Why Does D&D Have Wandering Monsters? 

The Netflix show “Delicious in Dungeon” is popular with modern D&D players but what they might not have noticed is that it’s an old school dungeon crawl, including wandering monsters and random encounters. It’s a very good example of how old school D&D was played: There’s a dungeon; it has distinct levels; there are multiple adventuring parties; parties go back to town to resupply (usually - that’s a key part of the story), there are traps; there are monster lairs; there are wandering monsters that are themed to the level; there are repeat encounters with the same party/monsters. It’s perhaps the best representation of how D&D was originally played.

A lot of people get so hung up on narrative and gameplay being separate elements in DnD that they forget these things are supposed to complement each other, like a yin and yang kind of thing. Having the players deal with the challenges of an unpredictable and dangerous environment, even if these challenges don't mean anything in the broader scope of what the adventure is about, can directly or indirectly lead to the kind of exciting moments that people play this game for. A group of goblins wanders up and attacks, maybe the players use up some resources that cause them to struggle and get creative later in the fight against the dragon. Maybe they defeat the goblins but start investigating their presence further, the DM can think on their feet and come up with some brand new material that branches off what they originally intended. Maybe the encounter with the goblins informs the players what the world is like through their presence and unique appearances, or teaches them to be careful. Maybe they get defeated and captured by the goblins, the adventure takes an exciting twist. Or maybe it's been awhile since the players got to let off some excess violence and it's just good as a tool for the DM to pace out their game between other significant encounters. Or if you're running something where violence is a less appealing solution to your problems, especially in old-school games, it could be a chance for the players to sneak, trick, or talk their way past a tense and difficult situation.

The random surprise and the disruptive events to the best laid plans are epic. Breaks up the wash, rinse, repeat sensation of here we go again.

I do use Wandering Monsters / Random Encounters in my campaign but with consideration. In my last session (1/2e AD&D) the party was sailing through an Archipelago known for pirates, monsters and unusual events. We treated almost as a hex crawl despite sailing through charted waters. The encounters were everything from extreme weather, to pirates, to ocean hazards (whirlpool), to a mysterious island that wasn’t supposed to be where it was. The random encounters filled in the blanks and helped tell the story. Not all encounters are hostile either. The party can meet interesting NPCs who they can engage with for help or information. They can come across an area of unusual terrain indicating a powerful magic effect or creature near by. Random Encounters can be a wonderful way to add excitement and tension or wonder to your game.

I have always loved wondering monsters, probably because the very first monster I faced as a kid was a Zombie, which was a wondering monster. Still like setting out watches during the night and rolling for wandering monsters. Great channel!!

We always used random encounters, which included wandering monsters, wandering NPCs and random world building or plot scenarios. Our campaigns were sandboxes, and the focus was on events happening in the land that the players could engage with or ignore. The randomness helped with immersion but also strategy, since if the players know that even the DM doesn’t necessarily know what might happen it really ups the collaboration between DM and players. It makes the players think twice about being unprepared, and they also know they do not - should not - treat every event as a combat. As DM is was fun to weave the randomness into a story. For example, the players may look up NPCs they met on the road because they might have useful connections; the players may end up with nemesis’s, side quests, mysteries to pursue, etc. It really makes the world seem more real, rather than a story woven around the players.

I love wondering monsters, random encounters and flying by the seat of your pants style gaming in general. This is why Dungeon Crawl Classics is my favorite RPG of all time.

By the time Dragonlance showed up I had already been playing and running games for 10 years. Before that, games were episodic or sandboxes. Dragonlance was super popular, because it was the birth of railroading, and sub par DM's could look like real DM's by running them.

Because most game sessions are limited by how much time you have, I like to roll up potential random encounters before the session starts. Then I can mix them in based on how far the party is progressing in the time we have remaining. I get the old school appeal of having something completely unexpected show up, but sometimes it burns too much time from the main adventure.

Something that I decided on decades ago was that most monsters have more needs than combat just as most monsters have a sense of preservation. So if it becomes apparent the PCs are winning, most monsters retreat. Few fight to the death.

Random encounters have been the more memorable through the years.

Excellent video. I'm glad you brought up resource/time management. In AD&D, Random encounters are the impetus for movement and making progress through the dungeon and or wilderness, until such time as the PCs can return to civilization (ideally with loot so they can level up). These unplanned encounters are part of the "time" system that includes encumbrance, resource management, listening at doors, searching for secret passages, and mapping , etc. PCs should want to maximize time in the "dungeon," which means moving quickly to get as much loot as they can carry and then escape back to the village. In AD&D, the DM checks once every 6 turns (1 hour) for the chance of an encounter. PCs want to move quickly and reduce the overall number of times that the DM makes an encounter check (do you want to enter the dungeon with a 90' movement speed or a 30' movement speed?). Random encounters are with creatures that are not in a lair, therefore they have little to no loot but still force the party to burn resources. Having a map allows the PCs to get out of the dungeon faster (x5 movement rate), resource/inventory management and encumbrance help the PCs to move faster and or decide what to drop if things go sideways (pack your backpack well and you can go from 30' to 120' pretty quickly). How long should they spend listening at a door, or searching for a secret door that just has to be there? Pulling at a thread has consequences to the integrity of the system as a whole. If you want to reduce the chance of random encounters that "waste" time and resources, have a map and manage the mechanics so you can move fast. :) I'm not saying tables need to use Random Encounters, but it does change (if not break) the system (AD&D at least).

