Tag Archives: wandering monsters

What Could be Better than Wandering Monsters?

Posted on August 1, 2017 by David Hartlage

In a D&D game without time pressure, all the risk and adventure disappear. Players gain time for painstaking caution. After every 5-minute adventuring day, characters can recuperate. As locked doors fall to axes and walls fall to picks, dungeon obstacles … Continue reading →

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Time Pressure, Wandering Monsters, and D&D’s Social Contract

Posted on July 25, 2017 by David Hartlage

In 1980, Dungeons & Dragons players at my high school traded stories that confirmed Tomb of Horrors as the HARDEST DUNGEON EVER. Then someone told me how to beat it. Just hire a bunch of guys with shovels to excavate … Continue reading →

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Tomb of Horrors tests patience, but still ranks as Dungeons & Dragons’ best villain

Posted on January 20, 2016 by David Hartlage

In his notes to the dungeon master, author Gary Gygax promises that the Tomb of Horrors “is a thinking person’s module.” He warns, “If your group is a hack and slay gathering, they will be unhappy.” To back his claim, … Continue reading →

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Is it found? How to handle a search

Posted on June 2, 2014 by David Hartlage

Speed through the obvious by summarizing simple search efforts Game masters often speed past the uninteresting parts of the game—the parts with few decisions or obvious decisions—with a simple summary of activity. Most game masters will use a summary to … Continue reading →

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Fourth edition gives traps a new design

Posted on November 12, 2013 by David Hartlage

When the fourth edition designers rethought D&D, they saw traps as posing two core problems: Traps can frustrate players Traps can slow play to tedium Problem: Traps that challenge player ingenuity can lead to player frustration. This problem arises when … Continue reading →

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Three unexpected ways wandering monsters improve D&D play

Posted on November 1, 2013 by David Hartlage

In my last post, I reviewed the history of wandering monsters and random encounters in Dungeons & Dragons and discussed how the game changed to meet my own negative views of wandering monsters. However, I failed to see how wandering … Continue reading →

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My brief history of wandering monsters in Dungeons & Dragons

Posted on October 29, 2013 by David Hartlage

Wandering monsters and random encounters have been part of Dungeons & Dragons since the beginning. On page 10 of volume 3, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, Gary Gygax writes, “At the end of every turn [in the dungeon] the referee … Continue reading →

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