I had this crazy idea that it would be way more fun to have die drop tables instead of traditional wandering monster tables for the Mega Delve. So I slapped together one to test the concept out.

I’m not ashamed to say that it turned out a bajillion times better than I expected it would. No, seriously, this excites me at a totally inappropriate level. Something about the design has me fucking GIDDY WITH JOY.

I mean, check it out (click the image to get the PDF version):

This drop table uses a d8 and d6 – the location of the d8 provides the encounter, the number on the d8 determines the number encountered, the number on the d6 determines the circumstances, and sometimes the location of the d6 provides information also.

Here’s some samples of it in action:

In this test, the d8 is a 6 on the goblins result, and the d6 is a 5 on the crab spiders.

This gives us 7 Goblins equipped with Javelins & Handaxes out on Guard Patrol. A fairly typical wandering monster encounter for a level 1 zone.

I rolled another five sample encounters which were:

1 Ogre with 300gp out Collecting Mushrooms (no matter how much they would like to, it’s hard to keep the pots stocked with humans and goblins for dinner)

3 Goblins armed with Short Bows & Short Swords, Hiding from the Dark Green Slime.

3 Subhumans returning home (they live in the secret area beneath this map)

And the photo on the right has the d8 (facing 8 up) on the humans and the d6 (6 up) on the fire beetles.

This gives us 10 Humans (6 with pole arms) carrying 14sp, fighting 5 Fire Beetles with weird green glowing fire glands (that cause strange hallucinations if you use them for long).

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The Mushroom King entry over on the left side of the drop table? That’s this awesome guy – an illustration by Jim Magnusson that I received as a postcard in the mail the other day who ended up inspiring me to draw and write up this whole monster encounter table.

You can see his awesome stuff at his blog. And you can support him on Patreon too!