Dungeon Design Tips: Provide Targets For Your Players' Big Guns

The Internet is full of Game Masters asking for advice on how to best counter the abilities and powers the player characters acquire in their games. And while I've given my share of advice on the subject (many of which are previous entries in this very series like getting rid of doors, actually triggering multiple encounters when warranted, terrain and cover, etc.), this week I'd like to remind Game Masters that if your players go through all the effort and struggle to acquire a big gun... well, you should at least let them knock down a couple of targets with it from time to time.

They're clustered in a 20-foot radius circle, you say...

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Set Encounters Up (So Your Players Can Knock Them Down)

Picture this scenario. You're running a campaign, and the evoker has finally survived to 5th level. They've just picked up fireball, and their trigger finger is itching to give it a go. As a Game Master do you, A) ensure there are never groups of enemies in close proximity to one another, thus making sure this spell meant for horde elimination is never used for what it was designed for, or B) do you conjure a scenario or two where your wizard gets to sling their new spell, and feel that it made a significant difference in the encounter?

A lot of Game Masters go for the first option because they don't want their players to feel too powerful, or like they're somehow winning in the arms race versus their enemies. But you should really opt for the latter for at least a few reasons.

And morale is just one of them.

First and foremost, letting players flex their new abilities and tools is good for the game. It keeps players invested and paying attention, and it lets them come to grips with how a spell or power is supposed to work. Additionally, by creating scenarios where players get to use their abilities, it keeps them participating in scenarios... and it often uses up their resources, which is the actual point of most encounters, and what creates challenge. Encounters are supposed to be gone through in a sequence, with each one being progressively harder as players use more and more of their daily allotment of abilities to survive.

Let us say, for example, that you are running a scenario where the party has to defend a tumbledown fortress from a massive hoard of the undead. There are waves of shambling zombies and skeletons, and then after their initial assault there are disease-spreading ghouls, and then at the end the commanding death knight takes the field. You can key different aspects of this encounter specifically to the abilities of your party so that everyone feels useful, and like they're getting moments to shine.

We lead with the evoker and their fireball, because it allows them to act as an artillery piece, firing from extremely long range and punching holes in the enemy's forward line. It's possible that, if the rolls are good enough, the wizard might destroy the walkers altogether. Then the ghouls start rushing in, and as they close it's the ranger's turn to use their new feat, rapid-firing their bow to try to bring the monsters down before they can reach the walls. And if the ghouls do manage to close, the monk has placed himself in the gap, preventing the ghouls from entering, the monk's recently acquired passive immunity to disease taking away the ghouls' most dangerous weapon. Then when the death knight takes the field, the paladin steps out to smite them, backed up by the rest of the party.

Now, this encounter could be shifted and changed to make every aspect of it even more frustrating for the players. A Game Master could choose to have the undead approach under cover of darkness or mist, making them difficult to target until they're at the gates. The field could be filled with trees or ruins, giving the approaching enemies ample cover, frustrating the party's ability to actually do anything to halt their progress. There could even be a secret way into the fortress, leading to undead coming out of tunnels inside the walls, leaving the party scrambling about whether to fight the monsters within, or the monsters without, first.

The damn things are everywhere!

It's easier to add difficulty to a scenario than it is to take it away, and it's important that your players feel challenged, without feeling overwhelmed. Most importantly, though, you don't want to punish them for trying to play the game. So when you're concocting an encounter (and the dungeons/adventures they make up), make sure that you're offering square pegs for square holes so that your players can accomplish the task in order to overcome the challenge, and move on to the next step. At the end of the day, you want them to be able to finish this. You want them to succeed, because if they fail then the campaign ends.

So whether the barbarian picked up the ability to attack in a whirlwind and hit every target around them, or the bard just grabbed the power to fascinate a crowd of people, or the rogue finally got the ability to add poisons to their attacks, facilitate them actually getting some mileage out of these abilities. They just got a new hammer, and you should let them drive some nails with it. It will, overall, make your game a great deal more fun for everyone involved.

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That's all for this week's Crunch post! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or the dark sci fi channel I contribute stories to, The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Dungeon Design Tips: You Need To Make Social Skills Viable If You Want Players To Use Them

(Apologies on the formatting, but I originally wrote this in my word processor, as my Internet service was down for a week. I don't know why it has chosen to appear this way, and I'm trying to fix it.)

