Encounter Distance

The distance between two groups is an important part of setting up the battle. The terrain and weather have a great effect on encounter distance; even an eagle-eyed character will have a hard time spotting his enemies in a dense fog or pitch-black night.

The DM can simply assign an encounter distance based on his estimation of the situation, or he can roll on the table below. In many cases, the range of the encounter is obvious; if a party of heroes kicks down a dungeon door and storms a guardroom, it stands to reason that the gnoll warriors are somewhere in that room.

Situation	Range (melee scale)
Both groups surprised	1d4 squares
One group surprised	1d6 squares
No surprise:
Smoke or heavy fog	1d8 squares
Jungle/dense forest	2d10 squares
Light forest	4d6 squares
Scrub/brush/bush	4d12 squares
Grassland/field	10d6 squares
Dungeon/night	Limit of vision
No cover	Long missile range

Note that dungeon or night encounters refer to the vision limits of whoever can see the farthest. If a party of heroes equipped with lanterns can see 30 feet in a dark forest, a hunting party of orcs that can see 60 feet may try to open the battle with a volley of arrow fire out of the darkness.

If a situation arises where there is no real cover or the enemy’s approach is detected hundreds of yards away, the encounter should be set up at the maximum range of the longest-range missile weapon in the fight. In this case, it will probably be necessary to begin the battle in missile scale and move to melee scale when the groups close.

Table of Contents