I always have a few “random” encounters up my sleeve, some have taken the party in a completely different direction, one memorable encounter had a highish level mage critically injured by an arrow in the forehead , something we have never forgotten , a double roll of a 20 for hit and crit with concealment ( his head was the only thing showing) with a bit of ad-libbed home brew created a great memory.

Some of the best story beats I've ever seen in games I've played in and games I'm DMing is when the party makes an unexpected choice and ends up somewhere random and I just need to fill a session with some entertainment so I roll up a wandering encounter that sometimes turns into a whole new campaign. My players randomly went the wrong direction on an abandoned road and they came to a bridge guarded by some gnolls, and some other mixed baddies , they became fascinated with them, fought them a bit and then decided to parlay. The dice allowed it so I just played along. Turns out this gang worships a giant forest wyrm and it turned into a whole sub plot about learning why this wingless dragon was in this particular mountain range. I basically threw out my planned campaign and let them go down the rabbit hole. Everyone had a blast.

I love all Daddy Rolled a 1 videos! Agreed, I like both random encounters and resource management. Random encounters demonstrate that the world is not a static place just waiting for an adventurer to come strolling by. I like resource management because accomplishing goals with limited resources is a more satisfying victory than winning with everything you could possibly want always at the ready. Wandering monsters should make sense in the context of your environment. Where did the goblins come from? From the pool of monsters in the dungeon. The wandering merchant was on his way to the market in the next town. Etc. Thanks for this.

Wandering Monsters are what makes players really have to watch the clock and be careful. Wanna spend extra turns searching for secret doors - good luck with that. Wanna rest up for a long time somewhere - good luck on that. Wanna explore a dead end sequence of rooms - good luck with that. Sometimes you don't find the monster, it finds you.

Obviously I like the random encounter, wandering monster and reacton/morale mechanics. Wandering monsters are part of the timer adding urgency to play. Taking time in a dungeon increases the danger! But I do think the gonzo random tables are mood killers, instead, as you pointed out, use themes from the adventure or like the Acolytes actual npcs that can reveal things. I believe this adds realism and intrigue to any setting.

This was a great video on WM's. You mentioned verisimilitude, and that is the most important reason in my campaigns for having them. Think of how boring travelling from town A to town B would be without wandering encounters. What I do: every WM encounter I have in my campaign has a reason and purpose, I still use tables and they are random. Here are two examples; Azra the Troll - An overturned beer cart lies in the road. Nearby, an enormous troll snores loudly, surrounded by empty kegs. Azra is drunk and passed out. Gojun the Terrible - An enormous dragon lands on the road in front of the group. It asks for directions to a certain village, gives the party a generous tip, and then flies off saying he intends to raze it to the ground. His name is Gojun. [He is a Brine Dragon and seeks revenge for the death of his spouse by a "Hero" of this village] I give myself a summary of what each creature is about, and how to roleplay the encounter. Some are combat as well, but I like to throw in a lot of social and unique encounters giving the players a chance to hobo kill [in the first encounter] or kill themselves [by attacking the dragon] in the second. Not every encounter should be combative, either because you simply can't beat it, or it was never meant to be combative in the first place. Furthermore, many of these, can form the basis of an adventure in and of themselves depending on how the players go about the encounter. Cheers.

Thanks for the video! I use wandering monsters all the time, every game I run, without fail. There is no place in my setting where things are not wandering around. :)

“Real D&D” is the D&D at your table.

I used to be in the "hates wandering monsters" camp, but now I'm firmly in the other. I even made some very extensive wandering monster tables for my Warhammer 4e game, including tables for all the major bad guy factions, plus regular bandit/outlaw types, plus a few other human types. And then I put a couple entries on each faction that say "roll again on this table, and another random table." So for instance I had a wandering monster encounter that was a group of savage orcs who were hunting a dragon. Now my players just sailed right on by that one, lol. No interest in getting caught up in that mess, but the idea of having intersecting tables of random encounters can really help spark new ideas. Like what does an encounter with zombies, and skaven clanrats look like? What are they both doing there?

The curse of strahd is story driven, but also treats him as a wondering monster, so I think there is room to mix them especially if it adds to the setting and in that case horror elements

I love wandering monsters and "random" encounters. However, in my case, the only thing "random" is the timing. I always tailor my random encounters to serve a purpose. Some of those purposes may be: * To slow the group down(pacing) * drop hints about things they may be facing in the near future * maybe a loot drop to give them an edge in an upcoming difficult encounter * dropping plot hints and extra information (or need to know info I forgot to give them) * pulling extra resources out of the party to make a future encounter a bit more challenging * Dropping a plot thread (especially useful for introducing backstory plots) and my PERSONAL favorite * Getting them off their butts and forcing a decision when they are taking way too long overthinking something! *** As you spend the last 10 minutes discussing how to get past the guards, one of them turns toward the corner you are all spying from and starts walking toward you. The gleam in his eye and the hop in his step tell you he's most definitely looking for a quiet shadow in which to relieve himself." There's no reason that random encounters and wandering monsters can't and shouldn't be used to advance the overall story or even drop a new plot thread. Bottom line, if the encounter is relative to the setting and /or the story, there's no reason for it to FEEL random to the players.

