I won't be recapping previous things, just jumping straight to the topic. In general, this is straightforward enough that even if you haven't read any of the earlier posts, well, it still makes sense! (hopefully...)
Note that All of the following Encounters use a fairly Civilised Setting.
1) Sahuagin Boarding Party
Background
The Heroes are on board a ship in stormy weather, and they take cover in the hold. While they are below deck, the Sahuagin raiding party board the ship.
DM Plan
There are 5 crewmen, and the Sahuagin will start to attack them. As the number reduces the more likely the ship will eventually sink even if they beat the Sahuagin, since the Heroes simply do not have the capability to sail a ship in a storm on their own. The Heroes will be faced with a dilemma of remaining in the hold or going up and facing a terrain disadvantage.
If they refuse to go upstairs, the Crew will all die and the Deathrattle Viper will enter through a pothole, distract the Heroes so the rest of the Sahuagin can enter.
Set Up
Heroes : 6x Lv 5-6 Heroes in the hold of the ship : Ardent, Mage, 2 Rangers (both Greatbow), Rogue (crossbow), Knight
Sahuagin : They arrive on the Deck of the ship. 2 Priests (Lv 8), 2 Sahuagin Raiders (Lv 7 Soldier), 4 Sahuagin Guards (Lv 7 Mook), 1 Deathrattle Viper (Lv 7 Brute)
Crewmen : 5 Minions on the Deck of the ship. They are hit on a 9+ and fall unconscious. It takes each one of them 3 rounds to die.
Actual Encounter
The Heroes hear cries of alarm and one of them peeks up on deck to see the Sahuagin climbing onto the deck. The crewmen appear to be in fear. He goes back down, tells the rest, and they decide to stay in the hold and wait for the Sahuagin to come to them. They can hear sounds of struggles and finally the sound of munching from above.
They get 1 round of Perception to notice and damage the Deathrattle Viper about to enter the pothole, before the creature bursts into the middle of the Heroes, but the Knight held his ground blocking the Stairway, and as the Sahuagin came down the Wizard placed a Phantom Chasm on the terrain. The rest was a fairly standard fight below deck.
After that, the "Heroes" arrived on deck to see all the crew dead, and the ship is tossing wildly around. They try to man the ship themselves, but their efforts are for naught and it seems clear the ship will sink. They struggle to free the rowboat of its moorings before the ship goes down, but they do not have the capability to. I had intended to drain away most of their Surges as they washed up on the Sea, but they were already talking about their Extended Rest by then.
Obviously, this was one big "Miss" Encounter, thanks mainly to me not thinking things through. Not least about the consequences if the Ship were to sink.
Hits & Misses
Miss - Roleplay : I hardly roleplayed at all, and the sailors did not even have names. This lack of immersion made the Players not care for the Sailors, and perhaps if I had put a bit more effort into it, with an emotional connection things might have been very different. RP could have been done beforehand, as you can see in the last example later.
Miss - Player Motivation : This group of Players are less heroic oriented and more practical than other groups (see Example 3). Without a strong incentive to aid the crew, they did not do anything, and preferred the more tactical approach. I was trying to get them to be more tactical the previous fights, and guess what? I reaped what I sowed.
Miss - All Hands on Deck : Saving the crew might have been improved if I had the Players on deck engaged in a Skill Challenge, aided by the Sailors to keep the ship afloat, then tossed in the Sahuagin. This was a terribly missed opportunity.
Miss - Letting the Players in on the Consequences : The biggest take home from this however, was how I did not communicate the Consequences to Players. By failing to do so, I virtually gave them no incentive to Save the Crew, and hence ruined the Encounter myself. If you want an Encounter to be more than just combat, do not understate the importance of item 2 in this multipart series : Letting your Players In on Consequences
Miss - Interesting Storm : Every round I could have had every Party Member make a Save, failing which he Falls prone or slides 2 squares in 1 randomised direction. I failed to do so, even when the benefits would be obvious, what with the huge disadvantage the Sahuagin faced coming down into the hold.
Miss - Contingency Planning : I failed to plan what would happen after all the Crew dies and the Ship sinks. This resulted in the very lame-ass effect when they failed the Skill Challenge that they ended up washed up on the shore, and though they lost surges they simply went to take an Extended Rest. Though I used this delay as a reason for the NPC they were travelling to meet to be out on a Mission, the cause-effect was not clearly shown, and so it is likely that I ended up reinforcing this sort of behavior as "Oh, so they all die? Tsk, like I care." If the consequences of the ship sinking were made clear to the Players, ideally during the Skill challenge before the Sailors actually died, they might have tried a lot harder to save the crew. Not to mention if in this failure someone actually got swept out to sea and drowned, that might also have driven the point across.
Miss - Messed Up Skill Challenge : I don't like Skill Challenges, and I didn't plan for one since I didn't do my Contingency Planning. I barely had my DCs ready. And even then, there is no excuse to run a Skill Challenge poorly. The main skill used was Strength or Athletics, out of which no one except the Knight was trained in. Once per Encounter, though I allowed a mass Aid-Another with Diplomacy through Encouragement, a Religion check to pray for divine aid, and Insight / Nature to figure out a better path to steer the ship towards, the lack of preparation was ghastly and it showed. In fact, if I had actually planned for a Contingency properly, it might not have been a Skill Challenge at all.
2) Warehouse Slaver Raid
Background
It is now night time, and the Heroes have tracked Slaver activities to a Warehouse, and have just fought some guards. The ruckus created was sufficient for those inside to hear and prepare for their arrival. Apart from knowing their enemies were Slavers, the Heroes had no idea they would have to deal with hostages.
DM Plan
The ground floor is well lit but the higher floor that runs around it is in dim light. The Slavers start on the higher platform 10' up, where some crates provide cover or superior cover for the Slavers to hide and fire on the Heroes. 2 Slaves can be kicked down from the higher platform to fall to their deaths below, and 1 more Slave is bound and gagged in a chair ; if the Heroes move to try and free him, the Slavers will drop a crate on top of both of them (which can be noticed to be suspended from the ceiling).
