All Entries Tagged With: "encounter"
The Broken Encounter and How to Recover From It
My definition of a broken encounter is the following: the clever players either discover some weakness in the encounter allowing them to bypass, defeat, kill or otherwise mutilate your
carefully crafted encounter with little or no effort. Alternatively, the party has the “perfect weapon” at hand, ready and able to easily defeat the encounter. Whatever [...]
Encounter Idea: The Slow God
I truly wish I could claim this idea as my own. It is a great way to throw a curve ball to your PCs and generally mess with their heads. Sadly, this idea springs from a short story I read as a child and for the life of me I cannot remember the name. Plot [...]
Diplomacy: The Board Game as a Role-Playing Encounter
“Diplomacy” is my favorite board game. Honestly, I think it one of the greatest tabletop games ever. There are no cards, no dice, no luck of any kind. Battles are won and lost on the strength of your negotiating skills and unpredictable “allies.” Even then, allies are one turn away from becoming enemies. Lying, [...]
Keep Randomness Out of Your Encounters!
Update: I want to be perfectly clear about the intent of this post. I am NOT advocating removing randomness from the game or speaking against “random encounters.” This post was intended as a cautionary tale about careful encounter planning and that is all. Read on to see what all the hubbub is about…
I played a [...]
Flogging a Dead Orc–When to End A Boring Combat Encounter
The dead minions lie piled high in pools of blood. A battered PC party stands before the wounded demon lord, weapons ready. Sensing defeat, the demon lord moves to his profane circle of power and begins healing.
The battle continues…the players groan.
Combat is an integral part of many role-playing games. It adds an element of risk, [...]
Encounter Idea:The Tornado
Although weather is a long-standing threat to PC parties, the tornado is unique. Heat, cold and rain are just parts of the environment. No sense fighting them or avoiding them, since they are literally everywhere. A tornado is different, a serpentine ribbon of death meandering across the landscape. In order to kill it needs [...]
