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<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 8618803" data-attributes="member: 42040">This is springing from a lively disagreement I'm having in the Rime of the Frostmaiden Post-Mortem regarding a &quot;really big deal&quot; (no spoilers) that the module doesn't elaborate upon in any way that can seriously change the focus of the campaign. It brings to mind a recent conversation I was having with a friend while driving 6 hours to GaryCon. He was telling me about a bad adventure with a poorly constructed encounter, which I'll refer to as &quot;Orcs on Stairs.&quot; This encounter had an element that could end the campaign (or at the very least, many characters' lives) with next to no detail. So an &quot;Orcs on Stairs&quot; will be a stand-in for &quot;incomplete details.&quot;In his case, he was a new DM who was starting in the era of 4E. He didn't remember the name of the adventure, and some details may be wrong, but you'll get the idea.The characters are climbing stairs on the side of an impossibly tall tower (or mountain pass, whatever). The orcs have crossbows that are built with enough force to push characters off the ledge. The adventure clearly states that the stairs are &quot;probably tall enough that falling would likely be fatal.&quot; But it doesn't give the distance. It doesn't give what the falling damage would be. What do you do? I guess a new DM like my friend is to shrug their shoulders and say &quot;I guess you fall off and die?&quot;There are gaps in published adventures that any halfway decent writer should pick up. Like obviously when you are dealing with an encounter where falling is important and you have creatures designed to push characters off a narrow walkway, you need to give information about height. If you refer to rules about catching yourself, falling damage, etc., that's bonus. But you at least have to provide the height.So in the case of &quot;Rime&quot; we see that the writers completely negate an important component of the plot, something that no good aligned party will be able to pass up. Something that is set up like a mystery with no follow-up information. What are some other examples of Orcs on Stairs you've seen?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 8618803, member: 42040"] This is springing from a lively disagreement I'm having in the Rime of the Frostmaiden Post-Mortem regarding a "really big deal" (no spoilers) that the module doesn't elaborate upon in any way that can seriously change the focus of the campaign. It brings to mind a recent conversation I was having with a friend while driving 6 hours to GaryCon. He was telling me about a bad adventure with a poorly constructed encounter, which I'll refer to as "Orcs on Stairs." This encounter had an element that could end the campaign (or at the very least, many characters' lives) with next to no detail. So an "Orcs on Stairs" will be a stand-in for "incomplete details." In his case, he was a new DM who was starting in the era of 4E. He didn't remember the name of the adventure, and some details may be wrong, but you'll get the idea. The characters are climbing stairs on the side of an impossibly tall tower (or mountain pass, whatever). The orcs have crossbows that are built with enough force to push characters off the ledge. The adventure clearly states that the stairs are "probably tall enough that falling would likely be fatal." But it doesn't give the distance. It doesn't give what the falling damage would be. What do you do? I guess a new DM like my friend is to shrug their shoulders and say "I guess you fall off and die?" There are gaps in published adventures that any halfway decent writer should pick up. Like obviously when you are dealing with an encounter where falling is important and you have creatures designed to push characters off a narrow walkway, you need to give information about height. If you refer to rules about catching yourself, falling damage, etc., that's bonus. But you at least have to provide the height. So in the case of "Rime" we see that the writers completely negate an important component of the plot, something that no good aligned party will be able to pass up. Something that is set up like a mystery with no follow-up information. What are some other examples of Orcs on Stairs you've seen? [/QUOTE]

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