The First Fantasy Campaign: Into the Great Outdoors

...I preferred going out into unexplored and wild areas to being near the cities...

Bob Meyer, posted at OD&D Discussion (February, 2008)

Yes Bob and that is why I had to do all those encounter charts.  "The best laid plans of players and DMs are for naught."  Plan on them turning right and they are bound to go a different direction not always left either!

Dave Arneson, in response to Bob Meyer's comment, above

Many of the rules for wilderness exploration in D&D appear to have their roots in Dave Arneson's use of the mapboard from "Outdoor Survival" (Avalon Hill, 1972).  The six categories of terrain, given in the table below, are identical:

Encounter Matrix for wilderness exploration, from JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign" (1977).  The overlap with monsters listed in Chainmail has been pointed out by Dan Boggs, here.

The rules for encountering wandering monsters in the wilderness, given in OD&D vol. 3 "The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures" also use the same six categories, with the addition of a column for city encounters.

The chance for avoiding monsters is based on party size in both "The First Fantasy Campaign" and in OD&D vol. 3, and rules for movement by land, by water, or by air are likewise similar.

"The First Fantasy Campaign" includes a price list for the different types of aerial mounts (or "tarns" after the Gor series), horses, wagons, artillery (including cannons!), specialists, mercenaries, and slaves (differentiated by silk color, another Gor reference).

Outdoors in Blackmoor:

Approach to preparing outdoor adventures, based on the Outdoor Survival board, similar to the general wilderness adventures described in OD&D vol. 3.  Rules for "% in lair" are spelled out, as well as for replacement of losses suffered by monsters.

Migration:

Rules to determine whether new monsters have moved into cleared areas, each spring:

A) Outside (Outer) Hexes

B) Inside (Inner) Hexes

C) Chance Cards (detailed in a later section of "The First Fantasy Campaign")

D) Spring Migrations

Drawing Your Own Map:

Guidance is provided for those who wish to create their own maps.  Arneson provides a detailed method for square-by-square or hex-by-hex random determination of terrain.  I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried this, but I'd be interested to see the results.

Human Habitation:

If a human settlement is indicated, these will represent abandoned ruins in a swampy region, etc.  Otherwise, size is determined on a roll of 1d10, ranging from small hamlets of 50 - 500 people, to cities of 2,000 - 20,000 people, with 1-2 keeps.

Table summarizing rules for random determination of terrain and likelihood of human settlements, from JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign".  Note mention of D&D character classes, including assassins and druids.

The rules for wilderness encounters are summarized as follows:

1) There are 0-5 lairs per hex.

2) Roll location for each with percentile dice.

If an encounter is indicated:

1) Roll for which group is met (equal chances of encountering each).

2) Roll probability chance of group being met "in lair".

3) 10-60% of the group will be out of the lair, and 40+% will be in the lair.

4) For groups out of the lair, roll location.

In conclusion, this section may be viewed as the blueprint from which the D&D Expert Set would evolve.  Some of the ideas didn't make it into B/X or BECMI, but could be used to expand upon the rules for wilderness exploration.