Building Encounters

Introduction

Encounters are the situations your players find themselves in. Traditionally this may mean combat, but good encounters let the players approach them from multiple directions. If you are comfortable improvising you may just want to have a general idea of what is happening, and the stats for any important NPCs they may Encounter as well as some generic NPCs or monsters in case the party ends up in combat. If you want to have more Prepared it can be very helpful to draw maps of the Local Area and think about how the party could interact with terrain. Remember that players may rush into battle, try and Sneak around, use social Skills to de escalate, or invent other approaches you haven't even considered. If you describe the situation in more detail the party will be better able to use their surroundings to come up with novel solutions.

If all goes well your party will come up with interesting ways to deal with your encounters that will enrich the story, maybe that means sneaking under the noses of a whole army, or dropping a chandelier on a powerful foe. That said it is important to remember that while it is great for the party to come up with a clever way to deal with the Encounter, often the most reasonable solution will be combat. If this is the case it is important to understand the capabilities of your party and the stakes of the Encounter. If the party has positioned themselves well for the Encounter (such as setting an ambush) it may make sense for them to have an Advantage in the fight. However if the combat is a result of their poor planning, or is against an especially powerful Enemy the combat should be more difficult. But how difficult an Encounter is is also dependant on the Strength of the party. Unless the party is dealing with something much more or much less powerful than them the difficulty of the Encounter should be made relative to their Level.

Encounter Design

When designing an Encounter it is best to start by answering a few basic question.

What Forces are at play and what are their Goals?

What are the stakes for those involved?

What terrain does the Encounter take place on?

How might the players approach this?

How can this be implemented in the game.

Determining the conflict is what sets the tone for the whole Encounter. Maybe it's a heist with lots of guards, an ambush by outlaws on the road, or even a courtroom drama. Whatever the case may be all conflicts have opposing forces, stakes, and terrain.

Because the narrative of the campaign follows the adventures of the players they should always be one of the main forces of the conflict. This leads to the question - What is opposing them? For an Encounter to be interesting there needs to be something between them and the thing they want that is pushing against them. In the case of the outlaws on the road the forces are the party that wants to Reach their destination unharmed and bandits that want the parties hard earned money. Since both forces want the parties Gold a conflict arises. However in other encounters the Goals of the forces involved may not be so directly opposed. Maye what the bandits really want is protection from a monster in the woods. They can get that protection by taking the parties Weapons and Armor as they, but their are also many other options a creative party may be able to come up with that would allow both forces to get what they want. When determining the conflict that drives the Encounter it is critical that you understand the true motivations of all the forces in play.

The stakes of the conflict are what is at risk for the different forces. A party attacked by bandits may lose their Gear, or even be killed if they fight, the bandits that attacked them on the other hand may not be willing to fight a serious battle and Turn tale and run as soon as things look bad. It's important to remember what each force in the conflict is willing to risk in order to achieve their Goals, and what might happen to them if they fail.

The terrain of the conflict is important not just for the potential advantages it may grant, but also to the feel of the Encounter. Are the players attacked by bandits in a forest with lots of Difficult Terrain and Cover for the bandits to hide behind? or is it an open field where they no trouble is coming long before it reaches them. Having the conflict take place in interesting and diverse terrain makes for both a thematically and mechanically interesting Encounter. It is often the case that one of the forces even specifically chose the terrain for their Advantage. Castles are built on hills and surrounded by moats. Competitions take place on even fields. Animals that see well in the dark hunt at night. Even when this is not the case most environments can be used to one's Advantage if they are clever about it. This may mean lighting the brush the bandits are hiding in On fire or dropping a chandelier on a vampire king.

Once you understand the other forces and their motivations as well as the terrain the Encounter will take place on it is best to ty and think of some ways you players may attempt to achieve their Goal. In the example of the bank heist players may try and Sneak in and steal their prize in the Dead of night or they may try a smash and Grab robbery, but they might also try to bribe the guards or deactivate the alarm system. It is important for you to consider as many options as you can so that you may think about how the other forces may respond to them, but remember that player are often able to come up with solutions that never would have occured to you. By thinking of the different approaches your players may take you may not be able to guess the exact course of Action they will take, but you will often have considered a comparable possibility that you may be able to base your Reactions on. Even in the best scenario players will do something you may not have anticipated. It is this improvisation that is the of Game Mastering. It will not always go smoothly for you or your players, but it is a Skill that will grow with every Encounter you run.

