Status Quo vs. Designed Encounters

[shouit]

I was reading the DMG. Yes, I know one should not read it cover to cover, but I am doing it anyways. Never done it before. Never really had the time. Plus, after reading CoC d20 I felt that Monte had enough good things to say in that book that I should try to read the stuff he has to say about DMing d20 fantasy. Anyways, I digress.

In the DMG, it talks about Status Quo encounters, the ones that are put in the world, without thought of the players; ie The ancient Red Dragon on the hill. Everyone knows she's there, but no one dares and goes mess with her. And the designed encounters, the ones made specifically for the PC's. It talks that if you are going to throw in Status Quo encounters, warn your party that everything they hear about is not always what the want to go after.

Well, I was talking to one of my players and told him about this. Thinking I would throw in some Status Quo encounters. He freaked out a bit. He said why put encounters in the world that have nothing to do with the players. He said that would be a waste of time and that I was trying to kill the party. Is this true? That the sole purpose of Status Quo encounters are to kill the party. I thought they made the world a more living breathing thing. What do you guys think?

 

[enrious]

I honestly don't know how a player could tell the difference unless you told them.

 

[Psion]

I honestly don't know how a player could tell the difference unless you told them.

That's sort of the point. Some players get so into metagame thinking that sometimes they think every encounter was made for them to fight. But it shatters my SOD when they approach it from that angle. Throwing such encounters in your world lends it a feel of consistency and life, as the players are not the only creatures in the world.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't make designed encounters. Making every NPC or monster that the players could bump into is too much work.

 

[Luddite]

Adding "Status Quo" encouters takes a little effort to introduce to your players. You need to start early in the campaign. But also start with something that would only be about 2 or 3 levels away. Also it helps to introduce some very high level PCs in the world.

In my fisrt adventure, the NPC who gave the players their first "quest" was a mid-teens "General" of the Royal Army. And I also hinted that the current King of the Country was an Epic Level character, about to die and transend in to Godhood. My Players were level one at the time.

The idea is to make sure the players know that there are powerful things out there. So when I do throw a small detachment of Level 7 Fighters from the Royal Army, they won't be surprised.

This also explains why the players don't see "big" things where they are right now. They have been in areas guarded by the Army. They would of delt with anything that was a big threat in that area. So for now the Chracters run in to small encounters that don't warrent a full military respoance.

For example. One are of my world is a Hilly and low Mountians area were many giant type creatures exist. [ ogres, trolls, hill giants and larger ]. The party has run into ogres and one troll. But each encouter in "out of the way" places that was not patrolled and they threat was small enough that the Military did not send any resources to take care of. (There is an open bounty on some creatures in the area, so that entices younger groups to hunt and take care of the "smaller" giants)

Last aventure, I had the players meet the Arch-Villan in a socail encounter. I told them that he was at least level 15 and had his own army. Fortunately the villan does not see the party as a threat yet. In fact he kind of finds them useful....for now.


It is all about how you set up your world.

-The Luddite

 

[MaxKaladin]

As others said, it's about defining your world. There's nothing wrong with status quo encounters, especially once your players know there's stuff that you just can't beat out there. They help make the word yours and, if used right, give people the sense that the world is moving around them.

For instance, in one campaign I ran in college, I distributed a newspaper. The newspaper often had ads asking for adventurers. One of my status quo encounters was a great wyrm red dragon (2nd edition) laired somewhere in a mountain range deep in the wilderness. This dragon had captured the daughter of a prominent noble house of the city. Her family kept posting ads trying to hire adventurers to rescue her, though the PCs were far too low level when this started. As the campaign progressed, the ads grew larger and larger promising greater rewards, titles, fame, and everything else to entice adventurers to go rescue her. Meanwhile, the PCs found out through rumor and other stories in the paper (including an official announcement by the city government) that several prominent groups had gone after the dragon and either never returned or only shattered and maimed survivors had returned with the horrors of the lair. The players ended up dodging recruiters for this mission more than once and it was an important part of making that campaign feel 'alive'. They might have eventually gone after it, but the campaign ended too soon due to other reasons. Too bad since I had been keeping a file of every nasty dragon trick I could think of or find on the net somewhere!


