I've seen some--usually OSR--people claim that D&D has lost certain procedures of play over the editions, such as the GM making wandering monster rolls every few dungeon turns, reaction rolls for encountered monsters, hirelings.

and I'm not actually sure that's accurate?

I think it's accurate that *typical play culture* has abandoned these procedures, or modified them to the point where they function completely differently.

But they *do exist* in the official rules, usually in the core rulebooks rather than some splatbook.

The main issues in my mind are:
* rules bloat, making the "lost procedures" harder to find
* moving these rules into the DMG, which these days is an optional book
* getting rid of convenient abstractions (e.g. "the dungeon turn"), making the procedures (more?) onerous to use

to be clear, I'm specifically talking about "does this procedure exist in an official rulebook, and if so, where?"

If GMs primarily learn from other GMs (whether in home games or livestreams) a procedure can fade into disuse even if it's in the official corpus.

I'll start with 3.0.

(i'm still actively researching this, I don't actually know what the answer will be for later editions other than 5e)

The 3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide has general rules for wandering monster rolls, I've attached (incomplete) screencaps.

Similar rules exist for random encounters in wilderness.

The Sunless Citadel, the first official module/adventure for 3.0, has a more specific (and far simpler!) wandering monster table. It also has some "order of battle" guidelines for how the monster factions, once alerted, may redeploy to cleared rooms, set ambushes, etc.

(btw this information is also present in the 5e reprint of Sunless (in Tales from the Yawning Portal;)

So this is actually fairly similar to the setup in BX:
* 1-in-6 chance every 2 turns (20 minutes), this might be higher in certain parts of the dungeon.
* roll on the wandering monster table corresponding to the dungeon level. These tables are *mostly* balanced.

* it's strongly suggested the GM make up their own, or customise them for a dungeon.
* some (though not all) official modules have custom wandering monster tables and/or tell you to check for them more/less often.

Obviously, "1-in-6 every 2 turns" will trigger far more often than "10% every hour" or "6-in-20 every 12 hours". And 3.0 lets monsters "bleed" between dungeon levels via that initial roll for subtable.

Not saying the procedures are *the same*, just pointing out it's present.

I'm still downloading the 3e "D&D Basic Game", which is equivalent to the 5e Starter Kit, so I can't say yet whether the wandering monster procedure is present in that.

OK! Entry-level products.

So the "D&D Adventure Game" (released in 2000, based on 3.0) also had rules for wandering monsters.

(skimming its PDF, it's actually pretty damn cool, halfway between Moldvay Basic and a HeroQuest-esque dungeoncrawler game) https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/51343/dungeons-dragons-adventure-game

side note, this sheet is miles better than what wotc has done for later introductory products

another side note: this game's monster format is interesting because it sometimes describes what happens if a Diplomacy roll is made. Only the "dwarven warrior" and "elven warrior" do this, sadly.

The wandering monster procedure.

(note it's just "a long time in one place", not "an hour")

So overall, for 3.0, while the time unit of "dungeon turn" is absent, and the DMG's procedure is overcomplicated, wandering monsters do exist.

Including in the gateway product (equivalent to Holmes/Moldvay/Mentzer Basic) and in the first module.

So, 3.5e now.

The DMG rules for when you make wandering monster rolls seem unaltered.

Instead of the "roll on master table, then roll on subtable and adjust" idea, it's now just a roll on the current level's table, which may then cause you to reroll on an adjacent one.

However, wandering monster procedures (or even an alphabetised bestiary chapter!) are absent from 3.5e's "Basic Game".

Unlike the 3.0 gateway product, this is entirely rewritten to be more of a railroaded series of teaching encounters rather than a simplified, open-ended ruleset

WotC didn't release a new adventure/module with 3.5, I think you were supposed to play existing 3.0 material with free errata, or make up your own stuff.

The first new adventure for 3.5 was actually for Eberron in 2004.

This was "Shadows of the Last War". a 2nd-level adventure that can follow up the brief 1st-level adventure "The Forgotten Forge" from Eberron Campaign Setting book.

A lot of this adventure is event-based, but even the section that's a dungeoncrawl has no wandering monsters.

Red Hand of Doom, one of the best-known 3.5e adventures, has *wilderness* random encounters, but none listed for dungeons.

Lastly, the SRD for 3.5 doesn't have a procedure for wandering monsters or wilderness encounters.

Since they were also omitted from the Basic Game, it's quite possible a (non-pirating) group too broke for the DMG might never hear about the procedure!

(or a group who assumes the SRD includes *all* the core rules, other than some odds & ends like gith, mindflayers and the Great Wheel cosmology)

anyway, gonna take a break before looking at 4th edition. This is the one I'm most curious about!