HYPERBOREA / Hyperborean Encounter Tables!

**Posted by Blackadder23** 4/27/2017 9:30 am

I use grasslands for "lush" islands and hills for the rest (so hills in this case).

**Posted by ThornPlutonius** 4/27/2017 11:25 am

/chuckling at today's comedy of Atlantean errors/
I see a Monty Python skit in that set of encounters.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 4/27/2017 11:48 am

My program's results for 14 encounters on Atlantica

$ ./prompt.pl
Choose location starting letter (ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVWXYZ): A
Select location:
a. Abbica's Mere
b. Aeries
c. Alus Mercury
d. Anlates Isles
e. Atlantica

> e
Select number of encounters: 14
Vermin
Hunting Party (Atlanteans)
1 giant weasel (night only)
5 wild dogs
100 bats (night only)
Vermin
14 reindeer
Light Patrol (Atlanteans)
18 aurochs
Hunting Party (Atlanteans)
Hunting Party (Atlanteans)
Hunting Party (Atlanteans)
Hunting Party (Atlanteans)
Blizzard

still lots of work to do for parts but the base stuff is there. That is everything other than location specific terrain choices (I need to have it default to show all terrain choices if I don't have any specified in the YAML tables I'm using).

There does seem to be a lot of hunting done on Atlantica though. Gonna need to fornicate more and hunt less if they are gonna not go extinct.

Last edited by gizmomathboy (4/27/2017 11:51 am)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 4/28/2017 8:23 am

What time is it now? Daily encounter time! Today your players are crossing the sinister glaciated Barrier Mountains, a bad life choice if I ever heard one. For the sake of clarity, we'll say they aren't near any of the region's volcanoes. What fearsome things will they encounter?

Hunting party of 14 half-blood Pictish bowmen, led by Ch’aak. They haven’t bagged anything.
Hunting party of 16 half-blood Pictish bowmen, led by Gooch and accompanied by Taan, a 7th level shaman. Perhaps because of thus propitiating the spirits, these hunters have bagged a giant weasel!
2 wolverines
Hunting party of 11 half-blood Pictish bowmen, led by X’atgu. They haven’t bagged anything yet (should have brought a shaman, guys).
Poison gas – but only in a volcano, so no encounter!
1 wolverine
Thin ice (over a 40-foot hole!)
Geyser – only in a volcano, so no encounter!
1 giant ferret (I hear they taste like chicken)
1 brown bear
3 mountain lions
1 brown bear
1 giant wolverine

Not nearly as bad as it could have been, given the alien presences said to lurk in the Barrier Mountains. Maybe next time...

**Posted by Blackadder23** 4/29/2017 9:53 am

It's that time again: daily encounters! This time your players have ventured into the woods surrounding the Black Forest Inlet. Note: I don't recommend this.

3 wyverns
3 wild berserkers (buck naked and high on lotus)
Lost
1 wild berserker (buck naked and high, etc.)
12 stirges
6 giant weasels – but only at night
1 wild berserker (buck naked, etc.)
10 stirges
5 giant weasels – night only
5 boars
19 rats
1 griffin
1 hippogriff

Some of Hyperborea's justly-famed naked berserkers finally put in an appearance, but only in pitifully small numbers. But the PCs shouldn't become too complacent. That 4d10 has to come up sooner or later!

Last edited by Blackadder23 (4/29/2017 9:53 am)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 4/30/2017 9:02 am

Time for your daily encounters! Now your players have made the extremely poor decision to travel down the Black River Yleil. Been wondering where all the undead in Hyperborea are? (Just kidding - there are plenty more where these came from.)

13 zombies
8 zombies
6 skeletons
2 gargoyles
12 zombies
2 zombies
3 falcons
1 pterodactyl
8 giant black centipedes
9 giant rats
Fever
1 giant tuatara – night only
Fever (this is not a healthy place)

Nasty, but it could have been much worse - there are liches on the table.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/01/2017 10:20 am

Daily encounter time! Today your players are crossing the shifting sands of the Black Waste. What thirteen awful things will they meet?