Slavers will threaten to kill the slaves / hostages while the Heroes can try to parley for their lives. Or the Heroes can rush in and engage them, which will likely result in the deaths of the hostages. If all the hostages are dead, when the Village Guard come to investigate and there are no neutral witnesses, the guards could well turn on the Heroes for trespassing on the property of the Slavers.
Set Up
Heroes : 5x Lv 4 Heroes : Warlock, Shaman, Rogue (Crossbow), Warlord (new player), Wizard
Slavers : 1x Half-Orc Warrior (Brute), 4x Rogues, 1x Elite Halfling (Rogue)
Hostages : 3x Hostages : All are gagged, 1 is tied to the chair, and another 2 bound and lying on the floor near the Platform edges. All are minions, and each gets to fail 2 Death Saving throws.
Actual Encounter
Instead of peeking in first or sneaking in, the Heroes elected to kick the door open and march in the frontdoor, led by none other than the Rogue, and everyone could notice the bound Slave below. The Half-Orc threatened the Heroes to leave or he would kill the hostages, even as the party Shaman noticed there was a large crate above the slave on the chair, and if the rope was cut the crate would fall on the slave, likely killing him.
While still deliberating what to do, the Slaver Rogues fired on the Heroes, causing most of them to charge up the stairs at the side of the platform. Making good his threat, the Half-Orc kicked one slave over the edge, but the Wizard managed to get in a Feather Fall on him (DM Discretion since it is not an Immediate action), causing him to land safely. As both sides opened fire against each other, the elite Halfling emerged, firing on the Heroes, hitting hard enough to catch their attention. The next round, the Half-Orc dropped the crate on the slave in the chair, crushing him to near death, while creating a 5' high "area" that could be used as a "makeshift stairs"
The rest of the Encounter was regular, with the halfling escaping as he shot around. Despite having 2 Leaders, including a very cooperative new Player, the Heroes did not bother to heal the dying man and he died before anyone attended to him. The remaining 2 Hostages were grateful, and when the guards came they managed to help the Heroes avoid getting branded as malicious thugs.
While the Encounter overall was enjoyable, it lost a fair amount of element that could have made it more interesting.
Hits & Misses
Miss - Roleplay : A lot of roleplay was lost by gagging the Hostages. A lot. It was simply such a wasted opportunity. The obvious reason to gag the slave was so they could not point out the crate above, but even if the Heroes did not have a high Perception Character, that was more wasted opportunity than anything else. With the Players unable to relate to the Hostages and focused on defeating the Slavers, this was not as interesting as it should be. Further, when the hostage was dying, if he was not gagged he could have been groaning or some such, or another Slave (the one who had feather fallen beside him) could have yelled for help. Both opportunities were impossible though, since they were both gagged. Maybe I could have made the conscious one managed to bite aside his gag enough to shout for help.
Miss - Poor Action Planning : It was not stated, but the Half-Orc basically managed to make only 1 Attack throughout the entire Encounter. He spent 1 Standard Action kicking a slave down, another Standard slicing a rope, all while being the primary exposed "badguy" that the Heroes thought he was. He went down so fast, the hostages being there taking up his actions made the Encounter much easier than I had planned. This could have been mitigated simply by me preplanning a bit so he could use Minor instead of Standard Actions to deal with the Slaves.
Miss - Poor Negotiation Planning : My planning only went so far as to be like "If the Players hesitate, the Slavers take the chance to shoot them." Frankly, I didn't even know what the Slavers would have wanted if the Players had agreed to leave them alone for a while. This really missed out on what might have been an excellent non-combat Encounter negotiation and from portraying the Slavers as having their own sensible agenda.
Hit - Misdirection : The Half-Orc successfully misdirected attention to himself, making the Heroes think he is the "head", when actually he was not. In truth, the Halfling is the mastermind running this small operation. In keeping with his personality, he speaks little and does not draw attention to himself in potentially combative situations, until it is time to strike.
Miss - Slavers "destroying" the Evidence : the Slavers might have acted to kill off the slaves when it seemed obvious they could not win. That would have added an urgency in the second part of the fight, making it less grindy, although the slavers were also trying to flee.
Miss - Letting the Players in on the Consequences : Frankly, this was the biggest mistake and what really messed up the whole hostage rescue. The Players probably didn't expect hostages, but even more so, they weren't informed of the consequences of letting them all die (the Village Guard might have turned against the Heroes), nor were they aware that if they had rescued all of them, they would have gained an increase in Reputation, which stands for something in my game. There was really only one viable way of communicating this, that was to have the Slaves talk... again the Gag messed with this.
3) Orc Attack on Village (Detailed Example)
Background
Around that area of the Kingdom, a few villages have been razed and destroyed, presumably by a band of marauding Orcs. The Heroes arrive in the morning to the last village in that vicinity, only to find a depressed military Officer who is trying to get a Militia organised, though he is clearly expecting to lose. When night falls, the Orcs will likely attack.
DM Plan
Before the fight, the Heroes can prepare for the Orc invasion as well, by finding information, gathering the people in the middle of the village so that there'll be less casualties. How well the Militia and Officer listen or ignore the Heroes will also depend on their RP during the day.
Meantime, the Orcs outnumber the Heroes vastly, effectively just over 2 Encounters worth of Enemies at about EL+1-2. They would attack one of the few cluster of huts along the outskirts of the village so the Players do not know where they'll come from, before carrying on to the centre. In the actual Encounter the Orcs use fire to burn down the huts, causing the civilians to run out where they will butcher them. The Heroes can let the Orcs be naturally distracted by this carnage and take them out piecemeal. The Officer and his ill-trained Militia will support the Heroes as well, if necessary, so the Heroes have a fighting chance against the Orcs, though most of the men will likely die.
The Success and Reputation of the Heroes depend on how many people die in the Encounter, and how much property the Orcs destroy.
Comments
Though 4E is primarily combat-based, this Encounter aims to incorporate Roleplay Aspects, and there is a lot of information and advantages the Players can stack on prior to the game. Though it is a Heroic game, there is a very definitive note in that being Heroic now has a real impact, possibly involving sacrificing the lives of others so you have a chance to win the day, or charging into the Orcs with the foreknowledge that while being Heroic, it could easily result in a TPK.
I knew my Players were into Heroic Fantasy and knew that Reputation would be tracked in the game. A less Heroic party might need more incentive to risk their neck for a poor village.
