# Creative combat objectives (other than "kill 'em all")



## Halivar (Sep 23, 2008)

In another thread, someone mentioned how, from a miniatures-gaming perspective, 4E lacks some of the tactical nuance of other, more focused miniatures-games. I, myself, have noticed that the whole "roll for initiative, kill em' all" style of combat encounter in getting very stale.

I starting thinking about some of my favorite miniatures games, and how they often used different "scenarios" with varying objectives. Each combat encounter has unique victory conditions, and “kill 'em all” is not always an available option. I've got some ideas; but I'd like to see if anyone else has any they'd like to add. In particular, I'd like to know what you guys think ought to be the XP reward for these scenarios other than monsters killed. Also, if you have any ideas, I'd like to hear them and compile a list.

 The first one listed here is one I actually used in play (the party was surrounded by zombies in a town square) and turned out to be an absolute blast. Because of the number of enemies, I ended up using pennies to represent minions.

*Scenario:* Breakout
*Objective:* The party is encircled by a horde of enemies. To escape, they must reach an objective (an exit, a door, a magic portal) on the battle mat.
*Setup:* The party begins in the middle of the mat. Depending on the setting there may be obstacles (buildings, trees, rocks) and rough terrain. The encounter begins with the players surrounded by 40-50 minions of comparable level to the party. There are minions between the party and the objective.
*In Play:* Minions slain by the party return to their initial entry point at the beginning of the next round. Minions will keep coming until the party is either dead or has escaped.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Terrain and obstacles should force Acrobatics (moderate) checks if double-moving. Otherwise players must make Athletics checks (easy) to overcome said obstacles.

*Scenario:* VIP Escort
*Objective:* The party must ensure that a helpless VIP (a merchant, a courier, an injured nobleman) reaches an objective on the other side of the battle mat.
*Setup:* The party begins surrounding the VIP on the opposite side of the battle mat from the objective. The mat should be covered in obstacles and cover for assassins to hide in (a town with streets and alleys is perfect for this). The encounter starts with 10 lurker minions and a non-minion leader (controller or artillery) hidden among the obstacles. The VIP has artillery monster stats, but with no attacks. Unlike monsters, the VIP obeys PC rules for death and dying, so if he falls he can be revived.
*In Play:* The VIP only moves 5 squares and cannot double-move (he is either injured or encumbered). If attacked, he will stop and cower, and will not move until intimidated to move forward. Slain assassin minions and ringleaders return to new starting points when slain, and will not stop until either the VIP is dead, or the VIP escapes. Assassins will try to avoid the PC's as must as possible to get straight at the VIP.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* When the VIP cowers, the PC's must make an Intimidate check (easy) to get him moving forward again. Perception checks (against monster stealth rolls) determine if the PC's get early warning of attack. Players can identify likely ambush areas with a hard check in the appropriate skill (Streetwise in the city, Nature in the woods, Dungeoneering in a dungeon).

*Scenario:* Last Stand
*Objective:* The players must hold a defensive position (a building, a palisade, a section of castle wall) against a horde of enemy minions for 10 rounds (until activation of a super-weapon, until extraction, until a group of refugees has time to escape).
*Setup:* The party begins inside the defensive position, with 20-25 enemy minions at the edge of the map. At the front is a non-minion ringleader (controller or artillery). The defensive position should be such that party members are (or can be) in an elevated position and have cover bonuses.
*In Play:* The ringleader will lead the minions only as far as just outside a move away from the defenders, from which position he will spur on the minions. If the ringleader dies, all minions are demoralized, and may only take standard actions on their turn until a new ringleader shows up. At the end of the enemies' turn, fallen enemies (including the ringleader) are replaced at the edge of the map.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Athletics checks are useful if minions are scaling defenses with ladders. A hard check will push ladders off the walls and stun the climbing minions for a turn.

*Scenario:* King of the Hill
*Objective:* Last Stand with a twist: players must first assault the defensive position and wrest control of it from enemies before they defend it.
*Setup:* The party begins at the edge of the map. The defensive position is occupied by 5-7 non-minion enemies, which are not yet aware of the PC's presence.
*In Play:* At the first sign of attack, the defenders call out for backup (thus setting the stage for the Last Stand portion of the encounter). Other than that, this is a pretty straight-forward combat encounter. If players elect to damage the defenses during the course of the assault, the difficulty of the second part of the encounter will increase.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Stealth will be essential, as will be Athletics (for scaling defenses).  

*Scenario:* Capture the Flag
*Objective:* The players must capture the enemy “flag” while defending their own. The encounter ends when one individual (PC or NPC) has both “flags” (two parts to a powerful relic, the Hand and Eye of Vecna, the Cosmic Key from the Dolf Lundgren motion picture “Masters of the Universe” and One-Eyed Willie's sheet music from “Goonies”).
*Setup:* Both sides (the players and the enemies) have fortifications on opposite sides of the battle mat (forts, dives in the slums, open mausoleums in a graveyard). There can be as many or as few obstacles as the DM desires. The enemies have 4-5 non-minions defending their flag, and 10 minions outside. The players have the aid of 5 friendly minions who will obey the PC's instructions. Whoever is holding a flag is magically, supernaturally, or psychically aware of where the other flag is. There is a problem: the flag is bulky and impedes the holder. The flag-bearer may only take a standard action. To compensate, the players may elect to give a minion the flag; it's a tactical decision on their own part.
*In Play:* The enemies will leave 1 non-minion with the defending minions and the flag. The other non-minions will take a circuitous route to the PC's base to steal their flag. At the beginning of each round, replacements for all NPC's (including friendly minions) arrive at the edge of the mat.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* If any players choose to stay and defend the base, they will need to make Perception rolls against stealthy attackers.

*ADDED 9/23/08 10:57 PM:*

*Scenario:* Spaced Invaders
*Objective:* The players are forming a thin (but porous) line of defense against single-minded invaders whose only intention is get past them. The players must stop them. They can be plague-bearing zombies heading towards town, wounded enemy couriers on a battlefield trying to get a request for reinforcements out, or cultists of Orcus trying to throw themselves into a black abyss for some terrible ritual.
*Setup: *Divide the mat in half. The players can be anywhere on the side of the mat to which the invaders are streaming. The players should be made aware that they will need maximum coverage and mobility.
*In Play:* There are 20-30 minions who trickle in at the far end of the mat and move unswervingly to the other side. Now because they are either wounded, undead, or encumbered, they only take standard actions. They will prefer flight to fight, but will stop and fight if directly prevented from moving forward. At the beginning of each turn, roll a 1d4. This is the number of enemies that appear that round. For each enemy minion, randomly roll to see which edge square they start at.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Perhaps allow Perception roles, and allow players to discover, one round ahead of time, where new enemy minions will appear.  

