Stringing together multiple encounters

[SteveC]

So I've just started playing a new campaign at Paragon level, and my GM did something very interesting: he strung together four encounters without a five minute rest.

We had been discussing the recent columns on pacing and 4E, so I found the experiment he's running (we're just going into encounter number 4) to be very interesting.

What I've learned from this is that it's important to let your players know this is something you're doing. My GM didn't do this, which had some drastic effects in the later encounters (it became a sort of at-will fest, punctuated by daily explosions).

Second, it made (actually it's making: we're not done yet!) the game much more tense and challenging. My character, a defender, has plenty of surges available, but he currently has no way to spend anymore. Each of the encounters have used lower level monsters that would not be a huge challenge on their own, but put together, it has been quite challenging.

Third, and most interesting to me, is that it has changed the feeling of the game to be much more in keeping with earlier editions of the game. It feels much more like we're playing something from an earlier time.

To me, that last point is the most important one: the new encounter mechanic seems to be responsible for a huge change in how the game plays out.

Those are my observations... does anyone else have experience with this? The one thing I'd really recommend if you're going to do this is to let your players know in advance... unless you're feeling really cruel.

 

[Aulirophile]

So like waves of level-2 standards and/or minions, except rather then them coming to you you're going to them? Yeah, done that (both ways). It makes encounter long stances/powers ridiculously effective and can make people whose dailies last for a round or an attack feel really useless. Makes eClasses really, really powerful. It can also really easily kill the party if they are depending on one of the weaker leader classes who don't allow you to spend as many surges on a per encounter basis.

Gabe from Penny Arcade had an encounter that lasted all night where they were walking over an area they couldn't rest on at all, but he had a power recovery/spend a surge mechanic. That was actually neat and effective.

 

[SteveC]

One really important point about these encounters were that every "until the end of the encounter" powers dropped: the assumption was that we had spend more than five minutes, we just didn't have time to rest. It make a huge difference!

 

[Aulirophile]

So something lasts for five minutes... but you don't have five minutes, yet it goes away? Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense and it would bother me personally because there is a reasonable expectation on the player's part that the rules are going to do what they say, unless they are told otherwise in advance.

Without a power recovery mechanic or some interesting thing (siege engines, encounter 1 is knocking down the walls, encounter 2 is running in to take the walls, encounter 3 is turning the static defenses of the castle around to help take the courtyard) to do with your standard actions it devolves to at-will spam. Which is... boring.

 

[SteveC]

So something lasts for five minutes... but you don't have five minutes, yet it goes away? Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense and it would bother me personally because there is a reasonable expectation on the player's part that the rules are going to do what they say, unless they are told otherwise in advance.

It made sense in this context: we were on a series of ships and had to swim between them, so it was not a resting situation. We were (are) on a time clock, so we couldn't just spend the downtime and then move on.

I'd have to say that if it were just done as waves of encounters, the whole thing would have been pretty trivial: I have four dailys that last until the end of the encounter and stack together, and have had to pace them appropriately. I wouldn't like to do this every time, mind you, but it has made for a very exciting and different setpiece.

 

[korjik]

One really important point about these encounters were that every "until the end of the encounter" powers dropped: the assumption was that we had spend more than five minutes, we just didn't have time to rest. It make a huge difference!

I would get really fussy about rules and exact timing in that case. Especially if this was an out of the blue thing.

Of course, the moral of the story is: Healing Potions!

They may not be very efficient, but even the cheap ones would allow you to use up some surges that were sitting around doing nothing.

 

[SteveC]

I would get really fussy about rules and exact timing in that case. Especially if this was an out of the blue thing.

Of course, the moral of the story is: Healing Potions!

They may not be very efficient, but even the cheap ones would allow you to use up some surges that were sitting around doing nothing.

Oh my yes! I'd say that you should never, under any circumstances, leave home without healing potions. Unfortunately, we're under some major magic item restrictions, and I didn't have room for it.

 

[SkullThrone]

I do this sort of thing in my campaign all the time, and I don't warn the party it's coming (what fun would that be)...I found that chaining encounters you can get by with less creatures and actually get through a large number of encounters in a session, because with limited ways of using getting surges they have to make the call to actually 2nd wind or to tough it out.

The game has a much faster pace and the party can pretty much guess when its coming, but I still can sucker them into using encounter powers by using larger low level creatures or more minion types.

I like the change of pace this adds, rather than spend 60-120 minutes on a typical level+2 encounter with traps and terrain features (which can be fun too), I find it nice to do a rapid fire one at a time encounter with creatures below their levels.

As people above pointed out, it can be a At-Will fest, but the creatures typically go down quick, and even if they are staggered so every 3 rounds another creature over hears the battle and joins in, this staggering can allow them to mow through creatures quickly, as the party is focused completely on the same baddie all the time.

I too think this plays much more like previous editions, but I find it challenging to come up with a sense of urgency that causes the party to force themselves into chaining encounters, so I find in most cases I need to bring the battle to them.

When experimenting with this I think the DM can start by chaining a bunch of Level-2 or Level-3 single creatures together, using elites or brutes in the mix every other encounter is good to challenge the party, but it's more the duration than a single creature anyway.

 

[SkullThrone]

I forgot one more thing...the staggering can really catch the party off guard and make what would have been an easy encounter much more difficult.

The reason this is the case is this situation...Start with one large brute...well they think this guy is tougher than it may be, and all want to be involved so all the melee guys run in...(works especially good if this guys has marking or threatening reach)

Then the next round a controller comes in and somewhat locks them in place...followed by another brute which the squishy guys have to deal with in melee, and they start dropping.

The same creatures visible all at once would go much better for the party as they would split the tanks on the brutes, and the ranged guys would focus on the guy the strikers were on, but the squishy's would not be left to fend for themselves.

 

[Aulirophile]

I always get the feeling when people talk about "mixing in" things like this that they don't actually say which monsters are minions/standard/elite/solo (which is fine) but that their players also don't Monster Knowledge Check as a No Action to figure it out.