Pre-Encounter RP
The Heroes Roleplayed to cheer up the Officer, who got angered by a poorly worded question from a party member. The party Warlord stepped in to calm the frayed nerves, and then encouraged the Officer before accompanying him to train his men, gaining their respect and friendship. In describing the Militia I made it clear that they were unlikely to last long against Orcs of any kind. Although the Heroes wanted to ambush the Orcs, they did not know the direction of approach, but the Officer assured them he had men posted on the outskirt perimeters to try and detect them in advance. When asked about the number of the Orcs, the Officer guesses that for they probably arrived by ship from the coast, and their numbers were probably pretty large. The Party and the Officer discussed evacuating the village, but there was nowhere safe to retreat to, and outside of the village they'd be even more vulnerable to being attacked by Orcs.
Finding out from the Officer that the Orcs might use fire, the party Bard decided to do a Fire Safety Talk, and the rest of the Party helped him rounded up the villagers and some militia for the talk. The Bard entertained the Villagers for a time, before sending them back home as the night deepened.
The party Fighter was not satisfied with being unable to anticipate the Orcs' attack, so he climbed to the roof of the 3 storey-inn to see if he might catch glimpses of the Orcs. Although he did not have darkvision, he reasoned that he would be able to see fire being lit from a distance, and the Heroes' reaction would be faster than if a Militia lookout were to come running back to the centre of the village. This paid off later when he saw the Orcs coming before the Officer's men came back to warn the Party.
Encounter Set Up
The actual Encounter took place in a long map, with 6 huts interspersed along the way. The Heroes and Militia were supposed to come in one end, and the Orcs at the other end, albeit with a pre-adjusted low Initiative.
Heroes : 4 of them. Fighter, Hexblade, Bard, Warlord. Level 8 Characters, mostly unoptimised.
Orcs (single Initiative)
1 Orc Eye of Gruumsh (Lv 10 Leader), 1 Bloodrager (Lv 9 Elite), 8 Orc Warriors (Lv 9 Minion), 6 Orc Spearmen (Lv 9 Minion, with Reach), 5 Orc Grenadiers (Lv 6 Artillery)
AI Limits : The Grenadiers always target clusters of enemies with their Bursts. The Minions generally attack anyone who is nearest. The Eye of Gruumsh makes the Minions especially dangerous.
Allies (single initiative)
Officer : He is effectively a Level 7 Monster with MBA doing 1d8 + 10 damage, has Come & Get It. He gets hit by Orcs on a 12+ and hits on a 8+.
Militia (1 HP): The Militia are Minions, that get hit by Orcs on a 9+. They hit on a 11+ and do 7 damage per hit. From the Fire Safety Training, they can use a Standard Action to grant the Hut a Saving Throw with a +2 modifier, and on a Save the Hut is no longer on fire.
Huts (2 HP): They catch fire easily, when caught in a Grenadiers' Burst Attack, which autohits but does no damage. Once they're set on fire, they make a Save every Turn, failing which it takes 1 point of damage. If attacked by a physical Attack, the Hut gets hit and makes a Save, failing which it takes 1 point of damage. The Huts have a frontdoor and backdoor and have 1d3 Civilians in them.
Civilians (1 HP): Civilians emerge from Huts once it starts to Burn. Unless they are warned from outside, they emerge randomly at any door. They are hit on a 6+ from any Orc. They also die if they're still in the hut when it collapses.
Actual Encounter
Due to the Fighter's foresight, the Heroes were able to arrive there sooner than (the DM had) expected. I did not make them roll any Athletics checks, or Diplomacy to convince the Officer to come, they simply all went together. To simulate their advantage, I told them they could automatically win Initiative and be on one side of the Map, or start on any square on the edge of the map and take Initiative as normal. Seeing the map, they chose the second Option, and before they placed themselves, I would place the Orcs first. You could see the looks of shock / surprise on the Player's faces when I placed down all the Orcs down, most of them spaced 1 square apart. They filled about 3/4 of the 8"x11" map I was using back then ( the entire scenario was 32" x 11"). Then I asked the Players where they wished to place themselves first.
Now, many people have different views on RP, but I think this was the first time I saw RP in practice during an Encounter. With the sheer number of Enemies, there was a direct conflict between surviving / winning the fight, and being the Heroes that the Players imagined their Characters to be. There was plenty of terrain for the Orcs to busy themselves with, but this would most certainly translate into loss of lives or at least damage to property.
The Heroes decided to be Heroic and screw the consequences, so the Fighter and Hexblade entered close to the Orcs, making it easy to cut them off from the huts, while the Leaders kept out of sight, but close enough to heal. The Warlord asked the Officer to lead his men away, to stay hidden and put out fires, to which he assented, except the Officer himself kept reasonably near the Leaders but not within 2 squares.
The Hexblade went first in Initiative, activating his Emerald Shield, charged for the Eye of Gruumsh. The Fighter expected to back him up, except the Orcs acted first. The Hexblade was faced with the Bloodrager, Eye of Gruumsh, and was completely surrounded by Orcs, but his high AC (and my poor rolls) kept him from going down. A few other Orcs went to pin down the Fighter (he being the closest target to them), and the Grenadiers exploded the area near the 2 Leaders who were within Burst 1 of each other, and the first Hut started burning.
The Fighter dispatched 2 of the Orcs adjacent to him with Cleave (both of whom used a Death Strike on him), then provoked OA from remaining 1 adjacent Orc to move into position. He then Action Pointed with Come & Get It, pulling Orcs off the Hexblade and onto him. With that AP he took out at least 7 of the Orcs, but they all did a Death Strike on him, mostly with CA, and he promptly went down.
The Warlord and Bard did their best to take out the Minions, but lacking burst powers there was little they could do, except spread out to avoid the attacks from the Grenadiers and heal the fallen Characters. When the Allies' turn came up, the Officer asked if they'd like his men to come out from hiding, but the Players told him to keep them to putting out fires. They also asked him to get his men to escort the people out of the hut to safety, and their instructions were heeded.
