Cross System Random Encounter Tables

I’ve been wanting to add more whimsy to my games by including monsters

from other game systems.  But of course, I need to be systematic in my

whimsy.

  I’ve been creating  area specific random encounter tables for awhile,

where I create a list of ten or twenty monsters from the generic random

encounter tables in whatever system I am currently fooling around with.  I

decided that these would be the least intrusive place to add in monsters from

other systems, for encounters near the City State. I started by making a list

of all of my game systems with appropriate monsters.

Advanced Dungeon and Dragon 1e - the classic, still

have the books I bought in college

Adventurer Conqueror King - My current go to, I backed one of the

kickstarters and love the seamless transition from murder hobo to

ruler within the rules

Barsoom - The ‘Not Published by TSR’ pdf by “Doc”

Call of Cthulhu 1e - picked it up in college.  Most

memorable roleplaying session of my ill spent time

was playing this at the Armory at the University of

Minnesota, right after I filled out the paperwork for

Officer Candidate School.

Carcosa - a pdf of McKinney’s system for use with Lamentations of

the Flame Princess.  I find it a good source of things for the bad guys

to be doing.

Chivalry & Sorcery 1e - first game I bought in 1977

(the LBBs were out of stock at the game store in

Superior, Wisconsin).  Introduced my college and

Navy friends to it, and we played regularly for several

years. One of the best feudal world building resources

I have.  The original has long since fallen apart, but the

pages are safe in a three ring binder.

Dark Eye 3e - picked this up from my late friend and RPG buddy.  He

had acquired it when Atari was looking at writing a computer game of it.

Empire of the Petal Throne - The World of Tekumel by M.A.R Barker.

The first RPG I ever played in 1977 also the last time I ever played it..  

I actually overlapped at the University of Minnesota with the good professor,

but didn’t know it at the time.

Gamma World 1e - I picked up the reprint and pdf recently

HP Lovecraft’s Dreamlands - a Chaosium pdf I acquired recently.

Infernum -A d20 game set in Hell by Mongoose Publishing.  The “Mutation

Chain” concept is worth the price of the pdf.

Labyrinth Lord - picked up the pdf on DriveThru a few years ago.

Metamorphosis Alpha - picked this one up in

high school I think, might have been my first year

of college.  Ran it a couple of times back in the day.

Still have the original copy.

Runequest 2 (Classic) - picked up an original off of a

friend in the Navy and backed the reprint kickstarter.  A

lot to love, but very different system from the D&D family.

Traveller (GDW) - probably the second to most

played game in my college group.  Still have

the little black books and the box.

Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing 1e - picked it up

in the Navy in the 80s.  Never played it but a great

resource for world building.  Converted parts of the

Death on the Reich campaign for Pathfinder several

years ago.  But had to abandon it when no one

wanted to play a human (required plot hook)

I then built a couple of simple tables

Roll	System		Roll	Other System
1-10	AD&D		1-10	Empire of the Petal Throne
11-15	ACKS		11-15	Labyrinth Lord
16	Gamma World		16	Barsoom/Dark Eye
17	Metamorphosis Alpha		17	Traveller
18	Runequest/Warhammer		18	Carcosa
19-20	Other		19-20	Infernum

City State of the Invincible Overlord was designed for D&D and

I’m using ACKS for my game system, so I wanted the bulk of

the encounters to come from there.

Where there are two systems listed, I use a 50/50 chance to see

which one to select from.

I didn’t use Chivalry & Sorcery, because it really only has two unique

monsters, the Blatant Beast and the Questing Beast (although the

latter can be found in TSR’s Deities and Demigods)

I forgot to include Call of Cthulhu and Dreamlands when I was making

the table.  Oh, well next time. Labyrinth Lord turned out too close too

the AD&D and ACKS selections, so I’ll drop that from the table.

[Adding pictures to the post, I see I also forgot Space 1889 and the

Petal Hack!]

Creating Encounter Tables for each area is then a two step process

(1) determine the system and

(2) randomly determine an appropriate monster.  

Here’s the encounters for the Mermist Swamp

	(1)	(2)			(1)	(2)
Roll	System	Monster		Roll	System	Monster
1	Metamorphosis Alpha	Dart Weed (MA)		11	AD&D	Gnoll
2	Warhammer	Amphisbana (WH)		12	AD&D	Catobelpas
3	AD&D	Hobgoblin		13	Metamorphosis Alpha	Blister Plant (MA)
4	AD&D	Shedu		14	AD&D	Giant Frog
5	AD&D	Giant Toad		15	Empire of the Petal Throne	Dnelu (Tekumel)
6	Labyrinth Lord	Black Dragon		16	AD&D	Orc
7	AD&D	Criosphinx		17	ACKS	Hydra
8	Empire of the Petal Throne	Ngrutha (Tekumel)		18	AD&D	Gnoll
9	AD&D	Giant Frog		19	Gamma World	Barl Nep (GW)
10	AD&D	Poisonous Frog		20	AD&D	Constrictor Snake

Because this is solo play, I don’t need to convert a monster

unless they encounter it.  For group play I would want to either

pre-convert the monster or work out the system conversions for

quick reference.