If you want to know more about my Wildergrove Kickstarter, you can sign up to be notified on pre-launch later this year: www.kickstarter.com/projects/talesarcane/wildergrove-a-5e-campaign-setting
Tales Arcanists... Roll Initiative!!! Jokes aside, great advice: an encouter enriching the immersion in the world is so underrated. It doesn't have to be a stale slap-fest every time the players travel.
Honestly my favourite encounters are usually the small roleplay ones, where the world just gets to breath a little and the players can have fun, without worrying about saving the world 😅
@@TalesArcane true. Since I have a tarot deck irl, I once had them meet an old man who offered to do a reading for some silver. I did a legit reading for the characters and the readings unsettled them, since it foretold some of my players' hidden plans. The DM will know everything, even if they have to cast a divination-spell irl xD
My primary considerations when designing encounters (social or combative or both) are: 1. What will highlight or expound upon a PC’s backstory, 2. What situations will likely elicit a very personal response from a PC, 3. What would act as a good impetus to drive a PC toward their player’s hopes/goals for their character arc, 4. What will highlight or foreshadow the worldbuilding of the area they are in, and 5. What elements of my main quest line intended plot may need to be foreshadowed. Bonus point for each encounter than satisfies multiple points, and/or can be tailored toward more than one PC. Between these things, I generally have more encounter ideas than I’ll ever actually use, and none of the encounters feel irrelevant, useless, or boring.
thank you so much! i really struggle to write encounters that don't just seem like they're there to use up time or sidetrack the party, so this was very helpful!
Love these ideas. The Shadowdark random encounter tables are a great source of inspiration for this sort of thing. They are as much quest hooks as they are encounters.
As usual very insightful. I really like this type of videos, this one and the last one with "A dragon a god and a king" were really useful from world building and encounter design point of views. Keep it coming and good luck with the Kickstarter 💪
loved this video man, currently working on my first homebrew setting and I play with quite a big group of 6 players. These tips are very useful and can basically implement them straight away to my writing and my ideas for upcoming sessions! keep up the good work!
@@TalesArcanethank you very much - it’s on houserule quest with a dot between the two - I tried to post it to you but I think RUclips just doesn’t like anything resembling a link in comments - I’ll see if this works - if not, I guess I can post it in my profile
@@TalesArcaneI put the URL in my channel page description since the comments don’t like links 😅 - I was ruthless in editing, so if you want more info I’m happy to share - current projects are making a video to explain it and laying out the related dungeoneering system
If you want to know more about my Wildergrove Kickstarter, you can sign up to be notified on pre-launch later this year: www.kickstarter.com/projects/talesarcane/wildergrove-a-5e-campaign-setting
I love these videos where I walk away with both new ideas I can apply immediately and a new perspective for the long run
That's wonderful to hear! Glad you took something useful away from the vid 🙌
That's me, today. Done and added comments to my Legendkeeper for some upcoming sessions where I need to do exactly this!
1D6 wolves enter your camp and immediately go to your parties druid or ranger seeking protection from a monster in the night.
💥
Tales Arcanists... Roll Initiative!!!
Jokes aside, great advice: an encouter enriching the immersion in the world is so underrated. It doesn't have to be a stale slap-fest every time the players travel.
Honestly my favourite encounters are usually the small roleplay ones, where the world just gets to breath a little and the players can have fun, without worrying about saving the world 😅
@@TalesArcane true. Since I have a tarot deck irl, I once had them meet an old man who offered to do a reading for some silver. I did a legit reading for the characters and the readings unsettled them, since it foretold some of my players' hidden plans. The DM will know everything, even if they have to cast a divination-spell irl xD
@@TalesArcane, I love your Patreon encounters so much! The one about the beer, the broken bridge, the merchants... Keep them coming!❤
I am sooooo stealing this 'run my tavern for me' encounter
My primary considerations when designing encounters (social or combative or both) are:
1. What will highlight or expound upon a PC’s backstory,
2. What situations will likely elicit a very personal response from a PC,
3. What would act as a good impetus to drive a PC toward their player’s hopes/goals for their character arc,
4. What will highlight or foreshadow the worldbuilding of the area they are in, and
5. What elements of my main quest line intended plot may need to be foreshadowed.
Bonus point for each encounter than satisfies multiple points, and/or can be tailored toward more than one PC.
Between these things, I generally have more encounter ideas than I’ll ever actually use, and none of the encounters feel irrelevant, useless, or boring.
thank you so much! i really struggle to write encounters that don't just seem like they're there to use up time or sidetrack the party, so this was very helpful!
I enjoy random encounters.
They're good practise for DM improv.
I always roll twice on the tables to mix it up.
Under Hour + I actually really needed this
Happy the video came in at the right time for you! In both senses!
Love these ideas. The Shadowdark random encounter tables are a great source of inspiration for this sort of thing. They are as much quest hooks as they are encounters.
As usual very insightful. I really like this type of videos, this one and the last one with "A dragon a god and a king" were really useful from world building and encounter design point of views. Keep it coming and good luck with the Kickstarter 💪
I watch several DM channels. Yours is by far my favorite. I don't see why it's not as popular as some of the others.
I love the pop up, illegal bar idea. Will definitely be using that one!
Great advice, well, as always)
Thank you mate, hope it proves useful!
@@TalesArcane oh god, i was called mate by the scottish person, so that how getting knighted feels like
@@dovahkriif825 Welcome to the clan 🏴
That was really interesting ! I realise that the few ideas I already had but was not sure about are actually great 😊
Thanks for this very interestig approach. Well done!
Thank you so much for all your hard work!
Another slam dunk.
Really good points.
loved this video man, currently working on my first homebrew setting and I play with quite a big group of 6 players. These tips are very useful and can basically implement them straight away to my writing and my ideas for upcoming sessions! keep up the good work!
Happy to help, mate! Good luck with all the sessions to come 💪
You went furry......ok
🥳🫂👍🏿
Very nice - this would mesh nicely with my own travel system that I just released ❤
Hey congrats on the system! Where can people find it?
@@TalesArcanethank you very much - it’s on houserule quest with a dot between the two - I tried to post it to you but I think RUclips just doesn’t like anything resembling a link in comments - I’ll see if this works - if not, I guess I can post it in my profile
@@TalesArcaneI put the URL in my channel page description since the comments don’t like links 😅 - I was ruthless in editing, so if you want more info I’m happy to share - current projects are making a video to explain it and laying out the related dungeoneering system
@@TwinSteel Great stuff mate, I'll check that out!
@@TalesArcane many thanks 🙏🏿