Event (leads to deeper tables) 1 Hazard 2 Encounter 3 Omen 4 - 6 No event

I havent played since high school roughly 20 years ago but I love your videos. I put them on to sleep/relax. Thanks for all the uploads!

I agree with the thrust of your argument re: resource management. But in the spirit of fairness and accuracy, two corrections on the 5e lighting rules: 1. 5e Darkvision removes the attack/defense penalties from being blinded, but you still retain disadvantage on perception tests. A darkvision-having player is still penalized against ambushes, traps, hazards, missing useful information, and any other perception-based risk management. On paper, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card. 2. The 5e Light spell is at-will, no-cost, doesn't use concentration, and doesn't take up hands. It use up one of your cantrips-known, but players do not feel torn between the choices so it does not apply any pressure. On paper, it's a no-downsides infinite light. In practice, most resource management rules are simply not enforced. The rules necessary to do B/X-style resource management are in 5e, they just don't want to use them. I think "goodberry solves food management" tends to be more of a cop-out than a considered belief -- the starting position is "resource management is boring and pointless" and everything after that is back-explaining. I find that the best way to sales pitch resource management is to describe it as being like Survival Horror video games. Younger people **get** that resource management in survival-horror video games is fun, and that can sometimes break the back of this belief. But that's a battle you fight on a per-person basis, and I don't believe the 5e cultural belief will ever really change on it, it simply has too much momentum.

I've learned over the years that random encounters in enclosed environments should reflect the creatures in that environment. IE: the random bug bear from room #8 going to or returning from a bathroom break.

I love wandering monsters, to spice things for me when I'm running and to force the party to make decisions/manage resources.

Great video. One small note though: Light spells do not use a resource in 5e. It's a cantrip, so it doesn't use up a spell slot. Players lose nothing from casting it. It's a common gripe about 5e amongst old school gamers.

In the AD&D DMG a wandering monster table is given with the (incomplete) sample dungeon on page 94, and in the scripted example of play (pp 98-99) the DM makes regular wandering monster checks. Under "Time in the Dungeon" on page 38, it says that keeping accurate time is essential so that the DM knows when to roll for wandering monsters, and it recommends the number of rolls be "moderated" while the party is resting, to allow spell casters to refresh their spells. On page 97, the section about finding traps and listening at doors suggests that the DM make more frequent wandering monster checks if the players are being over-cautious and checking everything. (Not sure how they are supposed to know when to be cautious and when not.) On the same page it mentions that bashing down a door triggers three(!) checks for wandering monsters. Finally there is a cursed "jewel of attacks" that causes a 100% chance of encountering wandering monsters. FWIW, I think wandering monsters make sense if you are focused on an exploration mode of play, where the tension arises from what's around the next corner and the players are encouraged to cut and run sometimes. If you prefer a cinematic game that alternates between character-focused roleplaying and orchestrated combats, then wandering monsters make no sense.

Having spent over a decade creating and play testing a game of my own creation I learned early on that whenever you change rules or avoid using them as intended, you create more, often surprising problems. I equate this as the Domino effect. Most systems are very interlinked and mucking with them is like removing the odd domino. Remove too many and the rest fail to work as expected.

great video. I liked your charts at the end.Personally I love the challenge of random encounters on the fly.I switched to Shadowdark after the Hasbro OGL crap. SD has so many charts on encounters that i use on the fly. For example I rolled "cultist examining ruins" worked perfectly and added some intrigue as the players saw a lone man studying some old obelisk. Turned out that while watching him to determine his purpose, I ended up rolling another encounter, "horse gets pulled into water by a tentacled horror." I had to figure out what was happening fast. I decided the horse was the cultists horse and was down the river a way off and only visible to the keen eyesight of the elf. When the horse was pulled in the stranger yelled in panic about his steed "Chancey". In the end the players befriended the man and promised to take him back to town. They camped and the next day they explored some of the ruins and had one of the players die by a collapsing wall. His new character became the cultist. The wall was also a random encounter.So I feel the dice make the story more then I do, I am just a referee and interpreter. I try to keep my games very open with rumors to guide the players in the direction they wish to go. I would say Random encounters are a complete must have.

This was a great video. I hope you do more of this type of content. I remember wondering monsters from when I was a kid, and after years of not playing, I thought it was strange that I didn't see them in 5e. This was an inventative approach to how I can include it into my games. I look forward to adding this back in. Also, I want to mention how resource management has also been forgotten, and you talking about it turned the light bulb on in my head on a different approach to running my adventures.

On that last point of "if you play 5E and don't like the reaction roll and would rather use your bonuses, then go ahead and use your diplomacy instead." I would say those are two fundamentally different questions/answers. The reaction roll is setting up the initial situation. A diplomacy check is due to player action to change the situation. Both can be used together.

ironically, when I was running my hex and dungeon crawl, I used the default monster tables in OSE and miraculously almost everything I rolled up turned out to be something that actually does or would live in the dungeon. The dungeon is at the edge of a swamp, no bullywugs are in my dungeon, but they showed up as random encounters. The entire eco-system of killer bees (which were in the dungeon being bred by kobolds) --> which are eaten by robber flies --> which are eaten by tiger beetles, somehow happened through random encounters. When they were in the undead-themed part of the dungeon, the wondering monsters also turned out to be undead. It was a bunch of super weird coincidences like that over and over, even though I didn't actually mean to have very interesting encounters I was just being lazy.

