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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark" data-source="post: 182022" data-attributes="member: 5">The sad fact of the matter is that sometimes PCs die.  This can happen when players don't approach Designed encounters carefully just as easily as when they go galavanting off to a Status Quo encounter they have no business trying to tackle.I'm a firm believer in projecting a world that is vast and varied.  But I don't think it is enough to just warn players that some things are currently beyond their abilities.  I think the versimilitude is strained when there aren't enough interesting Designed choices of which the PCs are capable of handling.  They need to be interesting enough to attract the attention, pose a threat and promise an appropriate reward.Too often I've seen suggested Designed encounters that are propped up as nibbling at the heels of the real villain.  If a situation proposes that you go knock off a few underlings of the local tyrant just to stick a thorn in his side and because it's all you can handle at this level, you're likely to find the party planning a direct assault on the local tyrant in the hopes that dealing with him will be a better solution and glean greater treasure.  This will often forego the Designed encounter even if the Status Quo tyrant is far too great a match for the party because they feel the Designed encounter has no direct benefit and not enough importance.  If, OTOH, you mention that the underlings are transporting a portion of the tyrant's treasure (including something a local temple needs to perform the Spring Ritual) to another location it becomes a worthwhile adventure.A large part of what I've noticed at games that feel unchallenging is that the DM wants to move his game along to the Status Quo encounters because he's come up with such a neat idea he just can't wait to get the party there.  The interim encounters are presented with a yawn and reaching for the dice...yet again.  Keeping a sense of heightened excitment at all levels of play is very important.  It helps keep the Designed encounters interesting even if they are not much more than slaying a few kobolds.Just my two cents... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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