The final step of designing the Encounter is deciding how this idea will actually be implemented in the game. For many encounters this may be straight forward. The bandits that Attack the party should all be given stats, the forest they are in should be a mix of Difficult Terrain and trees to act as Cover, and their Relationship with the part would likely start as Cold or Hostile. From this you should be able to handle any possible Reaction the players have be it diplomacy or battle. However other encounters may require some more thought to implement. The heist Encounter may need the stats for several patrols of guards (likely with identical stats), but also a mazelike map of corridors and several Traps and alarms. The courtroom drama case would require the stats of the judge, jury, and opposing legal team (or at least their Mental Defense and Skills) as well as a comprehensive idea of what evidence the players might provide. Players might need to use Lie, Persuade, and Investigate Checks to search out clues and argue their case, but the exact implementation of this would be up to you as a GM. This may mean that you rely more or less heavily on the rules in some situations than others. As long as you communicate what is expected of your players mechanically when implementing these rules they should be able to use them to their Advantage in trying to navigate the Encounter.

Balancing Encounters

The Goal of balancing an Encounter is to design the Encounter to an appropriate difficulty. Some encounters may be easier or more difficult than others, but the point of balancing the Encounter is to have that difficulty match the theme of the Encounter.

The relative difficulty of an Encounter should be based on what logically fits the narrative. If the party is fighting a few drunk sailors it may be an easy Encounter, while a fight against a powerful Enemy and their guards would be a very difficult Encounter. It is also possible that an encounters difficulty is heavily dependant on the parties approach. This intended difficulty will act as a sort of budget for the various opposing forces in the Encounter. Every added obstacle and Enemy will increase the difficulty of the Encounter until the intended difficulty is reached.

The most common opposition your party will face are the other Creatures that may fight them. You will often have several key NPCs or monsters that have specific stats that you want to include. Once these Enemies are chosen you may want to fill the Encounter out with other weaker Creatures until the desired difficulty is met. Remember that the difficulty of a combat is based on the number of Enemies the party fight in that combat, several Small combats with time between them to Heal is much easier than one Large combat.

A good example of this is an Enemy camp with a Small guard patrol. If they are able to avoid the guards or fight them without alerting the camp it may be an easy fight, but if the guards are able to call for reinforcements the fight would be considerably harder. Keep in Mind that players will often get into fights without thinking things through making things much harder for themselves, but also at times will plan accordingly and execute with tactical precision. It is hard to know as a Game Master what situation your party may find themselves in. It is important that in these circumstances you balance the intention of the Encounter and their Actions by framing the situation in a way they might understand.

You as a GM will often try to make fights difficult but winnable for your players. However at times they will get in over their heads and find themselves in an unwinnable fight. This puts you in the uncomfortable position of having to choose putting the players in more risk than you intended and lessening the stakes of the Encounter. This is when reframing the Encounter can be used to avoid both options. For example if the party were to fight the guard patrol around the Enemy camp and have reinforcements called against them instead of the Encounter being an unwinnable fight to the death maybe it should be framed as the start of a chase scene. By steering the Encounter away from a fight that the party can't win you are able to preserve the theme of the Encounter without the party being killed.

When planning an Encounter it is also important to remember how the terrain may affect the balance of the combat. If you party is fighting a vampire at night the vampire would be able to use the Darkness to their Advantage. Advantages like this may make the combat more difficult for your players or be used to their Advantage. The magnitude of these advantages will depend on the specifics of the situation so it is hard to give any hard rules on how to balance this. With that in Mind you as the GM should be able to understand in the context of an Encounter which side of a fight would benefit more from the terrain and potentially adjust the Strength of the Enemies based on this.

In parts of the Encounter where difficulty is not Determined by combat, such as sneaking around, persuading guards, or picking locks the party will notice difficulty in terms of the use of their Skills. Skills that target another Creatures Mental Defense, such as Sneak, Swipe, Conceal, Persuade, Lie, and Intimidate will all be using the mental defenses of the other Creatures that you already have Prepared. This may lead to some interesting differences in difficulty depending on the parties approach. Barbarians may be hard to fight but gullible, while a pirate king may be hard to Sneak up on as they are to fight. Remember that you should grant Advantage or Disadvantage depending on the circumstances. A particularly high bribe should grant Advantage on a persuasion Check, while intimidating a band of street fighters twice your Size may be done with Disadvantage. Similarly Enemies Skills are used used against players Mental Defense for Traps they have Hidden, sneaking up for an ambush, or lying to them.

Other Skill Checks like jumping across a chasm or picking a lock are based on discernable physical characteristics. Locks and Traps in an Encounter should come out of the wealth of whomever placed them. This means that they should only have Traps they could afford, limiting them to a reasonable Level for the party to deal with. When using these kinds of Checks in an Encounter it is critical that you consider what might happen if the party fails. If the party is unable to pick a lock they should still be able to continue the Encounter, but there should also be some repercussions for their failure. Maybe this means that they must Climb up to a second story window instead and Break in there instead. If they are unable to Climb to the second story window maybe they'll need to Break down the door, but that will surely alert whoever is inside.

