WASTELAND ENCOUNTERS

The Vaarn bestiary has grown quite a bit since the first zine came out, now totalling at over 100 official monsters. There was some discussion recently on the Vaarn Discord about the encounter table given in the original zine, regional variations upon it, and encounter threat.

In the spirit of leading by example, I’m going to cook up a few new encounter tables, focusing on some of the varying terrain types given in Issue 3. I will be producing two tables per terrain type: a low threat encounter table and a high threat encounter table.

The low threat tables will naturally focus more on low Level monsters and NPCs, with some encounters that can be solved with diplomacy. The high threat tables will feature nastier creatures with no Level restrictions: stat damage, Level drain, equipment damage, and creatures that summon reinforcements or require special equipment will be featured. I want to show how you can use a palette of creatures to make the different biomes feel unique.

We’re using 2d6 for a bell curve, so the rarer or more dangerous creatures can have a lower chance of appearing.

Update: I’ve now included encounter distance and activity tables as well, to complete the picture. Outdoor encounters need distances to help Referee and players envision how close the parties are to one another. Vaarn doesn’t use detailed combat movement rates, so the distances given are approximations.

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Featureless Sands

The quintessential Vaarnish terrain. I’m imagining a mixture of mobile, sand-adapted creatures, as well as intelligent groups who are crossing the dunes on vehicles or by foot. Synthetic creatures like the Tumblesnare are at home here, as they don’t need to drink.

2d6	Low Threat	High Threat
2	d8 Tumblesnare	Argent Shepherd
3	d6 Troika	Chrome-Feathered Sailback
4	d6 Bandits	d20 Bandits
5	d6 Lizard Lions	d4 Giant Azure Scorpions
6	d10 Faa Nomads	d8 Cacklemaw
7	Trade Caravan	d8 Hegemony Legionaries
8	d8 Greenguard	d8 Ghouls
9	d6 Iridium Vultures	d4 Leopard Worms
10	3d6 Phthalo-Jackals	Subtle Stalker
11	Lithling Scholar	Amaranthine Death-Worm
12	Sandworm (Juvenile)	Sandworm (Adult)

2d6	Encounter Distance	Encounter Activity
2	Close (PCs Surprised)	In Combat (roll again for opponent)
3	Close	Sleeping / Motionless
4	Mid-range	Sheltering / Hiding
5	Mid-range	Chasing / Fleeing (roll again for prey/pursuer)
6	Mid-range	Hunting / Scavenging
7	Far	Patrolling / Travelling
8	Far	Relaxing / Basking
9	Far	Squabbling / Infighting
10	Far	Eating / Defecating / Venting
11	Very Far (No Missile Fire)	Injured / Ill
12	Very Far (No Missile Fire)	Psychedelic State / Religious Trance

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Winding Canyons

Verticality is higher and visibility is lower (note that the encounter distances have changed). Lots of these creatures can fly or climb, and one can imagine Alzabo and Brood Mothers nesting in the canyon’s caves. The Copy Cat and Tiger Fly encounters are rated higher threat because they can summon reinforcements.

2d6	Low Threat	High Threat
2	Harlequin Serpent	Alzabo
3	d8 Cliff Ghuls	d6 Glider Spiders
4	d8 Nerve Crawlers	d6 Copy Cats
5	2d8 Gruks	d6 Regenerators
6	3d6 Blue Baboons	d4 Glass Tigers
7	Lost NPC	d8 Cacklemaw
8	d10 Faa Nomads	d3 Cobra-Moths
9	d6 Lizard Lions	d6 Tiger Flies
10	3d6 Phthalo-Jackals	2d6 Eyeless Dogs
11	d10 Xeric Triffids	Amaranthine Death-Worm
12	d6 Lambent Lynx	Brood Mother

2d6	Encounter Distance	Encounter Activity
2	Close, Above (PCs Surprised)	In Combat (roll again for opponent)
3	Close, Level (PCs Surprised)	Sleeping / Motionless
4	Close	Sheltering / Hiding
5	Close	Chasing / Fleeing (roll again for prey/pursuer)
6	Close	Hunting / Scavenging
7	Mid-range	Patrolling / Travelling
8	Mid-range	Relaxing / Basking
9	Mid-range	Squabbling / Infighting
10	Mid-range	Eating / Defecating / Venting
11	Far	Injured / Ill
12	Far	Psychedelic State / Religious Trance

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Garbage Strewn Wastes

I imagine these as being huge drifts of plastic waste, surrounded by desolate hardpacked blue dirt. A mixture here of poisonous and fungal creatures, as well as some unpleasant gelatinous beasts. Three Blightbeasts should provide a challenge even to high-level PCs.

