Keystone Species Encounter Table

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This one of those "thinking aloud"post where I had an idea for something and see what it looks like when I write it out.
Which hopefully results in something usable , salvage , inspiring or at the very least interesting.

This idea is building an areas encounter table around a single species , in order to make it feel more alive and dynamic , and allow more forewarning to happen about the more dangerous encounters.

So you decide on a keystone "species" (though this can be any thing "ëncountable") and think how it would effect everything else.

What is a keystone species? Let me just copy/paste from wiki here:

"A classic keystone species is a predator that prevents a particular herbivorous species from eliminating dominant plant species. If prey numbers are low, keystone predators can be even less abundant and still be effective. Yet without the predators, the herbivorous prey would explode in numbers, wipe out the dominant plants, and dramatically alter the character of the ecosystem."


 A keystone species doesn't have to be a predator but we'll start with one because it's the easiest to d&d.
 

So let's take the Hydra-Moray from  the "Ramanan Sivaranjan Excellence in Gaming Best God Damn Book of 2015"award winning book Fire On The Velvet Horizon.

It's one of the simplest monsters in there, a hydra of eels , so it will do nicely.

Let's have it live a mangroove, because they are under used biomes. Mangroves are great because you have all kinds of water monsters there but have the party  still basically on land.

Real life mangroves are kind of a nightmare to travel on foot, the footing is treacherous, sharp protrudings from the mangrove roots ,  deep sucking mud and biting insects.

But for our purposes I'll say there's more reliable ground than there actually is.

What does a Hydra Moray eat? Basically everything.  It will eat the mussels and other shellfish , it will eat fish, it will eat alligators , it will will eat too slow climbers and flyers.

So I'm think it's unlikely to have another large predator here unless its swam in from further away.

However smaller & faster and/or more versatile predator/scavengers seem plausible (also I could always have something with some unusual property allowing its survival.)


So let's have some kind of tree climbing Hyena-Otter.

Like the Amazonian giant otter but hunting in packs and a rapid climber . They will scavenge, eat shellfish, chase smaller or weaker Hydra Moray away from kills, snip off stray bits of a meal or even a head, or just finish off the remains.

They will retreat into the tree tops when endangered and make large messy nests there.

Okay now for hapless prey animal.  Gibbons.The Bald-screamer gibbon which I'm making up , it's nearly hairless and has a look of constant fear on its face. It eats leaves, fruit , bark and occasional shellfish.
They will get eaten in the water and they will get eaten in the trees. They have the long limbed graceful  swinging in trees but in the water they have an absurd looking butterfly stroke .

They will squirt big jets of blinding green shit loaded with herbal toxins from their diet if disturbed, while fleeing and hooting.

This hooting will attract attention of the Otters but not the Moray.



Now I got 3 beasts lets build an encounter table.

I don't have a clear system about how I do these numbers , but generally I treat a hex/ turn of traveling like doing a room in a dungeon so I like a 3/3/3 of Definite threat, possible threat, environmental.
Definite Threat is something that is very likely to result in harm unless action is taken, a possible threat will result in harm only in specific situations or fuckery, and environmental is traces of the threat , clues, and resources.

Then with those categories , where needed, a third are unluckier than usual and a third  are luckier.

That's my guidelines here anyway. I'm still not 100% in these numbers and I actually deviated from it when making the below table. ヽ(。_°)ノ
Note that a lot of traditional encounter chances are created with them as a counter /penalty /risk to taking too much time/ covering distance , while I use them as a "what are we doing this session" generator.