17 bactrian camels
Heatstroke (one PC goes down!)
1 banshee! (but only at night)
Dust devil
4 giant crab spiders
Mirage
1 banshee again! (night only)
1 giant tuatara – night only
Sand pit – 60’ deep!
1 banshee yet again! (thankfully only at night)
1 giant tuatara – night only
3 boars
1 wyvern

So the moral of this tale is: if you must cross the Black Waste, do it in one day and not during summer. Good luck!

**Posted by mavfire** 5/01/2017 3:45 pm

BA - those tables rock...really appreciating the daily doses too.

Your last one is really ironically funny. Good stuff. Keep up the great work.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/02/2017 7:14 am

Thanks! I'm glad to hear that somebody finds them entertaining.
Time for daily encounters! Now your players have entered the forests of Brigand's Bay, where every two-copper thug is a king. How many "kings" will they meet?

1 boar
6 bandits
Patrol of 18 medium infantrymen led by Rhul (8th level fighter). These are soi-disant nobles looking for trouble, as soi-disant nobles are wont to do.
4 boars
Hunting party of 13 bowmen, led by Rammdailia. They have brought down a couple of aurochs (I rolled 18, but let’s not get ridiculous) and are bringing the carcasses back to their bandit keep on poles for a feast.
Stellar conjunction
12 giant rats
16 rats (Brigand’s Bay has them in all sizes… four- and two-legged…)
80 bandits (these guys aren’t even pretending to be “nobles”)
7 bandits (stragglers?)
20 bandits (jeez, how many of these guys are there?)
Patrol of 15 light infantrymen, led by Garr (11th level fighter!) and accompanied by Penn (2nd level magician – hahaha I rolled a magician named “Penn”). More “nobles”, but at least the leader has the levels to back it up.
Duntanna, 8th level druid accompanied by 16 aurochs (not as good as tigers maybe, but what can you do?) Hey, I think these might be the aurochs those hunters tried and failed to kill! Did Duntanna save them? A chance for the PCs to gain an ally against the “nobles”, maybe?

A very stereotypical "sword & sorcery" environment - lots of wild animals and greedy knaves with swords, not so many monsters or sorcerers. But there are much weirder places in Hyperborea to come...

Last edited by Blackadder23 (5/02/2017 7:15 am)

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 5/03/2017 1:46 am

Wow, such an amazing resource!

Things I Worked On · **Posted by Ynas Midgard** 5/03/2017 4:05 am

The only thing I'd do differently is treating high-level NPCs rare by determining their level the following way:

D12
1-3 level 1
4-6 level 2
7-8 level 3
9-10 level 4
11 level 1d4+4
12 level 1d4+8

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/03/2017 10:23 am

Ynas Midgard wrote:
The only thing I'd do differently is treating high-level NPCs rare by determining their level the following way:

D12
1-3 level 1
4-6 level 2
7-8 level 3
9-10 level 4
11 level 1d4+4
12 level 1d4+8

That's a great way to handle it! I also thought about using 2d6-1 (or even something like 4d4-4 with '0' treated as '1'), to get an easy bell curve. On the other hand, I like the simplicity of rolling 1d12, and I like that attacking even a small party of merchants - seemingly easy pickings - is a risk because they might include a 12th level magician (which is of course the precise reason Gary included such NPCs in those groups in the original D&D rules). Fantasy demographics vs. challenging game - it's a conundrum!
It's time once again for your daily encounters! This time your PCs are at sea off the treacherous, icy Broken Coast. What will they meet there?

Vermin (PC lost food)
2 crocodiles
3 crocodiles
Iceberg!
1 archaeopteryx
Vermin (another PC lost food!)
Thunderstorm
Fever
Lost
Lost
1 killer whale
1 killer whale
Sleet storm

A gloomy set of encounters, as befits a gloomy region of Hyperborea.

