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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9209038" data-attributes="member: 2629">You do not know what other DMs do, and you are mistaken when you say it can only be done in those two ways.  Many of us, as DMs, regularly run 6 to 8 encounters per day - with 1 to 3 short rests.  We do it in dungeons, but we also do it on other environments, and we do it in compelling storylines that are not a detriment to the game and absolutely do not throw believability out the window.For example, I recently ran a couple sessions for a 9th level party I DM occasionally (this is the 'backup game' when another DM is not available).  This storyline evolved out of choices the PCs had previously made - and was something they could have anticipated, but did not put resources into investigating prior to this time.  There was no expectation they'd be prepared for it, but I was anticipating it as a possibility.It began with the PCs within 'their' town when there was an attack.  The PCs were targeted as a way to keep them from getting involved in the 'main action' through a combat that was not aimed at killing the PCs, but was instead aimed at putting them in situations that required them to spend time and resources to resolve (Encounter 1).  In this encounter, they learned who was attacking, and had to deal with the expendable forces of the enemy (summons, animates, and other easily replaced tools).  If they'd realized it was a distraction, they could have changed the course of the sessions - but that would have been hard and they did not.  The point of this encounter was to engage the PCs and get them to potentially realize something strange was going on - not to threaten their lives.They [heard] / [heard of] more combat 'nearby' and realized there was something larger going on.  They went to the other section of the city where they heard fighting and fought off the bad guys guarding the entrance outside a foil's manor house (encounter 2), then went in and fought the bad guys that were still in the house (encounter 3).  These encounters used the defenses of the manor house as both interesting terrain and environment features for the combat, and gave the PCs insight into elements of the storyline (including confirming things about the foil / manor house owner that they'd long suspected).  Again, here, the PCs felt like heroes because the challenges before them here were not threats to their lives - but threatened to derail their progress in figuring out what was going on in time.  They managed to get to the foil / manor house owner before he was captured/kiiled.  However, the bad guy leader did escape with the "child" of the manor house owner and a treasure.  He could have been stopped there had the PCs been more expedient.  After the combat they found the owner of the home who 'explained the situation' and hired/strongarmed them to recover both 'his child', and his treasure.  The bad guys were going to use his treasure in a ritual that night (in about 5 hours), and the child was being held as a hostage (he said) - if anyone tried to recover the treasure, the kid would be slain (was the claim).  The manor owner didn't want 'his kid' killed, but was more invested in stopping the ritual (great guy).  The PCs had opportunities to uncover information that would reveal that their foil - the manor house owner - was going to do the ritual himself, and was going to sacrifice 'his kid' to do it.  This is something I'd call a social encounter because they could have used up resources to get the most out of it.  However, I recognize most DMs would not count this as an encounter.  They then took to their method of travel which allowed them to short rest while traveling (essentially a magical hover wagon).Knowing who was behind the attack, the PCs knew where to go to engage them.  Along the way there was one random encounter (encounter 4).  It took place because the dice said it should, but I selected the monster to be one that the PCs had to be careful in fighting because if could cause them delays if they did not avoid the attacks of the creature.  It was a homebrew creature that isolates creatures by tossing them forward in time so that it can deal with threats one on one.  While a random encounter, I maneuver the situation to make it more meaningful given the situation.A couple hours after the fight at the tower, the group approached their goal.  They used Augury to confirm they were in the right place.  They then started to sneak in and, of course, blasted the guards with a Thunderwave to knock them off a bridge (thank you, BG3 [Enemy deaths by falling are up 300% since BG3 was prereleased] - Encounter 5).  While an easy encounter in terms of combat difficulty, it was designed so that if the PCs allowed an alarm to be raised, it made the rest of the adventure harder - which is a common thread in easy encounters in my game.  Your risks in these encounters are not to the lives of your PCs - they are risks that storyline can go in a bad direction.  They killed the weak enemies, but raised the alarm themselves with the booming spell.This resulted in two encounters worth of enemies combining (turning two hard encounters into one pretty deadly one) (Encounter 6+) and the BBEG getting into his most defensible location.  The PCs took big hits in this battle, but survived.  They searched the base and discovered the BBEG was locked in what appeared to be a vault.  Augury 'confirmed' for them that they'd face their foes if they broke in, and the PCs knew the BBEG wasn't going to abandon the location because he needed it for the ritual (they needed a place of power and this was one of few potential sites nearby).  Some PCs short rested while others searched for 'other' ways into the vault.  They ended up using some additional resources here to deal with traps in order to loot the place when they uncovered treasures during the search - and more people short rested to attune to new goodies.They then disabled some of the traps on the vault and managed to get the vault open.  They discovered the ritual chamber within it and were attacked.  The BBEG had time to prepare end engaged the PCs using the defensive capabilities built into the chamber, as well as his own considerable power.  (Encounter 7+).  This was a challenge for the PCs because the leader of the lands needed the BBEG's support, and had forbidden the PCs from 'causing mischief'.  While they thought the King would not punish them for stepping in to stop the ritual, they did not know for certain.  As a middle ground, they decided to stop, but not kill, the BBEG.  Tough battle.  PCs pull it out and begin a short rest.Then, the manor house owner and his 'army' showed up and demanded the treasure and his kid back immediately.  He wanted to do the ritual himself.  The PCs could fight the army (not really a great option), stall, sneak out with the treasure and kid, or do a variety of things.  The sorcerer pulled it out and banished the manor lord - who the group knew to be a fey in disguise - and sent him back to the Feywild while the Warlock, who put a lot of resources into trickery, 'replaced' the Manor Lord with an illusion.  That told the army to withdraw.  By the time the Manor Lord traveled back and recovered his army, the time for the ritual was past.  You can decide whether this was also an encounter.  To me, this not "a dungeon", and it is not forced/contrived.  It has time pressure to keep the PCs engaged without taking a long rest (which is very common in most fictional conflict ... almost every comic book has a time pressure element that has the heroes racing to stop something).  There were four locations (some with multiple sub-locations where encounters could/did take place), and the PCs could have worked through it in a variety of ways.  For example, they might have realized they were facing a distraction in encounter one and stopped the theft before the treasure was lost.  Then the encounter should have kept them in town where they had to deal with the foil's attempt to complete the ritual.   Under that plan, there would have been the battles in tow, with the BBEG involved in the third, and then conflict with the BBEG in his place where he would have done the ritual (most likely). This is just one example.  I have plenty of others I could pull out ... but you should see the point.  The players had plenty of options on how to proceed within the storyline (or just letting the ritual happen / the mystery going unsolved).  They had real stakes.  I used a mix of easy through deadly encounters to challenge them in different ways before they had time to long rest.  I think this is right in line with the DMG guidance and it worked well.  Why do I say that?  Players were engaged in the dynamics of the story and felt the time pressure.  Players had fun trying to figure out the best way to resolve the situation given the constraints.  There were multiple paths to move forward based upon how the PCs 'attacked' the issue.  The PCs succeeded in the adventure, but could have failed in several ways that they overcame.  All that ads up to working well in my book.</blockquote>

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