Any Large amount of Noise (i.e Gibbons) , or blood in the water ,will trigger another encounter roll , only using results relating to Hydras or Otters

Definite Threats
1. A younger , wounded, or depleted Hydra Moray. It has less than normal heads (1d4+2) , will follow at a distance and attack if approached , the party seems weak, or there's a lot of blood in the water. It will settle for at least a dogs worth of meat.
2. A healthy Adult moray will become aware of the party and start slowly swimming towards them , waiting for the best moment to strike. It will want at least 2 adults worth of food , and if it incapacitates one while the rest of the party flee , it will stash the downed one under a root mass and continue 
 3.Adult Moray about to eat or currently eating a shark or crocodile . Will defend its meal against others. Roll again to see if anything else shows .
4. 1d4 younger Otters. Will follow just out of reach , both in the water or tree branches looking cute. Will attempt to snatch and flee with food or small animals , and attack isolated injured individuals
5. Standard pack of otters , 5+1d6 of them. Lolling about in branches and eating shellfish.  Will attack a weak looking party, try and chase off other packs or smaller morays from a kill. If the next encounter triggers an encounter roll , this pack will show up.
 6. Otter Nest. Looks kind of like a bunch of flotsam jammed in a tree. 2d8 pups present. 1d4 otters present that will chase off anyone getting close. Another 2d6 will show up if prolonged combat or aggravation happens. The pups are worth a lot for their fur, and use as  hunting./guard animal. 
The nest also might have rings or jewellery from limbs or heads brought back here for the pups to eat.
 7. Shark
8.Crocodile
9-15: Gibbons up trees . Will freak out if disturbed, shitting jets of blinding spray and making a lot of noise.
16 A corpse up a tree. Legs eaten off, rest of body stripped of bone. Some salvagable equipment
17. Battered down smaller trees
18. Submerged corpse under a root mass, with a single limb rising up. Hydra Moray that stashed it was driven out of the area.
19. Crocodile corpse caught up in emerging root mass, being picked clean by crabs
20. Knocked over Otter nest , ripped open.  Human limb and gibbon bones through the compacted nest surface of fur, plant material , and feces. Some jewellery.


Next post , if my or your interest continues , will have one the following goals:

>Make a  way simpler version of this.

>Show an example with lots more variety

><Maybe do one with something other than an alpha predator

>Or even building it around something that isn't part of the food chain (directly) like rogue golems, or wandering bands of undead

Worlds Expanded; Islands

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"This World is Islands. The island are the top of drowned airtight skyscrapers.

You can play a Iguanoid, cocofolk, Sandhopper, or  Foamling

The classes are Beach Comber, Tamperer, Big Liar, and KingCrab. You seek  to grow your village with modern conveniences and monster flesh"

As fun as making quick allusions to possibilities is, I'm going to flesh this out, using the Roger Sg Sorolla's 52 page rule book as the mechanics

village mechanics:

By bringing back exotic foods you will grow in status and power. So various things have a Food value instead of a gold value. Divide by 10 and that's how many meals that things is worth, if you want that number to mean something.

Not everything that is edible is worth exp. Same way not everything sellable is worth exp. Your village is fussy okay?

Modern convinces like comfy chairs or cheese grater found in the underworld will also be worth meals, though no-one eats them. Just everyone is grateful for you bringing it back that they don't mind you not fishing or root digging like everyone else.

Your village provides one thing for the party at the start of each session (other than the first) : a thing is like "restore all your hit points" or "1d4 0 level losers accompany you to help drag the tree" or "start digging a really big pit". 

Any thing additionally requires rolling your Esteem on a d6. It starts at one and goes up by one everytime anyone in the party goes up a level. It can be reduced by bad things happening to the village or the party embracing themselves. It represents both the size, health and talent pool of the village and how much  they will do for you.  After  you roll your Esteem reduce it (temporally) by one. So if it is 6 you get 2 things automatically and the next thing has a 1 in 6 chance of failing (by rolling a 6, because it is now 5, you dig?)

At higher levels the d.m might decide to have the village be able to do fancier things for you or have some things cost more temporary esteem or have a esteem gambling mechanic or have the esteem tradable in for the creation of NPCs or many other ways of making this more complicated. Anyway this is a basic way to represent you are dragging shit back to make people happy. 