*Scenario:* Whack-A-Mole
*Objective:* The players must scramble to different objectives on the map to stop enemy machinations. The enemy only needs to complete one of their objectives; the players must stop all of them. Once an enemy objective is activated, the players are on a time-limit to stop it. This can be evil cultists setting up idols to enslave a whole town, an enemy defensive battery trying to set up magical trebuchets to sink a refugee boat, or goblins in a forest trying to set up bon-fires to burn the forest down.
*Setup:* The map is covered in obstacles, and there are 5 enemy emplacements. Each emplacement is guarded by up to 6 minions, and one non-minion. By random die roll, select one to be "activating", and inform the players (placed on the far side of the mat) that they have 5 rounds to stop the completion of the enemy objective.
*In Play: *Every 3 rounds, randomly activate another emplacement. The urgency factor will increase dramatically, and the party may decide they need to split up.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Allow perception or insight checks to allow players to predict which emplacement will activate next. Place obstacles that require the use of Athletics or Acrobatics checks to overcome.

*Scenario:* Assassination
*Objective:* The opposite of VIP Escort. In this scenario, the enemy is trying to protect the party's target, and get him to a safe area. The party's job is to stop him from getting there. This can be a murderous crime lord moving from one safe house to another, a deposed tyrant fleeing to escape to his waiting army, or a courier rushing to give the uber-archvillain the pass-phrase to the Book of Vile Darkness.
*Setup:* The enemy has dispatched _three_ parties. One has the real VIP, and the others are escorting a minion look-alike. The VIP has artillery monster stats (but no attacks). Like in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP will cower when attacked. Each VIP is surrounded by 4 non-minions. In addition, there are at least 10 minion patrolling the board.
*In Play: *Slain minions are replaced at the end of the enemies' turn at the edge of the mat. As in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP is hindered and can only make a standard action each round, and moves 5 squares.
*Ancillary Skills:* Insight and Perception are the key skills here for noticing doppelgangers. A hard check will spot the deception before engagement.


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## El Mahdi (Sep 23, 2008)

This is what I love about ENWorld, little random treasures like this. Very cool scenarios. I stole all of them for future use.


(Sorry I don't have anything to add.  I'm not as creative in encounter design as most people here on ENWorld, that's why I copy stuff like this.)


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## Ethalias (Sep 24, 2008)

Wow.  I opened this thread hoping for an interesting discussion and instead I got a wealth of ideas just waiting to shake up my encounter planning.  Bravo sir.

Dare I suggest writing a proposal for Dragon or the like?

The "respawning" minion elements remind me of one of my favourite LOTR miniatures game scenarios..


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## ppaladin123 (Sep 24, 2008)

I think an important part of making combat more interesting is making enemies more than just hate-crazed death machines. If you play every enemy as a kill-bot who 1. has no concern for his teammates, and 2. is only interested in killing the particular PC directly in front of them regardless of the cost (they will fight to the death), you are going to produce slug-fests with little tactical movement (few if any OAs either) and predictable outcomes.

Monsters/NPCs probably have feelings...they may be over-confident, and dismissive, or cowardly and timid. They may be more interested in theft than slaughter. They probably also have bonds with the other monsters/npcs in the encounter. They may act to protect leaders or friends. They may display emotional outbursts at the death/dropping of a teammate.  Evil != mindless slaughter.


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## Altamont Ravenard (Sep 24, 2008)

Great ideas. It is important to have varied combat, since the most important part of the game is made up of combat.

Also, as it is suggested in the King of the Hill scenario, an encounter can be a succession of sub-encounters, of which each goal is something else than wiping out the opposing force.

For example, a party might need to do a break-out to storm out of a particular area and cross a rope bridge, on the other side of which they must make a Last Stand against the horde chasing them while they destroy the bridge.

AR


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## Halivar (Sep 24, 2008)

*Scenario:* Spaced Invaders
*Objective:* The players are forming a thin (but porous) line of defense against single-minded invaders whose only intention is get past them. The players must stop them. They can be plague-bearing zombies heading towards town, wounded enemy couriers on a battlefield trying to get a request for reinforcements out, or cultists of Orcus trying to throw themselves into a black abyss for some terrible ritual.
*Setup: *Divide the mat in half. The players can be anywhere on the side of the mat to which the invaders are streaming. The players should be made aware that they will need maximum coverage and mobility.
*In Play:* There are 20-30 minions who trickle in at the far end of the mat and move unswervingly to the other side. Now because they are either wounded, undead, or encumbered, they only take standard actions. They will prefer flight to fight, but will stop and fight if directly prevented from moving forward. At the beginning of each turn, roll a 1d4. This is the number of enemies that appear that round. For each enemy minion, randomly roll to see which edge square they start at.
*Ancillary Skills:* Perhaps allow Perception roles, and allow players to discover, one round ahead of time, where new enemy minions will appear.

EDIT: As I create more, I'll add to the OP.


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## I'm A Banana (Sep 24, 2008)

I like that these don't necessarily have to be Minis-combat centric. All of these are more than yank-able for any kind of battle in any kind of system. Indeed, they're all well-worn combats that it'll be cool to see any PC react against, just because "kill 'em all!" is so deeply instinctive for the game.

Huzzah!


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## ppaladin123 (Sep 24, 2008)

The old video game Vandal Hearts had one of my favorite combat scenarios...some cultists have set up evil idols in a town that make the residents into homicidal zombies minions. You had to clear out the statues and cultists without harming any of the villagers, who were unfortunately trying to kill you.


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## Ravilah (Sep 24, 2008)

*Scenario:* Tag and Release
*Objective:* Players must incapacitate or grapple several creatures in order to tag them, give something to them, or take something off of them. Creatures are a mixture of aggressive and cowardly--some fight, some flee.  If the children of the town have become berserker ghouls until inoculated with the Shaman's rare herbs, then players must capture rather than kill.
*Set up:* Players start in the middle of the mat with their targets in a random spread all around.
*In Play:* The Aggressives move in right away, making it more likely that the cowards will get away unless the party splits its focus.  
*Ancillary Skills:* An Intimidate check could make some of them stand still (or maybe run harder)


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## Halivar (Sep 24, 2008)

ppaladin123 said:


> The old video game Vagrant story had one of my favorite combat scenarios...some cultists have set up evil idols in a town that make the residents into homicidal zombies minions. You had to clear out the statues and cultists without harming any of the villagers, who were unfortunately trying to kill you.



ppaladin123, you get credit for this idea: I think it's awesome.