This philosophy, often referred to as "failing forward", means making sure that no single Check ever ends the Encounter. No Trap kills the character in a single roll and no failed Check prevents them from continuing. Instead the failure forces them into a more difficult position, but allows them to continue another way.

Traps are also an excellent example of this. Since most parties will have some method of healing themselves if given the time a traditional Trap in a corridor would be of little use unless it were to kill a player in a single roll (which would both require a lot of Damage and be unfair and uninteresting for the players). Instead it is much more interesting if the Trap were to injure the character while also alerting nearby Enemies, causing them to start the fight with less health.

To determine whether a combination of Enemies are a suitable Challenge for your players you can use a system of Encounter points. Each Creature is worth a certain number of points based on their Level (this does not include summoned Creatures, Beast companions, or Creatures caught using another Creatures wealth such as a mount). In most fights the party will have a higher number of Encounter points than their Enemies. This means the party is favored to win the fight. The closer the Encounter points between the two sides the more difficult the fight will be for the party. If the side opposing the players has more Encounter points than the party, the party is expected to lose the fight.

If the party has more than 4 times the Encounter points of the Enemy it should be a trivial fight.

If the party has more than twice the Encounter points of the Enemy it should be an easy fight.

If the Enemy force has 3/4s the Encounter points of the party it should be a standard fight.

If the Enemy has nearly as many Encounter points of the party it will be a hard fight.

If the Enemy has more Encounter points than the party it will most likely end in the parties death.

To help with these calculations you can enter the levels of each of your players, as well as the levels of the creatures you expect them to fight to the form below and then calculate the expected difficulty (Do not include summoned creatures, beast companions, or creatures caught using another creatures wealth such as a mount). Remember that if the terrain benefits one side it may impact the difficulty of the fight in that sides favor.

Running Encounters

The most important part of an good Encounter is its execution. No matter how much planning goes in to an Encounter beforehand what really matter is the experience the players have.

While designing the Encounter you thought about what forces were at play, what the tone of the situation was, what the risks were, and what the environment was like. At every step of the Encounter you should think about how this fictional world can be expressed to your players and how it should impact the situation as it unfolds. Ask yourself

Can I describe the scene in more detail in a way that conveys the tone and physical position of the players perspective.

What are the other forces in the Encounter thinking? what are they doing?

How can I Move the players along and make sure that they all have a chance to meaningfully interact with the scene?

As your players begin to navigate the Encounter they will likely take some of the Actions that you predicted, but will almost certainly do things that you had not expected. In these situations you must first as yourself the questions mentioned above, but also "What is the most interesting thing that can happen here?". Always remember that while you must be true to the world and characters you have created, that you are also telling a story. Of all the potential ways your players Actions can impact the campaign it is your job to choose the option that satisfies both of these Goals.

When your players enact a genius plan, or succeed against great odds take the care to explain this to them through the story. Let their Actions shine and tell them in detail the Effects they bring. But as you celebrate their victories, you must also be ready to make their defeats count, and to repeatedly Challenge them in new ways. Every hard decision a character is forced to make is an opportunity for them to do something great. When they fail, there must be consequences that make things harder for them, but that also Push the conflict of the Encounter and other possible approaches to the forefront. Characters may be injured or die, resources or opportunities lost, and favors owed, but the story always moves forward. Just like when players do things you do not expect, you must try and choose the option that makes the most sense for the situation, while also telling the most interesting story, and sometimes this is a very bad thing. Remember that the narrative explanation for successes and failures depends on the situation. A barbarian might miss an Attack because they put too much Power into an Attack and the Enemy was able to Dodge in time, but it wouldn't make sense for their swing to bounce harmlessly of the Enemies Shield. On the other hand a rogue might fail to puncture an Enemies Armor, but will rarely miss outright.

Should this lead to combat remember to act in alignment with the Goals of any monsters and NPCs they fight. This may mean that their Enemy retreats at the first sign of danger, fights with a particular Goal in Mind, or acts with blind Rage and Attacks with complete disregard of strategic positioning. Be sure also to use any unique abilities that the combatants have whenever applicable. Wolves should flank and Trip their targets, Bulls should make headlong and devastating charges, and dragons should fly and breath fire. If possible try and use a Creatures signature abilities as much as possible, but still be sure to do something different each Turn. This helps to give each fight a unique and memorable feel.

Assuming your players are able to achieve their Goal do not rush their resolution. Give players a chance to act out their success, divide their treasures, and interact with any NPCs that they think they should, but do not wait to long. There should always be another Encounter on the horizon. Maybe the players already have their next Actions planned, but it is just as possible that they learn of some new threat or opportunity during the Encounter that can be used as the hook for another Encounter. Always be thinking about how the Encounter can be used to further thee greater narrative.