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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cronuss" data-source="post: 5180167" data-attributes="member: 90168">Hey everyone,While I've known a bit about D&D for over a decade, especially 2nd edition from the books and games (BG series, etc), I'm really new to DMing and 4th edition.Myself and some friends picked up the books last weekend and gave it a go. Two nights in a row we played for about 3-4 hours each night, and I just improvised as DM for now. I basically gave them some locations to play around in and then created some NPCs and plot along the way, then a few battles. It all went surprisingly well and everyone enjoyed themselves.Here is my question:I'm a bit blurry on how to manage gameplay and events while outside of an encounter. I understand that within an encounter you use the tiles and obey the rules of speed, turns, etc. So if someone wanted to pick a lot or use a bluff they would have to get to the object and then make it a standard action. If they fail, they would have to wait for their turn to attempt it again.What about when you aren't in an "encounter"?First of all, I'm having a hard time understanding what is or should be an actual "encounter" or not, What if my party is exploring without tiles and without being in an encounter, and I want to have a single monster attack? Is that an encounter? More specifically, my question is in regards to how to handle the other things like lock picking, bluffs,  rituals, spells, etc when outside of an encounter. Say my party goes into an Inn and they find a chest in there. Should I just let my rogue PC roll the dice infinitely to try and unlock it? Or what if someone wants to kill an NPC in that room? Or if they find a door they want to smash or lock pick, or if they want to cast a spell (is that even possible outside of an "encounter"?) or use a ritual?I'm sorry if my questions are confusing or jumbled, but that should just show how confused I am on this whole subject.I can not decipher when I should be using tiles and obeying speeds and turns.I watched Chris Perkin's Robot Chicken session and he used tiles for basically the entire session, except for the intro. Can someone clarify encounters, tiles, and ability/skill/power/etc usage when outside of encounters?Thanks.:\</blockquote>

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