3 Quick Ways To Make Encounters Actually Fun - GM Tips
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- Опубликовано: 7 май 2020
- Encounters, are you making them fun? We look at 3 key aspects that will ensure your encounters are fun and memorable for your players. We look at the stakes, the options and the triggers to making encounters in a role-playing game fun and interesting no matter the tabletop role playing system you are using!
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Игры
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That really reminds me of a GM who always rolled for "Random Encounter" disregarding all Logic of it. So, we fought a Pack of Wolves which attacked our "Campside" - inside a Tavern. In our locked Rooms. In a Main Capital size of about half a Million Citizens.
We critizied it, so he ngave us a "logical Explanation": They did not found enough Deer to prey on in their "Natural Habitate", so they were hungry. Hungry Wolves would attack Humans.
*sigh*
Well, it was fun, I had to add, to play this - it was just hilarious nonsensical what he came up with. But, he also allowed us do the same "Thing".
Still, it was painful at first to get used to ....this DM-Style.
Perfect timing, my group made plans for a western campaign last Friday
Are you an Eddie Izzard fan? Tea and cake OR DEATH?
@@Rabijeel Reminds me of the DM I had for a Rifts game. Crash landed on an orc campsite, one survived with two broken legs, dragged itself back to it society, and an army of orcs were organized including a chieftain on a triceritops and a shaman on a dragon.
Gronk like battle but like battle more if have good reason.
What if they are vampiric minotaurs, and they wouldn't want there to be any stakes?
Well then, I’ve never had a vampire steak before.
Might be tasty. I like the sound of that.
And its self regenerating over time@@chazzitz-wh4ly
There’s a great blog (and book) called The Monsters Know What They’re Doing. It gives you combat tactics for different monsters and enemies, and can really make combat more interesting.
Love that blog!!!
Lesson learned: Don’t just read a post re the monster(s) you’re about to use!! Mix in Triggers, Options & Results to “play out the chess moves”. Write out the pre-game & battle tactics of a given creature, within your world & at that time. Then consider if-then-else scenarios based on your players’ history within your game. Including Guy’s “cake” & “not die” options for PCs and NPCs!!
THEN, write your key tactics, spells & reactions & plot points on stickies for that scene &/or creature!!! I put these on my scene notes & creature stat blocks, so I have to move them to continue... thereby forcing me to read them & remember.
I almost always now also have a “WTF” trigger - an environment change, a pseudo-random NPC or creature or save check or note to a player (“Just laugh, roll a d20 then 2d6, then nod.”) - to have ready. For when players do what I didn’t even consider!!
"And driving the wvyern off will be more satisfactory than simply killing it"
Well someone has never met my adorable band of murderhobos. Though I guess denying them the kill will lead to an interesting chase sequence where they waste an inappropriate amount of resources to find that wyvern that dared to run away.
Hey man, spending 200 gold on Hunting Dogs to chase its blood drippings is not a waste.
I feel like you just described my group, or at the very least one member in particular. Knowing him, he’ll probably call the wyvern a coward or something more inappropriate before either chasing it or try to regroup with the rest of the party (depending on said party’s HP condition)
It's true that many GM's (even good ones) forget that encounter doesn't necessarily lead to one of the involved groups being exterminated. Sure, some mindless beasts don't have any sense of self-preservation, but most living creatures - and some non-living ones - want to stay alive and may try many ways to survive a PC's party
I honestly struggle sometimes with the hack n slash nature of premod encounters and how blaise they can be. Thank you for your continued efforts to enlighten us, they are not wasted
Basically, think about the monsters/npc's your players are fighting and the setting they're fighting in. Creatures fighting to protect their home and/or young might fight to the death, but a group of bandits out to just mug travelers or goblins out on a raid will probably surrender or break and run when things go south. A bandit/kobold/goblin hideout might have defenses already set up, or a plan in case of intruders. There's a fun series of encounters in The Forge of Fury, where if the players run up on the orcs guarding the entrance to Stone Tooth, they immediately try to run away and alert all the other orcs in the fortress level. This leads to a fun, chaotic kind of domino effect where you've got archers firing from arrow slits at you, orcs arriving to bolster defenses as rounds pass, and a whole host of things that can provide a lot of fun and excitement.