*Scenario:* Whack-A-Mole
*Objective:* The players must scramble to different objectives on the map to stop enemy machinations. The enemy only needs to complete one of their objectives; the players must stop all of them. Once an enemy objective is activated, the players are on a time-limit to stop it. This can be evil cultists setting up idols to enslave a whole town, an enemy defensive battery trying to set up magical trebuchets to sink a refugee boat, or goblins in a forest trying to set up bon-fires to burn the forest down.
*Setup:* The map is covered in obstacles, and there are 5 enemy emplacements. Each emplacement is guarded by up to 6 minions, and one non-minion. By random die roll, select one to be "activating", and inform the players (placed on the far side of the mat) that they have 5 rounds to stop the completion of the enemy objective.
*In Play: *Every 3 rounds, randomly activate another emplacement. The urgency factor will increase dramatically, and the party may decide they need to split up.
*Ancillary Skills:* Allow perception or insight checks to allow players to predict which emplacement will activate next. Place obstacles that require the use of Athletics or Acrobatics checks to overcome.


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## Lord Xtheth (Sep 24, 2008)

Ravilah said:


> *Scenario:* Tag and Release
> *Objective:* Players must incapacitate or grapple several creatures in order to tag them, give something to them, or take something off of them. Creatures are a mixture of aggressive and cowardly--some fight, some flee. If the children of the town have become berserker ghouls until inoculated with the Shaman's rare herbs, then players must capture rather than kill.
> *Set up:* Players start in the middle of the mat with their targets in a random spread all around.
> *In Play:* The Aggressives move in right away, making it more likely that the cowards will get away unless the party splits its focus.
> *Ancillary Skills:* An Intimidate check could make some of them stand still (or maybe run harder)



 Brilliant! I love this scenario!


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## Ravilah (Sep 24, 2008)

Putting the format aside, what about some of these?

1.) *Ride 'em, Cowboy:* Players must climb atop or bridle a huge solo enemy (or perhaps shave off a piece of its eye horns).  The creature is too rare, valuable, or immortal to kill, so the party has to use distraction, non-lethal damage, or...something else, to get a party member up top. (I did this in a 3e campaign with a rampaging Apparatus of Kwalish).

2.) *Guessing Game:* The monsters look like you and your friends, as if you were mixed up in their Mirror Image spell.  On any given turn, it's hard to tell who is your ally and who is the monster. As a minor action, the foes can mix themselves up again, meaning that whatever clues you used to tell them from your allies has to be done again.

3.) *Fading Fast:* Each round, some of the party's power is lost, perhaps as part of some draining spell. Each round the PCs age, lose levels, or lose memories.  The enemy must be defeated quickly, but every round it gets harder.

4.) *There can be only One:* Each round, any player that fails to meet a certain condition is instantly removed from play (Ex. Whoever caused the least damage, failed to hit their target, didn't fight with honor, forgot to say "please")

Eh. I'm just throwin' stuff out there.


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## Halivar (Sep 24, 2008)

*Scenario:* Assassination
*Objective:* The opposite of VIP Escort. In this scenario, the enemy is trying to protect the party's target, and get him to a safe area. The party's job is to stop him from getting there. This can be a murderous crime lord moving from one safe house to another, a deposed tyrant fleeing to escape to his waiting army, or a courier rushing to give the uber-archvillain the pass-phrase to the Book of Vile Darkness.
*Setup:* The enemy has dispatched _three_ parties. One has the real VIP, and the others are escorting a minion look-alike. The VIP has artillery monster stats (but no attacks). Like in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP will cower when attacked. Each VIP is surrounded by 4 non-minions. In addition, there are at least 10 minion patrolling the board.
*In Play: *Slain minions are replaced at the end of the enemies' turn at the edge of the mat. As in the VIP Escort scenario, the VIP is hindered and can only make a standard action each round, and moves 5 squares.
*Ancillary Skills:* Insight and Perception are the key skills here for noticing doppelgangers. A hard check will spot the deception before engagement.


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## Halivar (Dec 28, 2008)

Sorry for the bump on the long-dead thread. DM friend wanted to view it.

Last week I finally got to run a modified "Last Stand" scenario with some pretty epic changes. I had 10 rounds of minions (in sets of 20) assaulting the PC's and 15 minions helping them defend. In this scenario, the "leader" was an elite decoy to draw fire and give minions precious time unhampered to assault the fortress walls.. The result was rather fun. On the 10th round (whereupon the king's cavalry came to the rescue), the PC's were holding off a horde of zombies at the doors in the back of the fortress leading to the women and children in a pretty pants-wetting moment. The total kill-score as 184 dead minions for the PC's.

I'm inclined to up the number of enemy minions for most of the scenarios described in this thread. I'll try them out and post results later.


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## shilsen (Dec 28, 2008)

Halivar said:


> Sorry for the bump on the long-dead thread. DM friend wanted to view it.




I'm glad you bumped it, since I hadn't seen it before. And now I've subscribed to it. Very nice work, Halivar


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## Rechan (Dec 28, 2008)

How about "Extraction"? The objective being "Take Target Y alive". Either Y being an enemy in the middle of other enemies, or Y being a hostage being held by captives.

The problem with Y being an enemy among enemies might result in "Kill them all - just use subduing technique upon 0 HP on Y" instead of trying to grab and get out ASAP. 

As a hostage, Y is restrained (making this different from VIP). The problem with Y being a hostage requires you to propose an appropriate threat to Y. Meaning that enemies in the area can do damage to Y, enough to make it dangerous to engage in a battle in the middle of the hostage being _right there_. 



Ravilah said:


> *Scenario:* Tag and Release
> *Objective:* Players must incapacitate or grapple several creatures in order to tag them, give something to them, or take something off of them. Creatures are a mixture of aggressive and cowardly--some fight, some flee.  If the children of the town have become berserker ghouls until inoculated with the Shaman's rare herbs, then players must capture rather than kill.
> *Set up:* Players start in the middle of the mat with their targets in a random spread all around.
> *In Play:* The Aggressives move in right away, making it more likely that the cowards will get away unless the party splits its focus.
> *Ancillary Skills:* An Intimidate check could make some of them stand still (or maybe run harder)



Another option would be "Frisk"; you have X number of minions or enemies, but only Y are your target. Therefore, part of the challenge is determining which one you are targeting. Thus, it would require a perception or insight skill (or at worst, luck) to get the right ones before they run away.

Example: Gremlins are dismantling the device holding your defenses, and when you approach, they scamper. Quick, three of them have necessary parts! Which ones?