In short, the rest of the Encounter was gripping with many times the Characters were clearly in over their heads and the Officer offered to have his Militia charge the line, but they refused and told him to keep his men back. The Characters did run out of heals with 1 Character down, but they managed to struggle through and triumph. That said, after the initial decision-making, it was a fairly standard Combat Encounter.
During the battle, 2 Huts caught fire, out of which 1 burned down but the other was safely extinguished, and the Militia helped to escort many groups of Civilians off the map. The Characters gained considerable Reputation from their Heroics.
Aftermath
We ended the session after that 1 Encounter because they had taken quite a lot of time doing the pre-Encounter RP, mixing around with the NPCs. After the game, I asked the Players how they felt about the Encounter, and to better understand their motivation, and did the RP aspect get through.
I asked the Hexblade why he charged in, so he asked me what was the alternative, let them go in and burn huts and hack the villagers? Anyway he thought with his Daily Powers he had a better chance of surviving, so he did it.
I also asked the Fighter why did he Come & Get It such a huge number of Orcs, given that he knew full well that they would all be doing Death Strike on him. He shrugged and said, if he didn't then who should? Anyway he's the Defender, just doing his job, and they're supposed to be Heroes anyway.
Damn straight they were, and they knew it too.
That said, they all said the Orcs were unexpectedly hard. They knew some would be Minions, but they were surprised at the number of non-Minions and the very painful Grenadiers. The quality of the Orcs were also surprising, that's when I told them that's about 2 Encounters worth of enemies. It was implied they were used to Encounters where the quality of Enemies were adjusted for them.
Hits & Misses
Hit - Roleplay : The Players enjoyed the RP and they felt the RP contributed significantly to the events of the Game. It was clear the Fighter's lookout affected the pace, and I emphasised that without the Fire Safety talk the Militia would not be mentally equipped to handle the burning Huts. (In fact I did not originally have any mechanics in place for the Militia handling the Fire). The Officer also sometimes ignored the Party member who had angered him early in the RP, but overall acted to benefit of the Heroes since the Warlord had befriended him.
Miss - Heroic Decisions : Though the Players appeared Heroic to me initially, in retrospect it was clear they had expected the large number of Orcs to be adjusted towards the Standard Encounter XP Budget. After the initial foray though, it was clear that they became aware the difficulty had not been watered down, which brings us towards the next point. I could have tried to emphasise the overpowering numbers of the Orcs, perhaps by having 1 survivor from a neighbouring village.
Hit - Heroic Sacrifice : Because the Players realised the Encounter was challenging if tackled head-on, throughout the game they would have to choose between making more Heroic decisions or more tactically sound decisions. This included the Fighter charging into the Orcs and using Come & Get It, and the rest telling the Militia to stay behind while the Melee Characters were being cut down. There was a point in time where the 2 Leaders actually argued about if they should ask the Militia to come in and soak some attacks so they could get the Act back together. By making decisions in an Encounter that factor the well-being of the NPCs and not just those of the Characters themselves, the Encounter became richer and more meaningful.
Hit - Distract the Grenadiers : This is a subset but specific case of Heroic Sacrifice. Basically when the Heroes stopped clustering, the Grenadiers would aim so that they could hit at least 1 target and get a Hut burning. After the Heroes realised this, the two Leaders decided to be close enough to draw Grenadier fire without having more Huts set on fire. It was a difficult decision since the Grenadiers were relatively accurate and hit for decent damage.
Miss - Civilian Interaction : In my mind, part of the fun of the Encounter was to have the Heroes charge in front to try and prevent the Orcs from slaughtering fleeing Civilians. That didn't pan out because of the Heroes positioning, but it was sound plan given that the Players wanted to save the Civilians.
Miss - Use of Terrain : I had planned the Huts would burn down to form DT, providing cover and also funnelling the Orcs into the relatively narrow corridor in the middle of the huts where the Players would have an advance. As per above, the positioning to fight in the open beyond the Huts made this of little consequence, except when the Bard had to Fey Step behind the Orcs line and AP to heal the Hexblade who had fell a second time while out of his Healing range.
Miss - Reputation Rewards : I had planned that once the Encounter was won, with such good outcome as they had there should be a time of celebration and thanks from the Village. Due to time constraints I forgot about this, and the next game the Party decided to go finding the Orc camp in the night, and after that the Celebration was a cursory mention. I also played down the Reputation increase, since the Village was just a remote Village in the large Empire. This failed to play up to the Heroism of the Characters sufficiently and there was no mention of their success in the later part of the game, when it would have served to remind them of the gratitude of the NPCs which in turn would increase their Immersion.
Miss - Choice of Surprise : The decision to let the Players place themselves nearer the Orcs was an impromptu one due to the Fighter being on the lookout, and a Player suggested place themselves near but OFF the map, so as to surprise the Orcs. In retrospect I should have allowed it, it might have made the fight go fairly differently.
Miss - Stage-Based Objectives : The Orc Encounter was really the second Encounter, the first being a relatively simple Bandit fight. Depending on if the Heroes managed to recognise the Bandits were not that bad, they could actually persuade them to help against the Orc invasion. However, this keyed off the party accepting the quest from an NPC and getting it done during the day. The NPC was an arrogant prick who annoyed the Players, and the Players sensibly elected to use the remainder of the day preparing for the Orc invasion instead of doing something else that may weaken them for the later Encounter.
Miss - Different Motivations : Though the scenario was ideal for that group of Players, but it did not appeal to a wide range of Player motivations. I also had a Player comment to me like, "If we're Heroes, why was it so tough?" The difficulty of the Encounter as an introduction to the campaign made a Player who was there to be looked up to as a Hero in-game feel relatively fearful and unsettled.
Hit - Non-Standard Encounters : The Encounter brought out to the Characters that I did not follow the XP Budget rules, but built the Encounter based on what was felt to be realistic. This put them out of the mindset that the DM would tailor the Encounter difficulty so that they would be able to handle it. In later interactions, they became more careful and unless required they generally did not use Daily Powers.
IN CLOSING
While this was a lot of detail on Hits & Misses throughout the 3 Examples, hope it gets the ideas flowing and also to watch out for such mistakes in what you plan.
Note that All of the following Encounters use a fairly Civilised Setting.
1) Sahuagin Boarding Party
Background
The Heroes are on board a ship in stormy weather, and they take cover in the hold. While they are below deck, the Sahuagin raiding party board the ship.
