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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 5164986" data-attributes="member: 15470">Amen.Our DM came up with d6-shaped-dice from somewhere that have three sides: Plus, Blank, and Minus. He abstracts out most NPC-v-NPC encounters by simply rolling these. If its minion-v-minion, typically a "+" will kill a bad guy minion, and a "-" kills a good guy minion. If its real-character-v-real-character, typically a "+" damages a bad guy some arbitrary amount, and a "-" damages a good guy some arbitrary amount. Alternately, you can simply focus on the player characters, and allow that as they do well, that forces the off-to-the-side encounter to follow the same general plot as the PC's encounter.You may also find it worthwhile to run the PC's actions as a scene within a major encounter: in my games, I plot those kind of combats out as "this is what happens if the PC's do nothing." For example, enemy minions of uncountable numbers are storming the keep. Every round that passes by, the bad guys make progress: you can describe the battering ram breaking the gate, the orcs scaling the walls, etc. If, say, eight rounds have passed, the gates have broken open and the bad guys are flowing in through them. The PC's can turn the tide by killing off the bad-guy-leaders (think, killing the king and his elite bodyguards), which causes the enemy to break and run, or causes the defenders to rally. Particularly clever PC actions can stymie progress: e.g., if the gates break open and the Fighter goes and jumps to stand there, maybe he's battling minions .. but he's preventing them from making another round of progress into the interior.The key here is to have milestones where worse and worse things happen:In Round 1, the defenders are doing well but the orcs on the south side get ladders up.In Round 2, Orc foot soldiers gain a foothold on the south wall. The battering ram arrives in Round 3. On the South wall, a favored NPC falls, at Round 4. More seige towers arrive for the north wall in Round 5. The orcs have captured the south wall, and are beginning to fire arrows down.The orcs breach the gates in Round 6.In Round 7, the orcs have taken the North wall, and the king and his men are hard-pressed on the steps of the main keep by the orcs who have breached the gates.The king dies in Round 8, and the good guys break and run on all fronts. Also, another group that has snuck around the backside manages to climb over the back wall.In Round 9, the main keep catches fire.By Round 10, the orcs have reached the helpless civilians and are slaughtering them. The PC's actions can slow, delay, or stop those actions entirely - for example, investing time on the south wall might save the favored NPC. Getting to the king's side in round 6 or 7 can save him, and prevent the good guys from breaking and running. A leader with sufficiently high Diplomacy or Intimidate can rally the troops after they break.   And, of course, the PC's can win the encounter outright by stopping the enemy leader - the earlier that they do so, the less permanent damage has been done that needs to be fixed.</blockquote>

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