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## Rechan (Dec 28, 2008)

Any suggestions how to increase the difficulty of these situations? For instance, I'm reading through these, and I know from experience that something (either by design, or the way you're running it/your PCs react), it becomes a cakewalk.

What should you do in the event that it becomes a cake walk?

Alternatively, what do you do if it becomes impossible for the players, for whatever reason? (Dice, bad planning, etc)?


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## Halivar (Dec 28, 2008)

Rechan said:


> Any suggestions how to increase the difficulty of these situations? For instance, I'm reading through these, and I know from experience that something (either by design, or the way you're running it/your PCs react), it becomes a cakewalk.
> 
> What should you do in the event that it becomes a cake walk?



Because most of these scenarios rely on large numbers of monsters, I simply added more monsters in secondary waves for the scenario I ran.



Rechan said:


> Alternatively, what do you do if it becomes impossible for the players, for whatever reason? (Dice, bad planning, etc)?



I always leave myself an out (in ANY combat) whereby I can either raise or lower the difficulty (either side, for instance, can get reinforcements, or whatever uber-ability the BBEG is using becomes a limited-use resource, elite monsters become non-elite on-the-fly, etc.).


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## FireLance (Dec 28, 2008)

Yes, very interesting ideas! 

My contribution may be considered a variant or combination of Capture the Flag and Breakout:

*Scenario:* Snatch and Run
*Objective:* The PCs must obtain possession of an object and make their way to an exit. Both the object and the exit are guarded by enemies.
*Setup:* The PCs start the encounter at an entrance on one edge of the mat, with the object and the exit at the far corners to the right and left of them. Depending on the setting, there may be obstacles (buildings, trees, rocks) and rough terrain. Three groups of monster (including traps and hazards) guard the object, the exit and the entrance (directly in front of the party). Each group should be about 2/3 of a standard encounter, which means the party is initially facing an encounter about twice as tough as normal.
*In Play:* Reinforcements arrive from the entrance, either a set amount per round, or as monsters are defeated.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* The PCs may have to make Athletics or Acrobatics checks to get to the object or the exit, Perception and Thievery checks to notice and disable traps, Arcana, Nature or Dungeoneering checks to notice magical or natural hazards, etc. As a variant, the PCs may also need to find the object before they can obtain it, and may need to make Perception checks to find a specific amulet in a pile of gold coins, or Arcana checks to determine which of the identical amulets they have found is the magical one.


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## Rechan (Dec 28, 2008)

Halivar said:


> Because most of these scenarios rely on large numbers of monsters, I simply added more monsters in secondary waves for the scenario I ran.



My main concern being the Last Stand situation, where for some reason, the movement is just too small.

Also there is the concern that, well, they're minions. They're not _that_ threatening. The PCs might dismiss them as non-threatening, until more than 3 are at the PCs' area.

Otherwise, I like what I see.


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## Angellis_ater (Dec 28, 2008)

This has some awesome scenario's, but what about settings?

My suggestions:

- Aboard a ship, during a storm (waves crashing in, slippery boards as well as the potential for "heroic" use of the terrain)

- Aboard a ship, in the middle of a ship-to-ship combat. Cannons firing, parts of the terrain exploding, the ship rocking from hits. Sails and masts falling down.

- Aboard two ships, during a boarding action. Two ships locked might mean both a scenario (get rid of the hooks/grapplers that hold the ships together) and interesting terrain with multiple levels of action.

- Inside some kind of machine. Giant cogs moving, levers swinging out, every flat surface is a cog that spins. Add scenario: Either damage the machine (making it more dangerous every time you score a successful hit) or protect the machine (once again, becoming more and more dangerous).

- On a collapsing bridge. Parts will fall off and once a hole appears, it generally widens, quickly. Perhaps the characters must make it over, or perhaps they must ensure it collapses completely, cutting off their enemies.

- Near a dangerous something. Perhaps it is a Snatcher in the lake right by the gates, or a living cave that eats people. Whatever it is, the PCs must complete their mission/combat while avoiding certain areas (and perhaps pushing enemies into these?)

- On icefloes, or stone floes in a lava river, or solidified ectoplasm in the Astral Sea.


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## Ed_Laprade (Dec 28, 2008)

These are all very interesting, and I don't recall seeing it before. I don't have anything to add, but I would like to make one point however. The 'Breakout' scenario may work fine in a miniatures game, but might not in an RPG game, *unless* the players are informed that they need to get out of dodge at the beginning. Otherwise, by the time they figure out that's what they're supposed to do it might be too late. (And the GM risks accusations of 'cheating' when the dead minions start respawning like a video game!)


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## Rechan (Dec 29, 2008)

I wonder how you might do a reverse of Whack-a-mole, where the PCs need to dismantle five sites before time runs out.

The situation being, say, they need to wipe out five magical points providing a protective field, or remove the generators for the superweapon, or whatever. If they doddle too long, then reinforcements arrive, or non-combative engineers begin refixing it, etc.


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## Halivar (Dec 29, 2008)

Ed_Laprade said:
			
		

> The 'Breakout' scenario may work fine in a miniatures game, but might not in an RPG game, *unless* the players are informed that they need to get out of dodge at the beginning. Otherwise, by the time they figure out that's what they're supposed to do it might be too late. (And the GM risks accusations of 'cheating' when the dead minions start respawning like a video game!)



I think most of these scenarios need to be carefully packaged in the game so that they fit seamlessly into the narrative (instead of looking like a pop-out "mini-game"). That means that the means by which reinforcements arrive (probably the most gamist element of most of these scenarios) needs to be plausibly explained so that there is no question of believability in the player's minds. In reference to your first comment, it may help if the DM has players roll a low Insight check to determine "you need to run".



			
				Rechan said:
			
		

> Also there is the concern that, well, they're minions. They're not _that_ threatening. The PCs might dismiss them as non-threatening, until more than 3 are at the PCs' area.



I used minions 1-2 levels above the players, and had the players outnumbered 5-to-1 at the start. They felt pretty threatened.


