Encounters Per Day. How many?

[Primitive Screwhead]

...simply coming up with three reasonable plot-based encounters in a day is too much work

Not sure about that. My first home brew adventure in 3.X has an advanture timeline that went like this:

Plot device to get the party going.. something about an evil wizard bent on destroying the world up in glacier land

Overland travel and see the country - aka handwave with pretty descriptions as civilized land gave way to rough and tumble-

Arrive at the village to seek answers around noon... discover the place is deserted and mostly frozen over..
Encounter #1, Ice Drake, EL -3
Ice Drake was the pet of a couple Ice Trolls that hear the combat from thier lair in the lake nearby... leads almost directly into Encounter #2, Ice Trolls, EL 0 {would be higher but the party is stacks with Fire stuff.. to which Ice Trolls really dont like...}

While they are fighting the trolls, they notice an aged man watching them from a distant hill-top.. the BBEG. After finishing off the trolls and confirming the old man is the BBEG {courtesy of a Magic Missle Volley late in the battle vs the Trolls} They give chase... he moves alot faster than they do {SnowGlide spell} and heads for his lair to get his battle gear on.

Party faces the choice of either immediate chase and maybe catch him off-guard or wait and face a prepared mage...they choose to chase.

Partway there the mage's familiar attacks with some helpful snow golem wolves, Encounter #3... EL -2

Most of the way there, the Glacier suddenly starts moving under the party, Encounter #4 EL-3 {skill bases, but still an encounter}

Finally, Encounter #5, EL +2, they burst into the lair and face the almost prepared mage and his golem.


Thats 5 reasonable encounters in one game-time day. The party ended the day having exhausted almost all thier resources and trooped back to civilization weary but happy they saved the world from impending doom ... and really really pissed at me for putting all the treasure into the Mithral Golem....

[sidetrack]Yes, this is one of my rather obvious railroads. Once the party started the adventure they had little choices beyond forging ahead or running away. In the end it turned out to be a very enjoyable game for all involved. How much of this was the novelty of 3.x and the off-the-map critters I was using..who knows. Either way the final battle was challenging and the group won the day through inventive use of the golem.
Learned alot about what to do, and not do, in 3.x as far as character builds go [/sidetrek]

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Not sure about that.

You're not me.

My first home brew adventure in 3.X has an advanture timeline that went like this:

Plot device to get the party going.. something about an evil wizard bent on destroying the world up in glacier land

Overland travel and see the country - aka handwave with pretty descriptions as civilized land gave way to rough and tumble-

Arrive at the village to seek answers around noon... discover the place is deserted and mostly frozen over..
Encounter #1, Ice Drake, EL -3
Ice Drake was the pet of a couple Ice Trolls that hear the combat from thier lair in the lake nearby... leads almost directly into Encounter #2, Ice Trolls, EL 0 {would be higher but the party is stacks with Fire stuff.. to which Ice Trolls really dont like...}

While they are fighting the trolls, they notice an aged man watching them from a distant hill-top.. the BBEG. After finishing off the trolls and confirming the old man is the BBEG {courtesy of a Magic Missle Volley late in the battle vs the Trolls} They give chase... he moves alot faster than they do {SnowGlide spell} and heads for his lair to get his battle gear on.

Party faces the choice of either immediate chase and maybe catch him off-guard or wait and face a prepared mage...they choose to chase.

Partway there the mage's familiar attacks with some helpful snow golem wolves, Encounter #3... EL -2

Most of the way there, the Glacier suddenly starts moving under the party, Encounter #4 EL-3 {skill bases, but still an encounter}

Finally, Encounter #5, EL +2, they burst into the lair and face the almost prepared mage and his golem.


Thats 5 reasonable encounters in one game-time day. The party ended the day having exhausted almost all thier resources and trooped back to civilization weary but happy they saved the world from impending doom ... and really really pissed at me for putting all the treasure into the Mithral Golem....

That was five encounters, but four were very low EL. Maybe the encounters weren't "really" EL -3, but if they were, they would be kind of ... wimpy. (The glacier encounter sounds cool, if only because PCs probably aren't optimized to deal with that kind of encounter.)

Now you have to be prepared to write encounters like that for every adventuring day. Most of the above encounters had only one or two creature types involved, too.

 

[kigmatzomat]

You don't need to have 4 encounters for each and every day, just when you have encounters there should be several of them. IMC there are encounters probably once a week on average, with usually several days of stress followed by a month of inactivity.

The typical encounters would be:
scout
outer guards
inner guards
BBEG

For wilderness this could be:
wandering critter
critter mate/parent
scavenger attracted to scent & noise
predator attracted to noise/scent or following scavengers


The point is that trouble tends to beget trouble. If the party knows they will likely attract more foes, the party will react in a different, more cautious fashion. It particularly encourages casters & psions to hold back power in reserve while letting those unlimited use warlocks, pyrokineticists & soulknives use their powers without being dwarfed or rendered irrelevant.

 

[Al the Absentminded]

I think scout/outer guards/inner guards/BBEG only makes sense when you have good stealth.

If the enemy is alerted, it becomes more:

Scout
Entire Group Minus Reserve
Chasing the Reserve
Scouring the area for runaways

Assuming an army or tribal structure to the enemy, of course.

-Albert the Absentminded

 

[Goolpsy]

this widely depend on our DM... im always hard.. and 1-2 encounters is survivable per day

We have several times cleared out 1-2 dungeons without resting... and sometimes we couldn't even rest.. soo....

 

[Nail]

You don't need to have 4 encounters for each and every day, just when you have encounters there should be several of them. ...

Sure. No argument there.

....But does "several" mean 4? 5? 6? Etc. And, just as importantly, do the PCs have the option to decide the pace? Too much DM railroading, I think we all agree, is not a Good Thing(tm).

Besides: So long as the DM mixes it up often enough, the Players will be on their toes, and classes like the Psion won't feel they can go Nova all the time and get away with it.