Encounters: overload your encounter dice

If the standard encounter occurs on a roll of 1 on a d6 by rolling every two turns, you might as well roll a d12 every turn (the encounter still happens on a roll of 1). I don't recall where I've read this first, but of course it's not my idea.
Rolling a d12 allows you to roll every turn, thus it becomes common practice to always roll, every turn, and we never forget (or question if we rolled in the last turn, or the one before).
Having a d12 and rolling every turn seems like a good option to me, also because it increases the range of available results if we want to use the encounter die also as something more.

This started - as far as I know - in the post below.
Originally it included only the concept of encounter and timer.

Overloading the encounter die

by Brendan

The nature of the random encounter check is that of a timer. While it is not a literal countdown (since random results are mathematically independent), it simulates one. It is the danger clock, always ticking [...]
Why not put all these things together systematically? Consider the following rule:
When the party moves into a new area or spends time on an exploration activity, roll the encounter die and interpret the results as follows.
1. Encounter
2. Percept (clue, spoor)
3. Locality (context-dependent timer)
4. Exhaustion (rest or take penalties)
5. Lantern
6. Torch
[...]
http://www.necropraxis.com/2014/02/03/overloading-the-encounter-die/

It seems (and it is! that's the beauty of it!) a simple rule, but it ties together several different themes: Encounters (the encounter itself on a one, the clues leading to it, the dangers or difficulties or peculiarities of the location), Exhaustion (need to rest or consume food), Light (duration).
Rolling for encounters is fun (or at least, thrilling   )


To me, the rule above is already a perfect balance of simplicity and inspiration, but you can take it and tune it and improve it as you wish.
Brendan of course tuned and refined this system, which became the Hazard System - really a thing of beauty. It's an ongoing project, so make sure to check sometimes for a new version.

In the one below (0.3 at the time of this writing) the system included:
- A unified system. with higher roll=better result
- 3 tables, for Haven, Wilderness and Dungeon
- A 4th table for Combat, if you wish to use it

Hazard System v0.3

by Brendan

The Hazard System is a gameplay engine for traditional roleplaying games designed to facilitate fictional consequences of player decision-making while minimizing bookkeeping. [...]
There is also a PDF version (see Downloads).
[...]
Hazard die results now follow higher = better principle
Generalized hazard die:
1 setback, 2 fatigue, 3 expiration, 4 locality, 5 percept, 6 advantage

[...]

Wilderness Turn Interpretation

D6	RESULT	INTERPRETATION
1	Setback	Encounter (use regional table) or road/bridge out
2	Fatigue	Rest and consume rations (1/person) or suffer minor harm (1 HP)
3	Expiration	Expire transient wilderness condition
4	Locality	Shift weather (or other local change)
5	Percept	Spoor or clue regarding next encounter
6	Advantage	Free wilderness turn

Dungeon Turn Interpretation

D6	RESULT	INTERPRETATION
1	Setback	Encounter (use zone table)
2	Fatigue	Rest and consume rations (1/party) or suffer minor harm (1 HP)
3	Expiration	Expire transient dungeon conditions (light, spell, etc)
4	Locality	Shift dungeon state (or other local change)
5	Percept	Spoor or clue regarding next encounter
6	Advantage	Free dungeon turn

[...]
Wilderness turns represent travel and making camp, approximately one day and night. Making a wilderness move requires consuming a ration or taking the exhausted condition in addition to rolling the hazard die. If already exhausted, at the start of a wilderness turn suffer minor harm (1 HP). Determine randomly whether setbacks occur during day or night.
Free wilderness moves: access known landmark in current area, survey adjacent areas
Full wilderness moves: travel to adjacent area, search, explore, hunt, track
Wilderness conditions: exhausted, lost
Lost: Travel is no longer an option. Use search to locate a landmark, removing the lost condition on success.
[...]
Dungeon turns represent exploration at architectural scale, approximately tens of minutes or a few hours, assuming careful advance into hostile places.
Free dungeon moves: look under a rug, open unstuck door, pull lever
Full dungeon moves: climb, force a door, move to adjacent area, pick a lock, search
Dungeon conditions: candlelight, torchlight, overburdened
[...]

http://www.necropraxis.com/2017/11/22/hazard-system-v0-3/

Note that Fatigue now includes also rations, and light/duration becomes Expiration: Expire transient dungeon conditions (light, spell, etc). See how it includes now spells?
A single die and you no longer need to track time between rest, rations, lights, spells' duration, other effects... basically, time becomes a fluid entity, with a simple rule.
This is what makes it great.
A simple rule, a simple table (you could do with just one, but here there are more so that you have enough inspiration for different cases and environments), and there is no need to track time anymore and all resources using it.


This is the OSR, so you are supposed to change and tune the system as you wish. See in this article the simple approach by James, for dungeons...
But the article actually contains also an analysis on outdoor encounters and city encounters, and some useful tables and tips for using excel to automate the process of determining an ancounter.