The best way I know of to keep a DM from throwing wondering monsters too much is set up ambushes with your group so he rolls the wandering monster check to see if you get the ambush someone it worked for me at least

I think even the name can put people off but really your “wandering monster” table can be anything, including friendly encounters or even friendly encounters with monsters (reaction rolls, Charisma is so much more important in old school)! NPC wasn’t really a term when these things were kicking off so a “wandering monster” could be a human, an elf, a merchant, a fairy, or a dragon or whatever.

Great video! In response to your soapbox rant about Dragonlance "not being real D&D", I've never seen anyone make that argument. What I have seen many times is people arguing that Dragonlance is not "old school" D&D - AKA it's not OSR. And I think they're absolutely right for the exact reasons you outline. What makes this is a hot topic is the fact that AD&D is generally considered OSR, and yet some of its most popular modules were trad adventure arcs. Some people think Dragonlance is old and therefore OSR, when really it's the first departure from old-school gaming.

I think an encounter doesn't have to be a combat is a huge concept

Thanks for another great video with history and game mastering advice. Understanding why something was included really does help incorporating it into the game and into one's game mastering philosophy.

Wandering monsters are the best. Reaction rolls for a new friend or foe. A potential for a new lair in the map. Of course not every location be it hex crawl, dungeon or city needs them all the time. But they create events and consequences far better organically than I can plan out

If I ran a game where the simplest combat ate up an hour or more, I'd hate wandering monsters, too. Since I favor OD&D, however, I can appreciate how they add tension, foster verisimilitude, encourage smart play, and give the referee some delightful opportunities to be surprised by his own dungeon.

The purpose for wandering monsters in a dungeon crawl is part of a system to heighten tension. The other part is traps. Traps encourage you to go slow and check every corner carefully. Wandering monsters counter the slow behavior and encourage the players to go fast. If you go too slow, you get too many wandering monsters. If you go too fast, you blunder into more traps. This creates a sense of tension because you have two competing motivations in direct opposition. Hurry up and slow down. The players end up walking a tight rope. I don’t know if I read this or just came to a realization. I can do more reading to find a direct quote. I do know the description for the ear monster goes into detail about this. Basically players are encouraged to listen at doors to try and get information as to what is on the other side. This monster exists to discourage that. If the DM finds players are listening at the door too often, they are encouraged to use this monster. It kinda has a bit of an oppositional feel to it. But it’s making sure the players are challenged. For wilderness encounters, the wandering monsters is exactly how you described. A randomization aid in case you haven’t detailed the area yet or can’t think of something you want.

I was always a bit cheesed that the same year my mom burned my 1st core books was the year they changed the covers. Stupid Satanic Panic.

What a fantastic presentation of a fascinating topic! I love how you bring the history to it! I've been having difficulty listening to the long form presentation and rpg topics in general are at the moment on the backseat of my interests as the global politics and geopolitics are so intriguing at this time (another one of my long time special interests). But I'll try to watch this video especially all the way through soon and I'm happy to know that I can always come back to your videos to catch up on all the cool topics. I still make a point also to check them out as you publish and always like them because of course I like them 😁 I'm also two sessions into a new OSE/Dolmenwood game with my main group so I need the good for inspiration. Cheers!

Hi Martin, just wanted to mention that your version of First Fantasy Campaign with 88 pages is the first printing. The later printings had less pages, but this was mostly due to a change to smaller typeface. The contents are almost identical otherwise, aside from some attempts to correct typos from the first print (and adding new typos in the process!).

For eplanataions of "Why" for wandering/random monsters in the AD&D DMG: Check the "Time In The Dungeon" section (pg 38 in my copy) the "Territory Development by player characters" section (pg 93) The "The first dungeon adventure" section (pg 96-97) Ultimately --- it's framed as a consequence or complication of the passage of time; the longer you spend doing things, like forcing doors or looking at every corner and shadow for traps, if you sit around in the same place too long, etc. etc. Which is a big part of how I use them. They're a force to keep the party moving and make them consider how they spend their time -- they can hang out in this one room for 3 more turns opening every cabinet and completely tossing the room for every copper and candlestick; but that means they risk 1-to-3 checks on the wandering monster table, and might get attacked in the process, so is it really worth it? Like, I make my own encounter tables to fit the area the party is in, and my groups have never complained about me using encounter tables -- most of the time they can't even tell if an encounter was planned or rolled. But they know damn well that if they sit around in the dungeon for an hour or two, there's a high chance some local resident wanders by. Similarly, I tie them to noise and decisions -- things like breaking down a door vs picking the lock like you'd mentioned is something I would roll an encounter check for, and the more noise they make the higher the chance is of an encounter; it might be a 1-in-6 chance each turn normally, but the loud noise might be a 2-in-6 or 3-in-6 chance, rolled immediately rather than at the end of the turn. And basically all of it is just... to keep the party and game moving, and add weight to some of their decisions.

Great point about the reaction rolls making things extra interesting, and possibly even beneficial, for the party!

