surprised)
DC > 20 Roll on Random Encounter Table and set up as non-combat (spoor, carcass, stalker, RP encounter etc).
Natural 20 > Treasure horde equal to APL (Killah
Natural 1 > Roll on Random Encounter Table Twice, Combine Results.
Encountering a werewolf during the day is very different from encountering one at night.
I totally don't agree that random encounters suck. Some of the most fun, memorable and most campaign impacting encounters of our recent campaigns have arisen out of random encounters.
The thing about random encounters too, is that the way they play out can be a happy surprise for the GM as much as the players.
I don't see the point of rolling random encounters before play either, you may as well script the session yourself (at least regarding what's going to be met) as do that imo. With a sandbox game random tables are essential.
I do think the tables in the Kingmaker modules are too scant and too nasty though.
These are marvelous. Thank you! "Ambient" is a good word to describe what I'm looking for and that thread (and this one) are exactly what I'd hoped for.
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Here's the sort of colour I mean, this is a story attached to the ford below the Trading Post (this is for my homebrew setting of course, but you'll get the gist);
The Ford of Bones - Related by the Trapper 'Elven-Shoes' -
This is a great story RockH. I love the color and detail. It's a little tough for DMs who have a full plate of responsibilities to really write this much detail for several hexes, but it's good nonetheless. Thankfully the AP has many such hexes already written with good back-grounds etc. But it's a lot of work for someone like me to have the time to add that much detail - thats why APs are such a wonderful too (and other published modules) because it mitigates the amount of prep I and others like me would need to do.
On a related case - after writing something so creative and great like that - how do you convey this kind of info to the players when they stumble upon that locale? How do they learn all of that?
Robert
I'm actually finding the empty hexes to not be a problem, mainly because there is so much going on in the Stolen Lands that a few boring days don't seem out of place. Some areas just really don't have anything that interesting. I try to limit the number of times I have to tell the players a hex is completely empty, but having every hex have an encounter is just as unrealistic as having a huge number of empty hexes.
Random encounters are also a fun way to spice things up, in my opinion, and most of all a test of a GM's ability to improvise. Set up right and the players can't tell the difference between a random encounter and a scripted encounter. Don't be afraid to change up the details of the roll to make things interesting. My PCs had a run-in with a Will o' the Wisp trying to lead them into a spiked pit trap that they thought was a scripted encounter - even marked it on their map with a warning to guide travelers away from the Wisp's lair (they were too low level to kill it).
And certainly the high level of danger random encounters pose to low level players helps reinforce that the Stolen Lands are not a safe place. The first time I ever had a group of PCs actually run from a fight was a random encounter with a Shambling Mound when they were 1st level.
Now on the empty hexes note I will say that I'm only in the first chapter right now, and I'm a little worried about the much sparser encounters in the later books compared to the relatively packed greenbelt; I'll reserve judgment until I get to that point, though.
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I think the most important advice I can offer to the OP, having run several sessions of KM exploration is to avoid obvious narrative patterns in your descriptions of the setting. For example, if you only use colorful explanations just following a 'random' die roll and just prior to 'random' combat, your players will know your every move.
Filling the hex doesn't necessarily mean placing and encounter.
Use descriptive tools that make them think something is coming, but it never does. Have them make Perception checks to see things too far away to directly interact with, but foreshadow things to come. Scare the piss out of them and they will respect the wild nature of this frontier and the general sense of unknown. Create an encounter, not just the random mob, for an attack during the camp/rest phase of the evening. Save it until you actually roll for a random encounter and wait until that evening to spring it on them. Maybe the creature started to track the party during the day and waits for the cover of darkness? Let them miss finding things in some hexes, so they have stuff to find on the return trip(s) to Oleg's. Don't feel obligated, just because it's in the hex, that's why they call it exploring!
If you control the flow of exploration (information) and don't feel like you need to fill each hex, your KM game won't feel like you're playing CIV III on the computer.
Hope this helps!
Pages 224-225 of the GameMastery guide contain great tables that could be of help:
Table 7–56: Things Found on the Roadside
Table 7–57: Types of Weather
Table 7–58: Scenic Spots
Table 7–59: Terrain Types
I'm of two minds on this.
There's nothing wrong with elision. Especially with a setup like KM, there's no shame in saying "oh, you're heading southwest. Okay (roll dice), for the past three days, you haven't come upon anything noteworthy, but on day four, you see a great sandstone building...
Equally, an "empty" hex is the opportunity to toss whatever weirdness you care to, and to develop themes that are important to you, or the game you want to run. Besides, the players will find things for you. Describe a rotting log, and the players themselves will suggest how it's actually a fae plot.
It really depends on your need for pacing, and specifically what your players are in for.