The Hunting Die - Improving Encounter Rolls or, a Predatory Encounters/Underclock Alternative
Rather recently, I shared PREDATORY ENCOUNTERS which is a method to increase the number of random encounters and create a greater sense of tension in your games. Now, I'm sharing another method, a slight twist on the random encounter roll called 'The Hunting Die'. First, check out ANOTHER UNDERCLOCK by James Young, which deeply influenced this post (and special thanks to Goblin's Henchmen). Now, let's get into it:
Take your Overloaded Encounter Die, usually a d6, decide on a formula you like (examples, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) and have encounters occur on a 1. THEN grab another set of polyhedral dice - big, scary ones. These are your Hunting Dice - they represent the dungeon inhabitants searching out your players. You'll only ever use one of these dice at a time. This Hunting Die starts as a d20 and is rolled simultaneously with the overloaded encounter die.
Use the overloaded encounter die as you would normally, fulfilling its results as they occur (light depletion, dungeon effects, etc), with encounters happening as normal on results of 1. At the same time, you are rolling the Hunting Die. The Hunting Die only comes into effect on results of 1. Rolling a 1 on the Hunting Die triggers an encounter with the dungeon's 'main faction'. Rolling any other result causes the Hunting Die to decrease one Die size, but more on that later.
What? 'Main Faction'? Huh? This is whichever faction, being or entity is most dominant in whatever area the party are currently in. For example, C.H.U.Ds in the Cannibal Clan Sewers, Doleful Shades in the Katabatic Cave, the Driller-Killer himself in the Lair of the Driller-Killer or the Slime Duke and his cohorts but only in the slimy northern chambers of the Chaos Kings's Megadungeon. This is not to say that the dungeon's dominant party should not appear on your usual, regular encounter table but it's good to promote encounters with the dungeon's main movers and shakers - you wouldn't want to run a vampire dungeon and encounter no, or not many vampires, would you? It's happened to me. Rolling two dice for encounters has its quirks, overloaded encounter die results can trigger at the same time as the Hunting Die encounter and if both the Encounter Die and Hunting Die roll 1's, you know what that means, double encounter!
For example |
After rolling the Encounter Die and the Hunting Die (whether the Encounter Die results in an encounter or not) reduce the die size of the Hunting Die from a d20 to a d12. This represents that the dungeon inhabitants are getting closer to finding your players. Reduce the size of the Hunting Die each time it is rolled and does not result in an encounter (any result other than 1). Continue to reduce the Hunting Die after every encounter roll until it rolls a 1 and triggers a faction encounter. After the Hunting Die's encounter is resolved, the die resets in size back up to d20. This helps to keep both the feel of rising tension and the idea that an encounter can occur at any moment.
If the players draw attention to themselves you have a few options. Instant reduction in the size of the Hunting Die, or, if the characters are particularly overt, instantly roll the Hunting Die with the Encounter Die regardless of how much time that has passed. You can even do both at once. How you play this is up to your discretion as a DM.
Tips, Tricks, Options, Opinions and Alternatives
- Keep the Hunting Die visible. Your players should know how close they are to being attacked, but, keeping die based will ensure more tension than a static and obvious 'right now' point. Consider it being a player role to keep track of the Hunting Die and roll for encounters.
- Certain actions may permanently reduce the maximum size of the Hunting Die. The Hunting Die max size will only reset to d20 if the players leave the dungeon. These actions may include sleeping in the dungeon, stealing particularly important treasure or killing dungeon leaders.
- A more unforgiving option is that the first faction encounter, the Hunting Die only resets to d12. The die never resets to d20 until players leave the dungeon.
- There is no bespoke method for stealth with this method but reward your players for being sneaky and trying to waylay or hide from their pursuers. There is no reason to not have your players hide. It's fun.
- This method also works for wilderness or overland encounters. For example, in the Mutated March of the Mad Mage you'd be pursued by the Mad Mage's Mutoids and in the Splendiferous Spirelands your party would be questioned by a patrol of Sir Spike Spiral's Spiny Spearmen (and so on). In particularly large regions consider local lairs, landmarks, hideouts, towns, etc when considering what/who the Hunting Die should represent. Consider that the Hunting Die encounter may have different results during the day and the night.
- Just as the Overloaded Encounter Die has things occur on any result of 1 through 6, could this be applied to the Hunting Die? For example, a result of 2 on the Hunting Die could represent that the Faction Encounter is close by. Any hasty/loud action could alert them. I would not do much more than this for the sake of my own cognitive load.
- Consider how a Hunting Die's encounter should be different to a standard encounter. In dungeons and other underworld spaces, these encounters should, more often than not, be hostile, like white blood cells attempting to extirpate any outside intruders.
An Epilogue on Encumbrance
This whole post was inspired by James Young's 'Another Underclock'. The one thing this method does not take into account is encumbrance as James Young's system does. I can only think of this - and it's slightly dumb - the more encumbered the party, the larger the faction encounter becomes. For example, if you are using encumbrance levels and your most encumbered player has an encumbrance of 4, then the faction encounter has an additional 4 HD. This works better for encounters with lots of individuals, the party are moving slower and their pursuers can better organise, so an extra eight 1/2 HD goblins - ouch. But this works less so for lone wandering monsters. Why would the minotaur have an extra 4 HD because the party thief is carrying too much treasure? It doesn't quite fit. Perhaps encumbrance could affect chances of the party being surprised or someone on encumbrance '3' would cause the Hunter Die encounter to be triggered on 1, 2 or 3 - but that might result in far too many encounters.