Thinking about things from the monsters/npc's perspective can inspire you to add a lot of dimension to your encounters. Do they have defenses? Are they expecting to be attacked? What would they do if they were attacked? When would they get too scared to fight on? Would they just flee or try to surrender?
Just, basically, do whatever you can to avoid the scenario of "THIS IS A ROOM WITH MONSTERS IN. THEY FIGT TO THE DETH. OK ROLL INITITITITIVE."
Did he just make a moo pun and a cow pun in one sentence.... true mastery
you must when the stakes are so high..... bad cow pun....
@@handlebarfox2366 that pun only works if you spell it 'steaks'.
just pointing it out, I don't have any beef with you
@@TheSuperQuail thanks for getting to the meat of the problem.
@@TheSuperQuail I read it as a fence pun and cows are kept in pens, so IMO it still works.
I am actually taking psychic damage from both the video and this.
I am bleeding from every orifice, please stop.
The wrapup about dms needing to win. I have a saying I tell to new DMs.
"The DM wins only when all the players feel like they won"
I know I'm doing well when I as DM can sit back, or leave the room, and watch PCs still be laughing, joking, arguing, screaming etc
When the room is so charged with emotion that you can feel it. That's when you win.
@@andrewfreshwater1843 THIS!!!
If you can GM and can focus on being an enabler? Always ends up being a great game!
Great stuff.
I have been experimenting with these types of things myself. I had an 'anti-party' in my campaign, where I was trying to setup another group competing against my PCs and eventually fight them. My PCs were so understanding, inclusive and diplomatic, that they wound up teaming up together. Even though they barely trust them, I can't get my PCs to fight them or part ways with them. Guess they decided the power boost is worth any moral quandaries. XD
This is the kind of the video I love from you. Some time I find the content really drawn out to a point with too many tangent I enjoyed this straight forward format thank you!!!!
Life or cake or death.
Oh, ah, I'll have the cake please. 😁
"Sorry, we're out of cake."
What do you mean you're out? Are you saying my choices are '...or death?'
"Look, we only had the three bits; we didn't think there'd be such a rush."
In that case I'll have the vegetarian.
...and that's how you avoid a battle with the inquisition.
"Can you get beef steak from a minotaur?"
The one thing my party keeps doing to all monster encounters is slaughtering and skinning.
The first minotaurs we encountered we spent a good portion of time in game to harvest the meat.
Is that... Technically cannibalism?
If an insect hunts other insects to feed upon, does that make it a cannibal?
Suppose a lion preys upon a gazelle...
Were any of our PC's minotaurs or cows, then that'd be cannibalism.
(I suppose I should've clarified, we skin those that aren't a member of our respective species, just monsters)
Reduce, reuse, recycle?
@@Hermitstatus my point was about how people generally frown on eating sentient beings... at least they should if they think about it for a while. I'm not sure if there's a word for eating a sentient creature though so my best filler word for now is "cannibalism" even though if you're a different species it's not really cannibalism in the strict sense.
@@garret1930 Maybe it was because my character never saw a minotaur (let alone understand abyssal) so made a "logical" conclusion.
I hear what you are saying though, I would also frown on eating someone if he were of a different sapient species.
Thanks for this!! You’re the best man! Hope you’re safe and well!
This video was helpful, hilarious, and concise! It’s a lesson in how to make great GM videos as well as a lesson in how to be a great GM! Also, loved those cow puns and accents, lol.
This was great, I think video games have really inspired the whole kill every monster before the battle arena will allow the players to leave so it's familiar to just run encounters like that. Also it's that kind of power fantasy to see your character getting the killing blow but like you mentioned it can lead to stale encounters.
Just what I needed! Thank you!
The wyvern takes a flyby and snapps at the wizzard if it fails it fly's away when they start attacking if it grapples him It drops him from 100ft up as lunch but oh the wizz has featherfall and then the wyvern is confused and fly's off
This is required for gritty survival games like Twilight:2000. NPCs in T2K are most interested in living, so they're most likely to arrange a trade or run away rather than fight to the death. A gunfight against bandits will end with a couple bandits dead and one guy crawling away with a trail of blood, begging for mercy and medical attention.