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## The Little Raven (Dec 29, 2008)

Halivar said:


> *Scenario:* VIP Escort
> *Objective:* The party must ensure that a helpless VIP (a merchant, a courier, an injured nobleman) reaches an objective on the other side of the battle mat.
> *Setup:* The party begins surrounding the VIP on the opposite side of the battle mat from the objective. The mat should be covered in obstacles and cover for assassins to hide in (a town with streets and alleys is perfect for this). The encounter starts with 10 lurker minions and a non-minion leader (controller or artillery) hidden among the obstacles. The VIP has artillery monster stats, but with no attacks. Unlike monsters, the VIP obeys PC rules for death and dying, so if he falls he can be revived.
> *In Play:* The VIP only moves 5 squares and cannot double-move (he is either injured or encumbered). If attacked, he will stop and cower, and will not move until intimidated to move forward. Slain assassin minions and ringleaders return to new starting points when slain, and will not stop until either the VIP is dead, or the VIP escapes. Assassins will try to avoid the PC's as must as possible to get straight at the VIP.
> *Ancillary Skill Checks:* When the VIP cowers, the PC's must make an Intimidate check (easy) to get him moving forward again. Perception checks (against monster stealth rolls) determine if the PC's get early warning of attack. Players can identify likely ambush areas with a hard check in the appropriate skill (Streetwise in the city, Nature in the woods, Dungeoneering in a dungeon).




I had an entire campaign based around a variant of this idea. The party was charged with bringing a young, blind elf girl to a nearby mountain peak, where she was going to be "the bride of the dragon." One player had to stick by her side the entire time in order to move her out of danger, as she didn't move on her own during combat situations (move action to move her; would be a minor action in 4e). It was interesting to see my players change their attitude from the standard "kill stuff to increase our funds" adventuring attitude to being genuinely heroic to keep the girl alive, to the extent where they debated with eachother at the base of the mountain whether they would take the girl to be sacrificed (that's what they assumed would be done with her), and she reminded them that they made a vow to deliver her to her destiny regardless of their moral quandary. It made the end all the more poignant when they reached their destination, and the girl turned into the dragon that they then had to fight. Because of the connection forged with the girl, it took them two rounds to actually get in the mindset to fight the dragon, and they all seem genuinely depressed when they had to kill her. It was totally awesome.


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## Rechan (Dec 29, 2008)

> I think most of these scenarios need to be carefully packaged in the game so that they fit seamlessly into the narrative (instead of looking like a pop-out "mini-game").



Depends on the 'mini-game' in question. Space Invaders seems a little contrived. Whack-a-mole also requires the PCs to be aware that Site X has gone active, and that level of omnipitence is hard to excuse, narratively.



Halivar said:


> I used minions 1-2 levels above the players, and had the players outnumbered 5-to-1 at the start. They felt pretty threatened.



Actually, this makes me curious. You're using 50 + respawn minions of 1-2 levels higher against the party. That is a _lot_ of potential XP. So, how are you handling XP for such a scenario? Is the XP going off the scenario, or the # of minoins?


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## Halivar (Dec 29, 2008)

Rechan said:


> Actually, this makes me curious. You're using 50 + respawn minions of 1-2 levels higher against the party. That is a _lot_ of potential XP. So, how are you handling XP for such a scenario? Is the XP going off the scenario, or the # of minoins?



You could make it a flat XP-bonus, or you can do what I did: the minions helping the PC's get a cut of the XP, as well. In the end, they got ~800 XP a piece at level 5, which I feel is appropriate.


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## the Jester (Dec 29, 2008)

Interesting thread. 

I'm actually running a session of my campaign tonight in which the pcs will be leading units of troops in a holding action. Their "victory condition" is basically to keep their losses under a certain level and destroy a certain combination of quality and quantity of enemy troops. The assumption is that they will eventually be forced to fall back (they are facing a superior force and a probable siege).


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## WampusCat43 (Dec 29, 2008)

Our alternate DM ran variations on 'Last Stand' and 'Breakout', as a series of encounters to fill out a couple weeks while I wrote some more material.  One thing (that has been mentioned already) that is critical is to make sure the players have a good idea of what they need to do.

'Last Stand' consisted of holding the keep wall against '25,000 orcs'.  There were dozens of NPCs milling about in the courtyard, combatants and non- both.  The object was to coerce them into the keep as well as hold the wall while this withdrawal took place.  Being the kill-happy bunch we were, we simply defended the wall, slaughtering the baddies in droves.  It wasn't until the catapult stones started landing at random, busting holes in the wall and squashing the innocents, that we realized there was more to it than we thought.

Later, as we were escaping the keep through an underground dwarven fortress, we entered a massive pillared chamber rapidly filling up with dwarven zombies.  There was a huge door on the far wall (might as well had a *'EXIT HERE' *sign above it) that, of course, we failed to heed until we were nearly overrun.

In both cases, the encounters were a lot of fun once we got going; they just needed their objectives defined.

Just to add one:
*Scenario:* Lock the Damn Gate!
*Objective:* Keep the ravenous horde from entering the town.
*Setup:* Similar to some of these other encounters, the PCs are alerted by shouting from the town gate.
*In Play:* The PCs had to make numerous choices (and I think this is a key to making one of these encounters fun) as they tried to help the hapless two guards hold the gate:

Help the one guard push the gate shut
Fight the zombies that had already gotten through
Help the other guard, who got overwhelmed (this was a FAIL)
Climb the wall and pour the boiling oil (which the guards had managed to light) down on the enemy
Go get help, etc.
*Ancillary Skill Checks:* Athletics to help push the gate shut.  Athletics to quickly climb the ladder to the top of the gate.


In another earlier encounter, the PCs had to fight their way _into _the town, by breaking the siege at a different gate while convincing the doubting guards to lower the drawbridge ("Just where the Hells have _you _guys been while we've been defending the town?").


ETA:  One way to give out XP for these types of encounters is _x _points per objective reached, ie., 200xp per innocent saved, or 500xp per wagon in the caravan that reaches town safely.


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## timbannock (Dec 29, 2008)

Halivar said:


> In reference to your first comment, it may help if the DM has players roll a low Insight check to determine "you need to run".




This is a good tactic to keep in mind for any DM that finds his players are a little too "kick-in-the-door" style for him (or for certain encounters).

I've always been a very benevolent DM, but the older I get, the less benevolent I become.  I suspect I might see the first TPK as I run Red Hand of Doom soon.  There's a few nasty encounters there.


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## Nebulous (Dec 29, 2008)

Good stuff here.  I think i'll use one of these for an aboleth encounter i'm working on with dozens of minions. 

The aboleth itself is in a state of metamorphosis, immobile and vulnerable (not completely), and its main defense is the mob of minions.   Maybe "Last Stand" would work well here.


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## Rackhir (Dec 29, 2008)

There was a classic Star Fleet Battles scenario called "Surprise Reversed" where a fleet that was being prepared for a surprise attack got jumped by a lone ship, while most of the ships were "inactive" IE. not ready for combat, with minimal defenses. So each round there was the tension between sticking around to inflict damage and fleeing before too many activated and it got overwhelmed.

