[PnP] Xmas Gift

[Scott Adams]

    Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to all,

      What follows is my version 2 of P&P Encounter Charts.

      Since no one seemed to comment on the Phase 1 stuff I
    finished now.  Took only a few weeks.

      Some aspects/issues:

      o Size is large at almost 3,000 lines (around 2972 or so).  This
    is because I use one line per creature.  The reason behind this
    is so I can easily fix errors.  The best method would be doing
    2-3 columns of creatures per line to reduce space.  But if I did
    this editing would be a nightmare.  I find that X monster should
    not belong here and I have to reformat the whole chart and reshuffle
    the numbers.   So for the Draft Version this is the best.

      o In version 1 of the rules it was clear that the alphabetical
    order.  This is fine but I felt to add a feature to the system.
    Easy for programs or apps or what not.  I wanted to add possible
    for Avoiding and Attracting encounters.  All done by modifiers.
    With tgese cgarts set I set it up into sections.

      o Each chart has a Mundane, Moderate and Difficult set of monsters.
    The Mundane are like the basic average animals like Dogs.  The
    moderates are somewhat harder like Gargoyles.  The Difficults
    are the Dragons or such.  This may lead to some thinking this
    a bad solution but for me it works.  You are free to edit your
    own version.  This draft basically allows you to do so with the
    Version 2 creatures added to the charts which was the critical
    reason for this project.

      o In order to use this new system I place the Mundanes at
    top at 1-50.  Typically these are the Animals but can be at
    times other things.  The Moderates are 51-75.  The Difficult
    are 76-100.  I've tried to figure out the best way to do this
    as some suggested a 1-75, 76-90, 91-100 system.  But some charts
    have well over 100 monsters.  Right there that's 1 per number.
    Many charts had to already use 2 Night charts since they had
    too many.  So I think the 1-50, 51-75 and 76+ system works
    the best.  But again you are free to rework the charts to
    your desire.  This draft simply gives you the version 2 monsters
    that were missing from the old charts.

      o The Modifiers. I only came up with a few.  If folks wish to
    include more please let me know.  One can use the Basic Encounter
    chance or the Chart Encounters.  The Basic is the 1-10 for Creature
    11-20 Human and 21-100 for None type numbers.  The chart modifiers
    can be used to increase or decrease the chance for the more
    difficult encounters.  If Hydra is 98 and you can get a Modifier
    of -8 then no chance of ever seeing one.  This of course removes
    a bit of the Random nature of the system. So again you are free
    to modify this system or shift monsters around.  I came up with
    stats and skills as a basic Mod set.  This could always be tweaked
    later.

      o The system I came up may be weird in that who makes me decide
    which is difficult and such?  Frankly I'm only a GM and Player
    of the game for 25 odd years. But again this is just a guess
    in my part.  To me I use a basic middle level group of say
    CEL 5/OCV 6/DCV 6 or MEL7 type group.  Obviously a group that
    just made new characters at CEL1 and MEL1 will even have trouble
    with a simple goblin.  So this is all just a guess and estimate.
    I've not played up against 90% of the version 2 monsters (this
    is WHY I did these charts so we can start to use them) but I
    did read and was around when Richard and I worked on the new
    creature data.  I'm no expert but I can figure out this creature
    might be difficult for player A but not for B based on my
    current group for example.  The nice thing about this game and
    the rules is you can change anything so do so!  If you think
    a Roc is simple then put it in the Moderate group.  If you think
    a Dwarf is difficult since they are clever then place them in
    the Difficult group from Moderate.  I AM open to a debate on
    the list as to if you think this creature should be shifted.
    Let's hear it!  Why I kept this as a Draft version.  Maybe if
    the thread dies down by summer it can be a Final version with
    better columns or in various other formats.

      o New Terrains - I've added Grasslands and Tundra.  I know folks
    figure Grasslands is Plains.  But in my mind I'm thinking of Plains
    as a Old West movie plains with knee high grass at best with wide
    open arid terrain or like plains of Africa.  Grasslands on the
    other hand I think of fields of knee high grass with light woods
    at best.  In my world the Grasslands are mostly in the south
    continent below the Sea of Tears.  Tundra is the obvious north
    areas of the map we see which assumes to be desolate.  The
    Grasslands are numerous creatures but Tundra was not.  I used
    a bit of the Sea data for Tundra only in that Tundra tends to
    have a lot of shore like areas.  Plus I needed to fill in the
    charts. :)  If you see issues like basic encounter chance of
    the creatures or such that should not belong let me know.
    For Sea charts I did add this from the articles posted from I
    think Heroes? Since I already had it in my Ship Project files
    It was easy to manage.  So I just added the Sea Charts to
    this master file.

      o Data origin.  I actually used my source code data for my
    old Encounter program years ago.  I found some mistakes and
    too lazy to fix and outdated anyways.  It was just a matter
    of cut/pasting a lot of time that, saved time.  I did notice
    some odd things in the Swamp charts that had creatures in Day
    time but to me seemed Night.  I may go back and examine this
    later.  Not sure if it was a mistake from the old charts
    that I copied into the program or a mistake on the original
    charts itself.  As I worked on this I used my Monster v2
    file as well for data.  I also noticed some minor typos
    and such and fixed it in my version.  I should resend to
    Wout but it was only like 4 minor edits or so.

      o I did have to split up a lot of the Night charts into 2
    charts due to number of creatures.  So just split up the
    data from Phase 1 into 2 parts.

      o Common sense: Remember to use common sense on these
    encounters.  You ask why is Mermen in Underground?  Well
    What if its a underground cave 500 feet under water?
    One could even say Mermen swim up a underground river in
    a underground cave system.  But one must use common sense.
    If this situation is confusing then re-roll.  If you see
    such logic issues let me know and I can chop it out and
    explain my reasoning.

      o Guardians: This chart was a bit odd to do as what
    considers a Guardian?  Obviously a peace loving creature
    that does not seek like Dzaliri would not make a good
    guardian.  So I had to guess on some of this.

      o Upper World: Not happy with this.  I have never really
    done much in the UW so I'm a nube here.  I don't have the
    wisdom of Richard.  I had wanted to add a Random factor to this
    rather than listing possible creatures.  But I just was not
    happy with it.  I did add some v2 creatures to areas I THINK may
    fit.  I could not figure out like where Neutrals might be so
    I had to remove some off my Phase 1 list that I felt should
    be in UW but could not place.  Maybe some new areas like
    Realm of Neutrality might be added.

      o Waterways: Might be a oddball issue with some night creatures
    that don't fit or should fix.  I noticed the v1 chart seemed
    a bit off at times.

      o Lower World: As with UW maybe some new areas should be
    added for the v2 stuff.  I think Humans should be in the LW and
    the UW.  If not as prisoners or slaves than as a insane
    wizard who seeks glory or destruction.  So why can't there be
    pockets of very tiny human areas?  This might conflict with
    the overall Mythos but we have seen in the descriptions like
    humans taken to the UW.

      o Avoiding/Attracting.  The concept behind this is to
    change chance of encounters overall.  A group may wish
    to Avoid or Attract.  A hunter in a forest may actually
    try to Attract that great buck.  But a child in the
    mountains may want to avoid a bear by clapping rocks
    and making noise.  So thus the system of modifiers.

      So let me know what you guys think.  If no one has major
    comments I may reformat (if not feeling too lazy) by summer
    and do a final version.  Wout though is fine with taking
    any version for the website.  I have no idea if there is
    a limit to posting size.  If so I'll cut the file into parts
    due to size.

       Enjoy your present!