The Peoples:

They are different peoples thought they generally live together in ad hoc villages. Some villages go crazy and worship blood robots or feed people to fang pits but at least cocofolk and foamling can live side by side.

Iguanoid:

Brightly coloured iguana people. They can swim and hold their breath for ages have natural leather armour and claws and bites like having a dagger on them. They are made of meat and blood and thus are Delicious to Carnivores 

CocoFolk:

These are like coconuts evolved to look more and more like people and now they are people. When they get old they bury themselves and turn into a cocofolk tree, which if pestered enough might wake up enough to answer questions about the old days. Their skin is as hard as leather armour and they float so well they will need to hang on to something very heavy in order to sink. They breathe as a human would however. They are made from wood and plant stuff and coconut milk and flesh, therefore are Delicious to Herbivores

Foamlings:

These are delicate sylph looking people formed from ocean foam and parts of them partially turn into water. Once a day they can turn into a puddle of water for a round per int point. Trying again after that requires a successful mind save or forever more remain a pool of water. They can never again enter the ocean, it is a solid mass to them. They need to breath and eat as a human. They dissolve into sea foam when they die , and are Palatable to Carnivores but Extremely Delicious to Ocean going predators (because the ocean hates them).

SandHopper:

An upright walking sand flea. Narrow , and chitin is somewhat translucent and not as hard as it might seem. Can leap as far as a human could throw a cat. Made of bug parts so only Palatable to Carnivores but Delicious to Insectivores

CLASSES:

BeachComber: 
Scavengers and opportunists, learning what is nessacery to survive and quick to experiment and explore new ways of thriving.
Their motivations are generally to find new and better ways of living and surviving and obtain status by being the first to discover new foods, lands and tricks.
Melee: +1
Missile:+1
Saves: Choose one out of mind, body and speed: that gets +9 the other 2 get +5
Bonus to the following skills:
Forage
Notice
Tutu

Can use any armour or weapon

level 1 : Player can spontaneously declare their character has just the right mundane item on them, once a session, if they reasonable would of had an opportunity to obtain before hand
level 3: Can reconstruction an idea of what has happen in a location
level 5: Standing in the right place. When characters position goes from vague to suddenly important you can choose the most favourable place to be (as long as it only mildy abuses plausibility) 

King Crab:
This class focuses on protecting themselves and constantly add and modify their own personal set of armour, using bits of shell, hide, old coins, wood and bark etc. tough, make armour from coral and exoskeletons and other hard things.  Their motivations are generally developing personal power, and obtaining status for their might and endurance.
Melee: +2
Missile: +0
Saves:
Body:+9 Mind:+7 Speed:+3

Can use any armour or weapons

Bonus to the following skills:
Anoint

level 1: Their personal armour counts as heavy and goes up by 1 every 2 levels.
level 3: Big arm: incorporate a monstrous limb , attack or similar as part of their armour, allow the ability to use that as a natural weapon , possibly with reduced damage from the original if the originals damage was more due to the beasts strength
level 5: incorporate a monstrous ability into your armour that is based on its skin , shell or hide, like fire resistance, camouflage , spell deflection etc.

Note all King Crab armour upgrades assume you have access to appropriate  monster parts

Tamperer: 

Tamperers can't leave anything alone, they provoke, investigate, fiddle, explore and experiment. While the beachcomber seeks to learn new things out of pragmatism , the tamperer just does stuff to see what happens.

They are generally motivated by (often slightly malicious) curiosity 

Choose one from Melee and Missile, that gets +1

Saves:

Body: +7 Mind: +7 Body +7

Bonuses to the following skills:

Tutu

Forage

Anoint

Notice

Can use any armour or weapons

level 1: Can modify one thing about a complex device or magic device for one use with a successful tutu check

level 3: Can choose the target of a missed shot

level 5: Can steal a device ability or a magic ability from its point of origin and store it on them with a successful tutu check. The point of origin has to be distracted or not currently active to use this. Only one can used .

Big Liar:
Someone who makes up stories so convincing they become real. Seeks out new things to discover and new people to talk to.

