Improvising Encounters - hard?

[S'mon]

Because I'm runnning a 3.5e sandbox "Vault of Larin Karr" for 4e, and I'm too lazy to do most conversions in advance, I'm effectively improvisin most of it. This does sometimes require using 2 MM pages at once if I want to stick closely to the text, eg there was a fight with 3 orcs and a troll recently.

In pure improv though you can stick with all monsters on the same page if you prefer - you don't really need the MM2 Pirate stats I referenced above; I could just open the Human pages, which I am already familiar with 'cos there are lots of humans IMC! With appropriate reskinning a bunch of Human Lackeys minion-7, Bandits skirmisher-2, a Mage controller-4, maybe a Berserker brute-4, ought to work fine for a 5th level piratical encounter.

This doesn't require being familiar with every page in the MM. It certainly doesn't require knowing monster powers in advance, since the beauty of 4e is that it's all right there on the page!

Edit: As far as the scenery goes, I'll either sketch something or use an appropriate floorplan/mat from my collection.

 

[ExploderWizard]

With the monster builder I don't have any problems making sure there are generic stats around for different types of random encounters. I am running Return to the Keep on the Borderlands with 4E and the whole adventure really has no "beaten path". Once I generated stats for everything that was in the general region, the players could explore where they like, follow up on quests or not as they choose. Its handy to always keep stats for the following around just in case:

1)Generic thugs (these can be bandits, gang members, pirates, etc as needed)

2)A leader type for the thugs that might know something useful enough to be an adventure hook.

3)Some guards or other representative of law enforcement for the area.

4)An assortment of animals/ beasts/ vermin that are likely to be found in the region.

With those basics assembled ahead of time the players can wander anywhere in the area and possibly encounter something that looks like it was planned all along.

 

[OchreJelly]

I have never had an easier time improvising encounters than in 4E. I have never run a rules light system so I can't use that as my basis for comparison, but compared to 3E it's a world of difference.

I'm constantly doing simple adjustments on the fly, like dropping or adding monsters dependant on how many players could make it that week. I could do that in 3E also, but it took years of practice due to the lack of transparency of what were expected values for a given level, and the CR system was... well, the CR system. Moreover, I typically used monsters with class levels or templates which was its own prep time-sync.

Now we have the monster-builder and it just opens up even more time for me to make creative choices, rather than spending time on the grunt work. Love it! It may be the single thing I like most out of 4E (but I have always been a critter guy). While time spent in encounters is questionable, prep-time and improvising have been greatly improved.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Now we have the monster-builder and it just opens up even more time for me to make creative choices, rather than spending time on the grunt work. Love it! It may be the single thing I like most out of 4E (but I have always been a critter guy). While time spent in encounters is questionable, prep-time and improvising have been greatly improved.

Yay! Lets hear it for the monster builder. Because of the monster builder, even time spent in encounters isn't a problem so far. As a player, I experienced a lot of play with encounters that seemed to drag on forever but most of that experience came from published material. Now that I am running and designing everything for my campaign, we have not experienced the same time sink with encounters. More at-will damage output combined with an average 25-30% HP reduction for most creatures has helped a lot, and the MB makes this a snap to do.

 

[avin]

I'm not that comfortable with 4E like I was with GURPS 3E or D&D 3.5 to create encounters on the fly.

My solution would be have the Monster Builder and a printer around the game table...

 

[Barastrondo]

I don't game with a laptop and the monster builder at the table, which is certainly a good way of handling it. However, I love reskinning. And when I anticipate running a campaign rather than a one-shot, I like to prepare index cards with short and sweet monster blocks ahead of time. If I were running a 5th-level game, for instance, I would probably want a variety of 4th-to-6th-level stat blocks that can be reskinned: for example, "orc bruiser" might be a L4 brute with a two-handed weapon, and if I decide to use him as a pirate, he loses the orcish racial power and maybe gains some thematic "pirate" thing and now uses a big boarding axe or a gaff on a pole.

Most frequently my monster cards are written in ink, leaving me room to pencil in level adjustments nearby. That L4 orc bruiser might get pencil notes making him L2 or L6, depending on the players' level. So there's a certain level of prep work to having those stat blocks ready to go, but once I have enough of them ready, I can practically start rolling for random encounters. Monster builder aficionados probably have it even easier than I do.

(This was admittedly something I learned from running a lot of Champions back in the day; with enough characters built beforehand, and a willingness to reskin published villains, you could always ad lib an encounter because stat blocks were reusable: you probably didn't kill that villain in your last encounter, after all. And even if you did, hey, comic book death.)

While you could recycle stat blocks with any edition of D&D, I think 4e has a distinct advantage in being explicitly built for it. Having monster role be the foundation of stat blocks means it's much easier to make a minotaur from an ogre or vice versa. And honestly, the players don't tend to notice unless they do a lot of running the game and reskinning themselves.

 

[Gort]

Find five equal-level brutes and give them any powers you think appropriate. Say you want pirates, grab a level 5 brute, let him climb on rigging and say YARR whenever he uses his rechargeable power, and you're there. Stick some loaded cannons around the place as well as a fuse running to the powder magazine.

 

[Rawion]

I thought this should go in its own thread.
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Edit 2: I don't normally bother with XP budgets, but if I wanted a 1000 XP/level 5 'balanced' encounter then:

Pirate (1) XP 400
Lackeys (6) XP 75 x 6 = 450
Mage (1) XP 175

Total: 1025

I'm thinking there that the Pirate is most likely a senior officer of the ship - a bosun, first mate, sub-chief sort of level; while the Lackeys are typical mook pirates,

Fast Fact: its called a Boatswain as opposed to a "bosun". Just thought I'd be Mr. Nit-Pick today.

 

[Henrix]

Fast Fact: its called a Boatswain as opposed to a "bosun". Just thought I'd be Mr. Nit-Pick today.

And bosun (or even boson) is an alternate spelling, and more phonetic, of boatswain.
Just to nitpick right back at you.

 

[Thasmodious]

I was always an improv heavy DM, but 3e changed a lot of that, by building monsters on the PC frame, every skill point, feat, prereq, etc., needed to be accounted for. I wasn't nearly as comfortable improvising situations in 3e as I was in earlier editions. 4e has brought back the improv in me. I run both 4e and SW (assuming SW = Savage Worlds, didn't see Wik's original post), and yes SW is easier, but not by a "helluva lot". It's just an advantage of a lighter system. Still, 4e is designed with improv in mind, and with a bit of prep, you can make it easier.

The starting point is page 42 of the DMG, which will let you improv about anything really on the fly, but for better monster improv, I made up a couple of sheets in my DMs notebook to handle winging about any combat. At the top is the short and fast formula for modding monsters (+/- 5 levels and the hit points by role formulas). Then I have several very basic statblocks for humanoids at level 5, the blocks include basic attack information, one or two generic, description free blocks per monster role. After that is a list of racial powers like kobold tactics, shifty goblins, orcs battle heal, etc. Then a list of generic powers taken from example monsters and statted to level 5, like the hobgoblin warcasters force lure. I've got it listed as Short Range Magic - ranged 5, +9, 2d6+5 + effect. I can use it for anything, a wizards lightning blast (add dazed), a druid earthbind (immobilizes), whatever. I do this for different types of attacks, straight damage, damage + effect, effect only. I have the whole heroic tier covered and can wing any combat situation without needing to thumb through books or the Compendium. Just level something up or down, add some minions (I also have generic level 5 minion stats) and encounter good to go. The PCs were last seen nearing Paragon, so I will write up a level 15 set of notes when we get back to that game (we are knee deep in a SW game right now).