More about Encounters

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Louise Bourgeois

Last time on TOILET WORLD we talked about encounters and making an encounter based on apex predators and said I might follow it up with
"
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
"

then a bunch of time passed

AND NOw

I will try those things.

The first my idea is just make sure every encounter refers to other encounter
3 variations
 a and b both aware
a is aware of b but not b of a
b is aware of a but not a of b

participants

monkey
crocodile
bone stealer machine

1. Crocodile is about to burst out and eat monkey
2. Monkey is quiet and scuttering around tree
3. Monkey is screaming and chattering and throwing sticks in water

4 bone stealer machine has recently left area and left behind monkey skin and meat sack
5 monkey is fleeing area, bone stealer machine in that area
6 bone stealer machine is lured up a tree too small for it and it's about to collapse , entangling it
the monkey will stay too long to tease it and risk getting bone-plucked

7 crocodile drifting through water being a log near bone stealer machine, will attack things fleeing machine
8. Bone stealer machine is crouched in shadows,  has a bone plucked pig hanging of a branch , crocodile drifting towards it
9 Bone stealer machine is on bank with one hook in crocodile but the other is battered off , crocodile attempting to pull bone stealer machine into the water to disable it
10 roll again, whoever not in encounter will show up .
Monkey will tease crocodile, Bone plucker will go for largest bones, Crocodile will go for easy meat

(I wrote all this  maybe a week or go and now trying to finish it but I can't quite remember where I was going with it all, and from this point things got vague )

Here is another idea with generating some encounters that link up to other encounters.:

SQUAGGLE MERE:
a dreary misty land of tight copse , fens and erratic boggage.
We have 6 inhabitants in Squaggle Mere

1 Axebeak (single predator)
2 Madhermit of the bog (single neutral)
3 Stilt squid (large herbivore)
4 Shaggy pilgrims (group neutral)
5 Bog Wight (single dangerous)
6 Murderers (group dangerous)


Predators will only be a hostile if they think they can get a meal, dangerous are always hostile, herbivores will have to provoked, and neutral will be useful or hazardous depending on context and conversations.




Then roll a d6 for each of them to generate another inhabitant to have an encounter with.
If we roll the same number twice , then we treat that as a single inhabitant encounter.
Or an additional single inhabitant encounter , if we include both multi-inhabitants on the encounter table as well as single.
We rolled:
.Axebeak + mad hermit
Mad hermit + murderers
 Stilt squid + Bog Wight
Shaggy pilgrims + axebeak
 Bog Wight + stilt squid
Murderers

So Murderers have an additional chance to run into them

Then from here we could include the single encounters as well or just have more complicated multi- encounters , giving us 12 or 6.

If we want to have roughly in the range of 1/3 chance of getting an encounter then using a d20 kinda works for 6 encounters, and a d30 for 12 encounters.
If you don't have a d30 you can just make d100 encounter table  and give each encounter 3 numbers.

I'm getting increasingly far away from anything I said at the start of the post but I'm just going to keep going.
If you are making a d100 table and starting with 12 encounters , you could then make each encounter have 3 versions
1 : a is aware of b
2 b is aware of a
3 both b and a are aware of each other.

(or make this d6 table to roll on  other getting the encounter.)

This expansion of course doesn't make sense for single encounters. One that does is this one:
(also you could do the awareness thing with perception checks)


1 About to happen ( if single encounter , hearing distance away)
2 Happening  (if single encounter , visual distance / 1-2 rounds)
3 Happened   (tracks or spore, 5 minutes away)


And again it could be a d6 addition roll instead.


Okay that's some ideas about encounters I had that I expanded on, sorry it's been so long since posts. A lot going on at the moment with life , work , art , rpg creations and poor old blog posts keep missing out.

Away from that MOnster cupboard encounter

Print PDF 3 weeks already where has the time gone.

Well mainly it's gone working on The Velvet Horizon Bestiary  and skool and going man am I tired from skool.

Also the blog posts I keep drafting keep growing in complexity and the old days of just writing up a thought experiment as far as I could take it are faded.