DM Plan
There are 5 crewmen, and the Sahuagin will start to attack them. As the number reduces the more likely the ship will eventually sink even if they beat the Sahuagin, since the Heroes simply do not have the capability to sail a ship in a storm on their own. The Heroes will be faced with a dilemma of remaining in the hold or going up and facing a terrain disadvantage.
If they refuse to go upstairs, the Crew will all die and the Deathrattle Viper will enter through a pothole, distract the Heroes so the rest of the Sahuagin can enter.
Set Up
Heroes : 6x Lv 5-6 Heroes in the hold of the ship : Ardent, Mage, 2 Rangers (both Greatbow), Rogue (crossbow), Knight
Sahuagin : They arrive on the Deck of the ship. 2 Priests (Lv 8), 2 Sahuagin Raiders (Lv 7 Soldier), 4 Sahuagin Guards (Lv 7 Mook), 1 Deathrattle Viper (Lv 7 Brute)
Crewmen : 5 Minions on the Deck of the ship. They are hit on a 9+ and fall unconscious. It takes each one of them 3 rounds to die.
Actual Encounter
The Heroes hear cries of alarm and one of them peeks up on deck to see the Sahuagin climbing onto the deck. The crewmen appear to be in fear. He goes back down, tells the rest, and they decide to stay in the hold and wait for the Sahuagin to come to them. They can hear sounds of struggles and finally the sound of munching from above.
They get 1 round of Perception to notice and damage the Deathrattle Viper about to enter the pothole, before the creature bursts into the middle of the Heroes, but the Knight held his ground blocking the Stairway, and as the Sahuagin came down the Wizard placed a Phantom Chasm on the terrain. The rest was a fairly standard fight below deck.
After that, the "Heroes" arrived on deck to see all the crew dead, and the ship is tossing wildly around. They try to man the ship themselves, but their efforts are for naught and it seems clear the ship will sink. They struggle to free the rowboat of its moorings before the ship goes down, but they do not have the capability to. I had intended to drain away most of their Surges as they washed up on the Sea, but they were already talking about their Extended Rest by then.
Obviously, this was one big "Miss" Encounter, thanks mainly to me not thinking things through. Not least about the consequences if the Ship were to sink.
Hits & Misses
Miss - Roleplay : I hardly roleplayed at all, and the sailors did not even have names. This lack of immersion made the Players not care for the Sailors, and perhaps if I had put a bit more effort into it, with an emotional connection things might have been very different. RP could have been done beforehand, as you can see in the last example later.
Miss - Player Motivation : This group of Players are less heroic oriented and more practical than other groups (see Example 3). Without a strong incentive to aid the crew, they did not do anything, and preferred the more tactical approach. I was trying to get them to be more tactical the previous fights, and guess what? I reaped what I sowed.
Miss - All Hands on Deck : Saving the crew might have been improved if I had the Players on deck engaged in a Skill Challenge, aided by the Sailors to keep the ship afloat, then tossed in the Sahuagin. This was a terribly missed opportunity.
Miss - Letting the Players in on the Consequences : The biggest take home from this however, was how I did not communicate the Consequences to Players. By failing to do so, I virtually gave them no incentive to Save the Crew, and hence ruined the Encounter myself. If you want an Encounter to be more than just combat, do not understate the importance of item 2 in this multipart series : Letting your Players In on Consequences
Miss - Interesting Storm : Every round I could have had every Party Member make a Save, failing which he Falls prone or slides 2 squares in 1 randomised direction. I failed to do so, even when the benefits would be obvious, what with the huge disadvantage the Sahuagin faced coming down into the hold.
Miss - Contingency Planning : I failed to plan what would happen after all the Crew dies and the Ship sinks. This resulted in the very lame-ass effect when they failed the Skill Challenge that they ended up washed up on the shore, and though they lost surges they simply went to take an Extended Rest. Though I used this delay as a reason for the NPC they were travelling to meet to be out on a Mission, the cause-effect was not clearly shown, and so it is likely that I ended up reinforcing this sort of behavior as "Oh, so they all die? Tsk, like I care." If the consequences of the ship sinking were made clear to the Players, ideally during the Skill challenge before the Sailors actually died, they might have tried a lot harder to save the crew. Not to mention if in this failure someone actually got swept out to sea and drowned, that might also have driven the point across.
Miss - Messed Up Skill Challenge : I don't like Skill Challenges, and I didn't plan for one since I didn't do my Contingency Planning. I barely had my DCs ready. And even then, there is no excuse to run a Skill Challenge poorly. The main skill used was Strength or Athletics, out of which no one except the Knight was trained in. Once per Encounter, though I allowed a mass Aid-Another with Diplomacy through Encouragement, a Religion check to pray for divine aid, and Insight / Nature to figure out a better path to steer the ship towards, the lack of preparation was ghastly and it showed. In fact, if I had actually planned for a Contingency properly, it might not have been a Skill Challenge at all.
2) Warehouse Slaver Raid
Background
It is now night time, and the Heroes have tracked Slaver activities to a Warehouse, and have just fought some guards. The ruckus created was sufficient for those inside to hear and prepare for their arrival. Apart from knowing their enemies were Slavers, the Heroes had no idea they would have to deal with hostages.
DM Plan
The ground floor is well lit but the higher floor that runs around it is in dim light. The Slavers start on the higher platform 10' up, where some crates provide cover or superior cover for the Slavers to hide and fire on the Heroes. 2 Slaves can be kicked down from the higher platform to fall to their deaths below, and 1 more Slave is bound and gagged in a chair ; if the Heroes move to try and free him, the Slavers will drop a crate on top of both of them (which can be noticed to be suspended from the ceiling).
Slavers will threaten to kill the slaves / hostages while the Heroes can try to parley for their lives. Or the Heroes can rush in and engage them, which will likely result in the deaths of the hostages. If all the hostages are dead, when the Village Guard come to investigate and there are no neutral witnesses, the guards could well turn on the Heroes for trespassing on the property of the Slavers.
