Gelatinous Icosahedron

 Way, way back in the long-ago days of the mid-80s, I was introduced to D&D through a copy of the Moldvay Basic Rules and the accompanying module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Before I ever worked up the courage to ask my siblings if they might like to play this game, I had read both books cover-to-cover at least a dozen times and thumbed through the most interesting bits still more, and they left some impressions. One of those impressions was a sense of scale regarding hit points. The average starting player character might have 7 or 8 if he were lucky, but maybe as few as 1 or 2 (though I did take to heart the suggestion that players be allowed to re-roll at 1st level only if the dice came up 1 or 2.) Lots of 1st-level NPCs had hit points below average for their class's Hit Die -- I recall plenty of Keep guards manning the walls with 3 or 4 hp. NPCs of 2nd level seemed quite tough with 7-10 hp or so, and those of higher levels with hp totals in the teens were real badasse...

Tired of wilderness encounters with nothing but monsters? Here are some other interesting things a party might stumble across while trekking cross-country. A convenient list of 30 for those who have a d30 on hand. Use them by themselves or combine them with a monster encounter or terrain feature. (I'd recommend not using them all the time; perhaps a 1-in-6 or 1-in-12 chance per day of travel.) 1. Battlefield. The site of some forgotten battle of old, strewn with the rusted remains of arms and armor half-buried in the earth. Possibly haunted. 2. Enchanted tree. Its fruits produce the effects of a random potion at half-strength, but spoil a day after picking. Has 2d6 ripe fruits when found. 3. Faerie ring. Mushrooms growing in a circle. Will a character stepping into their midst be put to sleep by mischievous faeries or whisked away to a mystical forest? 4. Burial cairn. Whose eternal resting place is this?  5. Cache of supplies. A stash of iron rations, rope, torches, oil, or ot...

 Wilderness random encounters in classic D&D are a little vague and generic. Determine the local terrain features and add some detail and interest to the scene of an encounter. d8 Clear, Grassland Forest Hills 1 Farmland Hill Hill 2 Copse Gully Ridge 3 Hill Dell Valley 4 Stream Stream Ravine 5 Pond/Lake Pond/Lake Stream 6 Wetland Thicket Gully 7 Pasture Glade Pond/Lake 8 Gully Burn Dell d8 Mountains River Desert 1 Ridge Rapids Dunes 2 Ravine Sandbar Wadi 3 Stream Wetlands ...