Dynamic vs Static Encounters

[keterys]

Been converting some 3e modules recently... and they're full of rooms that don't expect the other rooms to impact them. Even though I'd swear it'd be like DC -5 or 0 to hear combat from the other rooms. And wands of cure light wounds heal you very very slowly and aren't to be found at all at low level (unlike second wind in 4e). So every edition has had its own static examples and problems with dynamic.

4e combats actually work particularly well when they're multiple rooms at once, so you might want to come at it from the other angle. Why wouldn't I plan the encounter from the beginning, with these other rooms coming in as soon as they can, creatures that intend to flee, etc?

The pull should be to make the encounters as interesting as possible. And that's often not static.

 

[Markn]

Been converting some 3e modules recently... and they're full of rooms that don't expect the other rooms to impact them. Even though I'd swear it'd be like DC -5 or 0 to hear combat from the other rooms. And wands of cure light wounds heal you very very slowly and aren't to be found at all at low level (unlike second wind in 4e). So every edition has had its own static examples and problems with dynamic.

4e combats actually work particularly well when they're multiple rooms at once, so you might want to come at it from the other angle. Why wouldn't I plan the encounter from the beginning, with these other rooms coming in as soon as they can, creatures that intend to flee, etc?

The pull should be to make the encounters as interesting as possible. And that's often not static.

I think the OP's point though, is that 4e specifically calls out for the dynamic encounter. Previous editions didn't push that button quite so hard.

4e as a whole has a lot of new design paradigms. People used to older editions still think like they are playing old edition. With 4e, some of the concepts are tossed out of the window in the name of fun. The dynamic encounter is one of them and I've noticed that it is lacking at times in printed WotC modules.

 

[keterys]

Yeah... I'm not sure what we get out of WotC modules is really that illustrative of a system's capabilities, though. Things like solos standing all alone, combats that don't have interesting terrain, skill challenges not embedded into combat, high complexity skill challenges consisting of nothing but two skills.

 

[Markn]

I was reading the new WotC "Giants" module and it contains a lot of skill challenges. But many of them feel truncated. Almost like there was not enough space to properly fit them in. Skill challenges in particular, for their value, take up way too much space and WotC needs a tighter way of displaying the info without making you feel like they are cutting stuff out.

 

[Quickleaf]

Yeah... I'm not sure what we get out of WotC modules is really that illustrative of a system's capabilities, though. Things like solos standing all alone, combats that don't have interesting terrain, skill challenges not embedded into combat, high complexity skill challenges consisting of nothing but two skills.

Well the first two can be forgiven under the right circumstances, but the last two are flat out uninteresting. Still, this has been my impression from many of the dungeon adventures too.

I was reading the new WotC "Giants" module and it contains a lot of skill challenges. But many of them feel truncated. Almost like there was not enough space to properly fit them in. Skill challenges in particular, for their value, take up way too much space and WotC needs a tighter way of displaying the info without making you feel like they are cutting stuff out.

That's a great observation Markn. When I make up a SC I try to focus on three things, and suprisingly they have little to do with describing what each skill can do in a laundry list fashion (I feel that's the player's perogative):
(1) Results for victory, partial victory, and defeat
(2) Consequences for individual skill checks that fail
(3) Interesting developments that happen during SC

Then again, I use Stalker's Obsidian rules, so it may be this technique is more suited to those rules than the standard 4e ones.