Encounters
Encounters are the challenges and interactions that test a player's choices and a characters' abilities, driving the story's direction based on their outcomes.
Encounters represent key moments where players engage directly with the game world and face obstacles, requiring them to develop strategies and use their assets and special features and teamwork to overcome difficulties.
An encounter may be entirely contained within a single scene or may span multiple scenes such as an extended combat scenario, exploration of a multi-segment location, or a chase.
Types of Encounters
Encounters can vary widely in nature, but they generally involve tests, challenges, and conflicts. Encounters can be physical, social, mental, or a combination of these elements, depending on the situation at hand.
COMBAT: Characters face off against adversaries in a physical conflict. These encounters test combat skills, tactics, and resourcefulness. They can involve hand-to-hand fighting, ranged battles, or large-scale warfare.
SOCIAL: These involve characters interacting with NPCs or other players to achieve a social goal, such as negotiating, persuading, deceiving, or gathering information. Success is often determined by communication skills, wit, and insight into others' motives.
INVESTIGATION: Players navigate and investigate an area within the scene. These encounters test perception, problem-solving, and survival skills, and may involve discovering hidden information, mapping uncharted areas, or overcoming environmental hazards.
STEALTH: In situations where direct confrontation isn’t ideal, characters may need to avoid detection or escape from a threat. These encounters test skills related to stealth, evasion, and timing.
MENTAL: Characters face intellectual obstacles requiring critical thinking and problem-solving. These encounters include riddles, codes, and other cognitive challenges that might rely on clues found during gameplay or the characters' unique knowledge.
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: Players must survive or escape natural or environmental dangers like fires, floods, or extreme weather conditions. These encounters test endurance, adaptability, and teamwork.
Running Encounters
The following outlines a typical flow procedure for running an encounter.
SETUP: Begin by describing the environment where the encounter takes place. Use vivid details to engage the players’ senses and set the mood. Mention any notable features that may be relevant to the encounter, such as objects, terrain, or potential hazards.
OBJECTIVES: Clearly establish what the players need to accomplish in the encounter. The objective could be defeating enemies, solving a problem, gathering information, or simply surviving.
CHALLENGE: Present the primary challenge of the encounter, which could be an enemy, a trap, a riddle, or a negotiation, and establish the base difficulty.
INITIATIVE: Call for initiative to enable turn-based play to structure player actions through rounds and turns.
CONCLUSION: Wrap up the encounter by narrating the outcome, describing how it affects the story, and any immediate consequences or rewards for the players. Provide a moment for players to reflect on the encounter, allowing them to discuss their actions, adjust their strategies, and prepare for what’s next.
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