D&D doesn't have the same "systems" mechanics that SFB, being concerned with ships (which obviously have lots of individual systems) does. But I can seem PCs attacking an enemy force where lots of them are asleep and thus unarmored and unarmed. Or perhaps PCs being attacked before they've finished memorizing spells for the day (not sure if that works in 4e though).

Could also be easy for one side to stick around too long and get wiped out. Since the scenario is built around a vastly superior foe who is handicapped by being unprepared.


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## Ycore Rixle (Dec 30, 2008)

Rechan said:


> Any suggestions how to increase the difficulty of these situations?




For the Last Stand scenario, what if the area where the PCs are standing starts to collapse? The cavern begins to crumble, the fort's walls weaken and the parapets drop, the bridge supports fray and it threatens to dangle, etc.


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## Halivar (Dec 30, 2008)

Ycore Rixle said:


> For the Last Stand scenario, what if the area where the PCs are standing starts to collapse? The cavern begins to crumble, the fort's walls weaken and the parapets drop, the bridge supports fray and it threatens to dangle, etc.



You're a rat-bastard. I like it!


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## SHARK (Dec 30, 2008)

Greetings!

Very cool stuff. These remind me a lot of Advanced Squad Leader scenarios, by Avalon Hill--as well as different missions for Realms of Chaos, by Games Workshop from way back in the day.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK


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## timbannock (Dec 30, 2008)

Angellis_ater said:


> This has some awesome scenario's, but what about settings?
> 
> My suggestions:
> 
> ...




One of my favorites was from Pathfinder #2, the Skinsaw Murders:

PCs go into an abandoned clocktower.  They go up some dilapidated stairs, and the badguys lurking above start severing the ropes that hold the bells in the tower up there.  Bells start crashing through the already unsteady stairs, creating gaps, potentially crushing PCs or forcing them to dodge and possibly fall.

Absolutely nasty.


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## Rel (Dec 30, 2008)

This thread is replete with awesomeness.  Subscribed!

I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm modifying the "Milestones" rule in my upcoming campaign so that the PC's get them for tangible accomplishments rather than simply every two encounters.  Many of these scenario objectives are exactly the kinds of things I've been thinking of.

Excellent stuff!


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## Rechan (Dec 30, 2008)

neuronphaser said:


> One of my favorites was from Pathfinder #2, the Skinsaw Murders:
> 
> PCs go into an abandoned clocktower.  They go up some dilapidated stairs, and the badguys lurking above start severing the ropes that hold the bells in the tower up there.  Bells start crashing through the already unsteady stairs, creating gaps, potentially crushing PCs or forcing them to dodge and possibly fall.
> 
> Absolutely nasty.



In one of the recent PF modules (Children of the Void), the PCs are under siege in a listing lighthouse when the lighthouse breaks from its foundation and starts to roll down the cliff. So the sequence commences of them just trying to nto be bounced around inside of it, along with the monsters inside.


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## WampusCat43 (Dec 30, 2008)

I've 'subjected' my players to numerous 'Chutes and Ladders' situations, where they had to climb/descend a winding path to an objective, all the while carrying an unconscious NPC, dodging enemy fire/aerial assaults, deciding whether to run or fight, etc.  I like creating a 'game within the game'.

One of the very first Traveller scenarios I ran (err...30 years ago) consisted of the PCs having to escape a robot factory gone bad.  They snaked their way up the hillside to the landing pad, ducking from landslides created by enemy fire, trying to outrun the pursuing robots, and so on.

They survived to get their shuttle back to the Leviathan, only to find out that, while they were screwing around in the factory, the robots had loaded 100 of their kind into the cargo bay of the shuttle ("Your controls feel a little...mushy").


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## The Little Raven (Dec 30, 2008)

Rel said:


> I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm modifying the "Milestones" rule in my upcoming campaign so that the PC's get them for tangible accomplishments rather than simply every two encounters.  Many of these scenario objectives are exactly the kinds of things I've been thinking of.




I began doing the same thing in my last session. I had set up a Skill Challenge as an encounter, requiring the players to cross the Tser Falls to get to Castle Ravenloft. Well, things didn't go quite as planned, and there was an awesome scene where one of the players went over the falls, but was saved by being tied to one of the others, and with a series of perfect Athletics rolls, he swung himself back up and punted off a vampire that was threatening his allies in the middle of the bridge. The tension and excitement in the room was palpable, and I gave everyone a milestone with a comment that any event that makes me go "Damn that's cool" will automatically earn a milestone for the party. It really helps push my players to take risks on all kinds of things.


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## Rechan (Dec 31, 2008)

I don't have it (I'm just now looking into it), but situations like this seem to be what _Wraith Recon_ was made for.


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## Rechan (Jan 5, 2009)

During my game I ran one of the scenarios, and boy did it fail hard. It taught me that these need to be developed a little bit stronger before you introduce them to the players. 

I ran the "Whack-a-mole" situation. The Bad Guys were doing some rituals to empower a summoning. It took about four minutes of explaining because of bad communication ("Wait, we only have 5 rounds TOTAL to stop 5 different places?")

Then they started asking questions for details:

"What is it we need to _do_ in order to stop the site from activating? How many actions or rounds does it take?"
"If we break the site from activating, then can they just run back in and re-activate it?"
"If the minions and non-minion engage us, then shouldn't the activation stop, considering they're busy fighting us?" 
"Can't we just see where they're going to put things up? Okay, if so, then why can't we just split up and send one guy to each site _before_ it activates, and then just try and keep them preoccupied?"

While I came up with answers to each, it still came off half-assed. I wasn't sure how the answers would effect how the scenario played out. 

I also couldn't think of actual obstacles which made movement between the sites important. I placed difficult terrain and some general setting pieces, but the PCs just went around them. 

Thank God I have a giant battlemat (4 foot by 3 foot) in order to make it doable. 

In the end, it felt very pointless (but slow), because the PCs weren't too challenged; they'd just sweep in, ignore the badguys for the most part, and stomp the necessary materials, then flee. And they would also start attacking a site before it activated because they succeeded in the 'tell where it's going to activate next' roll.  

The lesson I took from this is: make sure to flesh out all the details first, and think rather hard about the actual way it works in play. Anticipate some of the player's questions/thoughts, or try to fill as many questionable gaps as possible. Write out the details ahead of time in a clear sheet, instead of trying to explain (and re-explain, and in effect muddy the water when you re-explain). This should go for all of the situations.


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## Halivar (Jan 5, 2009)

Rechan said:


> The lesson I took from this is: make sure to flesh out all the details first, and think rather hard about the actual way it works in play. Anticipate some of the player's questions/thoughts, or try to fill as many questionable gaps as possible. Write out the details ahead of time in a clear sheet, instead of trying to explain (and re-explain, and in effect muddy the water when you re-explain). This should go for all of the situations.