As you pointed out, there is a big difference between a random wandering monster from a general table, and a wandering monster from a bespoke/custom table tailored for the dungeon and being relevant to the adventure. As well as getting ticked off when they happen: in your example, if the PCs kill the acolytes, obviously they shouldn't show up anymore. My issue with wandering monsters is the inexhaustible random monster generator without rhyme or reason. For example there being a sealed tomb of some sort and a big deal has been made of the doors having stayed secret that only one guy knows how to open, and then you just run into living people inside it... I tend to have 'living dungeons', meaning that while my monsters have been keyed to specific locations, they do move around during their normal daily/nightly routine. And they will raise an alarm if they spot intruders.This bit the PCs in the butt in one (early-ish) adventure, when they continued faffing about while they could hear an alarm being raised. End result, the whole lair was gathered up to fight them, and they were overwhelmed and captured for slavery. Now, they managed to escape, but it was no doubt a learning experience for them. In another adventure a bit later, they needed to rescue someone from an orc lair. This time around, they were very conscious about trying to avoid causing an alarm, as well as being very conscious of the time pressure, as at any moment some orc might just wander into a room where they had killed a dozen orcs and raise an alarm. They didn't even take out ten minutes to do a bit of first aid (Healing skill, RC) between the fights, since they felt that flow of sands of time in the hourglass. End result: they totally steamrolled that lair of almost fifty orcs, being able to defeat them in piecemeal, many of them surprised at their cups or in their beds. By contrast, if the adventure involves constructs or undead who have been commanded to patrol specific areas, and the PCs clear those out, then there is no problem. The time pressure in such situations ought to come from 'outside', such as rival adventuring parties, bad guys, time limit imposed by the employer...

+10 points for talking about the Dirty Projectors

Brilliant stuff! I don't think you pointed out that you can always have random encounters that include one or more monsters that would usually be found in a keyed area - so if they are previously encountered elsewhere, they will not be found in that keyed area, or if they have already been found in the keyed area, they will not be randomly encountered elsewhere.

Wandering monsters were an important part of the game. They were used when D&D did not have a story

I'm quite late in commenting on this topic, but... As someone who started running AD&D1E, then later BD&D from the Rules Cyclopedia, in the early '90s I came up playing and running sandbox style games rather than big narrative games. When you're a heavy academic track student (I was aiming to maximize AP classes and AP tests once I got to high school) and when doing campaign and session prep eats your life if you let it, you have to find the efficient way to bang things out. For my GMing style, the best efficiencies came from modularity in layout for everything and keeping absolute premapped encounters to a minimum. I'm constantly rolling dice behind my screen, it'd be impossible for the players to know whether what I just rolled and wrote a note about was a trap just ahead, a secret door they didn't notice, a treasure hoard deeper into the dungeon, the captured duke's daughter they were looking for dying because they'd taken too long getting there, the troop of goblins now suddenly trying to rush at them from up the corridor, something happening far off on another continent that would soon change the local political dynamics, et al

Yes! The idea of D&D adventures being more story like is pretty much as old as the game because different people played in different ways. D&D has never been one thing. It's always been what the players want and you can see that in the earliest days of the conversations about the game. That said, I do like wandering monsters and random encounters and tend to write up specific encounter tables for each adventure I do or collection of adventures in the same area. A temple might have different monsters to a tropical island and two tropical islands might have slightly different tables based on what is there. I also think it's erroneous that wanderingm onsters are purely random. Any populated place will have people moving about.

I loved wandering monsters when I was a DM You’re in their home and making noise. Only made sense they would be looking for you, plus even orcs have to do chores to stay alive

I've long used wandering monsters, especially in a more sandbox or dungeon/hex crawl campaign. I'll even use them in more "story" games, not just D&D. Good things to do in my experience: -Have the stronger monsters in an area potentially wander. If you run into them they'll usually bug out if things don't look like it's going well for them. If you kill them out of their lair, then they won't reappear. Really nasty monsters might kill off rivals in a region. For example some really nasty big apex predator might well whack all of its competition. The megaladon shark or dragon turtle might have eaten all the lesser apex predators. -Only lesser monsters should repopulate. -Don't be afraid to skip an encounter if things are tense enough. The other way around, if things are lagging, throw in an encounter! -Monster tables are also a suggestion for what to find on particular "dungeon levels", not just wandering monsters.

I agree with you that it does come down to resource management, I wasn't sure at first, but I have run it both ways and it does change the game a lot. That said I have my own wondering monster list, with different things outside of combat and many results not meaning anything if they are repeated, the treat is still there, but because a 2 on a d6 was rolled twice only one happened in back to back wondering monster rolls.

Two thumbs up for wandering monsters.

Good video on wandering monsters with many good points in support of their use.

