On Encounter Design Guidelines

[payn]

My point is that except for D&D 3rd, 4th, and 5th edition, games are not designed to have encounters scaled to the party.

This is a TTRPGs in general discussion. I'm talking about understanding how the game even works, but you can even grasp a concept of scaling.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In my experience playing Fallout, that's fine. The number of times I've gotten massacred by stumbling across a Deathclaw or a bunch of Cazadores is not insignificant.

I am preppinga Fallout2d20 campaign and I was surprised to discover that the rulebook doesn't actually give any advice on how to "balance" encounters in play. That feels especially weird since it is a level based game where both the PCs and the enemies have levels, but there's no discussion I can find about how those things interact. How many feral ghouls or mole rats should a trio of 1st level PCs encounter? Who knows!

Encounter guidelines were kinda outlined by the dungeon level encounter tables, but there was a whole lot of eyeballing and hope the PCs will run if they get over their head (note: very few PCs actually run). But those at least gave you a ballpark to shoot for.

This go me thinking more broadly about encounter design guidelines and when they became a Thing. I don't really remember how explicit games pre D&D 3.x were about this (and I don't have any books close to hand). I know older versions of D&D hinted at it with dungeon level encounter charts and so on, but it wasn't explicit as far as I can recall. I can't say I remember Earthdawn or Deadlands providing encounter balance formulas.

Was that basically just a D&D thing, and have I so internalized it that I just expect other games to provide those guidelines and systems?

When I am unsure on difficulty, I will generally try to take it easier the first couple sessions until I get a better grasp of the system. Especially at lower levels (assuming there are levels), it doesn't take much to make an encounter feel dangerous and exciting. If that easy foe just gets a single hit in, that can be enough to start with.

When you personally run a game new to you without that kind of advice, what do you do? And if you make a mistake in balancing an encounter, how do you deal with it?

 

[Greggy C]

There was no CR in 1e/2e, I would calculate the avg dmg/round that could be output by either side and compare it to the players and monsters total hit points, then make it so the battle was even. Of course the players did something unexpected that turned the tide.

But all this was unnecessary at the beginning, which was mostly about finding monsters that didn't kill a player in one blow...

And the realty is, after each battle you begin to know instinctively how much more you can pile on to challenge them without killing them.

 

[Reynard]

In my experience playing Fallout, that's fine. The number of times I've gotten massacred by stumbling across a Deathclaw or a bunch of Cazadores is not insignificant.

If only we could save-scum in tabletop.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I go back and forth between liking being able to save at will and not. Because, yeah, I'll find myself hitting save every five minutes. Generally my feeling is influenced by whether or not I'm playing a game with save points like I am now with Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

If only we could save-scum in tabletop.