As always there is soo much wisdom in your words! Thank you Guy!
Coming back to Dm-ing after a Looooong break (decades). Really appreciating the DM community that is here now (back in my days there was no internet to have a community).
Something i use in my encounters sometimes is bad poetry. For example, my groups last encounter with Thune Dervishes in the Desert of Desolation, i had the guards at the top of the stairwell, taunting them with the question of whether a finger could puncture a water tight dog ass -which was a reference i got from one of Jim Morrison's bizarre stream of consciousness moments. The point is, it worked! The players charged the stairwell, fully at disadvantage because this Dervish infuriated them so much. It made a routine combat that the players would have easily won memorable. Thank You Jim! You are playing D&D with us from across the other side, brother! You are always welcome to at our table! :)
Not saying I don't like your longer videos as well, but this short format makes it really easy for me to link friends to your work, and helps those of us who only have so much hobby time!
Hey i aplied your advice last weekend and my players loved it
thanks
Thank you! Yesterday I thought, how make encounters fun, and here's your video.
This is fantastic advice. Just so obvious but I never thought if it. :) can't wait to apply it to my next session.
I find your videos to be informative and helpful and would recommend you to new and experienced GMs alike.
What you want to do is mix it up a bit too. Sometimes it's good to have the illusion that this random monster encounter led to mindless combat, but after laying down the foundation and story elements, you find out this was all planned by someone else. Keep the players on their toes. And encourage skills not combat related, like Intimidation and Persuasion.
Sample 'simple' encounter turning into a bigger narrative:
You see a bunch of thugs eyeing you up from an alleyway. Instead of engaging, one of your party members decides to Intimidate the group. it works.
Growling at a bunch of thugs scares them off at first. Then they come back with a monster on a chain. That monster is far too powerful to restrain once the thugs are bragging to the PCs and kills or maims the thugs. The REAL encounter is now the monster that the thugs unleashed on the unbeknownst city in attempts to show up the PCs. Then the PCs realize there is some sort of illegal and exotic monster trading post being run throughout the kingdom.
Now you have stakes, options and triggers that leads to a much larger storyline in your campaign.
Thank you for such amazing ideas and tips, I'm brand new to DMing and definitely needed these :)
Thank you very much for your good advice! I really try to learn and adapt to improve my GMing!
This opened up a new door for me. I've been trying to figure out how to get away from one-dimensional combat. A very big help!
Love your ideas and creativity.
This was short, solid advice. Thanks, Guy!
Your editing is getting really good!
This is great ... thank you! Fantastic ideas.
Oh goodie! I was just wondering about how this. You're my go-to man for DMing.
Dude, you're awesome, continue the good job
Such a great episode!!!
Loving the Eddie Izzard Cake or Death references. Also, really helpful video. My last session actually used one of those dull, drop in encouters because I though we should have some fighting, but I reflected that it was probably dull for all concerned. Now I know how to not do that.
Thank you! I recognized the "cake or death," but I couldn't place where it cane from!
"Barbarian Warhair"
Yup. Best clue not to mess with someone. Does their hair look like they're ready for a fight? Maybe don't insult their mothers and brandish a weapon in their vague direction.
I love the DAZ3D usage here, nice addition to the information
This is the greatest RPG RUclips video ever made
Never have I heard you speak in an American Southern accent, but I loved it.
So mootivating, thanks Guy.
This was very helpful, my players were getting bored a lot and this and other videos have helped tons. Your amazing dude! Edit: I was also wondering if you could do a video on how to teach noobs to play the game, cause I’m kind of inexperienced myself. It’s a lot to ask but would help a ton! If there’s already a video similar to that anyone got a link?
Thats a cool idea! My friends and me love to try out new systems we haven't played yet so we too often run into these situations. What I found out so far is this: For mechanics, explain everything when you get to it. It sucks to give a 10 min introduction with the players forgetting one half and never needing the second half in their first session. Build in obligatory events along the introduction part to teach the most important mechanics. For example for DnD, "The gatekeeper looks nervous. Everyone please roll an insight check. This is a 'Skill check' and you yada yada." or "As you walk past a old building, you smell a stench most foul. Everybody roll me a Con save DC 10 if you don't want to throw up. That means you [...]" Funny player x asks, "But what if I *want* to throw up?" You teach them they can always choose to fail a save. You can space diffrent less important mechanics out to follow up sessions if you feel the need.
