Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Historical context] Why "6 to 8 medium/hard encounters" meme is obsolete
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7203020" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>I agree that short/long rest balance is the most important thing to be aware of. Even there, you don't necessarily need to maintain a rigid 2:1 ratio, if that doesn't suit your campaign pacing. Part of the advantage of short rest abilities is the quick recharge, so they are good when the players are *uncertain* about pacing. (If there are random encounters every hour, 24 hours a day while in the dungeon, short rest classes like druids, monks and warlocks will excel.)</p><p></p><p>Or, you can give players the option of just converting all of their short rest abilities permanently to 3/long rest abilities, and then use whatever pacing suits your game without regard to class balance, since they're now on an even footing.</p><p></p><p>Personally I feel like I can write adventures with 2-3 interesting separate encounters per game day at most. Any more than that and it becomes hard to justify why they aren't bleeding into each other. E.g. PCs can stumble across a hobgoblin patrol that clues them in to a hobgoblin camp, then they can storm the hobgoblin camp and subdue its defenders, and then they can get ambushed at night by the drow slavers who were waiting for the PCs to weaken themselves before showing their hand. But I can't possibly pile demons on top of the drow and then pile gorgons on top of that and efreeti on top of THAT. It strains disbelief to have them all ignorant of each other, yet if the efreeti were working with the drow they wouldn't be in a separate encounter, they'd be together in one larger and more complex encounter because efreeti aren't stupid and would understand the value of a combined effort.</p><p></p><p>Sent from my Moto G (4) using <a href="http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=93205" target="_blank">EN World mobile app</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7203020, member: 6787650"] I agree that short/long rest balance is the most important thing to be aware of. Even there, you don't necessarily need to maintain a rigid 2:1 ratio, if that doesn't suit your campaign pacing. Part of the advantage of short rest abilities is the quick recharge, so they are good when the players are *uncertain* about pacing. (If there are random encounters every hour, 24 hours a day while in the dungeon, short rest classes like druids, monks and warlocks will excel.) Or, you can give players the option of just converting all of their short rest abilities permanently to 3/long rest abilities, and then use whatever pacing suits your game without regard to class balance, since they're now on an even footing. Personally I feel like I can write adventures with 2-3 interesting separate encounters per game day at most. Any more than that and it becomes hard to justify why they aren't bleeding into each other. E.g. PCs can stumble across a hobgoblin patrol that clues them in to a hobgoblin camp, then they can storm the hobgoblin camp and subdue its defenders, and then they can get ambushed at night by the drow slavers who were waiting for the PCs to weaken themselves before showing their hand. But I can't possibly pile demons on top of the drow and then pile gorgons on top of that and efreeti on top of THAT. It strains disbelief to have them all ignorant of each other, yet if the efreeti were working with the drow they wouldn't be in a separate encounter, they'd be together in one larger and more complex encounter because efreeti aren't stupid and would understand the value of a combined effort. Sent from my Moto G (4) using [URL="http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=93205"]EN World mobile app[/URL] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Historical context] Why "6 to 8 medium/hard encounters" meme is obsolete
Top