Improving Your Encounter Tables With Gimmicks!
by James Young
[...] Dungeon Encounters
This is based on Brendan Necropraxis' Overloaded Encounter Die aka the Hazard System.
I assume you know how to stock a dungeon encounter table - just put whatever you'd find on this dungeon level in the table, plus maybe a homeless wandering beast or two and some scouts from the next level of the dungeon.
Roll the Encounter Die every 10 minute turn. In my game I track this fairly loosely. Down long hallways I might start eyeing up squares and movement rates, but this usually gets rolled any time the party stops to investigate a room, messes around with the scenery, or they Take a Break to eat and heal.
"Are you guys aware that this will take long enough to need an encounter roll?" is something I say whenever somebody wants to spend time poking around a room.
Anyway, the Encounter Die results are as follows:

1. Encounter

2. Encounter Clue

3. Dungeon-Specific Effect

4. Dungeon-Specific Effect

5. Torch Burnout

6. Torch and Lantern Burnout

[...]

3 & 4. Dungeon-Specific Effect

This is the big one. Effects are on a per-dungeon basis and supposed to give some unique character to the locale. A more dangerous area will have more directly dangerous results, while a safer area might simply be set dressing.

[...]

Light Source Burnout

Torches have two checkboxes. Lanterns have 4 checkboxes.

On a 5 or 6, tick off a torch checkbox. On a 6, tick off a lantern checkbox.

This means that, on average, torches last 6 turns (1 hour) and lanterns last 24 turns (4 hours). Just like they're meant to! Plus there's some variance in how long they last. How lovely. [...]

http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2017/08/improving-your-encounter-tables-with.html

There is another overloaded encouter dice, this time by Angus, and again with the familiar events on a dungeon roll, but also with some examples for wilderness travel/hex travel and city encounters.

The thing is, as we've seen already, that the encounter dice can be tuned for diffents uses (dungeon vs outdoor vs city) and might be tied also to a specific location (a certain dungeon, a certain city, etc.).

OVERLOAD YOUR ENCOUNTER DICE - Fear the Passage of Time, Meet New People, Kill Them

by Angus Warman

[...] Dungeon Delving
Every three rooms, or when the PCs spend time putzing around doing things, roll 1d6:
1. Encounter
2. Glint
3. Terrain Effect
4. Hazard/Trap
5. Torch decreases (1/2)
6. Torch and lantern (1/3) decreases
[...]
Hexploring
Roll 1/day while on a road or in settled lands, 2/day off the beaten track, and 3/day in truly untamed wilds. Any more than that, and you are probably in an actual dungeon:
1. Encounter
2. Traces
3. Weather (I gave this a whirl and it was interesting, for me at least, and who says the DM can't have a little fun?)
4. Hazard
5. Fatigue (each point fills an Inventory Slot)
6. Hidden Feature

Foraging: At the end of the day, everyone rolls Wisdom (with disadvantage/at -4 if you were moving at Normal speed). If you succeed, you collected enough food along the way to not need a ration. If everyone failed the check, then everyone is out of water as well.

[...]

City Crawling

Roll once per day, and a second time if the party is "looking for trouble":
1. Pointed Encounter
2. Encounter Pointed at someone else/a crowd
3. Recurring Character
4. City Actions
5. Faction Actions
6. Advantageous Situation
[...]

http://meanderingbanter.blogspot.com/2018/10/OVERLOAD-YOUR-ENCOUNTER-DICE.html

Well, before we close, let's look at something from Chris McDowall, the author of Into The Odd.
What I'd like you to focus on is the very last part (although the entire article, nicely brief and to the point like everything else in Into The Odd): making six great entries, rather than spending your whole prep time filling up a d20 table with just-okay entries.
Whether you're working on the overloaded encounter dice, or making a random table for encounters (or another random table), keep it short. And special.
Don't make a redundant d20 or d30 or d100 list... make it short, to the point, and special.

Keep encounter tables short and simple
by Chris McDowall
Sometimes you need to put something together for a game tonight and none of the modules on your shelf feel like the right fit. Throwing together a Route Map is relatively fast, but you're also going to want some random tables, most obviously some Encounters.
I've gone from using d20 to d6 and everything in between. My list of needs for a random encounter table is:
- Make an area feel alive and non-static.
- Project the character of an area.
- Have at least one really dangerous entry to encourage the players to keep moving. 
- Be better than something I can just make up on the fly.

[...]

Roll d6
1-3: Common. Three variations on a single encounter either carrying out different actions or varying slightly in composition.
4-5: Uncommon. Two variations of a more unusual encounter, again varying in behaviour or composition.
6: Rare. Something weird and likely dangerous. 
[...]
Now you can really dig down into making six great entries, rather than spending your whole prep time filling up a d20 table with just-okay entries. [...]

http://www.bastionland.com/2018/06/small-tables.html

Design Notes:
- Instead of rolling a d6 for encounters every other turn, roll a d12 every turn (the encounter still occurs on a 1)
- The encounter roll may be transformed into a timer, a clock, and be tied to other concepts such as the expiration of lights or the need for rations or rest
- This becomes the well known Hazard System e Overloaded Encounter Die; it might include any sort of setback (from encounters to fatigue), timers (lights, spells duration), perception (sign of encouter), special events (something tied to the location), etc.
- Just make sure to balance out the odds when you replace a rule with the Hazard System (i.e. certain spells might last less, other more, or for example if rations are tied to fatigue, then you don't ask the characters to consume rations in other cases)
- The table might become a generic one, for diffent uses, using templates such as Setback, Fatigue, Expiration, Locality, Percept, Advantage
- Different tables may be used for Dungeons, Indoor or Outdoor exploration or hexcrawling, city crawling; and specific places may have their own very specific table
- A note inspired by Into The Odd author, Chris McDowall: keep encounter tables (and other random tables) short but meaningful. Write special, great, short tables, instead of boring long ones