Examining the OD&D Wandering Monster Tables

I haven't started properly designing my dungeon yet, but I have nailed down the overall concept, and I've been jotting down some ideas for areas and special encounters.  I think I already mentioned that I want the dungeon to be situated above a god sleeping beneath the earth, whose dreams affect the surrounding lands and the minds of those who live nearby.  I'd initially said the dungeon was built by a cult of worshippers, but I think I've narrowed it down into something more flavourful: the dungeon was built by a rich and decadent society, digging ever deeper to dream the dreams of the gods while the world goes to ruin around them.  But the deeper they dug, the more the sleeping god was roused, and his dreams called out to monstrous beings, and the society fell.  I think it's a more than solid framework to build my dungeon around.

Because my players might read this, I'm not going to go into any deeper details.  What I want to do today is go through all of the monsters in original Dungeons & Dragons, and note down where they can be encountered in the dungeon and the wilderness.  I want to make sure that every monster is able to appear if I'm relying on the tables.

Here are my findings below: 

Men (Bandits): Dungeon monster Level 1, all wilderness except desert and waterborne

Goblins, Kobolds, Orcs: Dungeon monster level 1, all wilderness except city

Skeletons: Dungeon monster level 1, swamp and city in wilderness 

Men (Berserkers): Dungeon monster Level 2, all wilderness except desert and waterborne

Gnolls, Hobgoblins: Dungeon monster level 2, all wilderness except city

Ghouls, Zombies: Dungeon monster level 2, swamp and city in wilderness

Ochre Jelly: Dungeon monster level 3, not in wilderness 

Wights: Dungeon monster level 3, swamp and city in wilderness 

Ogres: Dungeon monster level 4, all wilderness except city

Lycanthropes: Dungeon monster level 4, all wilderness except desert and city

Gargoyles: Dungeon monster level 4, not in wilderness (except castles)

Wraiths: Dungeon monster level 4, swamp and city in wilderness 

Cockatrices, Manticores, Trolls, Wyverns: Dungeon monster level 5, all wilderness except city

Gorgons, Medusae, Minotaurs: Dungeon monster level 5, only optional woods in wilderness

Mummies, Spectres: Dungeon monster level 5, swamp and city in wilderness 

Balrogs, Basilisks, Chimeras, Dragons, Giants, Hydras: Dungeon monster level 6, all wilderness except city 

Purple Worms: Dungeon monster level 6, not in wilderness

Vampires: Dungeon monster level 6, swamp and city in wilderness 

Centaurs, Dryads, Pixies, Unicorns: Not in dungeon, only optional woods in wilderness 

Dwarves, Elves, Ents, Gnomes, Griffons, Hippogriffs, Pegasi, Rocs: Not in dungeon, all wilderness except city

Men (Brigands): Not in dungeon, all wilderness except desert and waterborne 

Men (Dervishes, Nomads): Not in dungeon, only in desert wilderness

Crocodiles, Dragon Turtles, Giant Crab, Giant Fish, Giant Leeches, Giant Octopi, Giant Snakes, Giant Squid, Men (Buccaneers, Pirates, Mermen), Nixies, Sea Monsters: Not in dungeon, only waterborne in wilderness

Men, Cavemen: Not in dungeon, only in mountain wilderness

Black Pudding, Djinn, Efreet, Elementals, Gray Ooze, Green Slime, Horses (Draft, Heavy, Light, Medium), Invisible Stalkers, Mules, Yellow Mold: Not in dungeon or wilderness

As I suspected, the tables are comprehensive, but there are a number of monsters that weren't included (all those in the final category I listed).

• Horses and mules are, of course, okay to leave out, as they've only been included as mounts and pack animals for the player characters and certain non-player characters.
• Elementals and invisible stalkers can only be summoned by high-level magic-users, so they'll enter the game that way.  It makes sense that they wouldn't be randomly encountered.
• Djinn and efreet can be summoned using certain magic items, so their omission is also fine.  The elemental summoning rules in the Chainmail wargame can be interpreted to allow the summoning of djinn and efreet, but it seems as though that's not something that can be done in D&D.
• Green slime and yellow mold aren't mobile, so they wouldn't be encountered as wandering monsters.  I'll have to make sure to place plenty of these hazards around the dungeon.
• Black pudding and gray ooze, however, are mobile, and should be on the wandering monster tables.  Looking back at the pre-publication draft of D&D, the black pudding was included as a level 6 monster.  The gray ooze wasn't included.  It's weaker than the ochre jelly, so I'd perhaps peg it as level 2.  I can't just add these monsters to the end of each table, as that would create an odd number of monsters that wouldn't correspond to any die type.  I think the best thing to do is add them to the same line as another monster, so that, say, "Purple Worms" becomes "Purple Worms or Black Puddings", and "Toads" becomes "Toads or Gray Ooze".  When that result comes up, I'll just roll another die to determine which monster it is.  It makes toads and purple worms a bit less common, but so be it.

So that covers all of the monsters in the book, and makes sure they can all be randomly introduced somehow.  But there is one more problem to be dealt with: there are a bunch of monsters in the random tables that haven't been given stats in the game.  I'll list those out below:

Dungeon Monsters without Stats: Giant Rats, Centipedes, Spiders, Lizards, Toads, Giant Hogs, Giant Ants, Giant Snakes, Giant Weasels, Giant Beetles, Giant Scorpions, White Apes

Wilderness Monsters without Stats: Spiders, Centipedes, Lizards, Toads, Ants, Weasels, Apes, Beetles, Scorpions, Lions, Boars, Snakes, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Cave Bears, Dire Wolves, Sabre Tooth Tigers, Mastodons, Spotted Lions, Wooly Rhinos, Titanotheres, Cave Bears, Mammoths, and also the various Martian monsters from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom novels (Apts, Banths, Thoats, Calots, White Apes, Orluks, Sith, Tharks, Darseen, Red Martians, Black Martians, Yellow Martians, and White Martians)

Before I can begin playing, I'll need to create stats for these monsters (although I won't need to work on the dinosaurs, the prehistoric creatures, or the Martian ones right away).  That's my next task i think.  I can use the original D&D supplements and the Advanced D&D Monster Manual as a guide, so it shouldn't take too much work (plus it helps that I've done some of this already).  There's a temptation to just use the Monster Manual stats as-is, but the scale of damage, attacks and Hit Dice would be out of synch with the original D&D monsters. So, there's nothing for it but to do the work.