I had no idea people have a negative impression of random encounters. I'm very focused on developing the setting the characters live and explore in and random encounters make the world feel fleshed out and larger than the current story. I think the key is to allow some of them to stay almost completely in the background (drakes are flying by and they seem to not have noticed you) while others need to directly engage and then disengage before they grind boring to kill or be killed (Now that you've bloodied the bear it turns and tries to retreat to find an easier meal somewhere else) while others are allowed to derail the plot momentarily if the players are digging the distraction (like if they hear about a village dealing with roaming wolf packs and they want to stay there for a few days to see if they can help while buying supplies and getting/giving training to/from npcs)

The dungeon random monster tables were scaled for the level of the dungeon so were reasonably OK for low level characters, if they insisted on going deeper than they were really capable of you could say that was on them .. but the wilderness encounter tables were a killer, those needed a little GM judgement and interference sometimes, you really don't want to hit your 1st level players with a red dragon on the trip from the town to the dungeon, that sort of thing can leave them feeling put upon, and a bit dead ;)

I remember my first solo play through in module B2 in which wandering monsters are a detection risk as your party explores the different lairs in the CoC. It definitely introduces a degree of stealth play, but more importantly keeps the play more chaotic so it feels less like you are just playing through the rooms like they were just a golf course. Considering there is not much plot or narrative development in B2, the wandering monster table adds a degree of suspense. Definitely a bit lazy, but it adds a bit of sandbox feel to the campaign to have a random table of elements that might be encountered, as well as exact table and chance for something to be found in any given spot of a lair.

Dave Arneson did have wandering monsters in his game and often they were following the sense of why they were there kind of like what you’re thinking. They had a kind of ecology or reason to be there. The main purpose of the monster was not necessarily to have combat like you’re saying, but to break up the plan and linear story, thinking players sometimes fall into if all you’re doing is playing a game that is a following like a novel, it gets rather monotonous and predictable. The sad thing is early in the creation of dungeons and dragons. It was a lot missed in Dave not being allowed to explain certain game elements. The missing rulebook as I would put it The closest analogy, many players have getting into dungeons and dragons when they hear the word role-play is novels and stories. Not realizing this is more like choose your own adventure with lots of random elements coming in at any angle making you think on your feet. I love your comment about the whole, keeping track of things and following through with anticipating the unexpected. Dave was definitely all about the unexpected. Heck his gameplay followed the unexpected even when he was playing with David Wesely. The easy way I would put it out is explain that think about a military camp, you’re going to have garbage running up and down the court or checking things out. Or you might have other monsters trying to find a place to shelter up. But I love the idea of other player groups or groups similar to the group going through as players, but are just NPC’s trying to do the same thing. And yeah, monsters don’t necessarily sit in the same room all the time waiting for players to show up and suddenly act surprised that is way too cliché I look at it and I heard Dave talk about it is that you have the main story arc with a backstory and a lot of other things going on and the players are the ones who try to figure out what path to giving them the proper empowerment. I know you used a different term for the same thing. I don’t get players who freak out about random monsters or encounters. The only thing that comes to my mind is that they are used to rules as written, meta-gaming, And working with a anticipated, worked out plot and plan When I do a module, I often have actors not known to the players with a totally different desire and plan of their own. The players may grasp one story, not realizing there’s a lot of interwoven story archs going on at once. small note about how to Arnesson recorded his stuff he would write things in the margin of his notes, which is probably a big thing that Tim had problem with. It really required to explain what those notes meant. They were important notes in his manual. In regards to Dragonlance, they were very popular modules because they were presented very nicely and they became very good models to do a module in. I don’t know a single game, master, who actually ran the games, at least not exactly as it was written. Because there is no fun in doing a module where you are forced to follow a action and you don’t have any other option. That’s just not how the intelligent player typically plays. I know in Japan they love the style of gaming. But in US in the early days, it was not the main way to do it. Everyone wanted to show that they could do something unexpected and so linear story or railroading some people call it. Not go over well. Again, what I’m doing in my game I am explaining a lot of the options and giving diagrams to make it easier to understand the different way of thinking about how to do a game

The only issue I have with wandering monsters is if they don't fit the flavor of the setting, once I figured that out as a GM, it was easy to fix.

Great video as always. I personally hated the move to the Dragonlance style adventures, where the pcs are by default heroes destined for greatness. My group started playing DL1 and pretty swiftly abandoned it, after years of zero to hero gaming in our homebrewed setting it just felt sterile and way too on-rails to be any fun. Now I've started DMing again after a 35 year gap, one of the things I really enjoy is the unpredictabiloty of the game, I never fail to be surprised by the decisions of my group! and rather than try and force them to do what I imagined I find it great fun to allow them to approach problem solving in their own unique way! So yes to wandering monsters and letting the dice decide, it's these sort of events that create real tension and moments everyone will remember and enjoy.

Can’t wait to listen to this one after work! Your videos are always the best history videos I know. Have you seen the new 50th anniversary of D&D book from MIT press? It’s a bunch of essays about the history present and future of D&D. I’m reading a chapter a night and trying to savor each one. It’s really good so far. I just got done with the Jon Peterson chapter.

My first experience with dnd was playing adnd 2e, 3 years later were still playing that game. It never occured to me that the game could be played without random encounters. For the past 14 sessions (6 months irl) weve been traveling from one side of the map to the other, and we spend 2/3 of our sessions fighting random encounter monsters in the overworld. Its been beyond insufferable.

