No, I'm not actually going to describe one hundred thousand encounters with a dragon. How would I even do that? If you want an exhaustively detailed post, see my previous post on d100 Woefully Encysted Creatures (I spent so much time on it and am not eager to do that amount of work again).
What I am going to do is describe how, when generating a random encounter with any given monster in the wilderness, a number of variables can result in a truly astounding number of meaningfully different encounters with that one monster type (and sometimes two or more monster types - more on that later).
Here I'm using a dragon as my example, because the game is Dungeons & Dragons, and dragons are cool. These same variables used in combination with whatever menagerie of creatures you utilize in your preferred system can in turn produce millions of different encounters.
The purpose of this post is to detail the factors which the DM considers when formulating an encounter to present to the players - those determined by dicing, which the DM may determine ahead of time or discover in the moment, and over which the players have little if any control. This is the stuff which makes random encounters the stuff of tabletop magic.
The variables I'll be examining are: weather, terrain, time of day, % in lair, surprise, distance, reaction, and "combined encounters".
Weather
I'm starting with this because I typically roll for weather conditions at the start of an adventuring day, so it's the first factor to be determined. You might roll do see if the weather changes throughout the day, which is certainly realistic, but I can hardly remember to consistently check it once per day, let alone multiple times, so I prefer to keep it simple.
With regards to weather, the three factors I take into account are temperature, wind, and precipitation. There may be other ancillary factors like fog or cloud cover, but I feel that the aforementioned three are sufficient (they are also the three factors addressed in the 5e DMG - I will be jumping around from one edition to another in this post, and the actual mechanics don't matter much, but I feel 5e's weather stuff is very easy to comprehend, so that's what I'm using).
Temperature is not super important at the encounter level. The temperature is either normal or colder/warmer than usual for the season. This will affect overland travel, but it won't impose much on the encounter besides whether the player characters are exhausted when the encounter occurs (in 5e, characters must make a saving throw every hour they travel in such conditions or start accruing penalties). Maybe it's too hot to wear armor. Maybe the characters are slightly clumsier than usual because they're wearing thick winter clothing.
Wind is either a non-issue, light, or strong. Strong wind imposes disadvantage on ranged weapon attack rolls and Perception checks that rely on hearing, extinguishes open flames, disperses fog, and makes flying by nonmagical means impossible (flying creatures must land at the end of their turn or fall to the ground). In a desert environment it can whip up a sandstorm. Light wind doesn't do anything, which raises the question: Why is it even called out as its own thing?
I change this slightly in my own games. Light wind imposes disadvantage on ranged weapon attack rolls and disperses gasses, smoke, vapor, etc. after 1 minute. Strong wind does the same to ranged attacks but also causes long range attacks to automatically fail, and disperses gasses and such almost immediately, in addition to imposing disadvantage on attempts to hear and preventing nonmagical flight (unless the creature is strong enough to resist the wind, which is a house rule I use).
Precipitation can either be light or heavy, but once again light precipitation doesn't actually do anything in 5e. In my games, light precipitation imposes disadvantage on sight-based Perception checks. Heavy precipitation does the same, but also affects hearing-based checks and extinguishes open flames. I might also make the area all muddy depending on the terrain. Precipitation can be rain or snow depending on the temperature.
Here are all the ways weather can impact an encounter with a dragon:
- Characters might be exhausted.
- Characters might not be wearing armor.
- Character might be slowed down by winter clothing.
- Characters might have a hard time seeing or hearing the dragon, meaning they are more likely to be caught unawares (or more likely to be able to hide from/avoid the dragon).
- Characters might not be able to use ranged weapons effectively.
- Characters' light sources may be extinguished (if it's night time - more on that later).
- Characters (and the dragon) might not be able to fly.
- Characters might not be able to use gas/vapor-based spells like fog cloud, stinking cloud, or cloudkill (and the dragon might not be able to use its breath weapon effectively depending on its type).
- Characters (and the dragon) might have to deal with sand or grit being blown about.
- Characters (and the dragon) might have to deal with mud or snow (difficult terrain).
Terrain
Next, I'll account for terrain. The characters will start the day in one type of terrain but may pass through other types as the day proceeds, so we won't know in what terrain the encounter occurs until an encounter is rolled.
I'll be considering seven broad categories: plains, forest, hills, mountains, desert, wetlands, and water. There are other factors to consider: "plains" can be cultivated farmland, grassland, scrub, steppe, etc., forest can be light or heavy, jungle or taiga, hills and mountains can be forested or gentle or steep, desert can be rocky or sandy, wetlands can be forested or not, and water can be fresh or salt or shallow or deep.
These factors can all matter at the encounter level, but I will keep it to those broad seven types, mostly because they are the seven identified in Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design, which is something of a formative text for me.
