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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RHGreen" data-source="post: 4994856">What probably needs to be done to the 4E system of encounter design to avoid this sort of problem, and generally improve it a little, is to separate the enviroment from the monsters. Currently, and with the exception of wandering monsters in all older editions, encounters are statically clamped enviroment-monster based. If you separate the 2 you could have a map with encounter areas and a collection of monster groups. What has this to do with the 5min working day? Well, if the PCs retreat from the dungeon the monster groups can follow them back to town and harass them without being physically clamped into a particular area. The encounter just becomes wherever the PCs happen to be attacked. If they are attacked in a wooded area use a premade woodland encounter map. If the DM wanted all the monster groups in a given adventure could attack them in waves. Why would the PCs care wether they are being attacked on the way back to town instead of in a dungeon? Well, give them disadvantages for being routed and being attacked on the fly while on the run. It would be to the PCs advantage to take the offensive in the dungeon rather than be on the back foot. This design would make the whole adventure thing more dynamic. This way you could have the encounters come to the PCs. It's a new way to railroad through an adventure without actually railroading the players and ruining the game. If you can't make the PCs go to the mountain make the mountain come to the PCs. If the PCs are sitting around in their inn room all the time - have the evil leader send one of his monster groups through the window. You could also make it so that overland travel drains Healing Surges so that when they are ambushed they are at another disadvantage. It would be better for them to secure a local area by killing the local threat and rest there rather than tracking back and forth.  Just some ideas.</blockquote>

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