Sarah Darkmagic

When I design encounters, both story and tactics come into play pretty heavily. Since I'm running a homebrew campaign right now, the base layer is always the story. Where do I think it's going? Who might have issues with the PCs actions? For instance, last night's encounter involved a street fight between the PCs and henchmen of a man in town by the name of Robert. Their recent activities have put Robert's plans in jeopardy and he told his men to be on the look out for the group. Since I knew that my group would be shopping, having the encounter occur near the shops made sense both in game management terms, only one map was needed, and in story terms, a back alley behind a bar and shops seems the perfect locale.

When picking the monsters, I try to visualize the scene. For last night's encounter, I also had 2 new players new to town. I figured a few medium level henchmen might approach them and attempt to recruit them to Robert's side. For this, I picked the King's Sword fighters. Figuring that was a good start, my next thought was that the would probably have some lower level guys there as additional muscle to help the process along. A few minions coming in from the outer fringes of the map sounded like a good idea so I chose some human thugs. Wanting someone who was a bit more of a leader, I then chose Rolf the Butcher as the boss. I figured that the swords and the thugs would be able to help give him and each other combat advantage during the fight. Worried that this group would be ineffective against our swordmage and to give our psion some of his favorite enemies, I added a human hexer into the mix. Finally, I added a few archer minions to the roof tops as further support. I won't lie, running this many different monsters is difficult. However, I knew that there were going to be some new people in our game and I wanted to provide a bunch of different monster types to make for a challenging, potentially scary, but winnable encounter.

With the monsters chosen, it was time to draw the map. From my story, I knew some things that would have to be there, a bar, some shops, an alley way and from my monsters, I knew that I needed a place for the archers and entry points for the monsters that would show up in later rounds. Once I added those elements to the map, I started thinking about things my players might want to do. For instance, I could totally see our halfling rogue wanting to go up to the archers and take them out. So I added some crates to make it possible for him to pull an acrobatics stunt to do that.

So there you have it, how I went about designing a street fight scene. I know there is a ton more that I could have done but I think it came out pretty well for the time I had to spend on it. How do you guys do it?

My players asked for a bit of a recap of their current adventure. I thought I would share it here in case anyone wants to steal one of my ideas for their own campaign. I have a few notes I want to share, so I'll append them to the end of each item.

• The crew started off at Brock's Bar and Grill run by Adeliz and Raymond Brock in Barmouth, Newham Shire. A favorite among the sailors in part because just about anything one wants can be obtained there. Barmouth itself is a rather thriving port city and its wealth is causing some tensions between it and the capital, Newham. They find a job posting from one Hallomak Stromm. They travel north of Barmouth to meet him. On their way, they are attacked by some undead outside a temple to Melora.

  [DM Note: Yes, you can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant, excepting Alice. This starting sequence is the beginning of the long list of reasons I hate starting adventures in taverns. But I was brand new and didn't know any better. :-) Hallomak Stromm is a name mentioned in the 11th level Dungeon Delve. We had started that one as a one-shot when my brother was in town and a number of my players were very interested in who the character was. Also, the players found the concept of a temple to Melora strange. The encounter was adapted from the Graveyard Exterior encounter from Keep on the Shadowfell Side Treks in Dungeon 155.]

• After defeating the undead, they meet Hallomak. His office is full of very old things including a set of books on the History of Arcadia. When they look at the books, they get the feeling that the information in the books is much older than the handwriting and the handwriting in the books change. He also has a globe on his desk that looks a lot like the current world but the names are all different. The halfling, Finnan, sort of recognizes the name of Arcadia, but he knows it as the land of milk and honey. Hallomak asks the group to retrieve a ring from the ancient tomb of a tiefling empress. He fears that a necromancer is searching for the ring right now and that is causing the undead attacks on the local people. They go and retrieve the ring, killing the necromancer in the process.

  [DM Note: I just ran them through the level 5 delve from Dungeon Delves. The players wanted to know what sort of evil ring it was. I decided that it bolstered one's confidence without increasing one's ability. As for the books, I was going for the flavor of how books were copied and preserved before the printing press. In this case, the Stromm family hired scribes who would copy the books over and over again to make sure none of the information was lost. They also tried to make sure no one person copied too much of the books to make it harder for someone to figure where Arcadia was and return before the appointed time. Unfortunately for them, their system did not work. A scribe with the last name Darkmagic was able to gather enough information from the other scribes to determine where Arcadia was and bring a group of humans there to found a town.]

