Showing posts with label encounter tables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label encounter tables. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Converting Swords & Wizardry Challenge Level to AD&D/OSRIC Dungeon Level Table

The Why
I'm trying to hack together some Over-The-Top Encounter By Dungeon Level Tables utilizing the material from all of the OSR Monster Books I have (The Swords & Wizardry Monster Book; Monster of Myth; Malevolent and Benign; and The Tome of Horrors Complete).
However, whereas AD&D/OSRIC categorizes monsters into a scale of I through to X for "Dungeon Level", Swords & Wizardry utilizes a Challenge Level scale that is analogous to the monster's hit dice, but adjusted for special abilities, so it's a more granular and also an open-ended scale.

The How
In the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, in Appendix C: Random Monster Encounters on page 174, there is a table for determining appropriate dungeon levels for random monster encounters by use of it's experience value, such as III: 51-150 X.P. and IX: 5,501-10,000 X.P.
Obviously it's easier to convert from the more granular and open-ended Challenge Level scale to the restrained and smaller AD&D scale.
Now, as previously mentioned, the Swords & Wizardry Challenge Level is determined by a monsters Hit Dice (with adjustments for special abilities), so what I did was use the Experience Points Value of Monsters table from page 85 of the Dungeon Masters Guide to determine the "Dungeon Level" of a monster of average hit points and no special abilities for Hit Dice of 1 through to 21; after 21 I had to use some fancier math to determine at what Hit Dice an unspecial monster would need to Break the Dungeon Level X threshhold (31.7524 Hit Dice).
Interestingly enough according to this scheme the only monster in the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book that qualifies for Dungeon Level X is Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead, which is actually in line with the AD&D tables. All of the CL 32+ monsters in the Tome of Horrors Complete are pretty much in line with the over-the-top nature of Level X AD&D Dungeon Monsters as well. When comparing some S&W version of monsters and their CL to their AD&D analogues and their Dungeon Levels they either match up or are off by 1 level, so this system is close enough for me.

S&W Challenge Ratings by AD&D/OSRIC Dungeon Levels
AD&D - S&W
I - 1
II - 2
III - 3,4
IV - 5
V - 6,7
VI - 8
VII - 9-14
VIII - 15-18
IX - 19-31
X - 32+

Friday, August 19, 2011

Stupid Question Regarding Swords & Wizardry "CL" vs. AD&D/OSRIC "Dungeon Level"

So I'm trying to hack out some over the top OSR monster book encounter tables (utilizing the monsters from the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book AND Monsters of Myth AND Malevolent and Benign AND Tome of Horrors Complete AND the indices from the AD&D Monster Manual II), starting with the dungeons, and I have a pretty stupid question for folks that are Swords & Wizardry AND AD&D/OSRIC mavens...

For AD&D/OSRIC monsters are arranged on a "Dungeon Level" scale from 1/I to 10/X BUT Swords & Wizardry uses a Challenge Level system without a cap that extends waaay past 10/X.

Is there any quick rules of thumb regarding converting S&W CL to AD&D/OSRIC "Dungeon Level" or am I just being obtuse/overthinking this? I'm actually way stupider than usual lately so please bear with me.


Monday, February 21, 2011

Every Monster Book Should Include Encounter Tables

By terrain type and dungeon level, utilizing all of and only the monsters contained in the book, and not those 2-20 tables - which are great for specialized tables, but the failure of the AD&D Monster Manual II is that it doesn't have the comprehensive d% encounter tables in the back like the Fiend Folio.

With the caveat that monsters books containing only a few monsters would be exempt.

With such a protocol in place a DM could easily make up encounter tables like:

d% --- Monster Book Encounter Table
01-24  Human - use Swords & Wizardry City Encounters or other resource
25-49  AD&D Fiend Folio
50       Random Esoteric Creature Generator
51-60  Arduin Trilogy
61-70  OSRIC Monsters of Myth
71-80  OSRIC Malevolent and Benign
81-90  Swords & Wizardry Monster Book
91-00  Tome of Horrors Complete

With the number of monsters listed in each book, an obsessive DM could easily assign d% probabilities according to monster book content quantities.

I think it's great that so many OSR monster books contain indexes with monster listings by dungeon level, terrain type, and so forth, I just wish that they'd take that extra step and tack some sort of arbitrary random table function onto these listings, just for "instant functionality."

Saturday, August 28, 2010

My Master/Meta Wilderness Encounter Table

This below is the "master" wilderness encounter table I use to determine which edition/game's wilderness encounter table I use to generate wilderness encounters in my Planet Algol game (it's usually just rudely wrote down on a piece of scrap):

1. Expert D&D
2. AD&D Fiend Folio
3. Empire of the Petal Throne
4. Arduin
5. Gamma World
6. Mutant Future
7. Carcosan Grimoire
8. Savage Swords of Athanor

I usually reroll or "re-skin" inappropriate results; for some reason my dice LOVE the Arduin result, which can have ....unfortunate... results.