Yep. At most, the different scenarios are no more than skeletons of encounters (or "design patterns"). They're nothing without skin and flesh.


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## Angellis_ater (Jan 6, 2009)

I ran a variant on the "whack-a-mole" concept when my players entered an ancient Pyramid. A Skeleton Priest was using the piedestal in four rooms to bind spirits to skeletons (making them Warriors instead of Decripit). Each piedestal "raised" two of these Warriors and if he activated atleast 3 of them, the Stone Golem would awaken (setting storytelling events in motion). 

In game, they quickly figured out what was happening, but didn't have time both to protect themselves against the existing Decripit Skeletons AND hunt down the Piedestals. The priest activated 3 out of 4, the Stone Golem was awakened and the party had some serious fighting on their hands.


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## Mathew_Freeman (Jan 6, 2009)

Rechan said:


> Then they started asking questions for details:
> 
> "What is it we need to _do_ in order to stop the site from activating? How many actions or rounds does it take?"
> "If we break the site from activating, then can they just run back in and re-activate it?"
> ...




My answers would have been "you'll have to find out..."

More helpfully from a DMing position, thanks for pointing out the potential problems with these mini-games. I'm certainly going to keep them in mind, as I think this is a fantastic thread. Very glad it got bumped!

Whilst at the moment I'm using Kots, TL, PoS etc for my campaign, I'd certainly be thinking along these lines if I was designing my own homebrew game, or writing for publication.


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## roguerouge (Jan 6, 2009)

*They Can't Know We're Here!*How about something like an infiltration objective? In both cases, the goal is to avoid notice or alarm on the part of the enemy, while still achieving objectives. Those objectives could either be taking out guards to allow an army to approach, killing enemy scouts to allow maneuvers, or the classic "get as far as you can into enemy HQ before they sound the alarm at intruders"?


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## Holy Smokes (Feb 21, 2009)

neuronphaser said:


> One of my favorites was from Pathfinder #2, the Skinsaw Murders:
> 
> PCs go into an abandoned clocktower.  They go up some dilapidated stairs, and the badguys lurking above start severing the ropes that hold the bells in the tower up there.  Bells start crashing through the already unsteady stairs, creating gaps, potentially crushing PCs or forcing them to dodge and possibly fall.
> 
> Absolutely nasty.



In the crazy terrain motif; one of the _Dark Forces_ games featured a timed, fighting escape off a falling starship in the upper atmosphere while the artificial gravity is severely hosed. Even better, _No One Lives Forever 2_ does this one better, ala _Wizard of Oz_, where you fight a ninja boss inside a house that's tumbling inside a *tornado*! You know, in case you needed a paragon-plus level terrain challenge. 



Rel said:


> This thread is replete with awesomeness.  Subscribed!
> 
> I've mentioned elsewhere that I'm modifying the "Milestones" rule in my upcoming campaign so that the PC's get them for tangible accomplishments rather than simply every two encounters.  Many of these scenario objectives are exactly the kinds of things I've been thinking of.
> 
> Excellent stuff!



This idea is familiar to any _Shadowrun_ player. The two magic words, *karma refreshes*, can either inspire intense relief or sudden dread. I used them at any dramatic turning point or beat; both right after *and* just before major encounters...

Me: "You open the doors to the great chamber beyond, revealing the dragon Farfegnugen waiting for you inside. Karma refreshes."

Players (in unision): "Oh, SH*****T!!!"​


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## firesnakearies (May 26, 2010)

This thread contains some fantastic ideas, and deserves to be resurrected.


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## Aramax (May 31, 2010)

Awesome Sauce!!!!!!!!


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## Deset Gled (Jun 3, 2010)

*Scenario*: Make Friends
*Objective*: The enemies you are fighting are not truly evil.  You must activate a MacGuffin to turn them from enemies into friends.
*Setup*: Similar to a standard Capture the Flag or Get the Macguffin setup, the MacGuffin will be placed deep in enemy territory, with many enemies guarding it.
*In Play*: The big catch here is that the party needs to actively avoid killing any of the enemies.  They can choose to do this by subversion and infiltration, or by using only nonlethal attacks.  Once the Macguffin is activated, the enemies will stop attacking.  If no enemies were killed, the party is greatly rewarded.  If many enemies were killed, they may be less rewarded, or even tried for murder.  If all the enemies are killed, there's no real point to activating the Macguffin.

This scenario can be used in conjunction with Assassinations (kill the evil wizard controlling the minds of others), Capture the Flag, or many other scenarios.  It adds a fun twist that forces the characters to think outside the box.  There are some basic RP requirements; the party must be generally good and not want to kill the enemies, etc.


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## Jack7 (Jun 4, 2010)

> There was a classic Star Fleet Battles scenario called "Surprise Reversed" where a fleet that was being prepared for a surprise attack got jumped by a lone ship, while most of the ships were "inactive" IE. not ready for combat, with minimal defenses. So each round there was the tension between sticking around to inflict damage and fleeing before too many activated and it got overwhelmed.




That was a very, _very good_ combat scenario. I played it often.


*You're Not As You Are (Or Maybe They Ain't):* You're engaged in combat, don't remember why or when it started. Don't know your position or where you are. All you know is that it's dark, it smells strange, there are weird noises in the background, it's very cold, and you are outnumbered by dangerous opponents. As the combat proceeds the characters begin to have flashes of memory that suggest they may be fighting under some type of "_magical, or altered memory influence_."

During the combat, your opponents keep seeming to gesture wildly, and yell at you in a language you don't seem to understand but vaguely recognize. What are they trying to tell you, and what is your real situation?

If you cease fighting will they cut you down, or try some unexpected tactic, and why?

Are they trying to kill you, capture you, liberate you, or something else? For that matter are they as they appear? And how will you know?

*Objective:* Find out the truth, then live through it.



*Three Monsters and a Littler Party: *You are walking through a dungeon when you hear terrible noises like huge packs of wild animals fighting and then there is a rumble and the floor collapses and half the party falls into a cavern in which three monsters are engaged in a life or death struggle. There is a great deal of debris and those in the cavern see no immediate exit. Those above can't see clearly what's going on below for the dust generated by the collapse and the fight. They have their own problems as they are trying to find secure areas above so they won't drop below.

Any one of the three monsters could potential kill one or more of the members of your party. All three monsters are vicious and unpredictable, and the fight is savage and chaotic. If the party members stand still they'll be overrun by the fight. If they run or scatter they might draw the attention of one or more monster, or may trigger the monsters to band together temporarily. What do you do?