Well not faded but  it's hard to just through ideas out without feeling disappointment that I wasn't taking to the time to brood them into a more completed form, like a book with pictures and everything or an otherwise useable game document. So I feel that the posts here will prob be more monthly that forenightly but maybe , occasionally, things shinier will emerge , as I concentrate the blogging energy on specific projects rather than split it between blogging and them.

And none of you fuckers get me anyhow.

Anyhowway while the draft for THe World is a Very big Space ship loiters around the draft folder some more I thought I would do this quicker thing that Cole asked me to do after I went and posted this on g+

"Encounter table idea : having all the creature encounters have a sign/tracks/trail description that you read out instead if they are rolled AND the party is being stealthy . Some shy creatures could have the reverse of this and have only signs if the party is noisy.
If the next encounter roll turns up a monster instead use the one previously indicated instead, though I guess if the party is still stealthy then maybe it is tracks again, which could be fun realizing that something is now following you , though it is currently not exactly sure where you are.
Guess it could turn up if you are too noisy with something else.
Also does anyone run predators as things that just follow the party until they can swoop down kill and/or abduct the weakest member and then flee? and like be never seen other wise?"
and he battered his eyelashes and said he would love to see an example of this.

So here we go, let's do one for Islands, that last post which if you can'r be bothered clicking back is about Cocofolk, Iguanas, Foamlings and Sand Hoppers living in islands chains that are actually the tops of submerged skyscrapers. And the skyscrapers are full of monsters.


ISLAND

1. Axe beak. Aggressive large flightless bird. Ambush predator. Often attacks out of territorism
Signs: territory markings in half cut down trees. Large bird scat w, containing bones and crab shells

2.Woefully Sloth : bear sized sloth with long anteater nose. Excellent camouflage. Hides up trees.
Signs: Will be wandering around digging up ant nests. Valuable fur and medicinal plants ggrowing on it, dangerous if cornered

3. Splinderpede : big as centipede that follows you from tree tops shooting poisonous spines at party weakening them helpful to fleeing leaving behind unconscious companions for it to pull into a tree and eat,
Signs: Carcass up trees. Spines embedded in ground and trees . Other animals reluctant to cross open ground , included those big enough to normally not be so skittish

4. Machine-Animated -By-Fungus : it's a machine thing animated by fungus from Below. It seeks out biological enzymes to suck into itself.. Unusual preferences in target select but overreacts when threatened Signs: dead animals covered in mould and stranger fungus but uneaten. Stray bits of junk metal and technogripple scrapped off on things.

5. Man-Hive: Bees that repurpose corpses into walking be hives. Dangerous if approached. 10% chance Hive is swarming, ie half the bees are going of to find a new home, preferably alive to kill hollow out and partially animate..

Signs: A knowledge eye will pick out man-hive bees (short wings, morel like a bumble bee with viscous jaws. from regular bees floating around the many many flowers that will be in the area (man-hives relocate). Also man-hive-bees will visit corpses to obtain things they use for maintained the hive. Mamhive honey does all kinds of crazy shit from memory transfer, raising the dead, preserving wounds and enpowering corpses. Getting the details right is a little tricky though

6 Voop: tiny blue men that will sneak up all the party and with sharp long straws each remove a hit point each from various partial organ slurping. This is hit point will not come back on it's on or with regular healing magic. THey will stalk the party and wait until they are sleeping or separately. The procedure is fast and painless.
Signs : None. They are tracking you know but are unsure of you number and exact position

7. Bruiser Squid: Large omnivorous land squid, has 4 main tentacles combined from each other. Moves like a drunk gorilla turning resentful circus tricks. Aggressive with tree shaking  hooting and mantle slapping and ink sprays if approached or near a food source. If they are hunger they will follow (oblivious) at a short distance and then signs of weakness or running will make it charge semi-arboreally bring tree down and moving rather fast .
Signs. Broken branches in weird places. Patches of ground swept clare, big fruit that have be masticated and slurp dry


8.Razor Ghost: Like a man made out of scissors shadows. From Below. Cuts you painlessly to pieces. This will not kill you for several weeks.
SIgns: entrance to below exposed, vandalized wards, animals missing limbs, very quiet birds