Set Up
Heroes : 5x Lv 4 Heroes : Warlock, Shaman, Rogue (Crossbow), Warlord (new player), Wizard
Slavers : 1x Half-Orc Warrior (Brute), 4x Rogues, 1x Elite Halfling (Rogue)
Hostages : 3x Hostages : All are gagged, 1 is tied to the chair, and another 2 bound and lying on the floor near the Platform edges. All are minions, and each gets to fail 2 Death Saving throws.
Actual Encounter
Instead of peeking in first or sneaking in, the Heroes elected to kick the door open and march in the frontdoor, led by none other than the Rogue, and everyone could notice the bound Slave below. The Half-Orc threatened the Heroes to leave or he would kill the hostages, even as the party Shaman noticed there was a large crate above the slave on the chair, and if the rope was cut the crate would fall on the slave, likely killing him.
While still deliberating what to do, the Slaver Rogues fired on the Heroes, causing most of them to charge up the stairs at the side of the platform. Making good his threat, the Half-Orc kicked one slave over the edge, but the Wizard managed to get in a Feather Fall on him (DM Discretion since it is not an Immediate action), causing him to land safely. As both sides opened fire against each other, the elite Halfling emerged, firing on the Heroes, hitting hard enough to catch their attention. The next round, the Half-Orc dropped the crate on the slave in the chair, crushing him to near death, while creating a 5' high "area" that could be used as a "makeshift stairs"
The rest of the Encounter was regular, with the halfling escaping as he shot around. Despite having 2 Leaders, including a very cooperative new Player, the Heroes did not bother to heal the dying man and he died before anyone attended to him. The remaining 2 Hostages were grateful, and when the guards came they managed to help the Heroes avoid getting branded as malicious thugs.
While the Encounter overall was enjoyable, it lost a fair amount of element that could have made it more interesting.
Hits & Misses
Miss - Roleplay : A lot of roleplay was lost by gagging the Hostages. A lot. It was simply such a wasted opportunity. The obvious reason to gag the slave was so they could not point out the crate above, but even if the Heroes did not have a high Perception Character, that was more wasted opportunity than anything else. With the Players unable to relate to the Hostages and focused on defeating the Slavers, this was not as interesting as it should be. Further, when the hostage was dying, if he was not gagged he could have been groaning or some such, or another Slave (the one who had feather fallen beside him) could have yelled for help. Both opportunities were impossible though, since they were both gagged. Maybe I could have made the conscious one managed to bite aside his gag enough to shout for help.
Miss - Poor Action Planning : It was not stated, but the Half-Orc basically managed to make only 1 Attack throughout the entire Encounter. He spent 1 Standard Action kicking a slave down, another Standard slicing a rope, all while being the primary exposed "badguy" that the Heroes thought he was. He went down so fast, the hostages being there taking up his actions made the Encounter much easier than I had planned. This could have been mitigated simply by me preplanning a bit so he could use Minor instead of Standard Actions to deal with the Slaves.
Miss - Poor Negotiation Planning : My planning only went so far as to be like "If the Players hesitate, the Slavers take the chance to shoot them." Frankly, I didn't even know what the Slavers would have wanted if the Players had agreed to leave them alone for a while. This really missed out on what might have been an excellent non-combat Encounter negotiation and from portraying the Slavers as having their own sensible agenda.
Hit - Misdirection : The Half-Orc successfully misdirected attention to himself, making the Heroes think he is the "head", when actually he was not. In truth, the Halfling is the mastermind running this small operation. In keeping with his personality, he speaks little and does not draw attention to himself in potentially combative situations, until it is time to strike.
Miss - Slavers "destroying" the Evidence : the Slavers might have acted to kill off the slaves when it seemed obvious they could not win. That would have added an urgency in the second part of the fight, making it less grindy, although the slavers were also trying to flee.
Miss - Letting the Players in on the Consequences : Frankly, this was the biggest mistake and what really messed up the whole hostage rescue. The Players probably didn't expect hostages, but even more so, they weren't informed of the consequences of letting them all die (the Village Guard might have turned against the Heroes), nor were they aware that if they had rescued all of them, they would have gained an increase in Reputation, which stands for something in my game. There was really only one viable way of communicating this, that was to have the Slaves talk... again the Gag messed with this.
3) Orc Attack on Village (Detailed Example)
Background
Around that area of the Kingdom, a few villages have been razed and destroyed, presumably by a band of marauding Orcs. The Heroes arrive in the morning to the last village in that vicinity, only to find a depressed military Officer who is trying to get a Militia organised, though he is clearly expecting to lose. When night falls, the Orcs will likely attack.
DM Plan
Before the fight, the Heroes can prepare for the Orc invasion as well, by finding information, gathering the people in the middle of the village so that there'll be less casualties. How well the Militia and Officer listen or ignore the Heroes will also depend on their RP during the day.
Meantime, the Orcs outnumber the Heroes vastly, effectively just over 2 Encounters worth of Enemies at about EL+1-2. They would attack one of the few cluster of huts along the outskirts of the village so the Players do not know where they'll come from, before carrying on to the centre. In the actual Encounter the Orcs use fire to burn down the huts, causing the civilians to run out where they will butcher them. The Heroes can let the Orcs be naturally distracted by this carnage and take them out piecemeal. The Officer and his ill-trained Militia will support the Heroes as well, if necessary, so the Heroes have a fighting chance against the Orcs, though most of the men will likely die.
The Success and Reputation of the Heroes depend on how many people die in the Encounter, and how much property the Orcs destroy.
Comments
Though 4E is primarily combat-based, this Encounter aims to incorporate Roleplay Aspects, and there is a lot of information and advantages the Players can stack on prior to the game. Though it is a Heroic game, there is a very definitive note in that being Heroic now has a real impact, possibly involving sacrificing the lives of others so you have a chance to win the day, or charging into the Orcs with the foreknowledge that while being Heroic, it could easily result in a TPK.
I knew my Players were into Heroic Fantasy and knew that Reputation would be tracked in the game. A less Heroic party might need more incentive to risk their neck for a poor village.