One of the biggest complaints a lot of Game Masters have is that players will always try to solve problems with spells or steel, rather than using their wits or their words. However, while that is a valid complaint to have, it is important to first look in the mirror before assigning all the blame to the players sitting around the table.

In short, did you give them a reason to believe that rolling for diplomacy or persuasion would actually work? Or has that always led to the enemy getting the first shot in, putting the party at a disadvantage for the coming combat?

Now, stick with me here, I want you to NOT roll initiative just yet...

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

If Words Don’t Work, Players Won’t Use Them

Generally speaking, players understand there are non-combat options to solve issues… but that understanding seems to only exist when their characters are in locations where combat is frowned upon. If they’re in a town, for example, they’ll try to barter for goods, sweet talk their way out of trouble, or threaten their way past a couple of street toughs… but as soon as the PCs step outside of the designated “friendly” zone, it’s like all their non-combat options get grayed out.

Your job, as the Game Master, is to show that just because the party is venturing through the depths of a forest, or they’re entering a dungeon, that doesn’t mean their social skills are no longer viable. And to do that, it pays to sprinkle in some encounters where players can see this in action.

Let's have a conversation, shall we sweet ones?

For example, say your players encounter a flitting fey creature (like one of the ones you might find in 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest, for instance) while they’re moving through the woods. They could attack it and drive it off, yes, but does doing so mean they find the forest ahead of them is now filled with traps? If they speak cordially with the creature, will it offer them guidance through the woods? Or perhaps tell them the location of a buried treasure, in exchange for a promise to take on a small task for it? If they’re merely pleasant, and offer it some of their rations, will the creature watch over them while they’re in its part of the forest, looking for some way to pay back the “gift” it was given?

Expand this idea out in other ways. Do the ogres guarding the wicked sorcerer’s fortress actually dislike the role they’ve been forced into, and they would love to see the spellcaster killed, as long as they get the gold they were promised? Do the rank-and-file members of the Mistwood Raiders think their war leader has gone too far in kidnapping people for ransom, and killing people who weren’t even resisting? If so, could they be persuaded to offer the party information, or even help, if they promise to end the bandit king who wears the bone crown taken from the forgotten tomb of the Mad King? Could they go so far as to open talks with a vampire who seems to be attacking a nearby town, or to engage with a dragon to establish an agreement between it and the terrified people who have lived in its shadow?

Parley? Well, I suppose...

Now, obviously, social skills won’t solve every situation. Clockwork automatons, mindless undead, and territorial magical beasts don’t respond to social overtures, and they will do what their programming, orders, or instincts urge them to do. There will always be antagonists whose goals are directly counter to what the PCs want, and so reaching any kind of agreement will be impossible. And there will always be enemies who think themselves too powerful to bend even an inch to the demands of others, no matter how soft the silk those demands are wrapped in. However, if you want your players to embrace a variety of tactics to solve problems, then it’s important to show them that there are reasonable creatures in the setting who will at least hear them out when they try to be diplomatic.

Lastly, it’s important to consider how this can affect the reputation of the party. If the sorcerer is known for an uncanny ability to bargain with fey creatures, does he earn the name Silvertongue among them (or Ironjaw for those who end up on the worse end of the agreements)? If the dwarven fighter sealed a pact with an orc clan, and upheld his end of that bargain, does that earn him respect among other members of that clan or nation? Perhaps opening doors that would have remained shut to him if he and his allies had merely slaughtered those who got in their way? And if the party takes prisoners, accepts surrender, and treats those who opposed them with honor, that’s something that should also be known to others after a time. On the other hand, if the party breaks promises, lies, cheats, and steals, then they’re going to find those bad decisions catching up with them, and their reputations are more of a weight around their necks than anything else.

For more on this, check out the article Character Reputation in Fantasy RPGs: The Small Legend.

And if you’re looking for more ways to incorporate social encounters into your next campaign, consider checking out some of the following supplements:

- 100 Random Encounters For On The Road Or In The Wilderness (general fantasy RPG)

- Social Encounters For Old School Revival (OSR system)

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!