Last edited by Blackadder23 (5/03/2017 10:25 am)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/04/2017 9:36 am

Daily encounter time! Today your players are exploring the forests of Cape Calencia. Hopefully they'll meet the "hospitable" half-blood Picts, and not the countless savage ape-men living thereabouts.

Blizzard (19 inches of snow! I hope it isn’t actually winter)
20 ape-men
600 bats – night only!
8 giant rats
4 giant tuataras – night only
1 mountain lion
6 giant rats
24 ape-men
1 giant python
2 giant tuataras – only at night
18 wild berserkers (possibly wearing clothes, definitely stoned on lotus)
4 ape-men
4 ape-men

Yikes! I guess if wishes are horses, beggars are walking today.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/05/2017 7:38 am

What time is it? Daily encounter time! In this episode, your players have ventured by airship to the City in the Clouds, an Amazon enclave that is just sort of floating near Hyperborea. What will they meet there?

1 swine daemon!
1 donkey
8 bandits (thugs)
Patrol of 16 medium infantrywomen led by Pelagia (10th level fighter!)
1 riding horse
1 dromedary camel
Thales (9th Chaotic Good level thief)
Patrol of 18 medium infantrywomen led by Alexandra (8th level fighter)
Patrol of 18 medium infantrywomen led by Demetria (5th level fighter) – all these patrols are probably looking for Thales and the thugs (and maybe that swine daemon)
11 giant rats
10 giant rats
Patrol of 13 medium infantrywomen led by Lysistrate (3rd level fighter) – some of these warriors should be on rat-catching duty instead (please don’t tell them I said so)
1 bactrian camel

"Lots of Amazons" is what the PCs met (some maybe with ray guns). I hope they like strong women!

Last edited by Blackadder23 (5/05/2017 7:39 am)

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/06/2017 10:27 am

It's that time again: daily encounters! This time your players have traveled to the Crab Archipelago, where human crab-kin slavishly obey the dictates of crab-men from outer space. Will their alien masters put in an appearance?

Fever
Hunting party of 12 crab-kin bowmen and 13 dogs, led by Huctia. They are toting the corpses of 6 wolves (food or pest control – you decide). [I forgot to roll dogs for all the hunting parties prior to this one – no wonder they couldn’t bag any game!]
90 red deer
Hunting party of 13 crab-kin bowmen and 12 dogs, led by Arviragos. They haven’t had any luck (I guess dogs are no panacea after all).
War party of 39 crab-kin bowmen led by Barita. Their arrows have been treated with class II penetrative poison!
Hunting party of 11 crab-kin bowmen and 7 dogs, led by Caratacos. They haven’t had any luck either – a herd of 90 deer must be tough to find on an island.
23 wild horses – man, crab-kin are terrible hunters
80 Chaotic Evil pilgrims, led by Sammpenna (2nd level priestess), who is assisted by 1st level priests Raidalla, Rhulrana, and Penn the Lesser. In addition, there are three warlocks with the group: Fellxell (10th level!), Zonn (1st level), and Penn the Greater (5th level). These are Kthulhu cultists, trying to sneak in and visit a sacred squid-god shrine under the very noses of the crab-men. If this encounter goes south, the PCs are in hot water. But maybe they can set the pilgrims and crab-kin at each other’s throats?
Hunting party of 11 crab-kin bowmen and 4 dogs, led by Verica. All they’ve managed to bag is a lousy falcon.
Fog bank
Hunting party of 13 crab-kin bowmen and 15 dogs, led by Arviragos. (Hey, I think they met these guys already!) The crab-kin still haven’t managed to bag any of the deer or horses swarming the island.
1 viper
Sleet storm

No alien overlords on this trip. But there's always tomorrow!