Pre-Encounter RP
The Heroes Roleplayed to cheer up the Officer, who got angered by a poorly worded question from a party member. The party Warlord stepped in to calm the frayed nerves, and then encouraged the Officer before accompanying him to train his men, gaining their respect and friendship. In describing the Militia I made it clear that they were unlikely to last long against Orcs of any kind. Although the Heroes wanted to ambush the Orcs, they did not know the direction of approach, but the Officer assured them he had men posted on the outskirt perimeters to try and detect them in advance. When asked about the number of the Orcs, the Officer guesses that for they probably arrived by ship from the coast, and their numbers were probably pretty large. The Party and the Officer discussed evacuating the village, but there was nowhere safe to retreat to, and outside of the village they'd be even more vulnerable to being attacked by Orcs.
Finding out from the Officer that the Orcs might use fire, the party Bard decided to do a Fire Safety Talk, and the rest of the Party helped him rounded up the villagers and some militia for the talk. The Bard entertained the Villagers for a time, before sending them back home as the night deepened.
The party Fighter was not satisfied with being unable to anticipate the Orcs' attack, so he climbed to the roof of the 3 storey-inn to see if he might catch glimpses of the Orcs. Although he did not have darkvision, he reasoned that he would be able to see fire being lit from a distance, and the Heroes' reaction would be faster than if a Militia lookout were to come running back to the centre of the village. This paid off later when he saw the Orcs coming before the Officer's men came back to warn the Party.
Encounter Set Up
The actual Encounter took place in a long map, with 6 huts interspersed along the way. The Heroes and Militia were supposed to come in one end, and the Orcs at the other end, albeit with a pre-adjusted low Initiative.
Heroes : 4 of them. Fighter, Hexblade, Bard, Warlord. Level 8 Characters, mostly unoptimised.
Orcs (single Initiative)
1 Orc Eye of Gruumsh (Lv 10 Leader), 1 Bloodrager (Lv 9 Elite), 8 Orc Warriors (Lv 9 Minion), 6 Orc Spearmen (Lv 9 Minion, with Reach), 5 Orc Grenadiers (Lv 6 Artillery)
AI Limits : The Grenadiers always target clusters of enemies with their Bursts. The Minions generally attack anyone who is nearest. The Eye of Gruumsh makes the Minions especially dangerous.
Allies (single initiative)
Officer : He is effectively a Level 7 Monster with MBA doing 1d8 + 10 damage, has Come & Get It. He gets hit by Orcs on a 12+ and hits on a 8+.
Militia (1 HP): The Militia are Minions, that get hit by Orcs on a 9+. They hit on a 11+ and do 7 damage per hit. From the Fire Safety Training, they can use a Standard Action to grant the Hut a Saving Throw with a +2 modifier, and on a Save the Hut is no longer on fire.
Huts (2 HP): They catch fire easily, when caught in a Grenadiers' Burst Attack, which autohits but does no damage. Once they're set on fire, they make a Save every Turn, failing which it takes 1 point of damage. If attacked by a physical Attack, the Hut gets hit and makes a Save, failing which it takes 1 point of damage. The Huts have a frontdoor and backdoor and have 1d3 Civilians in them.
Civilians (1 HP): Civilians emerge from Huts once it starts to Burn. Unless they are warned from outside, they emerge randomly at any door. They are hit on a 6+ from any Orc. They also die if they're still in the hut when it collapses.
Actual Encounter
Due to the Fighter's foresight, the Heroes were able to arrive there sooner than (the DM had) expected. I did not make them roll any Athletics checks, or Diplomacy to convince the Officer to come, they simply all went together. To simulate their advantage, I told them they could automatically win Initiative and be on one side of the Map, or start on any square on the edge of the map and take Initiative as normal. Seeing the map, they chose the second Option, and before they placed themselves, I would place the Orcs first. You could see the looks of shock / surprise on the Player's faces when I placed down all the Orcs down, most of them spaced 1 square apart. They filled about 3/4 of the 8"x11" map I was using back then ( the entire scenario was 32" x 11"). Then I asked the Players where they wished to place themselves first.
Now, many people have different views on RP, but I think this was the first time I saw RP in practice during an Encounter. With the sheer number of Enemies, there was a direct conflict between surviving / winning the fight, and being the Heroes that the Players imagined their Characters to be. There was plenty of terrain for the Orcs to busy themselves with, but this would most certainly translate into loss of lives or at least damage to property.
The Heroes decided to be Heroic and screw the consequences, so the Fighter and Hexblade entered close to the Orcs, making it easy to cut them off from the huts, while the Leaders kept out of sight, but close enough to heal. The Warlord asked the Officer to lead his men away, to stay hidden and put out fires, to which he assented, except the Officer himself kept reasonably near the Leaders but not within 2 squares.
The Hexblade went first in Initiative, activating his Emerald Shield, charged for the Eye of Gruumsh. The Fighter expected to back him up, except the Orcs acted first. The Hexblade was faced with the Bloodrager, Eye of Gruumsh, and was completely surrounded by Orcs, but his high AC (and my poor rolls) kept him from going down. A few other Orcs went to pin down the Fighter (he being the closest target to them), and the Grenadiers exploded the area near the 2 Leaders who were within Burst 1 of each other, and the first Hut started burning.
The Fighter dispatched 2 of the Orcs adjacent to him with Cleave (both of whom used a Death Strike on him), then provoked OA from remaining 1 adjacent Orc to move into position. He then Action Pointed with Come & Get It, pulling Orcs off the Hexblade and onto him. With that AP he took out at least 7 of the Orcs, but they all did a Death Strike on him, mostly with CA, and he promptly went down.
The Warlord and Bard did their best to take out the Minions, but lacking burst powers there was little they could do, except spread out to avoid the attacks from the Grenadiers and heal the fallen Characters. When the Allies' turn came up, the Officer asked if they'd like his men to come out from hiding, but the Players told him to keep them to putting out fires. They also asked him to get his men to escort the people out of the hut to safety, and their instructions were heeded.
In short, the rest of the Encounter was gripping with many times the Characters were clearly in over their heads and the Officer offered to have his Militia charge the line, but they refused and told him to keep his men back. The Characters did run out of heals with 1 Character down, but they managed to struggle through and triumph. That said, after the initial decision-making, it was a fairly standard Combat Encounter.
During the battle, 2 Huts caught fire, out of which 1 burned down but the other was safely extinguished, and the Militia helped to escort many groups of Civilians off the map. The Characters gained considerable Reputation from their Heroics.