Terrain will of course dictate the type of monster encountered in most games, but since I'm assuming the monster in this case is a dragon, we won't discuss that. In most versions of D&D, the type of dragon encountered is also determined by terrain type (black dragons in swamp, green dragons in forest, blue dragons in desert, etc.), but here I am imagining a dragon more generally - the type isn't important.
Terrain is mostly important for determining encounter distance (which I'll cover shortly), but it's worth considering its other implications. In wild tall grass, but probably not in cultivated farmland, the player characters or dragon may be able to hide. In a forest, there will be roots to stumble over and trees to climb or take cover behind. In hills and mountains, one side or the other may have a height advantage. In the desert, a dragon might burrow in the sand or kick up gusts of grit with its wings. A swamp may impose difficult terrain on the player characters and allow the dragon to swim or hide in the muck. An encounter on the water will have the players characters doing battle on a dinky rowboat or a massive warship.
We add our seven types of terrain to the existing 27 possible combinations due to weather conditions and end up with 189 scenarios in which a dragon might be encountered.
Time of Day
You can measure time in the wilderness in many ways, but I usually break it down into six four-hour watches. These are described in the AD&D DMG:
Note that the first three watches are during daylight hours, and the second three are during nighttime hours.
Usually (in my experience), the first two watches are when the party is traveling overland, the second two are when the party is making camp but still awake and alert to danger, and the final two are when the party is sleeping (with someone on watch). The main limitation is that the party can only move overland for a limited time (usually eight hours) and must rest for some period of time (usually eight hours). They might travel during the first two watches and then explore a dungeon during the second two, for example, or break up the time in any number of other ways.
The important factors here are whether the party is traveling, camping, or resting, and whether it is light or dark. For simplicity - and because in my experience the players don't switch up their routine very often - let's call it three variables: traveling, camping, or resting.
During the traveling turn, it is probably light and the characters likely have most of their resources (spells and whatever else) available, so this would likely be the easiest encounter.
During the camping turn, resources may be depleted from a day of travel, so it will be slightly harder. The party is also sedentary during this time, so they cannot flee from an encounter unless they are okay with losing their camp and any equipment or treasure there. It may be light or dark, in which case the dragon will likely get much closer before being spotted (if it is spotted at all).
During the resting turn it is dark, and some characters will be sleeping while others are keeping watch. The dragon only needs to get the drop on those keeping watch in order to surprise everyone, who will then need to be awakened (and who won't be wearing armor). The party is sedentary, and resources are depleted and haven't yet been recovered. This is likely the most difficult encounter.
We will add these three possibilities to our existing combinations. We now have 567 possible scenarios.
% in Lair
Since the % in lair statistic was eliminated after AD&D 1e, you might not be using this in your game...but you should! The only thing cooler than stumbling into a dragon is stumbling into its lair. You're probably stocking your play area with monster lairs ahead of time, and in that light it might not make a lot of sense for the dragon's lair to not be on the map, but who cares? Now you and your players get the thrill of discovering this secret dragon lair together!
Now, technically I think this is only supposed to be used when the characters are actively traveling. It doesn't really make a ton of sense for the party to spend two watches camping in one spot and then suddenly a dragon shows up and it turns out that the party is somehow camping in its lair. The AD&D Monster Manual has this to say:
That last sentence suggests that it might not be uncommon for the party to be in a monster's lair without realizing it. However, I'm going to suggest a different interpretation, one which makes sense when you consider the hex as a unit of measure in the wilderness.
In my games, a hex of any size only ever contains one location. That's simply because Hexographer only allows you to place one icon per hex, and I always use Hexographer for my regional maps. It's also just easier to parse that way. Whether the party is traveling, camping, or resting, they're only ever inside of one hex. I might keep track roughly of where exactly they are inside of that hex, but they're always either in that hex or in another one.
If the party is camping or resting and I roll a random encounter with a dragon and determine that the dragon is "in" its lair, that doesn't necessarily mean the party is literally camping in its lair - rather, the lair is located somewhere within the hex. They could be in it without realizing, or they might be camped on top of it, or it might be just over the hill or a mile away. The lair is somewhere in the area.
In AD&D, dragons in their lair have a percentage chance of being asleep, which drastically changes the encounter, but that doesn't apply to the broader point I'm trying to make about monsters generally (remember, the dragon is just an example). The dragon (and monsters generally) may behave differently in or near its lair. A dragon in its lair may not be able to fly about freely. It may be less likely to retreat or to pursue the party if they flee (it may simply want to drive them out of its territory).
In most games, this isn't likely to affect the encounter that much, although in 5e the dragon would have lair actions which would have a direct and significant impact. It also has post-encounter implications in that the player characters may be able to then locate the lair (if they're not already in it) and loot its hoard.
