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Tell me about The Abomination Vaults
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<blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8212268" data-attributes="member: 70468"><p>This is all awesome stuff. I’d like to add a couple of things that apply generally but not necessarily to this AP (but hopefully since the Abomination Vaults is trying to be a large dungeon complex).</p><p></p><p>The first thing is that not every encounter needs to be a fight. If it seems like the monsters might just be guarded or cautious towards the PCs, start with that and see what happens next. If the PCs can get a chance to parlay, they can potentially avoid fights or even make friends. In a large dungeon, there are usually factions. If you make friends, it reduces the number of things that are trying to kill you, and your friends can help you out against the other factions.</p><p></p><p>The second thing is don’t have everything fight to the death. In old-school D&D, morale mechanics help diffuse fights by making it possible for them to end early. You don’t have to add morale to PF2, but if the PCs kill an important combatant or just do particularly good, have monsters pull back or even surrender. If you just roll things into the next fight, that can be bad, so don’t do that. Think of the implications of that, and have the creatures in the dungeon react organically. However, keep in mind also that consequences need not be immediate (e.g., “Think offscreen too”).</p><p></p><p>Both of these may be what [USER=7026314]@!DWolf[/USER] means by narrative difficulty control, but I figured they were worth calling out explicitly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kenada, post: 8212268, member: 70468"] This is all awesome stuff. I’d like to add a couple of things that apply generally but not necessarily to this AP (but hopefully since the Abomination Vaults is trying to be a large dungeon complex). The first thing is that not every encounter needs to be a fight. If it seems like the monsters might just be guarded or cautious towards the PCs, start with that and see what happens next. If the PCs can get a chance to parlay, they can potentially avoid fights or even make friends. In a large dungeon, there are usually factions. If you make friends, it reduces the number of things that are trying to kill you, and your friends can help you out against the other factions. The second thing is don’t have everything fight to the death. In old-school D&D, morale mechanics help diffuse fights by making it possible for them to end early. You don’t have to add morale to PF2, but if the PCs kill an important combatant or just do particularly good, have monsters pull back or even surrender. If you just roll things into the next fight, that can be bad, so don’t do that. Think of the implications of that, and have the creatures in the dungeon react organically. However, keep in mind also that consequences need not be immediate (e.g., “Think offscreen too”). Both of these may be what [USER=7026314]@!DWolf[/USER] means by narrative difficulty control, but I figured they were worth calling out explicitly. [/QUOTE]
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