Having invented an initial list of 'contents' for a taiga's wilderness hex, where the players randomly turned out to be, I'm confronted by a glaring problem that's I've met before, though not for some time. But first, let's list off those contents:
predator, wood for tools, fuel, animal tracks and signs, seasonal camp, monster, drinking water; pond, lake, attract attention with smoke?, humanoid footpath, treacherous ground, grazing animals and other game, detect intelligent presence, animal trail, wildfire, natural shelter, identify sunrise/sunset, artificial light source at night, storm, gathering food, natural landmarks, creek or stream, dungeon, fishing, viewpoint, next hex, shrine; glade, ally; adventurer. This isn't an exhaustive list; just what I was able to clearly identify last night.
predator, wood for tools, fuel, animal tracks and signs, seasonal camp, monster, drinking water; pond, lake, attract attention with smoke?, humanoid footpath, treacherous ground, grazing animals and other game, detect intelligent presence, animal trail, wildfire, natural shelter, identify sunrise/sunset, artificial light source at night, storm, gathering food, natural landmarks, creek or stream, dungeon, fishing, viewpoint, next hex, shrine; glade, ally; adventurer. This isn't an exhaustive list; just what I was able to clearly identify last night.
Some of this may be counterintuitive, so briefly — since we're assuming that the players are moving through an area they don't know or maybe can't find their way out of, instead of creating a "get lost" roll, I'm simply adding the next hex over as something the players "discover," in the same way they stumble across a lake or a bear. Finding an ally or adventurer is simply game play; the likelihood of an actual adventurer stumbling around in the hex with the players is ridiculously low, but for playability sake, we can rate that at, say, 1%. Because it's fun. Detect intelligent presence means that the players have just found some object or sign that indicates there's a potentially dangerous and intelligent monster in the area, something uncivilised; this being distinct from the humanoid footpath or seasonable camp, which are things that have been made by civilised persons, but which is presently abandoned.
But the key to this list is this: some of these things are random occurrences, and some of these things are so common that one can't shake a stick without hitting one. Wood for tools and fuel, for example, or the choice to light a signal fire and attract attention (the roll is meant to indicate a place where this is realistic; obviously, any tree can be lit on fire, to the party's detriment in the long run). Still other things can be searched for (grazing animals, foraging) while some definitely cannot (storms, wildfire).
Plus, and this is important ... it's an extremely boring hex if we only make one 'contents' roll per day. An environment such as this cannot be reduced to one thing, even once per day. As the players move through, they're going to pass over various features; as well, sunrise and sunset are going to occur every day, though not necessarily where they're helpful to the players. We cannot see where the sun rises if there's a dense pass of 100 ft. trees that blot out visibility beyond a hundred yards. Thus, this particular "event" is meant to specify that the players happen to be in a place where, yes, they can glimpse the horizon and where the sun comes up, orienting themselves.
If, however, we give four rolls a day, that's four chances that a random monster's going to come up. We can assess for that by adjusting the chance of a monster from an overall 1 in 6 per roll to, say, 1 in 24 per roll. But we'd have to do the same for wildfires, storms, grazing animals and so on, drastically reducing the chance of a single die roll producing something interesting.
I have a proposal, but it strikes me as ... hard to organise. Suppose we accept that there's only one roll chance for all those things on a d100 table that can arise by chance. Then, for everything else, things the party would definitely want to find and obtain, we could assign a "number in something" chance on a separate column, based on that table. We could then give the players two rolls on this column, hoping to be lucky. Effectively, we carve the day into two halves for the players intentions (find their way out of this hex, climb up a ridge looking for a viewpoint), and at some point during that day, something unintended happens all on its own.
For example, let's say there's a 2% chance of stumbling across a viewpoint, even though the characters are in hill country, simply because the conifer growth is too thick. Or say there's a 6% chance of finding a pond. And now let's say that instead of waiting for these things to happen in the daily-roll, the players instead say, "We try to find a pond." Then we could assign a triple-times chance of their successfully doing that ... a 18 in 100. And if they don't we could either (a) dictate that there is no pond in the hex, or (b) dictate that if there is a pond, it's going to be stumbled across randomly. It can't be searched for again.
From that point forward, we have to decide which things can be searched for and which cannot. In some cases we can assign things (wood, for instance) as not being part of the random table, since it's always around the party. And an automatic chance of the party finding it.
Can the party deliberately search for a monster? Sure. Further, we can argue that, having found one (or a pond, for that matter), the chance exists for trying to find another one the next day, until the chance fails (the monsters are really buried). Thus, a "dungeon," starting with a 1% chance randomly, can be found with a 3% chance if searching for it.
Can the party deliberately search for a monster? Sure. Further, we can argue that, having found one (or a pond, for that matter), the chance exists for trying to find another one the next day, until the chance fails (the monsters are really buried). Thus, a "dungeon," starting with a 1% chance randomly, can be found with a 3% chance if searching for it.
This, however, argues that if the players remain in the hex long enough, eventually they will find a dungeon, or anything else on the table. It's inevitable. I'd propose a ten-roll limit ... after that, the contents of the hex are more or less what they are. 'Course, there can always still be a wildfire or a storm; another monster can always drift in from another hex; there might yet be an adventurer. This would seem to require a separate, "residual" table, that could be rolled on, oh, once a week, or a fortnight (two weeks), that wouldn't include dungeons or viewpoints, or any permanent notable feature that might be used as a guide for getting out or finding this particular hex again.
These are my thoughts so far. Want to let them stew a bit before I start to order them into a proper table.
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