Hey, I'm getting ready to DM CoS which is a horror campaign (which basically means tough shades of grey RP decisions and big scary monsters well outside of your ability to deal with.) And I'm trying to generate an alternate random encounters generator, and I was wondering what everyone thinks about ratios. So far I have 5 "types" of encounters including big bad monsters/deadly encounters designed to force the party to retreat, neutral/negative encounters like the ones in the book originally, (eg a vistani spy, a crazy cleric, or a group of child pickpockets); difficulty multipliers that are just designed to deplete resources (like a poison bog that requires you to save every round while you pass through); reward encounters (like a helmed horror that when defeated becomes a pretty awesome (but cursed) suit of armor, and non-encounters/ fluff encounters (you feel like you are being watched, you notice a strange tree and feel like you've seen it before, the fog is too close)
My question is, what's a good balance for a horror campaign? In order, I was thinking something like 1:5:2:1:3. I'm also considering a 6th category which would say "roll a random encounter" on the table... And I have no idea what ratio I should apply to that.
Also, for the record, I'm using old trading cards as the randomizer, and I have determined by dm fiat that cities will be 3 days (9-15 encounters) apart.
Any opinions? Thoughts?
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Edit: For the record, I made a slight alteration to this plan.
First, every day at high noon, the spectral horseman rides by and drops a blinsky toy.
Second, Every evening, between 10pm and 6am, A neutral/neg encounter occurs, per the rules. If possible, these will be interpreted to be agents of strahd somehow.
At some point during a day of travel, a card from the rest of the deck 10% super-monsters 50% fluff, non-encounters, traps and difficulty multipliers, 10% reward encounters and 30% Neutral/negs.
I think your ratio would be good for something I'd run myself. It really all depends on how dangerous you want your world to be, some GM's are very comfortable with sending the characters on the run often, others not so much.
If you're planning on making the campaign very story driven, I'd probably lower the encounters per day. Usually i go with 2 encounters per travel day tops, because i like sending them onwards towards the next bit of plot. If you're aiming for more of a survival-horror feel, like, "the world is a terrible place without much meaning and you're simply trying to get by and survive," then i think 3-4 encounters a day is fine, 'cause that becomes the focus of your play. Just make sure to make a lot to make them feel varied and interesting.
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Hey, I'm getting ready to DM CoS which is a horror campaign (which basically means tough shades of grey RP decisions and big scary monsters well outside of your ability to deal with.) And I'm trying to generate an alternate random encounters generator, and I was wondering what everyone thinks about ratios. So far I have 5 "types" of encounters including big bad monsters/deadly encounters designed to force the party to retreat, neutral/negative encounters like the ones in the book originally, (eg a vistani spy, a crazy cleric, or a group of child pickpockets); difficulty multipliers that are just designed to deplete resources (like a poison bog that requires you to save every round while you pass through); reward encounters (like a helmed horror that when defeated becomes a pretty awesome (but cursed) suit of armor, and non-encounters/ fluff encounters (you feel like you are being watched, you notice a strange tree and feel like you've seen it before, the fog is too close)
My question is, what's a good balance for a horror campaign? In order, I was thinking something like 1:5:2:1:3. I'm also considering a 6th category which would say "roll a random encounter" on the table... And I have no idea what ratio I should apply to that.
Also, for the record, I'm using old trading cards as the randomizer, and I have determined by dm fiat that cities will be 3 days (9-15 encounters) apart.
Any opinions? Thoughts?
____________________________
Edit: For the record, I made a slight alteration to this plan.
First, every day at high noon, the spectral horseman rides by and drops a blinsky toy.
Second, Every evening, between 10pm and 6am, A neutral/neg encounter occurs, per the rules. If possible, these will be interpreted to be agents of strahd somehow.
At some point during a day of travel, a card from the rest of the deck 10% super-monsters 50% fluff, non-encounters, traps and difficulty multipliers, 10% reward encounters and 30% Neutral/negs.
I think your ratio would be good for something I'd run myself. It really all depends on how dangerous you want your world to be, some GM's are very comfortable with sending the characters on the run often, others not so much.
If you're planning on making the campaign very story driven, I'd probably lower the encounters per day. Usually i go with 2 encounters per travel day tops, because i like sending them onwards towards the next bit of plot. If you're aiming for more of a survival-horror feel, like, "the world is a terrible place without much meaning and you're simply trying to get by and survive," then i think 3-4 encounters a day is fine, 'cause that becomes the focus of your play. Just make sure to make a lot to make them feel varied and interesting.