2d6	Low Threat	High Threat
2	Daggertrunk	d3 Blightbeasts
3	Bacterial Gestalt Colony	Doppelgeller
4	d8 Cliff Ghuls	d6 Battle Boars
5	d8 Stumbling Drones	d6 Flashhounds
6	2d6 Yurlings	d6 Hagflukes
7	d6 Yuckhogs	d4 Cacogen Pseudo-Giants
8	d6 Quill-Spiders	d6 Hiveymen
9	d8 Gene Thieves	d6 Mandrakes
10	d8 Grey Crickets	d6 Regenerators
11	d6 Mournfrogs	d4 Walking Wombs
12	Xanthous Mycomorph	Fleshwarp

2d6	Encounter Distance	Encounter Activity
2	Close (PCs Surprised)	In Combat (roll again for opponent)
3	Close (PCs Surprised)	Sleeping / Motionless
4	Close	Sheltering / Hiding
5	Close	Chasing / Fleeing (roll again for prey/pursuer)
6	Mid-range	Hunting / Scavenging
7	Mid-range	Patrolling / Travelling
8	Mid-range	Relaxing / Basking
9	Mid-range	Squabbling / Infighting
10	Far	Eating / Defecating / Venting
11	Far	Injured / Ill
12	Very Far (outside missile range)	Psychedelic State / Religious Trance

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Abandoned City

Endless ranks of crumbling buildings, scoured of all features by time and sand. I envision abandoned cities being fairly dangerous, because they have low visibility and a large number of directions potential threats can approach from (note the different encounter distances again). The creatures here have a mix of themes, but I tried to imagine what could be lurking in the secluded basements or nesting on eroded spires.

2d6	Low Threat	High Threat
2	d6 Albino Apes	Juggernaut
3	d6 Kerberos	Cosseting Chrysalid
4	d8 Indigo Servitors	d6 Memory Eaters
5	3d6 Phthalo-Jackals	d4 Leopard Worms
6	d8 Stumbling Drones	d8 Shriekmen
7	2d8 Gruks	d20 Bandits
8	2d6 Yurlings	2d6 Eyeless Dogs
9	d8 Luxfoe Beetles	d6 Troika
10	d6 Grimpets	d10 Grimpets + d3 Grimweavers
11	Harlequin Serpent	Chromavore
12	Pontiff Scorpion	Thunderstrike Bird

2d6	Encounter Distance	Encounter Activity
2	Close, Above (PCs Surprised)	In Combat (roll again for opponent)
3	Close, Below (PCs Surprised)	Sleeping / Motionless
4	Close, Level (PCs Surprised)	Sheltering / Hiding
5	Close, Above	Chasing / Fleeing (roll again for prey/pursuer)
6	Close, Below	Hunting / Scavenging
7	Close, Level	Patrolling / Travelling
8	Mid-range, Above	Relaxing / Basking
9	Mid-range, Below	Squabbling / Infighting
10	Mid-range, Level	Eating / Defecating / Venting
11	Far, Above	Injured / Ill
12	Far, Level	Psychedelic State / Religious Trance

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Hypergeometric Research Facility

Finally, the same approach to building encounters applied to an underground vault, with lots of Hypergeometric, Outsider, and Synthetic-type creatures. This has some really nasty encounters on the High Threat side, with lots of potential for ability score damage, and even Level-drain on the table! Scytheslivers can inflict Wounds even on full-HP characters, and the Fractalisk and Chromavore are impossible to kill without the correct equipment. The Low Threat table is more reasonable, although the Phase Panther could be difficult for Level 1 PCs.

I tend to assume encounters indoors happen in the same room as the PCs, so I don’t use distance tables so much. We can still use the acitivities table however.

