Wandering Monster patrols

[Daedalus]

. . . Oh, and I'd like to introduce a wandering chaos sorcerer in a custom quest... but better if he is not alone, so your rule about collecting minis next to the deck until a wandering monster card is drawn will be very useful.

Yeah, switching in special monsters makes for even more fun, as the Heroes won't know what threat they are facing. In the Chaos Sorcerer's case, I'd designate the Gargoyle as his card in the Quest Notes. Better yet if you're so inclined, print out one of the cards from this thread
or make a new one using this image from the Gallery. The Inn's card template provides one way to do it.

Care has to be taken when introducing new monster cards, that this deck won't become too diluted. But hey we are free to modify the drawing rule as well as the card stack size, so this ain't too much of a concern.

That's spot on about adding in new cards--it lessens the frequency of an occurrence, which usually won't be desirable. For expansions such as the EQP, the thing to do is include the new cards and swap out a like number of Monster Cards from the Game System. Since Wandering Monsters vary from Quest to Quest within expansions, one must pay attention to have the correct Wandering Monster and it's color group Monster Cards present--then you're good to go.

[This modification has been added to the latest version of the houserule here. -edit]

[Daedalus]

I once started to make a more detailed treasure deck - actually four different decks for searching empty rooms, searching rooms with furniture, searching tombs and looting dead figures. One thing I included was an amount of wandering monster patrol cards (a minor percentage of all wandering monster cards) which would produce 1D3 wandering monsters (the amount was differed in the four decks - for example, searching in.a funitured room had better treasures, but also greater dangers (assumingthe search takes more time and focus).

I sort of remember something of your deck cards, including a particularly meaty idea. I don't remember if it was your topic, but man, some of the posts in the corpse-looting thread got nasty!

Another way I want to incorporate Wandering Monster patrols is closer to your idea, but it will instead use a card or two in my own Morcar/Zargon deck. Like you, it's something I've already started years ago (thanks to the Threat cards of Decent), but since a deck is a lot of work to produce it still hasn't happened.

[allenspoon]

We love using this! It keeps the tension up with more random monster action and give Zargon more action!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

“Dungeon Deck Lite Version”

I once devised rules for a poor man’s dungeon event / evil wizard deck whilst running a quest during one of those long slow slogs out of one of the early quest – probably Prince Magnus’s Gold, but never used it so I would advise a play test first!

Remove the “Hazard!” (4) and the “Wandering Monster” (6) cards from the treasure deck to form a Dungeon Deck. Each time one of the following events occurs then Zargon may draw one of these Dungeon Deck cards. Zargon may hold a maximum of five cards at any one time any extra cards are wasted/not drawn.
• If a Hero rolls snake eyes (double 1) on his movement roll
• If a Hero opts to carry out a search

Playing the Dungeon Cards

Hazard Card! May be played by Zargon when any Hero moves onto a square that has not previously been stepped on and there are no monsters on the board (not sure about whether this second phrase is needed)

Wandering Monster – these can be played at any point during a Heroes movement when a new square is revealed, provided that there are no other Monsters on the board OR when a Hero performs a search (for treasure) Note: The Hero still gets the treasure

Combinations:

Ambush: Zargon may declare an ambush, by sacrificing a single dungeon card, "a gust of wind blows out your torches plunging you into darkness. By the time you have relit your torches you have been surrounded" followed by playing any number of Wandering Monster cards that he holds. Each Wandering Monster must be placed adjacent to a different Hero if possible.

Alarm: Zargon may declare an Alarm by playing 3 Hazard! Cards at the same time. The Heroes have triggered an alarm and Zargon may open a door of his choice.

[Daedalus]

Beyond limiting time with no monsters on the gameboard, monster patrols could also be useful for discouraging door blocking. Here's amended text that does that as well. I also modified the tracking method in the second paragraph to conserve figures.

Begin a Quest with the Monster Cards as a face-down deck behind the Information Screen. If no Heroes are in a room or corridor with a monster at the start of M/Z's turn, draw a Monster Card. If the card matches the Wandering Monster for the Quest, place the matching figure on the gameboard just out of view of the Heroes, either immediately or else on the first possible M/Z turn. This patrolling Wandering Monster may move/attack as normal.

If the drawn monster instead matches the color-type of the Wandering Monster's plastic figure, place it's card next to the Monster Card deck. Should the Wandering Monster card be drawn later, one additional Wandering Monster for each of these cards is also placed and moved as part of the Wandering Monster patrol.

Other Monster Cards are returned to the bottom of the deck after drawing them, but shuffle all the Monster Cards together after the Wandering Monster is drawn. If new Monster Cards are introduced, a like number of standard Monster Cards should generally be swapped out.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I use the following rule, which I think achieves similar effects

#5 Snake Eyes
Hero players must roll the movement dice, every turn even if they do not intend to move. If the movement roll results in then the EWP may at once place a Wandering Monster as if a Wandering Monster treasure card had just been drawn by the player.