I do think that this is a variable worth considering, so we'll say that this adds two possibilities (is the dragon encountered "in" its lair or not). We're up to 1,134 possible scenarios.
Surprise
There are four ways this can go: nobody is surprised, the party is surprised, the dragon is surprised, or both are surprised. This can be more complicated if you use something like AD&D:
Here it is not just a matter of who is surprised but how surprised they are. I don't want to get into all that. For simplicity, let's stick to just the four aforementioned categories.
This is pretty self-explanatory: either the party has an advantage, a disadvantage, or neither. In the latter case, it's still important to distinguish between whether neither or both sides are surprised, because this will affect encounter distance (I've alluded to it several times - rest assured it is coming right up).
It's also worth noting that this can differ slightly depending on how you interpret surprise. In "old school" D&D this is a roll that happens at the start of an encounter, suggesting that the encounter is happening no matter what, and surprise represents only a fleeting advantage. In modern editions surprise is gained when one side goes unnoticed by the other and launches an attack (usually this is a Perception check/Passive Perception vs a Stealth check).
Thus you could take a step back and also interpret this more broadly as indicating which side (if any) notices the other. Does the party surprise the dragon and get a free round to act, with the dragon acting in turn once the round is over (assuming it survives), or does the party notice the dragon before it notices them, giving them a chance to slip away unseen and avoid the encounter altogether, or perhaps get themselves into a more advantageous position from which to launch an attack? One interpretation affords the players more agency than the other.
I prefer the latter interpretation, but your mileage may vary. In any case, we can say that there are four possible outcomes here. We add these to the existing combinations and end up with 4,536 possible scenarios.
Encounter Distance
Distance is determined by a variety of factors, including surprise, terrain, light levels, or even sound (since one side might hear the other before spotting them). Good thing we've addressed all of those factors already!
I use a table of my own creation which is a combination of AD&D 2e's tables and the tables from 5e's Wilderness Kit. Here is my table:
Usually I will roll for both sight and sound and use the larger of the two to determine when the encounter "starts". As you can see, encounter distance can be as little as 3 feet or as many as 600 feet, depending on the circumstances, with many, many possibilities in between.
To once again keep things simple, I'll take a lesson from ShadowDark and say there are three range categories: close (melee range/short range for missiles and spells), near (melee range if you charge/medium range for missiles and spells), and far (move for two or more rounds to get into melee/long range for missiles and spells). In 5e terms this would be roughly 30 feet, 60 feet, or more than 60 feet, for example.
The important thing is that at close range, both sides are more or less engaged/threatened immediately, at near range, either side can choose to engage or try to keep distance, and at far range most creatures will probably not be able to meaningfully engage without closing considerable ground, while those who wish to avoid the encounter can do so fairly easily.
The difference between a dragon flying over 30 feet above the characters' heads versus 400 feet away while they're in the mountains should be obvious. A close dragon is much more dangerous than a far dragon, and the latter affords the players considerably more agency when determining if the dragon is something they want to mess with or run and hide from.
Adding our three possible encounter distance categories to the existing combinations, we now have 13,608 possible scenarios.
Reaction
The encounter is happening. We know what the weather and terrain is like, the time of day, whether the dragon is in its lair, who is or isn't surprised, and how far the two sides are from one another. But perhaps more important than any of these factors is how the dragon will react to the party.
How exactly you use the reaction roll will vary wildly depending on which edition you favor. Generally speaking, the dragon will have either a neutral, negative, or positive reaction. There may be additional degrees of each type of reaction. Here is AD&D's reaction table as an example:
I use a reaction roll which generates five possible outcomes: hostile (the monster usually attacks), unfriendly (the monster threatens, extorts, or otherwise seeks to inconvenience or impede the party), indifferent (the monster either ignores the party, is unsure how to react to them, or interacts with them in a neutral way with no particular ulterior motive), friendly (the monster wants something from the party or is willing to negotiate/trade), and helpful (the monster assumes the best of the party and is amenable to aiding them).
The reaction roll is modified by the monster's alignment, so a Chaotic Evil dragon would never be helpful, and a Lawful Good dragon would never be hostile. Let's assume for this example that the dragon in question can react in any of the five ways (i.e., it is not Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good - this could be a brass, copper, green, or blue dragon, for example).
How exactly you interpret the reaction roll will depend on the dragon type. Good dragons won't attack on sight simply because they love to kill, and Evil dragons won't aid strangers out of pure altruism.