• Returning with the ring, they talk to Hallomak. He invites them to stay for a while especially since school is not currently in session. He has some business to attend to in Barmouth and leaves his right-hand-woman in charge, Hannah. The adventurers spend some time looking around the dormitory and find a secret door triggered by the book, The Owls of Newham Shire. When the bookshelf moves, they hear rattling from below. After killing the a large rattlesnake, they continue to explore the underground area. Their exploration reveals that the tunnels lead from each dormitory to the main house.

  [DM Note: I created the snake encounter so they could learn about the tunnels to the house, hopefully in a fun and interesting way.]

• That night, their sleep is interrupted by the sound of someone moving outside. They find people attempting to break into another one of the dormitories. The gnome leaves to warn Hannah in the main house while the rest attempt to take down the robbers and their ravenous attack dog. They are able to knock out the would-be burglars but the dog got away.

  [DM Note: While it made sense story-wise for one player to run off like that, his decision hurt the party quite a bit. I felt a bit stuck on how to make the experience better. My hope had been that the players would think that perhaps the burglars knew about the tunnels as well and would try to head the off down there. I know I made it way to complicated. But the snake and the robbers were the first encounters I ever created on my own.]

• Some friends of Hallomak's show up. They all decide to try to find the dog lest it harm some of the other locals. Its trail leads them to a hideout in the woods. Upset that anyone would starve a dog, they decide to attack. Eventually, they knock all of the enemies out, including the brutes Hans and Franz, the sorceress/cook, Sabrina, and the leader, Reginald. They interrogate Reginald and find out that he is part of the Free Arcadia Now (FANs). The organization is attempting to overthrow the Darkmagic regime, in part because of the laws restricting access to ironwood in the forests to the north. Currently, ironwood is important to the ship building enterprises of Barmouth and provide a fair bit of income to the loggers in the north. Unfortunately, it is also a source of tension between the humans and the elves, gnomes and other woodland creatures. When they bring the FAN members back to Hallomak's, they find out that Reginald is his son. Upon Hallomak's return, they also find out that according to an ancient accord, Hallomak is the human protector of Arcadia. His son thinks this means that Hallomak should also be the ruler, but Hallomak doesn't see it that way.

  [DM Note: Finnan decided to make the attack dog into a pet and named it Chompers. They have great fun together with the halfling performing acrobatic stunts with the dog from time to time.]

• With the necromancer dead and the local FANs defeated, there isn't much for the adventurers to do around Hallomak's. Hannah tells them that she is worried about her niece, Margaret, who is expecting her first child. The soon-to-be mother seems sad of late. To cheer her up, Hannah has crocheted a baby blanket made from special wool from the north. The sheep there drink from springs fed by glacial lakes filled with the water left by the magical glaciers that once covered the land. She hopes the blanket will provide comfort and protection to the mother and child. However, Hallomak offers the gnome artificer a chance to stay. Currently, Hallomak is developing an alternative to ironwood and he really could use the gnome's help. Given that the gnome's home was destroyed by loggers because it was made of ironwood, he is more than willing to stay and help out.

  [DM Note: The blanket is a magic item based on the amulet of protection. I created the story line about the ironwood alternative because the group felt a bit uneasy with the gnome. Between the gnome leaving to warn Hannah during the encounter and his attempt to coup de grace one of the robbers after being insulted, there was a lot of tension at the table surrounding the character and it was decided that it might be best to retire the him in a respectful manner.]

As a further note, those of you who read my description of the Earthen Guard paladins on the Dungeons & Dragons community blog might notice a resemblance to Hallomak. I based the Earthen Guard on him although he is much more moderate in his outlook and he uses diplomacy in a proactive manner rather than destroying things in reaction.

I love giving to my players whether it's working with them to tell great stories or providing challenging encounters that let them shine. There are few things I hate more than asking them to give up something. Unfortunately, I found myself asking one of my players to do just that. Like many groups, I allow character builds as long as they count as legal. This means all of the books and Dungeon and Dragon magazines are allowed. For the most part, this has worked really well. However, we recently found a build/feat combination that made my job really hard.