I, too, hate the idea that everything was put there for the players to fight. However, if it helps with your player, explain that things like the "Dragon on the hill" are set encounters that are famous throughout the land. The players might not be tough enough to take them right then, but can make an attempt whenever they think they're tough enough to succede. If they succede, they'll be that much more famous for killing the feared "Dragon on the hill" than they would be for some schmuck monster without a decent PR department....

 

[JoeGKushner]

I agree that status quo encounters should be kept and I have a real hard time understanding how a player could get confused.

Group of 1st level characters: "Man, did you hear? The frost giants are attacking a fortress about a month's travel from here. Let's go reinforce it!"

Most players, not their characters mind you, have a pretty good idea of what power level creatures are and although they shouldn't, they usually use that player knowledge to avoid truly dangerous pitfalls.

 

[Humanophile]

The only time not to use status quo encounters is if you're plopping the party into some random dungeon, and the whole night has a beer&pretzels feel to it. Other than that, status quo encounters only kill the party if the party decides to turn it into a fight. (OK, you'll have to metagame a little here, but any DM knows that you don't put the party against something they can't kill without giving them an out. If the encounter is too big for them to handle, they can try to talk to it, hide from it, flee it, bribe it, or just not approach in the first place.)

Besides, having only encounters keyed to the party leads to the power level ramping up at about their pace, not really letting them enjoy the benefits of levelling up. Sometimes it's nice for epic heros to put the fear of god into some orcs, other times it's nice for midlevel characters to build a grudge that they fufill at higher levels.

 

[Victim]

Of course, the characters will likely have some knowledge too. "Frost Giants? I've heard they they can strike down 10 men-at-arms with a single swipe of their tree-sized clubs! Are you out of your mind?"

Status quo encounters make the PCs feel really special when they can defeat the ancient dragon, or loot the Dungeon of Insant Death, etc. In FR, there were a bunch of drow bands attacking places in the Dales. Our group wanders around doing various things and growing in power. By the end of the campaign, we were using telepportation to respond to their attacks and counter attacking their camps. It feels like a major accomplishment to change a feature of the region.

 

[Crothian]

It's the same with high level, known NPCs. Everyworld has them. Some are good, some evil, some open, some mysterious. So, ya the PCs may complain when they run into one before they are supposed to, same with the monsters. You just have to be ready for that. Most PCs should have the common sense to avoid combat with them.

This does bring up another point. PCs should win ever encounter. There can be stalemates and even some loses. The PCs need to know when retreat is in order. I've had groups that failed to realize that, even as they were dieing in combat. So, it's something you have to becareful about.

 

[Schmoe]

Well, I was talking to one of my players and told him about this. Thinking I would throw in some Status Quo encounters. He freaked out a bit. He said why put encounters in the world that have nothing to do with the players.

Because the world is larger than the players. There are things in the world that have nothing to do with the characters, unless they choose to somehow involve themselves.

He said that would be a waste of time and that I was trying to kill the party.

The party only faces perilous danger if they choose to confront it. There is some responsibility on the DM's part to present the party with challenges they can overcome, but it by no means covers every challenge they might face. The best stories sprout from defeat, and that can't happen if the game is designed so that the party can defeat everything they come across when they come across it.

That the sole purpose of Status Quo encounters are to kill the party. I thought they made the world a more living breathing thing. What do you guys think?

For wilderness areas, I construct random encounter tables that have a range of encounter levels. Many encounters will be but a trivial threat to the party, but some will spell certain doom if the party chooses to stand and fight. It is up to the party to choose. I have a custom Knowledge skill (Knowledge, Zoology) that helps characters ascertain in-game whether an encounter is too much for them.

When it comes time to create plots and adventures for the party, I usually have one or two plot hooks that are well beyond the party's current capabilities. I always drop hints as to the challenges they are likely to face, but then it is up to the party to choose where they want to go.

For example, when my current party was still first level, they were trying to figure out a way to "earn" thousands of gold. They had four potential places to seek their fortune - Joven's Tower, an abaondoned keep periodically home to bandits; the caves along The Step bordering the Lonesome Wood, occupied by goblins and fae; the Scar Hills, home to orcs, where Reinhold Ragnarson made his fortune many decades prior; and hunting the bands of ogres that were raiding the local plains and had kidnapped the daughter of the local magistrate. If the party decided to go hunt ogres, well, that's what would happen. If a player later complained that I was out to kill the party, I would simply remind him that the decision lay with him.