Doing some work for my next session, I've decided that B2 Keep on the Borderlands is really missing random wilderness encounters; it gets PCs to the dungeon more quickly but is problematic in terms of challenging experienced players. In the interest of making these wilderness encounters more interesting, I've taken some enemies from the Caves of Chaos that make sense as wandering scout parties and added some random encounters drawn from the Moldvay Basic rulebook and a couple borrowed from B3 Palace of the Silver Princess to round things out.
Wilderness Encounters for B2 Keep on the Borderlands
In doing this, I've tried to imply some new locations on and off the B2 map. I really feel like the existing map, where PCs can camp out with impunity as long as they stick to the road, sort of misses the "borderland" feel.
Perhaps there should be an entry for clerics, since the bandits sometimes disguise themselves as such. The clerics could maybe be either regular pilgrims traveling the road or (less often) scouts from area K. Since I don't have B3, I'd probably replace the decapus with them.
ReplyDeleteYou could always add the other humanoids (goblins, kobolds, bugbears, gnolls) and evil clerics. You could also add 'near miss' encounters: a dragon flying high overhead, or a hill giant corpse sucked dry by stirge.
ReplyDeleteContrary to your premise, my players learned the hard way that camping along the road next to the swamp could lead to a midnight visit from the lizardmen.
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