Our group had gone defender-less for awhile. When it became clear that the gnome artificer wasn't working well with the party, the player decided to switch to a Shadar-kai swordmage. Eventually, he asked if he could use the White Lotus Riposte feat from Dragon 374. Not knowing any better, I gave it a cursory look and agreed.

I didn't notice the problem immediately, but over time I found the battles less fun for me. It took me a while to figure out the source. Large encounter groups can be hard to run at the table and often take a bit longer. To help with this problem, I focused on using fewer monsters in general and no more than 2 or 3 monster types in a particular battle. Also, the story required that they be introduced to a couple long-term villains, so I used a fair number of elite and solos. The problem became the combination of the Aegis of Assault [DDI] and White Lotus Riposte [DDI], which sets up a bit of a "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. I felt this particularly hard when the swordmage went after the ranged controller rather than the melee monsters. However, it wasn't purely the double "mark" that was the issue, but rather the amount of damage and the fact that it was not limited to once per round. His attack bonus was 5 which meant that any time White Lotus Riposte was in play (and it often was) and the creature attacked him, it had to take 5 points of damage. And if it had an attack it could do as a minor or an action point and it chose to attack him again, it would take 5 points of damage for any additional attacks. Unlike the Aegis power, the damage was automatic and, well, added up pretty quickly.

For a while, I was at a bit of a loss about what to do. I know this particular player enjoys finding the special combo that makes for particularly devastating characters but designing encounters was becoming less and less fun for me. I didn't want to take the passive-aggressive way out and design every encounter to make it so this particular character would fail or have rocks fall or any of those DM tricks we joke about. So I took the advice from the Save My Game panel at PAX East and talked to my player. We worked out a couple of options on how we could modify the feat in case he still wanted to use it, but, in the end, he decided to go with a free retrain. While I can't say he was ecstatic about the change, he did admit that it was a bit broken. He was doing more damage, more often, with the white lotus feat than his similar encounter power.

Since my players just made level 8, I know that there are a whole bunch of adjustments I'll have to make to my encounter design habits. For now, I'm really looking forward to going up against the new swordmage. Hopefully my monsters can take it, at least for a few rounds.

You have memorized every detail of the map. You know that the floor is made of blue-green stone with the slightest grade towards the drain in the center, the intricacies of the stained glass windows above and all the corners with dim light where your lurkers can hide. Heck, you can even describe, in vivid detail, the tapestry of the gnome and dwarf getting it on and, behind it, the bugbear [im]patiently waiting to kill the PCs. Now all you need is for the players to open the door.

Your most detail-oriented player turns to you and points to the door. You anticipate a question about the door's description so you queue up that information in your brain. Then he asks, "So, Mr. DM, which way does the door open?"

Success, he asked about the door. You start describing the door, its time-worn wood, well-oiled iron fittings and even how one of the knots resembles Gandalf on a bad hair day.

He persists, "That's great but which way does it open?"

It takes a moment but you realize you don't have an answer. It's not in your game notes or on the map. Panic sets in. You're flustered and you can no longer think clearly. It takes a few moments, but you decide that the door opens towards the PCs. The player who asked looks a little sad, he was really hoping to kick in the door. Losing confidence, you race through the rest of the description, worried about the next question the players ask.

If this happens to you, take a breather and think about a few things.

Does it matter to you?

Is it important to your monsters that the door open a certain way? Do they have a bucket of acid perched carefully above the door? Is an enemy waiting behind the door, hoping to use it to stay hidden? Have the monsters gathered themselves into the basement, scared of the blood-thirsty PCs and waiting for the shadow of the door as it swings in? If having the door open a certain way will make running your monsters more fun, have it open that way.

Does it matter to your players?

If your monsters could care less about which way the door swings, find out if it matters to your players. Maybe they really want to kick in the door or, perhaps, they want to seal it shut. If their story idea is cool enough, go with it. They may just be telling this story for years to come.

Roll some dice or make up a rule

Rolling some dice buys you time to think. You can even use the result to decide the answer for you. It may also help increase the tension a bit. Another solution is to come up with a rule beforehand about how to handle which way doors open. Maybe they are all swinging doors or all doors in hallways open inwards. Whatever you decide, make sure it's something you can remember the next time the pressure is on.