Melee/Missile:+0
Saves:
Body:+3 Speed:+5 Mind: +11
Bonuses to the following skills:
Anoint
Notice
Can use any weapons or armour

 Can cast spells as a wizard or a prophet (choose at character creation) as per normal 52 page rules.
level 1: you can speak to all animals
level 3: you can speak to all living things , and anyone giving their word to you must keep it or be forced to do something else that you will
level 5: Once a day if you tell someone something out of combat they must save or believe it

SKills:

Forage:
This skill is used when the play wants to get something from the local environment and its relatively simple only time consuming. The success of this skill often means a good number or quality of the thing is found , with failure meaning only a token amount is found. Sometimes the a failure means nothing is foraged.
Examples "I wish to gather a number of small trees for making stakes" is a forage check. Success means the wood is very good quality (possibly giving a bonus to damage etc) or found quickly or in great number.
"I will see if their is any fresh water nearby" that's a forage check. Failure means no fresh water nearby.


Anoint:
Anoint means smearing potent fluids or oils on a weapon or tool for task at hand. It can also involve the incorporation of objects to empower a weapon or tool. The anointment must involve something precious being sacrificed , or the anointment is significant or connected to the task. It can be done between sessions or in play , especially if the player gives a bombastic speech. Having a successfully anoint weapon or tool means a number of free rerolls are  gained (only one reroll can be used per roll) = to the amount you succeed the check by.
Examples of Anointing: the blood of one slain by a monster used to anoint a weapon used for it.

A child of the task attempted being slain and used to anoint a great fish hook to fish up a beast capable of feeding the village

A bone of ancestor of hated rival incorporated in a weapon against that rival

The hair of a grieving village used to make a rope to trap a child eating giant.

One anointment can be attempted per session on a item. If the things used in the anointing are particular potent or epic or cool maybe give the player one free reroll and the anoint roll giving them bonus rerolls if successful






Notice:
as per 52 page book.

Tutu:
This means to craft , fuck around , modify , or tinker with something. It is used to discover subtle properties of an object or a device, or turn raw components into a useable form, e.g. turning a fishes spine into a spear etc. Failure generally means you can try again next session. IF the tutu-ing seems do-able by anyone success mean it's done faster or better than usual.







ADDITIONAL rules:

Beasts have a hunger value. This is a number that if rolled or under on a d6 means the beast will try and  kill eat someone (not always in that order). Small beasts will stalk and strike when the party is separated or weakened, bigger beasts will try and snatch and carry off the biggest, or drive off the rest of the party. Mindless will just attack and try and eat regardless of party strength or response.

HUnger: roll on a d6. If someone is delicious roll 2 dice and keep the worst opposite if playable

If something is Very Delicious as above but also move encounter table up or down one if that would bring an encounter to eat them

Encounter tables:
There always should be an encounter, with simple herbivores and environment conditions taking the place of a "no-result" encounter.
Encounters with beasts should range from the tricky to catch but worth food (fast moving herbivores, possibly lead a pursuing party into a environment hazard or creature lair) , big dangerous herbivores that only attack if provoked (and worth food) , big dangerous carnivores that are rarely hungry (pythons) and stuff that is from below (ghosts, glass elementals, business men). The environment can serve as a form of traps , tricks and treasure , with trees with valuable fruit that release hallucinating gas, bird eggs atop dangerous cliffs etc.

The Down Below serves as the traditional dungeon environment with weirdness and technology, old magics etc. There is less food here but more Modern Conveniences and items of potency etc.

Beasts on the island also should be valuable for powerful items that can be made from their blood , hide and teeth. Treat the concept of a monsters lair with treasure instead as the monsters body instead.  You can still have lairs and stuff as well.

The whole eco system and foraging as dungeoneering is inspired by Mike F's Terruzeng island stuff.

I will come back to the idea of using encounter systems to represent  an ecosystem at some point because it has been something on my mind for awhile