Adventurer's League Nights and Going Nova

[Beedo]

I just started a new 5E game, built around a megadungeon. Conceptually I'm trying to set it up a bit like an at-home "adventurer's league" - we can't always get all of the players each week, so each I want each session to start and end back in town so new people can join. The adventurer sites are "delve sized", meant to be finished in a single evening.


So here's the question - how do you think 3-4 encounters per game session changes the dynamics of resources, rests, and healing versus trying to do longer sessions? Will skewing encounter design more towards the Hard and Deadly XP totals be enough to challenge?


I'm really enjoying 5E and figure I can pick up some pointers from folks with a lot more drive time with the system - or people doing the Adventurer's League sessions. We just had our first game this past weekend.

 

[Paraxis]

Mix it up a bit but I think you will be fine if you go with.

2 Hard or Deadly encounters
Opportunity for short rest
2 Hard or Deadly encounters

Sometimes don't give them a short rest chance, and make some medium encounters, or no chance and 2 hard+1 extra deadly.

Whatever you do, they will quickly figure out that they should conserver resources for the big fight at the end anyway, so it should always be creative and brutal.

 

[Beedo]

That's fair, that's a similar cadence of challenge to what I've been planning. I saw on one of the threads here an observation like this, 'martial characters earn their keep on long adventuring days, short days favor the spell casters' or a similar sentiment... I want to make sure I throw enough encounters in a session to tax the casters and give the martial guys a chance to shine.

 

[Coredump]

Another option is to change up the short/long rests. I have been thinking about making overnight be a short rest, and overnight, then day of rest, then overnight, be a long rest.

 

[GlobeOfDankness]

i've found that a few easier encounters actually does a lot to leech resources. using hard or deadly fights to do it is much more tense and tiring and can make sessions that only have harrowing encounters feel like a slog. waves are another good way to really wear them out quicker.

 

[ninjayeti]

Yeah I think it should be fine. The Adventuring Day XP table (I don't have the DMG handy, but it is pg. 57 of the basic rules download) should still work to budget for the number of encounters you plan to run.

The baseline assumption is around 6-8 medium to hard encounters per day, but if you use 3-4 hard to deadly encounters it should work out fine. This also assumes two short rests during the course of the day, so if your players only take one (or none) you may want to ramp back a bit.