Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 SlippyNapkins May 11, 2015 10:09:07	Is there anything in the DMG or has anyone created custom rules for how sound carries?   My use case is for battle noise attracting other parties both in a dungeon and not.   As a specific example, in DDEN2 there is the potential for fighting to break out in Rivergarde keep.  It is unrealistic for a pitched battle to not cause nearby groups of intelligent people to be drawn to that noise, but how far is too far?  Page 105 in the DMG is particularly nonspecific.   Thanks for the help.
#2 iserith May 11, 2015 10:35:56	This is something that the DM has to decide on a case-to-case basis. I recommend considering the goals of play - everyone having a good time and creating an exciting, memorable story as a result of play - when thinking about what to do in these situations. Will having other monsters/villains show up in the battle make it more fun for everyone? Will it make it for an exciting, memorable story? If the answer to both of those questions is "Yes," then by all means, do it. If the answer to either question is "No," then they don't hear the combat or hear the combat and don't turn up for whatever reason suits your subjective definition of "realism."   Don't look to the rules to sort this out for you. You're the Master of Worlds, Master of Adventures, and Master of Rules. You say what happens.
#3 Rya.Reisender May 11, 2015 10:32:34	Some adventure modules specifically state rules for it.   For example in one part of Lost Mine of Phandelver it is stated that due to water flowing in a cave you need to roll perception 15 or higher to hear what happens in nearby rooms. It states that noise in certain rooms won't attract attention because those rooms are always noisy, too. I think that gives a general idea how to handle it.   Apart from that you need to consider "fairness" a little bit. Of course you could reason that the group made a lot of noise in the enemy castle and consequently swarm the group with all enemies in the castle at once, but that's fun for no one.
#4 Barky May 11, 2015 17:48:33	I think it's a good idea to make notes in your adventures about that. "Combat in this room will draw monsters from rooms 112-114 in 1d4+1 rounds. The shaman in room 114 will also send a runner to the throne room in area 120, he will come with those monsters in 2d4+2 rounds after that."   Absolutely not discounting Iserith's comment, though. Never ignore the Rule of Fun.
#5 Grimcleaver May 11, 2015 18:04:30	Real live sound takes a long time to dissapate, you can hear something like combat going on up to about 23000 feet away out in the open in otherwise quiet conditions. So what makes it that everyone doesn't always hear everything is that other sounds wash it out, obstacles bounce the sound away from us, or our brains screen it out. None of these things make for particularly clean game mechanics, unfortunately. You perceive sound down to 0 decibels usually, if the number is positive, you can hear it. Something like a fight would be about 80 decibels. Doubling your distance to the sound decreases its intensity by 6 decibels each time, tapping out at about 2 km or about 23,000 feet away.
#6 pukunui May 11, 2015 18:51:10	The official DM screen has a few tables that aren't in the DMG. One such is for Audible Encounter Distance. It lists the following values:   Trying to be quiet        2d6 x 5 feet Normal noise level      2d6 x 10 feet Very loud                      2d6 x 50 feet   Hope that helps.
#7 Rya.Reisender May 12, 2015 0:10:22	Grimcleaver wrote:
#8 Krusk May 12, 2015 14:55:39	You could pull out 3.5 rules for listen checks based on distance if you wanted.    http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/listen.htm