Confused wolves

I've been obsessing over random encounters for the past few days and, after much tweaking and rewriting, I am having trouble getting past confused wolves.

When you roll in the reaction table, "uncertain, confused" is the most common result.  

It is also a kind of non-result, since it doesn't tell you anything about the creature's reaction - except, maybe that is has NO immediate reaction.

This is easy to interpret for humans and humanoids - they'd rather talk and evaluate before they do anything - but what does it mean for wild animals? Or even monsters?

An "uncertain, confused" results indicates your answer is not  in the reaction roll, but maybe somewhere else. 

Let's try some options.

Surprise - surprising and surprised beasts are more likely to attack, but only if they think they can win the fight. Invertebrates can attack anyway - if you step on an ant hill or disturb wasps, they will not be afraid of your size.

Morale - testing morale to see if the creatures have the courage to approach or attack is interesting, but doesn't tell you if they are hostile and lead to unlikely results because the morale check usually doesn't take into account if the creatures are powerful or outnumbered.

Alignment - This is something I've seen in Dragon Quest but in no other D&D games. Most animals are neutral; chaotic and lawful ones have the label for a reason.

This is an aspect that deserves more attention; some creatures should just be more aggressive than others.

Monster description - sometimes the book will tell you how the creatures act. But this is rare.

Some descriptions are vague. "Have been know to attack humans". So what? Does it give it a penalty to reaction? Does it attack differently from other creatures if you roll "immediate attack"? You have to decide for yourself, but it is something.

Other descriptions are useless for this purpose. Displacer beasts hate blink dogs and vice-versa, but since PCs are unlikely to be accompanied by either, this is useless 99% of the time. How do they feel about humans?

Roll for goals - you can easily find random tables that will they you if the wolves are starved, semi-domesticated, migrating, mating, hunting, protecting cubs, etc. (my own Teratogenicon has some suggestions).

This is useful if you're creating an encounter beforehand, but for immediate use at the table, it requires more rolling for no obvious benefit. How do the PCs know if the wolves are hungry? Also, doesn't tell us how do hungry wolves act.

We shouldn't default to "they attack" - in fact, hungry wolves might be desperate enough to befriend the PCs, especially if they offer food.

"Do nothing" - Maybe "they do nothing" is the most obvious answer. So, it is up to the PC's to choose how to act. This would be a good idea, giving players more choice. However...

For NPCs, there is room for talk (and, unfortunately, REPEATING the reaction roll, maybe with Charisma and other modifiers). Even if they threaten, ignore, or lie to NPCs, there could be consequences.

But what about animals? It is likely that PCs do nothing in return. The wolves are confused, why would we attack them, or feed them?

If we can kill or ignore them with no consequences, why do we care?

The fact that wild animals hardly attack humans (let alone groups of humans) does not help much.

In short, an "uncertain" reaction roll turned your encounter into scenery. "In the second day, there is some light rain and you spot some wolves at a distance...".

By itself, this is no problem - except for the number of rolls (encounter, distance, surprise, reaction, etc.) and decisions the GM has to make to get there (and "there" is basically "nowhere").

 

Small 5e note

In a surprising turn of events, one of the latest WotC D&D books (Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants) might have better reaction rules than (my beloved) B/X... 

After years without a proper reaction system, WotC added a simple and neat one in the Giant's book. It is similar to B/X, but instead of rolling 2d6, you roll 1d8, 1d4+1, 1d12, etc., depending on the creature encountered.

It is such an obvious solution. We could just add a hostile/friendly bonus to each encounter, or to each monster. 

Maybe with alignment: "Chaotic (-2)" means -2 to the reaction roll, but adding it to encounters would be even better - some creatures are more hostile in some environments, situations, etc. 

It would require some work, but would be immensely useful in play. For now, I can just use -1 for chaotic encounters and +1 for SOME lawful ones (maybe Rocs NEVER attack humans immediately? I don't know).

 

Solutions?

Let's use the fact that "uncertain" is the most common result to solve that.

Maybe each monster has a few instincts. For most beasts, the instinct is to ignore the PCs unless they look like invaders or prey. Some monsters instinctively attack (e.g., bees) while other might not attack but will instinctively chase, and most should have clear rules (e.g., attack if PCs are outnumbered or surprised).

An uncommon result (say, "immediate attack" or "friendly") can override these instincts. It is odd, but in a world with dwarves and dragons, sometimes hawks attack or befriend you for no apparent reason. Let's also assume humans (and their cities) are fewer in such worlds, and animals are less afraid of them.

In normal circumstances, however, animals fall back to their instincts.

Of course, we could assign instincts to humans, too (call them "inclinations", if you will). But it is probably not worth it. We can intuitively explain human actions - and human inclinations are too diverse and individual anyway.

The callous bandits are friendly? Well, of course, they rather attack someone less armed! The lawful pilgrims attack you on sight? Well, they thought you were bandits !

But alignment, here, also works as an inclination. The bandits might try to befriend you, but better not trust them too soon...

Additional reading:

http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-painful-procedure-of-random.html

http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/bx-wilderness-encounters-are-bonkers.html