Rules for Good Encounters

Fundamentals

Crafting good encounters is essential to maintain a good gaming experience and keep players coming back. The GM has a lot on his or her plate when it comes to making memorable encounters. I recently read a copy of "This day we fight: A practical guide to encounter design in the Pathfinder RPG". I posted a link to it in an earlier blog posting.

It offers a set of guidelines for encounter creation. Here are some highlights from the document.

1. Refrain from playing against your players. Don't plan to kill your players or purposely craft a TPK. This is not the way to keep players from coming back. Players put a lot of work into their character development. Any effort by the GM to railroad a party into a death trap is considered bad taste and is disrespectful.

2. Planning is everything. Running sessions on the fly is a recipe for trouble unless you are a very good story teller with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Pathfinder combat system. It is inevitable that the players will take unplanned or make unexpected decisions that tosses your idea into the recycle pile. But the whole premise is based on players gaining experience to progress through levels by fighting monsters and solving problems. To do this requires good encounters ... planned encounters.

3. Monsters and Villains. Develop level appropriate encounters with variety and flavor.

4. Initiative. Just track it. Period.

5. NPC Statistics. Again, track those stats.

In my next post I will delve into the murky world of Challenge Ratings.