Encounters and Events, the DM's fiends!

[FoolishFrost]

All right, if you have Dungeon Mastered a DD4 game, then you know what an encounter is. It's a scene that describes an area and its features. They tend to be static scenes that only change under defined conditions, and act as the basis for the a dungeon delve area.

A typical Encounter has has monsters and/or traps that inhabit the area, covers one or more rooms that make up a tactical board, and often also has special terrain, objects, and rules for a single fight. For an example Encounter, look at page 212 of the DD4 Dungeon Master's Guide. It offers the layout of a typical encounter, as do several of the pages after it.

Encounters work well for dungeons (and castles, and sewers, and bandit outposts, and just about anywhere with segmented encounter regions), but they don't adapt to the players actions very much. You can make them adapt, and add changing situations to an encounter based on the players actions, but it's all still an Encounter based on a geographical region.

On the other hand, an Event is based on something happening regardless of the location. For example: You have a role pay encounter where the characters question a local merchant about a string of unexplained murders. Depending on how that encounter goes, it could trigger an Event. The event is that in 1d4 hours, an assassin begins following the characters, and waits for the best time to try and kill at least one of the party.

The Redcloaked Killer


Event Level 1 (250 XP)

1 Redcloak Assassin (Human Bandit, P162 of the DD4 Monster Manual)

Setup:

The Redcloak Assassin is waiting for a chance to kill at least one character. She will shadow the characters at a distance until she sees a chance to catch one or two of the characters alone, and then attack without warning. She cannot return to her masters without killing at least one character, but has no problems running away and waiting for a better moment to attack again.

Allow a perception check once per hour for any character watching to see if they are being followed. If no one has said they are watching for trouble, then allow a random character a roll for that hour.

Perception Check:

DC 21 (19 outside of town): "You are sure someone is following you, some one dressed in a red lined cloak. You see their movement out of the corner of your eye as you glance behind you."

Tactics:

If she has surprise, she will throw a dagger and use her combat advantage to get extra damage. She will then attempt a Dazing Strike and then follow up with melee mace attacks until the character is downed, and then will either try to down a second character if possible, or use Coup De Grace (9 + 1d6 damage) on the target already downed if it seems help is coming.

If the party is in combat with another enemy, she will use the same tactics, but focus on a character as far away from the others as possible. She will run at the first sign of the characters focusing on her, and wait for a better moment to finish the job.

If she becomes bloodied, she will run away using a Double Move Action, mostly likely leaving the tactical map. Once off the tacticle map, it becomes a game of hide and seek, with the characters using thier perception vs. the assassin's stealth of DC 21 (or 19 outside of town). If the characters following her all fail at their perception check, she get's away. If any of them succeed, they can make an athletics skill check against a DC 14. Those that succeed at this second check have not only found her, but caught up with her. It should be noted that if only a single character caught up with her and it looks like she can win, she might turn on them. If she remains in combat, setup a new tactile map and place both her and any characters that caught her in the middle. Other characters can continue to make perception rolls each round until they hear the commotion, and then athletics checks each round to catch up. If and when they catch up, they appear on any edge of the map they want. If she does not wish to continue fighting, she tried to escape the tactical map again, and starts the chase all over again.

Regardless of tactics, keep in mind her focus is to kill a character, and live to tell her masters. Not to die in the attempt. Run as soon as trouble starts. She will not attack more than twice in a day, and is always healed up fully (using her healing surges) before any attempt to attack.

Treasure:

The assassin has a Mace +1 (360 GP value): "Her mace has a dark red head, as if painted with the blood of her victims."

The above Event might happen while the characters are shopping, sleeping in an inn, or splitting up to attack some kobolds. It does not have a preset tactile map, since it's impossible to tell where the attack will happen. Finally, it might make another encounter harder if they do not deal with her before moving on with the adventure.

Events make an adventure more dynamic, and sometimes more dangerous. Used carefully, though, and they are nearly always fun.

Original article at Foolish Frost's Playground

 

[ExploderWizard]

I disagree with your limited definition of encounter. An encounter does not have to take place in a given location. Random encounters, which have been a part of the game since the beginning, never needed to take place in a given location or at a specific time. The redcloaked killer example you provided seems like an encounter to me. In broad terms, the killer is a "monster" that will be encountered under certain circumstances.

Encounters that are static and tied to locations are only one type of encounter.

Events can take place at any time or location and do not have to include any monsters, traps, or other game constructs. A sudden storm that sweeps across the valley causing damage and possible flash flooding is an event. The event will happen at a given time no matter where the PC's happen to be or what they are doing.

 

[FoolishFrost]

I disagree with your limited definition of encounter. An encounter does not have to take place in a given location. Random encounters, which have been a part of the game since the beginning, never needed to take place in a given location or at a specific time. The redcloaked killer example you provided seems like an encounter to me. In broad terms, the killer is a "monster" that will be encountered under certain circumstances.

Encounters that are static and tied to locations are only one type of encounter.

Events can take place at any time or location and do not have to include any monsters, traps, or other game constructs. A sudden storm that sweeps across the valley causing damage and possible flash flooding is an event. The event will happen at a given time no matter where the PC's happen to be or what they are doing.

Perhaps, but that's not the way they are presented in 4th edition, really. In fact, leafing through just about all the books I have for DD4, seems that Encounters are very location based.

Keep in mind, all of this is just semantics, both on my part and yours. I just use the term Event to differ between Encounters that deal with a place, and ones that are based on time or triggers regardless of location. I don't personally see the difference between your storm and the Redcloak.

I guess my point is, there is a difference between things that happen based on location, and things that happen based on past actions or events.