Wilderness of OSE: Barren, Hills and Mountains

I have been reading Old School Essentials lately, and I was curious how the encounter tables in the game kind of illustrate the world implied within OSE. This is inspired by the great set of articles from James Mishler called "The Original D&D Setting" (link). I'm going to go through OSE's encounter tables (using the Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome) and see just what the tables imply.

Today, we are going to start off with the first entry: Barren, Hills and Mountains. Though Hills and Mountains are self-explanatory, Barrens seem to me to be more like dry mountains or badlands.

Initial Encounters
The initial encounter list is interesting: both dragons and humanoids are more encountered in these highland areas than any other terrain. There is also no chance to encounter the undead.

Animals
The animals entry has a lot of what you would expect: cave bears, mountain lions, hawks, wolves and so on. There are also some oddities: gorillas - which exist on mountains, but only in Africa - lots of snakes, rock babboons, and white apes. This gives me a vibe similar to a mountain range like the Rockies - dry at the bottom before becoming more alpine at the peaks. The apes are a bit of an outlier, and give a bit of a prehistoric vibe.

Humans
Bandits and brigands make up a quarter of human encounters here - bandits are normal thieves, while brigands are more vicious outlaws. There are also entries for neanderthals, going back to the prehistoric bent. Berserkers, which I always equate with vikings, are common too. Strangely, no basic adventurer parties are found in the mountains - only experienced ones.

Humanoids
A preponderance of giants exists in the mountains - in fact, you can encounter any giant save for fire giants. Ettins, dwarves, titans and gnomes are also common, with no real surprises. An interesting thing is the appearance of both scorpionfolk and yetis - I think this again backs up the more Rockies type range.

Monsters
The through-line with the monsters of the mountains is that most of them can fly - in fact, I think only the xorn and leucrocotta can't fly. There is a further fusion of desert and alpine creatures here with the sphinx, but it may also just be because this is also the barrens table.

Summary
Overall, the mountains of OSE are a little less savage than their OD&D counterparts. They are still dangerous and home to berserkers, cavemen and giants, but very few prehistoric animals. Using the prehistoric table, however, could inject more of that lost world feeling into them.

Next time, we'll go over the City and Settled Areas table!