Everything else is alliteration.

Creating interesting encounters is one of my favorite parts of being a game master for any tabletop RPG. In the strictest sense, they are the building blocks of any successful prewritten adventure, sandbox game, dungeon, hexcrawl, or anything else a GM does. The reason I’m here talking about this today is because I’m seeing a bit of a paradigm shift in the way prewritten adventures are being presented for sale, a trend which I’m switching-to myself.

Instead of selling an entire prewritten adventure consisting of 4-12 encounters with various NPC’s, monsters, etc, I’m seeing tables of random encounters or products with a dozen or so individual fully developed ones. I think this is a terrific idea.

It gives GMs an opportunity to insert the encounters as they see fit. There’s no pressure like there would be in a traditional linear adventure to make sure Encounter A happens, then a certain NPC (B) has to act as a quest giver to get the group to Encounter C and so on. Instead maybe Encounter A happens and then the group starts asking questions and goes their own route. Maybe they do bump into the NPC (B) or maybe they question the bar maid and all of the ladies in the local brothel because they’re trying to figure out why the maiden from A was found in the street with puncture wounds in her forehead. (But I digress.)

It gives the GM all kinds of options that were always there just presented in a loose format that gives them lots of choices. It’s also nice, I’ve found, to be able to drop my own flavor into any prewritten adventure. I change out names, drop in characters the group recognizes from their town and travels, and remove some of the unnecessary fluff.

The Three Pillars, but not what you think.

There are indeed three encounter pillars and while they match up closely to the three pillars of Dungeons & Dragons, they are not identical. They are Combat, Roleplaying, and Environmental. Basically anything produced by the GM and presented to the players can be considered an encounter.

Combat encounters are pretty straightforward. Someone or something attacks the party or a character. Roll initiative. Resolve attacks and damage. Easy stuff. Easy to plan, execute, and play through. It’s pretty much the first and easiest encounter type in fantasy roleplaying.

Roleplaying encounters are also pretty obvious. Any time a character or characters interact with Non Player Characters in any significant way (other than combat.) Lots of talky-talky. Some players really enjoy it more than combat or environmental encounters. Obviously some roleplaying encounters are necessary in a roleplaying game. Innkeepers, vendors, NPC quest givers, even the big bad themselves are in this category.

Environmental encounters are a touch more complicated to relate. Outdoors encounters with mundane animals, weather, holes in the ground, volcanoes, and anything else that’s not walking, talking, or fighting. Indoor environmental encounters are fun things like traps, puzzles, mazes, investigations, or anything else solid in the characters’ environment.

Putting it together, the GM’s primary task.

One can create meaningful encounters as a GM or adventure writer. Putting it together with the players is where the rubber really meets the road. Providing a solid hook to get the players to take on a quest, enter the dungeon, follow a mysterious cloaked stranger down a dark alley is all up to the GM. It’s all about presentation. The GM can employ a little push or pull but should generally avoid ramrodding the PCs into any given encounter.

We teach new GMs linear format adventures starting out most of the time. It’s the easiest kind of adventure to write, learn, and run. The group has to be somewhat willing to hop on the railroad for it, though. Easy for a group of veterans to play along. It’s often debatable whether or not a brand-spanking new group will follow along.

Eventually the GM learns how to go from one encounter to another seamlessly. New players learn to pick up on cues from the GM and one another. Eventually all build trust and weave one encounter into another to create the story. It’s really an art form when all is said and done.

My final piece of advice for players when it comes to encounters is please try to help out new GMs as much as possible. It’s not always easy behind the GM screen. We GMs can prep, write encounters, and do everything else in our power to run a smooth game, but it’s all for not if the players aren’t willing to cooperate. Please be kind to your GM and one another.

More on encounters to come in the days to follow. I wanted to take a look back at the roots of Game Mastery. I’m working on a set of encounters for Dragonbane RPG. They will be affordable to begin with. Eventually I’ll have enough to put together a compilation that I’ll maybe charge something for. Til then, let’s game.