2d6	Low Threat	High Threat
2	d6 Moonbeasts (Nymphs)	Blightstone Knight
3	d8 Negativfolk	d4 Moonbeasts (Imago)
4	d8 Nerve Crawlers	d3 Spectres of Indifference
5	d6 Laser Shrimp	d4 Syctheslivers
6	d10 Faa Nomads	d6 Flashhounds
7	Planeyman	d6 Planeyfolk
8	Lithling Scholar	d4 Hollow Maidens
9	d6 Grimpets	d10 Grimpets + d3 Grimweavers
10	2d6 Yurlings	Chromavore
11	Subtle Stalker	Fractalisk
12	Phase Panther	Kronophage

2d6	Encounter Activity
2	In Combat (roll again for opponent)
3	Sleeping / Motionless
4	Sheltering / Hiding
5	Chasing / Fleeing (roll again for prey/pursuer)
6	Hunting / Scavenging
7	Patrolling / Travelling
8	Relaxing / Basking
9	Squabbling / Infighting
10	Eating / Defecating / Venting
11	Injured / Ill
12	Psychedelic State / Religious Trance

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Putting it Together

Finally, let’s roll up a few encounters to see how the three tables — creature, distance, activity — work together to create a scene for the players.

First up, let’s do something low threat in the Featureless Sands. We get ‘Trade Caravan, Close (PCs surprised), Chasing/Fleeing (5 Lizard Lions)’.

The only thing that has really thrown me here is the PCs being surprised. I would play this as the party cresting a colossal sand dune, the height of a building, and meeting a trade caravan frantically cresting the dune from the opposite direction. Five Lizard Lions are sprinting up the dune after the trader, neck-frills flared and fangs bared. This scene has some obvious hooks already: the merchants are going to beg for help, offer some goods, or might even collide with the PCs’ vehicle in their haste. Lizard Lions are moderately threatening but they don’t have any nasty tricks, so this would be fine for Level 1 PCs.

Let’s try something high threat now. In the Winding Canyons I get ‘4 Tiger Flies, Close Level (PCs surprised), Eating/Defecating/Venting’.

More surprise! In this case I would describe the PCs rounding a tight corner and coming face to face with four dog-sized cacogenic wasps, busily stripping the flesh from a dead goat. As the PCs are surprised I would probably immediately give the Tiger Flies a further reaction roll to see how they deal with being interrupted. If its bad, they attack with advantage. If its neutral or good they stand their ground, buzzing angrily but not willing to move away from the corpse. The creatures aren’t super dangerous alone, but as soon as one dies, another d6 giant wasps will be on their way to investigate the pheromones released by their dead comrade. This is definitely a tricky situation, but not an impossible one.

Something low threat again. In the Garbage Wastes we get ‘2 Gene Thieves, Mid-range, Sheltering/Hiding’. This one probably doesn’t play as a combat encounter unless the PCs really want it. I would describe them noticing two eerie hairless pink faces watching them from inside a nest of trash. The creatures are motionless and don’t seem to want to leave their burrow (the question here being what are they hiding from?). At mid-range you can get a shot off if you really want to attack the Gene Thieves, but they’ll have time to flee if you’re trying to charge into melee range.

High threat in the Abandoned City. We get ‘8 Grimpets and 2 Grimweavers, Close and Level, Patrolling / Travelling’. This is a pretty standard encounter. I’d describe the PCs becoming aware of motion nearby: ten dull-grey spiderlike synths come stalking through the window of a house, moving in single file with two larger units at the rear. They’re close to the PCs, so there’s no chance the Grimpets won’t notice them. This might call for a further reaction roll to see how aggressive the robots are.

One last high threat encounter in the hypergeometric research facility. We get ‘Fractalisk, Sleeping / Motionless’. This is very cool! Fractalisks look so weird that I imagine it’s pretty difficult to tell when they’re sleeping (do they sleep?). I would describe the creature as being stuck to the wall like a jellyfish at low tide, weird fractal patterns moving across its impossible body in leisurely waves. If they leave the monster alone and tiptoe past I would rule that it continues to slumber (although there’s no guarantee it won’t wake up if you come running into the room later on).