Great video and I think 5e DMs should use the reaction table as an initial reaction in 3e you could use all the Charisma powers to change that reaction (sorry if you said this I might have missed it). Another thing I might have missed but I think its important if its said twice is in relation to random encounters, they are not meant to be random per se the roll when an encounter happens should be random (I like 1-2 on a d6 for the wilderness, but 1 for well traveled roads for instance) but what the encounter is doesn't need to be random I predetermine what encounter happens based off the random encounter table before the 1st game session, one for each time of day (dawn, morning, midday, day, night & dusk) in the regions I expect the players to be in. Then when an encounter does happen I pull one for that time of day, and make a mental note to roll a new one for that time slot. If you become an experienced DM you can do this in the moment, but I suggest this for newbie DMs.

I like random encounters. Just make it so characters get Experience Points, Gold, and Items from them.

Out of blue RU-vid recommended me this video. I am kind of surprised that young players not are fans of random encounters of such kind. I thought they grew up on CRPGs mainly and should be used to this kind of things. I, personally, don't mind them. It helps world building. "It's dangerous place. Expect dangerous things, which live here"

it's more-so for travel than for dungeons. like if your players are traveling through caves or through some ruins or something where there isn't necessarily set encounters but just things that happen to be there. If my players were in a dungeon where someone had set up their lair i might have a set of premade encounters they can meet while exploring it, which would be removed from said list if they kill said encounter. If i had them traveling through a cave system or some ruins where there is no one is specifically staying there, i would just use the standard wandering monsters

in 5e Light is no longer a resource, because it's a cantrip now and you can cast infinite cantrips per day.

Great episode!

My wandering monster/bbeg random list always has a chance of running into an encounter that is more powerful than the party can handle easily

The most unpredictable things in the game are usually the players! I like to get the players to roll for a wandering monster if its obvious they are hanging about/making noise etc usually on a '1' every ten minutes.... they soon get the idea. As you point out it does not need to be a combat encounter, however it does need to have a context related to the adventure or setting (even if the players are unaware of what it means). I like the idea of the "what are they doing table" will pause and copy, another point being in more recent games the idea of sandboxing instead of set encounters and random encounters, gives the feeling of continuing npc activity where they could be either a wandering or a set piece encounter.

“That isn’t real D&D”. Anyone who says that has no idea of the history and possibilities of the system. That’s the beauty of it. It can be played in so many ways and they can all be fun and “valid”.

Another great video! I feel like people, especially new players to the game but even some older members, feel the need to follow the rules as written or the adventure as written. I feel like using a truly random table of wandering monster encounters in my experience seemed rather arbitrary , but this video shows that it doesn't have to be that way at ALL. Good insight and inspiration.

I use encounter tables for overland travel, with a different table tailored to each area, as well as in dungeons. But the tables aren’t all monster encounters. It can be weather, or terrain features. Citizens or military. Traders or refugees. And I use the 2d6 reaction table as well. I’ve had 5e veterans scoff at the idea at first, but it always leads to dynamic game play. Like you said in the video, it’s all how you use it. A lot of what I look for in DMing is world building, but around the table, I enjoy being surprised. No one, including me, wants to read a novel I’d write lol. Thanks for all the great content Martin. I especially enjoyed this one.

Wandering monsters are great, but it took me years to understand it. I do believe some modules shouldn't have random monsters. Mainly, gothic horror, where you have a mystery and a highly particular villain. Even some gothic horror modules can use them. I suggest studying the second edition Ravenloft setting to get the when to use them vs when not to. It's honestly just another tool, and as a GM/referee, you should keep it in your tool kit.

Good video, tasty sounding Cocktail, I too like Old Fashions .

Random encounters was a big part of our game when I played ad&d//2e when they were current.

DnD is what is fun. That might be different from what I like, but if it's fun for you then it's fine.

I ran a lot of D&D during the white box era. During this era, there were no narratives. The model of my game, 1977-1980, was a plate of pasta. Each strand was a story and the sauce was the wandering monsters. My players often wanted to charm or capture and question small monsters like goblins; the information was valuable. Unlike Dragonlance, which I do not remember well, the players had no reason to believe they were the protagonists of a story. It was on the players to find the story. It should never be obvious whether an encounter was part of a story or a random encounter until later. Also, there was little or no sense of urgency in the game. If you are trying to find your way to something, there is no hurry in either real time or game time. I used the random encounter tables or made my own for a particular location, always prepared before the game just like location encounters. I didn't want players to know a particular encounter was important except in retrospect.

There is always the possibility of running into something hostile in an environment it's no different from real life if you were to run into an animal in the woods. What irks me is DMs that treat EVERY wandering encounter as a threat to fight. It does break up the tension and flow at times sure but can help get you some grind in for xp and to have fun. Combat was always my favorite part. The most boring moments I ever had were the downtimes of role-playing out political discussions and chatting with non-hostile npcs. Sure yes it has a place...but I'm not sitting through several plus hours of negotiations when as a martial combatant I do my talking with force over speech. Take it for what you will.

Wandering monsters add a touch of common sense to the fantasy world. It's a dangerous place and adventuring in dungeons and crypts, stealing the monster's treasure is a high risk - high reward business. I don't understand why as a DM, I should babysit the players by fudging the encounters to always be "balanced".

Another fun video. Have you seen the documentary on the Dungeon and Dragons Artists, Easley, Clydewell and Parkinson, I found it on Prime a few years ago.

