Enough with the 2d6 encounter table, now dawns the age of the d12 unified table. The dice bell curve leads to an overabundance of middle of the road critters. I want to see more wizards and dragons and shit! 2.78% is way too low to see these cool guys on the end of the table, let’s up that to 8.3%. I don’t care about some sense of naturalism you get from a bell curve, I get 3-4 hours once a week to run this game and don’t have enough random encounters in my life to not have the awesome ones show up more often. We’re only here on this planet for so long!
Most games have too much rolling of things that aren’t a d12- the unloved and exiled aristocrat of the dice bag if you’re not playing a Barbarian in 5e. It sits scalloped and perfect in the hand, wobbling and coming to rest after the ideal amount of roll on the table. So I just got the books for Dolmenwood and I love them. It’s likely the best sandbox RPG campaign I’ve ever read. But look at all these Encounter steps! That’s a lot of dice to roll of different kinds not even counting the initial 1d6 roll to see if there is an encounter. Rolls, rolls, rolls.
Too many dice rolls with too many dice that aren’t his Royal 1d12ness. Lame! These don’t get me rolling the d12 more, my main drive in life when I wake up in the morning to cradle its glorious geometry as it whispers in my ear. Sometimes I want to play a faithful game of classic D&D and sometimes I NEED THE DODECAHEDRON in my veins FAST. Let’s switch it up, oops all d12s style.
Chance of encounter, 1-2 on a 1d12. Surprise? You’re surprised on a 1, they’re surprised on a 12, two separate rolls for surprise on different sides with a non-result of both surprised is utter decadence. What encounter is it? You’ve got 12 critters to run into. Want something more common? Get rid of another entry and have the encounter trigger on 2 numbers now. It would actually be nice to have different dice to differentiate between the sizes of groups found- but we won’t because I’m sick in the head and the only cure is more d12! 1d12 giants, 1d12 wizards, 1d12 merchants, 1d12 lightning wolves. Want more? 3d12 plague cursed goblins! Make it work! Encounter distance just put a bunch of pre-written distances on the table- do some legwork for yourself and anyone else who runs your stuff. Reaction? You guessed it! Cause it’s on a 2d6 I’ll stretch out “Uncertain, Wary” to 5-8 and bump everything above it up to fill the 1 result with “Attacks.” This keeps “Uncertain, Wary” at a still 33.32% likelihood 44.38% of all Reaction results is way too much, give the other reactions a turn to play. Sure a bit more immediate fighting but also more immediate “Eager, friendly” rolls! I love making stinky friends in the dungeon. Behavior is a sweet addition for more encounter variety (The Dark of Hot Springs Island also has a great table for this) but we just get 12 now, that’s plenty- though a 5% chance of defecating will be genuinely missed. The things I do for you, my sweet polyhedral prince. Don’t have space on the table but roll Morale on a d12 instead as well, I can’t think of a great reason for that but I’m in too deep now to quit or consider benefits of other dice. Call the d12 “The Encounter Die…” and present it with a flourish and tone filled with wary danger when you take it out of the sack- in time your table will regard the die with proper awe.
Example Region:
While you’re at it give your players a whole sack of 1d12 pipebombs to chuck at things too- they’ll have so much fun tossing those swingy bad boys into a room of fleshy opponents. They’ll curse at a 1 and lose their absolute shit at a 12 pulping a barracks of innocent guardsmen in one roll. They might all blow themselves up when the sack holder gets lit on fire accidentally and this is good and honorable fun too.
Rolling a d12 makes you smarter, luckier, a better lover. You hear those distant bells chiming? The clock is striking (d) twelve, and it tolls for thee.