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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 3312400" data-attributes="member: 2">Action points definitely help with this. The other thing I do is plan for cinematic locations and encounters, but not necessarily cinematic results from the heroes.For instance: I start planning encounters by considering what would be coolest for the PCs. I get an image in my mind -- the PCs desperately fighting their way up a waterfall, a hall full of mirrors reflecting beams of sunlight throughout the dark and dusty space, a red dragon lairing in a cavern of sentient lava -- places that would look neat if you dumped them onto a movie screen. Then I try to think of neat tactics for the bad guys who are there and who know their own surroundings. When the heroes show up, I try to rule on the side of creativity when they try cool or clever tactics. When the bad guy and the location seem cinematic, the heroes usually try to match them, and more often than not they succeed dramatically. Are they sometimes going to flub terribly and fail? Heck, yeah. But better to fail in a memorable encounter than in a minor, forgettable one.When you can't make a location memorable, try for a NPC. Change the appearance or age of your generic monster encounters. The albino troll, the ancient and wrinkled mind flayer - these tend to stick in a player's mind as unique. That way, if you tie them into some plot later, the players will easily bring them to mind.Merric, we play every two weeks, always on the same night (Thursday), usually for three and a half hours. Figure 25 times a year on average. We hit year fifteen this June, which approximates to about 375 games. The biggest frustration has been players moving away; we've had very few people drop out, but a lot of folks over the years have moved to the west coast. When my wife's long-time bard was eaten, we were left with only one character  from way back in the first year. Every other PC has been with the party only about five-eight years or so.</blockquote>

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