Take Only Treasure, Leave Only Footprints

Wandering monsters usually are mentioned as a reason for players to take time in the dungeon seriously; to work efficiently, without searching every crevice for treasure; and to refrain from brute-force solutions to doors and chests that would make loud and long noise.

There's another reason I haven't seen implemented, which is -- to give consequences for overly zealous damage to the environment.

Photo by awelshgirl

Think about it. If you get back home and you find someone has knocked your mailbox over, you might want to take a further tour of the premises, see if the vandals are still around, or at very least see if there's been any more damage to your turf.

Likewise, if the dungeon presents tempting urns to knock over, furniture to smash in search of treasure, wooden doors to blast with lightning bolts ... these operations will not just make noise ... they'll leave tracks. Tracks much more detectable than Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs. Come to think of it, the usual pile of corpses and blood from a dungeon combat will also have this effect. Your typical party of adventurers is an ecological disaster waiting to happen.

And maybe Smokey the Werebear is out there ...

Try this for size. As explorers go deeper into the dungeon, as you roll wandering encounters for them, also roll encounters for any "disaster scenes" they have left behind them. If an intelligent monster turns up at that scene, make a morale roll for them. If they pass, they will go off in search of the wreckers, following any tracks that may have been left behind, otherwise going randomly. If they fail morale, they will make excuses to find something better to do.

So as the explorers go deeper into the dungeon, leaving their mark, they may find more enemies attracted to their trail and bedeviling their return. Which in turn encourages play closer to Special Forces on a long range patrol, and further away from dungeon vandals on a smash and grab party.