This may be the most important element of the encounter because it tells us what threat or opportunity the encounter poses for the party. A hostile encounter is likely to be a fight which will cost the party resources and maybe their lives. An unfriendly encounter is a tense negotiation which can be navigated by social tact or else cost the party in treasure or inconvenience. An indifferent encounter might be as simple as set dressing (the party watches a dragon fly overhead in the distance - a reminder that a dragon can swoop down on them at any moment in the wilderness) or an opportunity to exchange information with an intelligent monster. A friendly encounter could lead to an unexpected quest or be an opportunity to convince the dragon to do a favor. A helpful encounter could be a massive boon to the party's current endeavor.
Adding our five reaction roll outcomes to our existing combinations, we now have 68,040 possible scenarios.
"Combined Encounters"
I'm not sure what to call this one, and it's the element of this procedure which is least likely to be standard practice for the majority of DMs, but I thought it worth mentioning.
Basically, when I roll a positive result on an encounter check, I immediately roll again to check for another encounter. If I keep getting positive results, I keep rolling. However many encounters I roll, I combine into a single encounter in which all of the monsters are interacting somehow. This is pretty rare in terrain like plains, where the encounter chance is only 10%, but is more common in terrain like wetlands, where the encounter chance is as high as 40% (here I use the AD&D 2e table):
Since we are already using a dragon as our example, let's go with an exceedingly unlikely scenario and say that the party encounters two dragons at once. These are not two separate dragons that happen to stumble upon the party at the same time, nor are they two dragons that are affiliated with one another. They are two distinct dragons who have already encountered one another, and the party is encountering them both at one moment.
Let's say the party is in an area of forested wetlands and encounters a black dragon and a green dragon which are in turn encountering one another. I would probably make "opposed" reaction rolls to see how these two dragons feel about one another, then use that information to color the encounter. Are they engaged in combat? Posturing for territory? Exchanging information or treasure? Conspiring against some nearby settlement or mutual foe? Is one paying tribute to the other? Is there some bizarre mating ritual happening?
Then, how does each react to the party? Does one try to recruit the party to help it slay the other? Does it threaten to kill them once the other is dead? Are the dragons offended by the party's intrusion? Do they all have tea together? I have been led to believe that adventurers sometimes have tea with dragons.
Although you could theoretically combine an infinite number of encounters into one, let's instead say there are two possibilities: either the encounter is with just the dragon, or the dragon is encountered interacting with some other creature.
Adding these two possibilities, we end up with 136,080 possible encounter scenarios.
Conclusion
If you are thinking that this is all a bit much to prepare at the table in the moment, that's because it is. But much can be prepared ahead of time. My strategy is to prepare however many encounters I will need for a given biome away from the table. Each encounter will include what monster is encountered, whether its encountered in its lair, what its reaction will be, and then details like its name, what it wants, any treasure it has, stats, etc.
I have no way of knowing ahead of time what the weather will be, what time of day it will be, whether the monster and/or party will be surprised, how far away they'll be, or if other monsters will be present. However, if the monster's identity and motivations are known to me, it is much easier to determine how it will behave in an unusual situation. Strange results may pose problems (why is the dragon out and about in this terrible storm?), but these are "good" problems of which more memorable encounters can be made.
There are yet more factors that I haven't considered in this post. What about the number of dragons that appear? An encounter with one is much different than an encounter with four. The assumption at the heart of this post was that the theoretical encounter was with a single dragon, so I did not take that into account. It's somewhat besides the point and I didn't want to get into it at that level. While yes, an encounter with one dragon versus four is very different, how different is it when extended to monsters generally (i.e., How different is an encounter with 7 giant eagles versus 8 giant eagles? Is it worth distinguishing between them?)
What about whether or not the dragon is flying? In AD&D, flying creatures have a 75% chance of being airborne when encountered. That certainly makes the encounter different, but it also doesn't apply more broadly to monsters in general. You could say the same about the age category of the dragon.
What about party composition? Spells prepared? Magic items? Do they have an army of hirelings and henchmen? Are they mounted? Aboard a ship? Are they Good or Evil? What is the temperament of the players? All of these are additional factors which are not easily categorized and accounted for.
Hopefully, I've demonstrated that a robust system for generating random encounters and their situational circumstances can result in a wide array of potential scenarios. An encounter with a dragon is never just an encounter with a dragon - it is an encounter with natural elements like weather, terrain, and daylight. It is an encounter with luck in the form of surprise and distance. It is an encounter with the motivations of a creature that has every bit of agency as the characters. It is an encounter with the world the characters inhabit and the dynamics between the creatures they share it with.
And let's not forget - every encounter with the player characters is an encounter with the sum total of the adventures they've been on and the choices they've made.
Fantastic post! I love seeing how you mesh stuff from multiple editions, too. (Halfway thru I was thinking "damn, I'd love to be a player at your table"!)
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