Order of the D30: Random Monster Encounter

Another article in my Order of the D30 series.  This series of articles is my own attempt to utilize my awesomely cool D30. Other articles in this series include:
Reasons to Actually Enter the Dungeon
Weather Generator
Musical Acts in the Tavern
Random Monster Encounter
You Found What at the Side of the Road

The previous D30 generators are straight lists to roll your D30 against.  This article, however, is an example of how I use my D30 to generate random monsters when needed.

I have four books of monster stats; The Fiend Folio, The AD&D Monster Manual, The AD&D Monstrous Manual, and the 4E Monster Manual.  Before I role I ask a player for a page number.  The I roll the D30 to determine the book:
1 – No monster, the players instead encounter a trap (but I don’t tell the players).
2-8, The Fiend Folio
9-15, The AD&D Monster Manual
16-22, The Monstrous Manual
23-29, The 4e Monster Manual
30 – Enchanted Treasure.

Now that I have the book and page number I go to that book and page.  Then I take the number of monsters listed on the page and divide that into 30.  Three monsters means the first monster is picked on roll of 1 – 10, second monster 11 – 20 and the third on 21 – 30.

I am a firm believer in re-statting to the desired system on the fly.  Of course to be able to re-stat on the fly you need a pretty good understanding of how each system works.  This is just another example of the use of your D30.

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