For first time pen and paper players who are confused on what they should be doing, offer them options. Or not first time players in a scenario they never played (First detective plot and the like). Some need to understand that you can do literally everything in this world and some believe there is only one "correct" action to take and hesitate. "You can try to find a window peek inside the house. You can also ask the neighbours if they know anything about the smell. Or kick down the door. Or something entirely else, up to you" Don't just tell them whatever you want when they ask what to do. In my experience that is not helpful to them and you get frustrated when they get stuck or miss half the cool stuff because they never checked. Isn't that a suggestive kind of railroading? Kinda, but I prefer that to being stuck.
Also, be liberal with information. A experienced party should investigate the really elaborate stone carving for info/secrets. New players might never inspect it because the tought never crossed their mind and miss a clue. Tell them something's seems off, then they will definetly investigate it then and still feel super proud when they expose the secret, as if they discovered it all on their own. (Don't do that too often of course, or they might never investigate something unpromted again)
Best d&d fact channel hands down! Everything is so easy to understand
Thank you Guy!
The sheer amount of minotaur puns... im dead xD I love your videos, over the last few years, you've helped me and my players to all have a better experiance.
great video. +1 for concision
love you Guy
im writing a system that should be able to use any systems campaign, with zero prep and experience to play!
Great vid
You're truly a great gm. Just coming up with this, probably from a loose dot point idea I bet.
I don't have a hat but I have a mullet, I tip you the party end.
You had me at Cow-ard, You Sir take this like and make good use of it
"Wanna be a cowboy baby...." (Kidd Rock). This is the song that playing in my head listening to this mod.
The Omicron Industries part hits differnt in 2022. Also, great advice.
Yes surrender is always an option
Good tips
The subtle Eddie Izzard reference ;)
Ever since you said the bit about getting steaks from a Minotaur.... every time you say stake, I cannot help but thinking about grilling some Minotaurs up....
so many puns, thank you Guy
You should do a series of videos with sample encounters. I'd love to see some you could create
Making encounters fun and balanced is a tricky business. In my first few sessions as a DM, I made things too easy because I was afraid of overtuning my encounters and wiping the party, so everything was too weak. This quickly lead to everyone getting cocky and not taking my encounters seriously, so I ramped it up a smidge and on the next encounter, I perma killed a PC. This lead to the player just shrugging it off and saying: 'Oh, well, I'll just roll a new one' and I didn't like how casually he said that. I like my players to feel attached to their character. So I created a punishment system that every new character you rolled started at one level below the currently lowest level member of the party, to prevent them treating death like a minor inconvenience. I can't force them to care about their characters, but I can at least make them want to avoid death at all costs in other ways, like you're supposed to.
So, now I'm here (and on various other videos and websites) to learn how to better fine tune my encounters so that they're deadly, but fair and fun to do. I want my players to be excited but also a little nervous, as the serious encounters are supposed to push them to their limits. It's okay to have an easier encounter every now and then, but I want the serious ones to make the group feel like death is a real possibility if they don't take it seriously, without it feeling like I'm stomping them into the ground and they can't fight back.
4:21 Who dressed these minotaurs??? Is this bard-baiting? XD
Makes you wonder where the party found these Minotaurs, in the forest or right outside of a exotic dance club lol
Very good point. Also an enemy who fights and runs away can be fought another day. Even animals have enough sence to run off when the odds are obviously against them in good storys.
Hi, just a quick question.
Do you have any tips on using body language/gestures to help bring settings to life? As opposed to NPCs who already use body language?
Hoping you can provide an answer.
I feel this also is player dependent. I am running a campaign right now were the majority of the players act on the default setting "the monster/villan is there, so I must kill it". Even when they can side step the encounter, and I drop hints that they can, they still choose to confront, attack, and kill.
Then it is time to to determine if that is what they as a group like to do (in which case accept it or find a new group) or to educate them, and let them kill innocents and then send consequences after them.
Hey, guys, have Guy ever had a video about analysis paralysis in the TTRPG, or something similar? 🤔
I have a couple of not too well experienced players in our group, who seem to struggle with decision making.
