Dragon Attack d6

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post comes to us from Youseph, well known for writing over at Stargazer’s World.)

While I was down in Seattle for PAX last year, I learned a pretty neat solution to who a monster should attack in a role playing game. It’s so simple and so elegant that I can’t believe I had not seen, heard or read examples of this before.

Let me set the scene for you. You and the only other living member of your adventuring party have delved into a damp cave in search of Cavix, the red elder dragon that has been tormenting the city of Glossgo for the past five months. The two of you entered the cave hoping to get the jump on the beast only to find out he has got the jump on you!

As a game master, the red elder dragon has first go at the party, having successfully snuck up on them. The only question in your mind is WHO DOES THE RED ELDER DRAGON ATTACK?

For this problem I learned to roll a d6. I look at my adventurers and point to the first one, saying, “You are numbers 1-3. Then I look over at my other player and say, “You are numbers 4-6”. I roll my d6 and it comes up 5 so the red elder dragon attacks the second player.

If I have 3 adventurers in my party then I assign the first player 1&2. The second player 3&4, and finally the last player 5&6 and roll my d6 again attacking whose number comes up.

If I have 4 adventurers in my party I roll a d4. If I have 5 adventurers in my party I roll a d10 assigning players 2 numbers each from the d10. If i have 6 adventurers I go back to my d6.

That’s one of the tricks I learned and PAX and it has been working out pretty good for me so far. Do you have suggestions or alternative solutions to monster attacks? Lets hear it. Post a comment.