*Objective:* Figure out your best course of action, then live through the situation.


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## Aramax (Dec 22, 2010)

must....
keep.....
thread.....
ALIVE!






(bump)


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## Starfox (Dec 23, 2010)

While I like the idea of combat with objectives other than defeat all, I find the very idea of such set-piece battles to be "railroady" in the tradition where an adventure is a series of interconnected fights. I'm not saying this cannot be done right, just that the GM must be prepared to be "cheated" of his nicely set-up by ingenious players.


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## invokethehojo (Dec 23, 2010)

Rechan said:


> Any suggestions how to increase the difficulty of these situations? For instance, I'm reading through these, and I know from experience that something (either by design, or the way you're running it/your PCs react), it becomes a cakewalk.
> 
> What should you do in the event that it becomes a cake walk?
> 
> Alternatively, what do you do if it becomes impossible for the players, for whatever reason? (Dice, bad planning, etc)?




I ran a minion heavy game, to keep it interesting I made a little sub mechanic.  I used zombie mini's (from the board game).  If you did 10 or more damage the minion was killed, less than 10 damage I replaced the mini with a red headed mini and on the next hit it was dead (used a sharpy to red head them).  It worked great, made the minions more of a challenge, but still minion-y.


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## invokethehojo (Dec 23, 2010)

I don't have the time to follow the format but I ran this a few years ago.  It was a modified last stand.


Fortify
Setup: PC's are in the woods, evading raiding parties of orcs.  They come across an old house, find it to be abandoned, then spot an orc scout outside.  The scout takes off to warn his raiding party, which the PC's knows outnumbers them

Objective: the house offers a good place to defend themselves, since they can't keep running all night.  Inside they found some tools and lumber, as if someone were preparing to fix up the old place.  I gave the Players like 10 minutes to determine what fortifications they wanted to make.  They boarded up the windows and barricaded the doors, all of which I had guessed and had made some rulings for.  They placed their archer in the upper window to snipe, and made slits in the entrances to stab through.  But they also weakened the floor under the stairs, effectively making it so a well placed blow to a column could collapse the stairs into the basement below.

The fight went very well.  The PC's positioned themselves at entry points so they could fight the orcs back, the sniper worked his magic.  The enemy leader through torches inside the building, so the PC's had to worry about those too.  As the fight broke into the house the PC's ran up the stairs to a more defensible position, with the rogue hiding downstairds.  When the orcs rushed the stairs the rogue hit the column, collapsed the stairs, and climbed his way up to the second floor.  that pretty much sealed the deal.


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## Janx (Dec 23, 2010)

Starfox said:


> While I like the idea of combat with objectives other than defeat all, I find the very idea of such set-piece battles to be "railroady" in the tradition where an adventure is a series of interconnected fights. I'm not saying this cannot be done right, just that the GM must be prepared to be "cheated" of his nicely set-up by ingenious players.




thats a good point.  The steps it might take to meet the starting conditions for the combat scenario could be railroady.

Though the ideas here should inspire a DM to think of combat conflicts that aren't just kill'em all.

Hold them Off
A situation has come up where a mass of enemies are approaching the party.
there happens to be a choke-point (canyons, caverns or dungeon) that the party could hold them off.

Setup: party needs a reason to hold them off.  Perhaps a slower NPC needs more time to get farther away (to an escape portal/ride/chute).  When presented with the information that where the party needs to escape to runs through this chokepoint, and that they need to buy time, they should come up with the idea to hold them off.  They'll also want some insurance, so supply them with a portcullis or collapsible ceiling that when they themselves need to retreat, they can do so.


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## Beginning of the End (Dec 24, 2010)

Starfox said:


> While I like the idea of combat with objectives other than defeat all, I find the very idea of such set-piece battles to be "railroady" in the tradition where an adventure is a series of interconnected fights. I'm not saying this cannot be done right, just that the GM must be prepared to be "cheated" of his nicely set-up by ingenious players.




I'm of the same mindset. My first impulse on reading the title of the thread was to think of tools which would either (a) empower the players to pursue non-killing goals and/or (b) give the GM flexibility in responding to those goals.

For starters, there are the old stand-bys: Monster reaction mechanics (so that all monstrous encounters don't default to "they're trying to kill you!"), morale rules (so that every encounter doesn't boil down to genocide), a and a functional chase system (so that disengaging from combat by either PCs or NPCs is a viable option).

With just these systems in place plus an understanding of how to design wave-based encounters I can duplicate everything in the OP on-the-fly.

But you could certainly go further than that by fundamentally changing the paradigm of combat so that it becomes conflict resolution instead of task resolution.

IOW, D&D combat has always been a task resolution system: The rules determine whether or not you kill the monster.

Change it up: When you deplete a monster's hit points you haven't automatically killed them; you've simply reached the point where the player can now determine the outcome of the encounter. Does the monster die? Run away? Surrender? Convert? Go flying off the cliff and disappear into the abyss?

Having done that, however, you can now open combat even more using pg. 42: Hit point depletion doesn't have to be limited to stuff that deals physical damage. All kinds of skills could be employed in creative ways to further your goals.


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## Aramax (Jan 12, 2011)

Ok ,I cant find the thread where I found this AWESOME idea so I hope the person will step forward so I can give him the xp he deserves.

I ran the Ninjas in a house in a tornado fight for my epic 4th group on our big New Years day game as the last encounter and it was awesome.

The ninjas(female wererat ninjas if you please!) were bouncing around the flying furniture which was smashing around and turning to dangerous splinters the room was spinning and the pcs were being thrown around.

They loved it,I loved it ,it was a BLAST!

Just do yourself a favor and give the ninjas group hp like I did as following the damage around would have been a huge pain(I started killing off the ninjas at like 70% damage)


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## disenchanted (Oct 12, 2012)

*Slowing to a Halt*

*Slowing to a Halt *

*Objective:* Every round the party must make a check to take an action. The check increases in difficulty every round. Failure means a party member can take no action and is confused or debilitated in some way. 

*Setup:* The party’s memory is failing due to a bad guy’s evil power or object which must be deactivated. Every round make a wisdom check or be unable to act due to confusion, fascination, or daze effect..The party must eliminate the bad guy or activate the object before no one remembers why they are there or what they are doing. 

*In Play:* Be sure to not make the check to difficult in the beginning. If the fight drags on beyond what was intended the increasing difficulty of the check can quickly get out of hand. Have a contingency plan in place to keep the game going if no one can make the check... if you don’t want a total party kill.


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