Random Encounters

Up the Ante: If the PCs are going to go their own way on the battlefield, take a moment to ask yourself why they’re rejecting the choices you presented them (the paths on your flowchart). If the players don’t realize the options they have, you can make them more obvious, or even have an NPC advise them of what their options are. It’s more likely that the players aren’t taking certain actions because they don’t think the ratio of reward to risk is high enough. If that’s the case, you can either increase the reward or reduce the perceived risk. You can make a particular course of action more tempting by offering more victory points, recognition points, or potential wealth. If the characters are reluctant to chase down the retreating drow, for example, you can mention that they seem to be forming up around a particular cave entrance (one that leads to an underground tunnel network, making it an important maneuver point).

You can also up the ante by reducing the perceived risk of a course of action. For example, characters worried about attacking an enemy stockade might think better of the idea if you describe drowsy guards or an unobserved approach to the walls. One way to reduce the PCs’ perception of risk is to have a friendly unit arrive and offer to assist the PCs. Getting to the stockade is easier if griffon-riding allies swoop overhead to distract its defenders.

Provide Intelligence: Many times characters will get stuck on the battlefield because they don’t know how to proceed. Worse, players will have their PCs argue with each other over the best course of action, and your battlefield adventure turns into a debate competition. Obviously, it’s okay if the PCs spend noncombat time discussing strategy, but you don’t want the conversation to drag on beyond the point where everyone’s having a good time. If the players honestly don’t know how to proceed, you should provide them with more information or, better yet, the opportunity to uncover intelligence for themselves. The PCs might spot enemy cavalry bearing down on a friendly supply train that’s unaware of the danger. They could discover war plans on the corpse of an enemy they’ve just defeated. They might attain a vantage point from where they can see how the battle is unfolding, with the left flank of their own army about to collapse.

Reconnect Them Later: If the PCs look like they’re going to head down an unforeseen path, you can let them do so, give them a fun encounter, then reconnect them to your adventure. If high-level PCs take off in pursuit of low-level enemy men-at-arms, you can give them the encounter they seem to want: a blowout in which they wreck an enemy unit at little risk to themselves. (Players like to be challenged, but they also enjoy the occasional cakewalk.) Afterward, give the PCs plenty of opportunities to get back onto the flowchart in the form of skirmishes they see elsewhere on the battlefield, friendly units asking for help, and commanders checking on them. You’re giving the characters a sense of independence, but you’re also showing them the way back to the challenges you’ve prepared.

Redraw the Flowchart: Even if the players confound the links on your flowchart, you’ve still got a bunch of well-designed encounters you can throw at them. Don’t be shy about changing the links and presenting those encounters in a different context. If the PCs ignored the retreating enemy cavalry, for example, you can use that encounter later by having the cavalry unit charge the PCs. If the PCs head into no-man’s-land rather than assist in the defense of the trench network, you can stage an encounter in an abandoned trench network near the enemy lines, using the trench map you’ve already prepared. As long as the PCs are running around the battlefield having fun encounters, you’re doing your job as DM, and you’ve got all the tools you need (victory points, recognition points, XP, and gold) to reward the characters.

Let Them Go: You’ve already established the overall flow of battle, you’ve got a series of battlefield maps, and you know the general makeup of both armies. That means you’ve got all the tools you need to improvise a battlefield adventure. If you’re comfortable designing interesting encounters on the fly, let the characters do what they want, even if their actions don’t appear on your flowchart. To throw together a quick encounter, sketch out an encounter map based on where the PCs are on your battlefield map. Then come up with an enemy maneuver element with an EL appropriate for the PCs’ level. Quickly assess how many victory points and recognition points are at stake. Then spend a moment to think of a wrinkle: something positive or negative to spring on the PCs during the fight. Reinforcements could join one side or the other, the whole battlefield could get bombarded, or a random event could occur (such as ankhegs emerging from underground and attacking everything indiscriminately). Finally, think of something you can do at the end of an encounter that will guide the PCs’ next actions. For example, you could have a surrendering enemy trooper blurt out some valuable intelligence. Maybe the PCs spot some activity elsewhere on the battlefield that requires their attention. Or perhaps the sky grows just a little darker over the watchtower on the nearby hill.

