Treasure Is More Important Than Monsters

This article was originally published on September 4th, 2017.

One thing that I have noticed lately is that whenever folks talk about dungeon design or wilderlands stocking or whatever adventure stage they are preparing, they start with the area, then place monsters, then figure out how the monsters interact, then place traps, then place weirdness and special encounters, and only then place the treasure.  Even if a dungeon is meant to protect a great treasure, the actual placement happens at the end.

But it seems to me that the reason the characters go and face the dangers of the dungeon is to get the treasure out. One of the axioms I like to remember as both a player and as a Ref is this:

Treasure is how you win. Monsters are how you die. 

So friends, shouldn't we place the winning conditions first, and then figure out how to protect them? It's a paradigm shift that has stuck me and I will try to develop the idea further.

Random Encounter Tables

We are taught as beginning Referees to construct random encounter tables on a bell curve. After all, mundane encounters (with men and common humanoids) will be much more common than ones with great and dangerous beasts.

This makes logical sense, but it doesn’t make for much fun. Why always the normal stuff? Why wouldn’t you want to throw cool monsters at the players? Bandits? They can see bandits every day. Give them the cockatrice or wyvern or displacer beast or a weird old illusionist.

Random encounters are rare enough: we only check for them once every so often. When one comes up, it should have the “wow” factor that will have players retelling their encounter for years. Therefore rather than bell-curve encounter tables, we will construct straight tables.

For each terrain type or biome, write down as many kinds of odd men and monsters that you like that might dwell there. Try to think up 10-12 entries. Then arrange these men and monsters into a list by ascending threat level. We call this a progressive encounter table.

At the outskirts of the biome, just roll 1d6 to see what comes up. But as you get deeper into it, it should get more dangerous, like going deeper into a dungeon. At deeper dungeon levels, things are more dangerous. In order to simulate this ramp up in danger, add some integer to your 1d6 roll. 1d6+1, 1d6+2, 1d6+10, whatever. Call this integer your hazard level. Since you arranged your denizens in ascending-threat order, your adjusted rolls will produce more dangerous encounters without the players feeling like it’s forced.

For small hexes, like a 1-mile hex, choose a single hazard value for the whole hex. But if you’re doing a six-mile hex, it’s okay to eyeball the territory and adjust the hazard value on the fly. A forest hex near farmland and a swamp would likely have an increasing hazard gradient as the party goes from dry land into the bayou.

Monster, Activity, Complication

Random tables are good to use because they can bring the world to life. But if each time the players meet monsters, they’re always doing the same things, then the world’s verisimilitude breaks down. Why is the monster there? Is he always just waiting to be killed? Of course not! Therefore, consider constructing three-column tables.

The first column will be the monsters, as usual.

The second column will be six activities the monsters might be doing when the party encounters them. Hiding, patrolling, foraging, partying, healing a sick friend, looking to trade, on the prowl. Who knows? Just pick six obvious activities.

The third will be a complication the monster will have. Write down six things that might inconvenience a monster. Maybe it has a baby. Maybe it’s sick. Maybe it needs help with another monster. Maybe it’s being preyed upon right now by an even bigger monster!

By rolling on all three of these columns, you will have a monster, a purpose, and a complication – a ready-made interesting and vibrant encounter.

It will also give the players some information on how to shape the encounter to their advantage, and players love “fooling” the Ref. So let them  

Here’s my chart for the Barren Steppe biome:

If I roll a 4, 1, and 4, then I have Dervishes, skulking about, but they need something the party might have – and they want to trade for it. Much more interesting than just some random holy men.

Try straight, progressive, three-roll tables in your next game.

Triggering Traps

Whatever you do, don’t tell them that you can barely see their adam’s apple anymore. Do it this way instead  

If there is a trap that you do not know about and a character performs the trigger action, there is only a 2-in-6 chance that he will trigger it. That means it might hit the second, third, fourth character to pass by. 

Using a ten foot pole as you go is sound practice because then the ten foot pole counts as a character for the purposes of triggering and being targeted by a hidden trap. 

If you have discovered a live trap, you will be able to trigger it harmlessly or bypass it safely unless it is magical in nature. 

Native monsters will always bypass traps harmlessly unless it’s dramatically approaching for a trap to hit them, or the clever players devise a way to use a trap offensively against a hapless monster. 

Better Traps

Dungeons have traps. It’s quintessential. But traps are not always fun. Certainly not as fun as monsters or weird stuff. 

I’ve been thinking about what works and what doesn’t in my dungeons. One thing that I noticed is that traps were a mixed bag, so I began to keep track of the features that work to make traps more fun. 

For  most of your dungeon traps, do not ask your players to have their characters search. The detection step is not very much fun.

Instead most traps “obvious” (that is, obvious to the kind of capable men who would undertake dungeoneering for fun and profit. Just say “you found a trap at location X” rather than demanding the players search everywhere. 

This turns a “trap” into a “hazard” 

For true traps (eg hidden inanimate dangers,) which should be paltry and wide-yonder, give lots of clues. Even specific clues. Make sure the players know there’s something fishy about. Perhaps blood on the walls l, blade marks in stone or skeletons with their heads lopped off. 

Better the first way than the second - just let the players know a trap is there because their characters are knowledgeable about these kinds of things. Or make it obvious. Instead of a hidden blade trap, have spinning blades extant throughout a certain length of dungeon hallway. 

Or instead of a pit with spikes, have the trap be a deep pit (20’) with smooth sides. 

Then the challenge isn’t “find it” but “beat it.”

The second part of this is that beating a trap should not be based entirely on an ability check or skill roll. There’s no real interaction there. Make traps and hazards more like a logic puzzle or party game. Then when the players are ready to put their characters to the test, they can decide to make the rolls. But have the players decide how their characters are going to beat the trap. 

To aid them, make the trap tactile or mathematical or linguistic whenever possible. Yes, this takes the players one step away from the “main” game, but they are still interacting with the world and with each other.