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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8142707" data-attributes="member: 2629">Comic Books.Problem solved.What?  You want me to explain?  Comic Books isn't enough?Le SighIn comic books, the hero is often attacked by forces bent on their destruction.  Those forces fail 99.44% of the time.  From the moment the battle begins, the question is not whether Comic Book Man will win, but "how" he will win.  However, knowing the hero will win tends to be pretty boring, and clever victories only go so far to hold interest.  To keep it interesting, comic writers have to give us stakes where we can believe the hero will lose - even if we know they will not die.  TO know they can lose, at times they must lose.  Thus, we have our heroes protecting, chasing, saving, etc... while engaged in battle.  They might fail to protect the innocent citizens.  They might fail to catch the escaping Evil Dr. Villain.  They might not save their significant other from a fall (SWIK SNAP!).  In D&D, I often hear DMs saying they feel the need to make every battle deadly just to keep it interesting.  If it isn't deadly, it is boring.  These DMs can benefit from the lessons of the comics, and realize that there are ways to win and lose without it being about life and death.  Encounter 1: 2 Goblins guard the gate.  Can the PCs deal with them before they raise the alarm?  If not, they get a tougher encounter.  Encounter 2: Some goblins and a worg are arguing over which of them gets to eat the prisoners.  The PCs have to act quickly to free the prisoners before they are killed.  Deception and might are both potential options, here.Encounter 3: The PCs spot the returning tribe and are surprised to see that there are far too many goblins to fight.  They have 3 rounds to get themselves, and the rescued prisoners, into one (or more) of the alternate escape routes.    Encounter 4: Chase seen through the alternate exit, with the PCs figuring out how to cross barriers and create more barriers behind them.  Encounter 5: They exit from the back entrance to the lair and decide whether to flee by taking sleds down a mountainside, running along an icy trail, or taking the canoes into the river that runs along the mountain (hint, upcoming waterfall).  Encounter 6: A Chase scene battle in their selected escape route, with goblins trying to stop their escape more than trying to kill them, and the PCs being better off focusing on stopping the goblins from slowing their escape than trying to kill as many goblins as possible.Outside of the PCs deciding to turn and fight in Encounter 3 there is no deadly combats in a session like that one, but it can be a lot of (railroady) fun.  It is a one shot I've run many times, and it is usually a hit.  You can do the same thing in a more sandbox game, although it is a bit harder and relies upon you having more scenarios at the ready and the skill to set up, plug and play them.</blockquote>

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