Worldship encounter tables, Levels 4-6

The key thing for my setting has been to create a new random encounter table that is adjusted to the setting. In a way this table seeks to differentiate the Worldship from a generic fantasy game. A few months ago I posted the first half, now i can post the last half:

Roll	Monster Level 4	Monster Level 5	Monster Level 6
1	Lythancrope, wereboar (1d4; ACKS p.181)	Ogre mutate (1d6; Blog)	Demon Boar (1d4; ACKS p.160)
2	Smiaceans  (2d4; Blog)	Ogre Twin (1+bodyguard; Blog)	Baku (1d3; Blog)
3	Revenant, greater (1d6; Blog)	Shojon, Kagion/Madion (2d4; Blog)	Revenant, superior (1d4; Blog)
4	Keythong (1d4; Blog)	Otyugh (1d2; BCK p.81)	Skittering Maw (1d6; ACKS p.193)
5	Rhagodessa, Giant (1d4; ACKS p.189)	Phase spider (1d4 *; BCK p.87)	Chuul (1d3; BCK p.67)
6	Boar, giant (1d4; ACKS p.157)	Salamander, flame (1d4; ACKS p.191)	Salamander, frost (1d3; ACKS p.191)
7	Balroach (1d3; BCK p.68)	Wasp, giant parasitic (1d6; BCK p.89)	Sorcerous Sphere (1; LE p.178)
8	Ochre Jelly (1d3; ACKS p.186)	Terrorbird (1d3; BCK p.88)	Destrachan (1d3; BCK p.69)
9	Phase tiger (1d4; ACKS p.188)	Fungus, basidirond (1d4; Blog)	Tendriculos (1d4; BCK p.87)
10	Battle Drone (1d8; Blog)	Warbot (1d3; BCK p.81)	Reticuloid combat walker (1d4+1; Blog)
11	Rogue Stevedore (1d4; Blog)	Manticore  (1d3; ACKS p.182)	Rogue Combaticon (1+guard; Blog)
12	NPC Party, Lvl 5 (1d4+2)	NPC Party, Lvl 7 (1d4+2)	NPC Party, Lvl 9 (1d4+2)

I have altered the dungeon encounter for many of the solitary monsters. On researching the origin or comparable monsters they often can be found in small groups. By upping them to a small dice like 1d3 there is still a chance of finding a solitary monster, but you will also find doubles, making the fight a little more interesting and challenging. Ultimately the weakness of a single monster is a well documented and explored concept that I don't want to get into here (simpler just to give the chance of 2-3).

I will get into NPC parties in a later post, but a group of level 14’s wandering around a dungeon always sat a bit weird and I often changed it on the fly. When I crunch the XP values and compare them level 14’s NPC's are way up the chart - being more powerful than a Baku. I rebalanced them all based on the monsters encountered. I have some simple stat blocks I use to assemble disposable groups, based on the slabs in the island of terror, I will post them later.

Breaking it down:

So, one of my goals was to create a better spread of XP across the levels. The final charts look like this:

From a maths perspective the extra encounter numbers are creating the spread at the upper levels I was after.

When compared to the ACKS standard chart (which has served me well in the past) I am avoiding the crater of solitary monsters in the level 6 category (see chart below). While XP from monsters is not the best gauge of difficulty, it is the measure we have. Once the dice start rolling a challenging monster can be easy and an easy monster hard (if it keeps rolling 20). While many later versions of D&D seek to create a balance metric I'm not after this, more just a more smooth transition on the random tables. In the end for me I want the players to sometimes bite off more than they can chew and be forced to make tough calls. That said, at the earlier levels slightly smaller encounters make entry levels a little lighter on. Overall the worldship tables give me the flavour I was after while making the game seem a little more balanced in terms of overall encounters.

 

Worldship monster breakdowns

	Monster Level 1	Monster Level 2	Monster Level 3	Monster Level 4	Monster Level 5	Monster Level 6
Hit Dice	⅕ to 1+2	1 to 2+1	2+1 to 5	4** to 6	5** to 8*	7*** to 12****
AC Avg. (max)	2.9 (5)	3.2 (7)	4.5 (7)	4.5 (8)	5.8 (9)	7.2 (9)

I have been enjoying the release of the UFOs supplement from Stellagama Publishing this week, check it out. I'm sitting on a heap of visitor content so will likely go on a bit of a visitor spree the next month as this release has sparked some ideas. As the core villan/antagonist of my setting they get a lot of love (and hate from players). Also the Almanac was funded so I'm currently exploring that with much happiness.