Grassland Encounters Volume 1
I love integrated encounter tables. They keep my game interesting and my world feeling wide open, for my players and for myself behind the Dungeon Masters Screen. They take a lot of work to make and balance out, not challenge rating wise, some of these are super easy and some will wipe the party if they're dumb, I mean balance as far as variety and cohesion. It takes a lot of effort to get just the right amount of randomness while keeping things interconnected and significant, if the player characters start scratching beneath the surface. So I decided to share those efforts, and this time we're focused on the grasslands.
Those large, empty, swaths of green on the fantasy map, representing flat plains and empty fields, the steppes and the prairies of your world, don't have to be boring filler between important points of interest. They can be the site of adventures in their own right.
The wind carries strange music as it sends rippling waves through the wildflowers and tall grasses of these lands. Is it the song of contented shepherds? The melody of mischievous fey? The sounds of bizarre insects? Or evil monstrosities attempting to lure travelers to their doom? Lost treasures, new experiences and even potential allies await those who are brave enough to discover them. But intrepid adventurers should be mindful of where they place their steps, while keeping one eye on the vast skies for roiling storms and looming shadows that signal the approach of danger. Drop your dungeon in the middle of this environment, or on the other side of it, or just use this table and ditch the dungeon entirely tonight.
Each encounter can stand on its own, but if the players show interest and get engaged, other encounters begin to suggest themselves. The pieces here can be assembled in many different ways, depending on what the roll of the dice (or the Dungeon Master, wink, wink,) says happens first, and how the players respond. Though just about anything can be a combat in D&D if you truly believe, only a handful of these encounters amount to “monsters attack,” and most can be resolved without ever rolling for initiative. That doesn't mean they are without danger or consequences. Enmities, alliances, information, even those sweet, sweet magic items are all up for grabs.
There are design notes peppered throughout as well, suggesting different ways of approaching things. The first, for example, explores the question of how a DM might adjudicate the actions of a cyclops grabbing a medium or small sized adventurer and throwing it at another member of the party. Another considers how a player character might obtain a mount the old fashioned way.
Grab this table, roll 2d6, or simply choose an entry that catches your eye to make a stretch of overland travel more exciting. It's in the journey, after all. Or use these encounters to run a hex crawl or another exploration-based form of play, distributing the events, sites, and factions to fill out a region, or simply allow the table to populate the map organically for you by rolling dice. Or select from the included plot hooks and rumors to create a more linear adventure, or to incorporate player options and meaningful choices into a preexisting story-line that may need them. Use this to open things up a little if your game is feeling a little too railroaded, or to place some shiny new toys inside your sandbox.
Check out the preview on the Dungeon Masters Guild and if you pick up a copy, please come back and tell me stories.