Edit at 28 min you say all of this and more. For the algorithm! To me wandering monsters were always from one area exploring another. It wasn’t a monster not in the game. I’d have wandering monsters not in their lair because they were elsewhere and it stopped the surgical strike syndrome that many groups devolved into. However I stopped using them in recent years. I think they need to come back.

My game is built around random encounters. There are planned encounters. But far more random encounters. My guys hire henchman to watch their gear when they descend into the dungeon because… their henchman guarding their gear have random encounters

I like to put weird events on random encounters tables. It gives my worlds a strange other worldly feel that is outside the magic and abilities the players are used to.

Me & my gaming group always used wandering monsters weather we played a "Old School" D&D game or a "Story Line" game. Places are dangerous & Wandering Monsters represent the dangers of an area be it random monsters or a guard patrol. If a DM is running a "Story Line" game & never uses wandering monsters, & then before we get to an objective has a bunch of goons attack us I will at least roll my eyes, & probably be pissed that he CHOSE to sick them on us. Even if we did as much as possible to avoid that. If a random rolled Wandering monster hit us in the same scenario, well that's fate, I can't blame the DM. I loved the Dragonlance books, but didn't care for the modules. I had already read the books, so why play the module that I already knew the ending to was my thought.

1 Monster coming back from a successful hunt 2 Running to the bathroom. 3 Coming back from a beer run 4 Hiding from other monsters 5 Dragging off a prisoner to execute 6 Monsters carrying sacks of grain.

I've run the same dungeon that I wrote with its own curated random encounter table 3 times now, and I haven't enjoyed the random encounters. They've felt overly random, without significantly impacting the resource management, while also really taking me out of my flow as a GM. I think in the future I'll either try the underclock, or employ a D4 timer with a ThinkDeck pull and the encounter table I already made for on-the-spot inspiration.

They are a clock pressure to keep the PCs from Maxing resting to their advantage.

If a territory exists where the players are trying to establish themselves. Wandering monsters need not happen for the players. Those can be a problem for the hirelings, henchmen, and soldiers that the players employ. Their task is to protect the people that reside in, and around a player's stronghold. If a nearby town burns to the ground. The players could care less, because it interferes with their adventure. They do not need that town, because they can just move into another city. However, if that town is significant for the "story." It would seem silly for players to not care about some random encounter someone else had. If it indirectly impacts them. Now it becomes a part of the story. Next, encounter the players have with the cause of problems will not be random. It becomes intentional for the players to stop it from continuing to be a problem.

Wondering Monsters is actually the name of my band. /s

In my opinion, as soon as the story is predetermined, you are using the D&D mechanics to play out a novel/movie/modern adventure. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is certainly a way to play. Personally,I prefer (and have exclusively run for 37 years) a game where the story is created by the characters actions. Not knowing how anything will resolve until the characters decide is one of the true joys of being a DM. I don’t think I could run a game where I had to force the characters down a predetermined path. I think this must be why so many DMs complain about players ruining their games. I also think players ruin those games on purpose. I believe it is an immature act of rebellion against the loss of their agency. I bet most of them don’t even realize that’s why they do it. Anyhoo… just some thoughts. Great stuff as always. BECMI Forever! Long Live King Elmore!!

I have developed a deep hatred for "scripted adventures", where everything must happen in a specific order, with every encounter accurately set up to the point of telling you what the enemy do action by action, with treasures and loots already calculated to the last copper piece, and so on... That's not an adventure, it's a theatrical script or an interactive novel. In my opinion, players make the story through their decisions and their actions. The DM reacts to that and puts in the game new challenges and possible interactions. And random encounters are a great instrument to manage the world around the player characters and make it more alive. I as DM do not create the story, I enjoy it from a first row seat after having set up the scenery. Notice that I wrote "random encounters", not "wandering monsters". The latters are just one of the many possible types of the formers. Those can be almost anything, from passers by along a road to natural hazards, from climate changes to weird location the players stumble upon, from bizarre phenomena to unespected obstacles on the way, and so on. The weird thing about random encounters is that they can be used to manage completely expected happenings too: things that are bound to happen under certain circumstances, but not in a specific spot and/or not at a predetermined time. They are supposed to happen, but you just don't know where or when, or even if. I agree on the resource management part. That should be a fundamental part of roleplaying games, but since 4th edition it has been increasingly left out of the system, by heavy use of easy recovery (rest mechanics, healing surges, etc.) or unlimited availability (instant recovery of hit points, neverending spell components, etc.). There is no place for randomness in encounters either in the latest systems. They are incredibly deterministic about everything, giving detailed instructions about what to put into your games and when. They are boring for a DM like me, which prefers to throw things at the party to see how they manage the situation, without giving a shit about balance or fairness.

Wandering monsters are great, when I DM. Sometimes good when I am a player sometimes bad.

weird idea but for an adventure set in and around a city: you could have a table of 'wandering people.' You encounter these NPCs based on tables when you enter or leave the city or move around the town. They would have valuable information, could be coolies to help carry supplies or assist in dungeon delves. EDIT: for wandering monsters a good house rule: when a player has a close call, then survives it or beats a particularly tough monster award a point of 'destiny.' Destiny can be spent like a currency for players to pre-emptively avoid wandering monsters while traveling or doing other things that normally cause the encounter. If you do this you should be able to stick to the hard-and-fast rules of how wandering monsters work.

Maybe the monsters are just out for a walk.