**Posted by DMPrata** 5/06/2017 1:34 pm

Ynas Midgard wrote:
The only thing I'd do differently is treating high-level NPCs rare by determining their level the following way:

D12
1-3 level 1
4-6 level 2
7-8 level 3
9-10 level 4
11 level 1d4+4
12 level 1d4+8

FWIW, here's what I'm using for random NPC levels:

d% Roll   Level
01–32        1
33–48         2
49–59       3
60–67         4
68–72         5
73–78       6
79–83       7
84–88      8
89–91         9
92–94      10
95–97    11
98–00    12

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/07/2017 10:59 am

^
That's another good way to handle it.
If I do another version, I'll probably use a 3d6 bell curve table much like the encounter tables:

03 11th level
04 9th level
05 7th level
06 5th level
07 4th level
08 3rd level
09 2nd level
10 1st level
11 1st level
12 2nd level
13 3rd level
14 4th level
15 6th level
16 8th level
17 10th level
18 12th level

That would make the two highest levels extremely rare (less than 1/2 of 1% each). It also has the advantage of being easy to remember, at least for me.

Time for daily encounters! Today your players have made the dubious decision to journey to Dagon's Bay, where the inbred inhabitants are also suspected of being "outbred" (to abominable ichthyoid monstrosities). How many times will the unfortunate phrase "Squeal like a pig!" be needed?

18 red deer
Snowstorm
11 aurochs
Hunting party of 13 bowmen and 13 dogs, led by Illotroi. These goggle-eyed degenerates haven’t bagged any game.
19 vipers – yikes!
Insect swarm
6 boars
16 wolves
Lights in the sky (but no alien encounter) – insert redneck/UFO joke here
1000 bats! – but only at night
Hunting party of 13 bowmenn and 12 dogs, led by Phaleor. These scabrous mongrels haven’t bagged any of the (clearly plentiful) game either.
Raidalla (10th level Chaotic Good berserker)
Snowstorm

It's not even a nice place to visit!

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/08/2017 8:36 am

It's time once again for daily encounters! In this episode, your players have boldly ventured into Death Valley, the frozen rift which is said to open into Underborea itself. Will they meet any daemons there?

1 large animal skeleton
19 cave-men
4 giant elk
Fever
3 boars
22 abominable snow-men!
110 reindeer
Thin ice (over 40’ pit)
12 aurochs
16 abominable snow-men!
2 giant bats (night only)
Thin ice (over 20’ pit)
Deep freeze!

No daemons, but 22 abominable snow-men has "TPK" written all over it. Yeesh.

**Posted by mabon5127** 5/08/2017 10:16 am

Blackadder23 wrote:
It's time once again for daily encounters! In this episode, your players have boldly ventured into Death Valley, the frozen rift which is said to open into Underborea itself. Will they meet any daemons there?

1 large animal skeleton
19 cave-men
4 giant elk
Fever
3 boars
22 abominable snow-men!
110 reindeer
Thin ice (over 40’ pit)
12 aurochs
16 abominable snow-men!
2 giant bats (night only)
Thin ice (over 20’ pit)
Deep freeze!

No daemons, but 22 abominable snow-men has "TPK" written all over it. Yeesh.

Particularly if the party has any females.....

**Posted by Blackadder23** 5/09/2017 8:21 am

mabon5127 wrote:
Particularly if the party has any females.....

Good point. Better to go down fighting, ladies!
Once again, it's time for daily encounters! This time your players have traveled to the shifting sands of the Diamond Desert, no doubt in search of the eponymous diamonds (green or otherwise). What horrors will they meet there?

Eros (Chaotic Evil 4th level fighter) with 8 light infantry mercenary henchmen types
1 rattlesnake
2 boars
1 giant weasel (night only)
19 red deer
Insect swarm (could be scorpions)
3 giant scorpions (big brothers)
Heat wave (yikes!)
16 bactrian camels
4 boars
3 giant scorpions
5 giant scorpions
Heat wave again! (I really hope it’s not summertime)

It's hot and scorpion-riffic!