"Dungen Crawl Monsters Reaction" Topic

I'm toying with the idea of a a solo dungeon crawl campaign but I can't rationalise why all the monsters wouldn't go rushing towards the sound of battle as soon as the heroes start fighting their first encounter. How do you guys deal with this?

Thanks.

Thick stone walls muffle sound. Sounds often mistaken for Kobold playtime. Waiting to get all the adventurers loot for themselves. Hoping the adventureres will finally kill off those pesky giant rats. Using the distraction to go steal the box of Poptarts labelled "Orcses" out of the pantry.

There in no rationalisation, unless the player character is on a covert ops mission, ninja-ing around, dispatching the baddies one by one unseen and unheard.

Little did the sleepy orc community realize, that an elven sniper had been in position for three days, buried up in that otyugh carcass lying outside Common Room C5. With the signal of one well-placed shot, the carnage would commence in earnest.

And not for the last time would Grak wish he had more carefully itemized all his treasure types on his homeowner's policy.

You want a realistic dungeon crawl?!

A better question is how do all those monsters live and interact with each other from day to day?

Dungeons are big so not everything would be heard as it occurs. Also dungeons can be populated with a wide variety of monsters who may not all be cooperative.

So the Goblins getting hammered at the upper level just gives the Orcs down below a warning that something's afoot but maybe not a reason to go up and help.

Well, back in the day…

The rational in The Caves of Chaos was that the various monsters were in a constant state of war with each other. So they spent a fair bit of effort trying to avoid each other and not get eaten and ambushed.

But yeah, if a GM played it smart Old School DnD was really tough because if the party made too much noise, didn't kill the baddies fast or avoid them altogether, one would get away and bring the entire lair down on the the party. A Wizard with a dagger and a single Magic Missile spell isn't much use.

In the game Dungeon Bash, this was handled by increasing the chance of encountering a wandering monster. Once the combat was over, the chance dropped back to normal.

But yeah, if a GM played it smart Old School DnD was really tough because if the party made too much noise, didn't kill the baddies fast or avoid them altogether, one would get away and bring the entire lair down on the the party. A Wizard with a dagger and a single Magic Missile spell isn't much use.

Warrior Heroes, both sets, work on that mechanic as well. You can run into PEF markers (Possible Enemy Forces) that can raise the Activity Level of the dungeon, making it more likely to run into more creatures.

Because the evil overlord is toying with the adventurers. Your party is a group of heroes and he doesnt trust his minions to handle things properly due to stupidity and fear of you or each other. So he has set traps and uses his forces sparingly.

Also it could be that different groups and creatures have took up residence there and fighting and thievery are commonplace.

For undead tombs Necromantic wards have things arranged as such and activate upon an intruder setting them off.

A lot of old modules did in fact call for some monsters to react to the noise of combat, or to even sound a general alarm. There would also be conditional statements regarding who or what might be in a given chamber, based on the actions of the party during the adventure. Even the new D&D boardgames include "Sentry" monsters who act to call or alert other monsters (forcing more monster card draws).

If you're going with a home-brew, I'd suggest a simple "alert" roll during each round of combat in a chamber (say a 6+ on a d6, add one to the roll result for each turn of combat, begin rolling at the end of the second turn). If it's a GM-ed game, the alerted monsters can come from other chambers, but it's not necessary that all monsters be alerted (you could make a separate roll for each progressive chamber, modifying the die roll down for distance, making it less likely that distant monsters will hear the combat). If it's an "automated" system using charts or cards, the alert roll could trigger whatever monster check or card draw was in the chamber, but the monster would instead appear in the hallway outside, moving towards the party's location.

I've played adventures that way, with monsters from nearby coming to help. It changes the dynamics of play for the PC's, forcing them to possibly re-think, and maybe even retreat, from their approach. It often results in them coming back, later, in a stealthier mode. I don't find it unrealistic, nor detrimental to the game, at all. I think it forces the PC's to play smarter, requiring more tactics, and more thinking, as opposed to more dice rolling in combat. YMMV. Cheers!

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

Turns out my brother (who is a boardgamer, not a minis gamer) has a bunch of dungeon tiles he's not using and he will be passing them to me. Looks like this will be happening…

Use the warhammer quest power dice mechanic .
Roll a dice after player and monster turn on a one more appear