Regardless of how closely or loosely the PCs adhere to the flowchart you’ve built, you’ll find a good random encounter table to be a useful tool during a battlefield adventure. A random encounter table isn’t intended to be demographically accurate. It should provide interesting encounters of an EL appropriate for your PCs, not an accounting of what units are most likely to be found on the battlefield. A random encounter table for high-level PCs, for example, will feature high-level opposition even if the two armies involved have mostly low-level troopers. In a particularly large battle, you might want to design several random encounter tables based on geography (one table for the underground tunnels, another for the surface

battlefield) or timing (one table for the start of the battle, another table for after the cultists open the gate that brings in the demon army). But in most battles a single encounter table will suffice if you construct it carefully. During a typical battle, the PCs might spend some time behind friendly lines, some time in contested ground, and some time behind enemy lines. A 40-20-40 random encounter table can serve all three areas. To build such an encounter table, have the first 40 percent of the table (results 01–40) consist of enemy units. The next 20 percent of the table (results 41–60) are neutral parties, environmental elements, and battlefield events such as artillery bombardments. The final 40 percent of the table (results 61–100) are friendly units. Once you’ve built a 40-20-40 table, you use it by rolling d% whenever the PCs are in territory contested by both sides. When the PCs are behind enemy lines with no friendly troops nearby, reroll any result of 61 or higher. If the PCs are in the rear echelon, not currently engaged in fighting, reroll any result of 40 or lower, so that the encounter is either friendly or neutral.

What to Put on the Table: For the enemy and friendly units that make up the lowest and highest sections of the table, use the maneuver elements appropriate for that army. (To build those maneuver elements, see Designing a Fantasy Army, page 24.) In the 40 percent of the table devoted to enemy units, twenty of the possible results should be tied to maneuver elements with an EL equal to the PCs’ average level. Four of the possible results should be tied to easy encounters with enemy units of an EL lower than the party’s average level. The same goes for tough units, of an EL 1 to 4 higher than the PCs’ level, and overwhelmingly powerful enemy units with an EL 5 or more higher than the PCs. The remaining eight possible results should either be more enemy units at the PCs’ average level or tougher encounters in which smart PCs can find and exploit a weakness in their foe (such as enemy cavalry encountered near terrain where horses can’t go). You should adjust the enemy ELs upward if the PCs are going to have significant NPC assistance, then award experience points based only on what the PCs themselves overcome. For the friendly units that populate the highest 40 percent of the table, you’re less interested in the EL of the unit because the PCs probably won’t be fighting these guys. Instead, you want to focus on interesting encounters that do one of three things: give the PCs a chance to help others, give NPCs a chance to help the PCs, or set up a conflict with a “friendly” unit that might require negotiation to avoid coming to blows. Demoralized units are a classic example of the first kind of friendly encounter. The PCs get a chance to try to earn some recognition points for rallying the troops, you get a chance to pass along information about how the larger battle is going, and the characters feel more like they’re a useful part of the larger army, not just a band of independent soldiers. Sometimes the PCs are in dire straits themselves, so the second kind of friendly encounter would be more than welcome. Whether it’s archers who cover the PCs’ retreat or an allied cleric who tends to the PCs’ wounds before the next gnoll assault, such encounters are a good way to keep the PCs adventuring longer in gameworld terms. Not every allied unit is necessarily friendly. The PCs might have to handle obstinate subordinates, units that mistake them for enemies, and allied commanders that have turned crazy, cowardly, or traitorous. This third kind of “friendly” encounter is a good way to provide NPC interactions that don’t immediately lead to combat, giving PCs a chance to employ their social skills on the battlefield. The characters might have to convince a general that their original mission is more important than the suicidal charge he’s planning—or better yet, talk him out of it and save the fellow soldiers who have already been drafted for the charge. The middle section of the random encounter table is where you can connect the battle to the rest of the campaign world. It’s where the PCs meet civilians, wandering monsters, and others swept up in the tide of war. Here are some encounters you can include in the middle, or neutral, section of a random encounter table. • Bombardment from friendly or enemy siege engines. • Deserting units from either side. • Units from ostensibly neutral armies or political factions that have been sent to observe, gather intelligence, or serve some darker purpose. • Bandits, marauders, and other neutral units seeking plunder and riches on the battlefield. • Monsters that inhabited the area before it became a battlefield. Refer to the tables beginning on page 96 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for a list of monsters appropriate to the climate and terrain. • Monsters drawn to the battlefield, often seeking corpses to eat or reanimate. • Civilians caught in the crossfire of battle trying to hunker down and survive. • Weather and magical effects that can pop up sporadically, such as cloudbursts or unhallowed ground.

How Often to Check: Your own sense of pacing should guide how often to check for random encounters. If the PCs are heading directly toward the battle’s climactic encounter, there’s little sense in spending real-world time on a minor skirmish when the climax is looming. Conversely, if the PCs are doing routine tasks or simply watching a battle unfold, you can jolt them into action by throwing a random encounter at them. If you’re otherwise happy with the pacing of your adventure at present, consider rolling on your random encounter table once per hour (if the PCs are stationary) or once for every 5 squares they traverse on the battlefield map (if they are traveling). You could increase the likelihood of random encounters near a battle’s key maneuver points, and decrease it on the fringes of the battle.