Aftermath
We ended the session after that 1 Encounter because they had taken quite a lot of time doing the pre-Encounter RP, mixing around with the NPCs. After the game, I asked the Players how they felt about the Encounter, and to better understand their motivation, and did the RP aspect get through.
I asked the Hexblade why he charged in, so he asked me what was the alternative, let them go in and burn huts and hack the villagers? Anyway he thought with his Daily Powers he had a better chance of surviving, so he did it.
I also asked the Fighter why did he Come & Get It such a huge number of Orcs, given that he knew full well that they would all be doing Death Strike on him. He shrugged and said, if he didn't then who should? Anyway he's the Defender, just doing his job, and they're supposed to be Heroes anyway.
Damn straight they were, and they knew it too.
That said, they all said the Orcs were unexpectedly hard. They knew some would be Minions, but they were surprised at the number of non-Minions and the very painful Grenadiers. The quality of the Orcs were also surprising, that's when I told them that's about 2 Encounters worth of enemies. It was implied they were used to Encounters where the quality of Enemies were adjusted for them.
Hits & Misses
Hit - Roleplay : The Players enjoyed the RP and they felt the RP contributed significantly to the events of the Game. It was clear the Fighter's lookout affected the pace, and I emphasised that without the Fire Safety talk the Militia would not be mentally equipped to handle the burning Huts. (In fact I did not originally have any mechanics in place for the Militia handling the Fire). The Officer also sometimes ignored the Party member who had angered him early in the RP, but overall acted to benefit of the Heroes since the Warlord had befriended him.
Hit - Letting the Players in on the Consequences : The Officer kept the Players officially informed that the Orcs intended to slaughter everyone in the village, as had been deduced from the other villages that had been annhilated. While this did not directly affect the Players, the mental preparation made them more determined to ensure the marauding Orcs did not succeed, and this was emphasised by the Officer's state of despair when they first showed up, fully expecting to perish fighting a battle he could not win, to die for no reason whatsoever at all.
Miss - Heroic Decisions : Though the Players appeared Heroic to me initially, in retrospect it was clear they had expected the large number of Orcs to be adjusted towards the Standard Encounter XP Budget. After the initial foray though, it was clear that they became aware the difficulty had not been watered down, which brings us towards the next point. I could have tried to emphasise the overpowering numbers of the Orcs, perhaps by having 1 survivor from a neighbouring village.
Hit - Heroic Sacrifice : Because the Players realised the Encounter was challenging if tackled head-on, throughout the game they would have to choose between making more Heroic decisions or more tactically sound decisions. This included the Fighter charging into the Orcs and using Come & Get It, and the rest telling the Militia to stay behind while the Melee Characters were being cut down. There was a point in time where the 2 Leaders actually argued about if they should ask the Militia to come in and soak some attacks so they could get the Act back together. By making decisions in an Encounter that factor the well-being of the NPCs and not just those of the Characters themselves, the Encounter became richer and more meaningful.
Hit - Distract the Grenadiers : This is a subset but specific case of Heroic Sacrifice. Basically when the Heroes stopped clustering, the Grenadiers would aim so that they could hit at least 1 target and get a Hut burning. After the Heroes realised this, the two Leaders decided to be close enough to draw Grenadier fire without having more Huts set on fire. It was a difficult decision since the Grenadiers were relatively accurate and hit for decent damage.
Miss - Civilian Interaction : In my mind, part of the fun of the Encounter was to have the Heroes charge in front to try and prevent the Orcs from slaughtering fleeing Civilians. That didn't pan out because of the Heroes positioning, but it was sound plan given that the Players wanted to save the Civilians.
Miss - Use of Terrain : I had planned the Huts would burn down to form DT, providing cover and also funnelling the Orcs into the relatively narrow corridor in the middle of the huts where the Players would have an advance. As per above, the positioning to fight in the open beyond the Huts made this of little consequence, except when the Bard had to Fey Step behind the Orcs line and AP to heal the Hexblade who had fell a second time while out of his Healing range.
Miss - Reputation Rewards : I had planned that once the Encounter was won, with such good outcome as they had there should be a time of celebration and thanks from the Village. Due to time constraints I forgot about this, and the next game the Party decided to go finding the Orc camp in the night, and after that the Celebration was a cursory mention. I also played down the Reputation increase, since the Village was just a remote Village in the large Empire. This failed to play up to the Heroism of the Characters sufficiently and there was no mention of their success in the later part of the game, when it would have served to remind them of the gratitude of the NPCs which in turn would increase their Immersion.
Miss - Choice of Surprise : The decision to let the Players place themselves nearer the Orcs was an impromptu one due to the Fighter being on the lookout, and a Player suggested place themselves near but OFF the map, so as to surprise the Orcs. In retrospect I should have allowed it, it might have made the fight go fairly differently.
Miss - Stage-Based Objectives : The Orc Encounter was really the second Encounter, the first being a relatively simple Bandit fight. Depending on if the Heroes managed to recognise the Bandits were not that bad, they could actually persuade them to help against the Orc invasion. However, this keyed off the party accepting the quest from an NPC and getting it done during the day. The NPC was an arrogant prick who annoyed the Players, and the Players sensibly elected to use the remainder of the day preparing for the Orc invasion instead of doing something else that may weaken them for the later Encounter.
Miss - Different Motivations : Though the scenario was ideal for that group of Players, but it did not appeal to a wide range of Player motivations. I also had a Player comment to me like, "If we're Heroes, why was it so tough?" The difficulty of the Encounter as an introduction to the campaign made a Player who was there to be looked up to as a Hero in-game feel relatively fearful and unsettled.
Hit - Non-Standard Encounters : The Encounter brought out to the Characters that I did not follow the XP Budget rules, but built the Encounter based on what was felt to be realistic. This put them out of the mindset that the DM would tailor the Encounter difficulty so that they would be able to handle it. In later interactions, they became more careful and unless required they generally did not use Daily Powers.
IN CLOSING
Next up there will be more general Examples, with less details (boy was it tiring writing all this in detail...), more subject matters that might generate some idea, set off some sparks, and a caution on the misses along the way.
Thank you for reading, and here's to a better Game! :)
