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Note: These encounter charts were designed to provide rough sketches of encounters for the party as it travelled through various lands. The charts are by no means exhaustive, and they are general enough that GMs would be advised to actually roll the encounters before each session and flesh them out with statistics and with little mini-scenarios or sidetreks.
The intention of the encounter charts was to really try to capture the flavour of a given area. In addition, an attempt was made to make civilized areas generally fairly safe and mundane (though always with a slight chance of danger) and wild areas fairly dangerous. I was always turned off by encounter charts that were so dangerous that normal non-adventurers could never set foot outside the city for fear of instant death. My philosophy was that if the players wanted danger and excitement they could trek to lands were such was to be found.
The charts use a 001-000 system which is utilized by rolling 3 ten-sided dice and designating one as the first digit, another as the second, and the final as the third. In this way you get a generation range of 1000 instead of the usual D100 charts.
Many of the charts also include an Overall Encounter category, which is designed to flavour the area. They also contain a Road Encounter category which reflects the different nature of encounters while journeying along a well-travelled path as opposed to hacking through a wilderness.
When an encounter is indicated, the Overall category should be checked first. If that fails, then if the party is on a road or well-travelled path, then that category should be checked. Finally, if both of those fail (or if the party is not on a road or path and the Overall check failed), then the GM should roll on the main encounter chart.
Should there be multiple percentages presented in the Overall or Road categories, then the GM should roll for the first percentage, and if that fails, then move on to the next in the list. If the first percentage succeeds, then there is no need to consult the remaining percentages in that category. So, for example, in the Road category for Loskalm, it states there is a 15% chance of Traders during the Morning or Afternoon and a 15% chance of a Patrol. The GM would first, if it were Morning or Afternoon, roll to see if a Trader is encountered. if the roll is 01-15 then the encounter is with a Trader and that is that. If a 16-00 is rolled, then the GM would check for a Patrol.
Encounter chances are presented for four 6-hour periods of the day. If an encounter is indicated, at the GM's option, a second roll at one-half the normal chance can be checked to see if multiple encounters occur during that period. Should the second roll indicate an encounter, a third roll may be checked for at 1/3rd the normal chance and so forth until an encounter check is failed. This is a very good way to brew up interesting multiple encounters or to allow the party to stumble upon a battle or other scenario. It is also a good way to keep the party on their toes so that they do not know that once they have had their morning encounter they are safe until the afternoon.
If a result indicates "Other Encounter Table", then the GM should choose a different regional table to roll on. This adds variety to encounters and allows for "fish out of water" and travellers to be encountered.
A result of "Special or GM's Choice" could be a special ally or nemesis of the group, one of the legendary creatures like a True Dragon, or some strange magical manifestation or spirit.
As far as power and numbers encountered, I always liked to roll a D100 to determine the relative power of the encounter (i.e. 01 = rabble and 00 = runelevels) and roll a D100 to determine the relative hostility (i.e. 01 = very friendly and 00 = very hostile). For example, let us say Traders were encountered and they were Issaries. A power roll of 00 might mean a huge caravan stocked with rich goods but guarded by many guards and driven by Issaries Rune levels. A hostility roll of 00 might mean they believe the party to be bandits and attack first or perhaps they consider Issaries in the party to be rivals and sabotage the group's mounts so as to be first to market.
For numbers encountered, guidelines are given in the chart, but I always liked to roll a D100 and if the roll was equal to or less than the initial number encountered, an additional number of the creature would be encountered equal to another roll from the chart. Then another D100 would be rolled and compared to the initial number encountered and so forth. This helped to occasionally create massive encounters and to keep things from getting predictable. For example, let us say Hsunchen Raiders are encountered. The chart indicated D12 will be encountered. I roll a D12 and come up with a 7. Seven raiders are encountered. I now roll D100. If the roll is 01-07 then I roll another D12. Let us say I roll an 05 on the D100 and a 5 on the D12. Now a total of 12 raiders will be encountered. I now roll another D100 and get a roll of 03. Since that is below the initial encounter number of 7, I roll another D12. Let's say I roll a 10. Now a total of 22 raiders will be encountered. I keep doing this until I roll a D100 greater than the initial number encountered.
Finally, you will note the Lunar charts assume the circumstances that occured in my campaign where the Lunar Empire had been defeated by Sartar. While I had at one time pre-defeat Lunar charts that would be suitable for those campaigns where the Lunar Empire is still flourishing, those charts have been lost.
I have encounter charts written up for the following regions:
| Region: | Territories: |
| Dragon Pass | Beast Valley |
| Dragon Pass | Grazelands |
| Dragon Pass | Sartar |
| Dragon Pass | Tarsh |
| Fronela | Jonatela, Loskalm, Janube City States |
| Lunar | Heartland |
| Lunar (ex) | Provincial Flatlands (ex) |
| Maniria | Bastis |
| Maniria | Ditali |
| Maniria | Esrolia |
| Pent | Pent, Northern Pent |
| Ralios | Ballid (Elf Forest) |
| Ralios | Basim, Prolorela |
| Ralios | Safelster |
| Ralios | Vemonstran |
| Wastes | River of Cradles Valley (except Sun Dome County) |
| Chaos | Chaos Subtable |
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