Me and our GM have troubles giving them actual useful advice on how to overcome this.🤷
Any tips?
Less obvious choices and pressing for time. add urgency to make a decision. bad decisions make good stories!
I hated your puns, I loved your puns.
They really, mooved me. ;)
I feel like this eliminates the possibility of random encounters though. Because I just don't have time, and data-recall mid-game, to come up with all these details on the fly, without extensive flipping through pages and making notes. Which is fine, because this basically IS how I work scripted encounters... I like for my PCs to occasionally encounter things well outside their ability to handle, and using the encounter (if they're not dumb enough to head-on confront it) as foreshadowing of things to come.
The puns are strong with this one
oh i need some cake now!
Pretty sure you do get Steak from a Minotaur.
Also I have tried to have my monsters run away when their easy meal is not an easy meal but they rarely get the chance to.
lot's of players out there that just think about fighting, killing and looting though. I played with people who complain when there is no fight, and so they cannot loot (even though the average loot is unsellable trash anyway) or will not gain xps/levels. But I will definitely incorporate those thoughts into my encounter builders.
That accent hurt me coming from the US west. Great vid.
I take "Things in nature don't want to die" fact into great consideration in the RPG I'm making. Enemies have a flight or fight mechanic. The PCs are all some type of werebeast, and not every bandit or even werebeast hunter will want to fight a seven foot tall werewolf coming to rip them limb from limb.
There are many things that might fight "to the death":
Constructs, Undeads, Verminds, some Aberrations, some Infernals, some Elementals...
Other things, specially Inteligent creatures should try to bail from fights if things go South... unless it's imposible.
I'm a cow-ard ahaha love u
Montour: wut u wont? Just chewin na cud wif me an nu lads.
The party: Steaks.
Minotaurs: ... ^-_-^
Death or cake? We are all out of cake!
We should mooooooove on, we are COWards. I fucking love it !
Turn your microphone just a tad for the next one. Great clarity, but it's peaking ever so slightly. Nice video, btw :)
I have an encounter idea. Please tell me if it sounds bad.
The setting is in skyrim and the party are all Dovahkeen. (I didn't want to show favoritism.) After being attacked by cultists when returning from High Hrothgar, the party sets off to Solthstiem to investigate the situation. They get a boat and head off.
During thier journey on the seas, the party encounters a small band of pirating argonians. (Lizardmen.) The pirating ship approaches and boards but dosen't attack, rather they are there for trade. Not the pirates, but thier wealthy employer Clancy a Dunmer. (Drow)
Clancy is a freindly person who is dressed quite finely with numerous beeded necklaces. (A perception or investigation check would reveal it to be 3 sets of beeds of firbeall) He will approach the boat ocupants and innitiates a freindly diologue trying to tell the party of Solthstiems landmarks (Hoping the party would get brainwashed at said landmarks.) and make trades in goods.
If at any point Clancy finds out that the party houses the Dovahkeen, the encounter truly begins as Clancy will simply smile and end diologue and detonate his necklaces of fireballs point blank. Destroying the ship and now the party must either pay the argonian pirates a lot of money take the ship from them in order to continue on thier trip to Solstiem.
During the diologue, the party has a chance to find out that Clancy is a devoted cultist sent to find out the whereabouts of the other cultists, but Clancy will try to hide it.
So how is it?
Omicron is from the game Nomad soul ?
"Mooooove on" "Cow-ard"
Easy now....
from a purely theoretical standpoint (i barely got any experience running or playing the game....):
shouldnt making the enemy flee after a certain amount of damage(lets say half HP) allow the use of tougher and higher CR monsters? because i would argue that one could recalculate the CR based on the lowered HP resulting in a slightly lower one which in turn allows the gm to use them on weaker parties adding a bit more tension to the encounter.
"will the party be able to hurt the wyvern enough to make it retreat or will the wyvern get them?"
I don't play with CR - I play with variables like: Intent, opportunity, stakes, and outcomes. Raising the CR will make the monsters tougher, and will make the fight last longer that is true. I am not sure that makes it better. In older version of RPGs there used to be a Morale check - where the monsters would flee after a certain point. This cuts out the monsters decision making and reduces it to a pile of mechanics. I remember monsters who were in a superior position (albeit precarious one) suddenly running away because of a mechanical trigger.
I realize this is 2 years old, but do you/did you run xp leveling? That encourages murdering unless you give them xp for getting through encounters without bloodshed as well.
Here’s the other thing to remember if your npcs tend to surrender/run/ avoid combat: if at some point you have npcs that enthusiastically attack the PCs and never surrender, they’ll be very suspicious of them and you can better introduce something like a mind control boss, or something that makes people mad, or anything similar. If the npcs only kill about 1/5 of all enemies in most encounters, yet this particularly group of enemies fight till death, that’ll be much more impactful.
The puns are such bull, but this has been my favorite video yet. So many bad puns. I laughed way too hard.
Do you have a video on how to stop combat because the NPCs surrender? I'm not sure on how to that without my party just keeping on the slaughter
Let them. And then have the god of evil start to whisper in their dreams about how he loves their work... or have critical information lost which makes things more difficult. But before you do that - before the game - tell them flat out: You don't have to kill everything you fight. And as the GM it is important that you don't then 'revenge' every monster the PCs didn't kill. If they leave it along, 90% should leave the party alone.
Steaks, onions and figgers, okay got it 😋
More videos like this. Make a video on what to do with prisoners and interrogation.
My players made friends with a taurian people once. We laughed so much about cow jokes it made our stomaches hurt.
let's moooov'on said the minotaur
Mooove on, I’m a Cow-ard 😂😂😂
I use the bad guys giving up or running away all the time. Almost nobody would fight to the last person, unless the stakes were really really high. Makes the game go a little quicker which helps. I'd rather move on with more plot than everyone taking turns beating up one or two pathetic monsters.
Give personality to the enemies. Any group of enemies should have 1-2 individuals that stand out.
A pack of wolves attack the party? One wolf is slightly bigger, with white fur and a scar accross the eye. This wolf attacks twice on its' turn and has a few extra hit points, make sure to describe the ferociousness of its' attacks. If it goes down the rest of the pack will flee almost regardless of how well the battle was going for them. This white wolf might also howl to initiate the charge.
- The wolf is distinct
- It is extra ferocious
When the players walk in to town, the villages will hardly believe someone finally killed old white-scar.
I gave a little bit of personality to a wolf here, but it should be even easier with actual people, who will also spit one lines at the PCs during the battle.
I especially recomend this whenever you have an encounter with just one type of enemy. Ask yourself how you can elevate one bad guy above the rest. One bandit is the leader and has taken all the good loot for himself, and thus have a breastplate and a longsword. One skeleton wears an old helmet with extravagant patterns denoting him as an officer in life. etc.
All the tips in the video are super valid, but also make sure it isn't just 4 identical bags of hit points when you finally do fight the minotaurs.
Living creatures usually try to avoid death, unless they're Mister Meeseeks.
I get so frustrated that my dms always put random attackers that wanna kill us cause yes and wont run away even if there is one left cause yes
Good stuff, came across while doing some research to jog my mind for better video game design. I know you're talking about tabletop RPG, but this kind of thing is what bothers me about "open world" video games like skyrim. You get this repetitive boilerplate of enemy sets who are needlessly hostile and have no sense of self-preservation. Once your character becomes strong enough to take them out easily, there are no stakes for you the player (the only one having been the challenge of making sure you win) and most of the game feels incredibly empty.
I compare it to a game like kotor, kotor feels like they understood the kind of stuff you're saying about encounters. There is a little boilerplate, but there's also quite a bit of that nuanced payoff and motivation that adds dimension to it. Which would make sense, cause kotor has a turn-based combat system that uses DnD type rolls as I understand it. Some of its devs probably came from tabletop RPGs.
This dude said spaghetti. Lol
What is a spaghetti setting??
Italy?
It's a long history of Hollywood making gritty, tough Wild West movies in Italy, rather than in the USA as it was cheaper. The result was only a few talking parts as all the extra's were Italians. The stories were wild adventures usually, with tragic heroes and maidens - not unlike fantasy.
Must admit my PC's concentrate on eradicating everyone in an attacking party so it doesn't come back to bite them.