Building RPG Encounters! (Game Master Tips)

Come hither as Matt Mercer tells you how to be a better GM / DM. Today’s episode shows you how to build engaging encounters: everything from enemy creation and difficulty level to shaping battlefield terrain.

[hagintora]

Another way I've found of balancing encounters is to treat the party as if it's a single creature. Take the average number of Attacks, the average Attack Bonus, the average AC, the average Initiative Modifier, the average Saving Throw bonus, the average Damage, and the average Hit Points. Once you have these numbers you can build the encounter by doing the same thing with your monsters (treating all of the enemies as a single entity).

Compare the two lists. If the values of these two lists are equal then you know that the party has a 50% chance of winning the fight (or losing with a TPK). That's a hard fight. If the values seem to favor the enemy, that's probably going to be a fight that the PC's want to avoid. Adjust as necessary to fit the type of encounter you want. The more the values favor the PC's the easier the fight will be.

This may be a little bit more work than some might want (and hey, if your way is working don't let me stop you), but it does take into account party composition, magic items, etc., where I feel the current challenge rating system does not.

[jonaspoffyn]

I've been GM-ing for about a year now, and the best tip I can give on this topic: DON'T BE AFRAID TO NERF (or buff but probably nerf :p) YOUR ENEMIES ON THE FLY. Really, don't be ashamed if you do, you shouldn't do it every time but it's ok. You can also let some enemies flee or call in reinforcements for a more natural solution of course.

[ittyandpocky]

Talking about diplomatic solutions reminded me of my current campaign. I play a rogue that is essentially a spy, he talks his way into and out of situations by being able to bluff and come up with alternate identities on the fly. My party and I were going through this dungeon that housed a white dragon. Through the whole dungeon we kept finding evidence of him, such as backtracking to a previously cleared room to find the door ripped off the hinges and the corpses of our fallen foes now covered in ice, or hearing a roar echo through the halls. It built up this really tense expectation that, oh man, when we finally confront this dragon we might not all survive. So when we finally walk into a room that turns out to be his lair and we have absolutely no real plan of attack my character, Til'Adell, decides to go hardcore on the bluffing and diplomacy and, through a really tense 30 minutes of real time gameplay, talk his way into the dragon's good graces to the point that he and my party formed an uneasy alliance against a potentially bigger threat. He gave us weapons he didn't want, and my DM gave us the xp as if we had defeated him in combat as well as awarding me bonus xp for good roleplaying.

One of the moments I'm more proud of in my D&D history haha

[Unahim]

Always add a few features to your combat that make things "different". For instance, I had one encounter where a harpy could lure players off of a low cliff, and the players were accompanying a cart full of goods pulled by a horse. Whenever something happened close to the horse, I would increase its panic level and roll on a small horse reaction table, with the panic as a modifier. If it got too high, the horse would start to run off in a random direction, potentially trampling people, damaging the cart, even stumbling off a cliff, etc... This meant that the players didn't only have to deal with enemies and dealing damage to them, they also had to consider preventing allies from stumbling over the cliff towards the harpy, -and- had to keep the horse calm.

The druid was rewarded greatly for having prepared the animal friendship spell in this situation, and it makes more players shine than just "do big damage" guys, and keeps things fresh.

In another encounter, I used quicksand that you sink in if you don't move on your turn. Suddenly getting tripped or grappled by the darkmantales in that cave was a much bigger deal.

Keep it fresh!

[bobbylawrence]

"victory not assured"
In my campaign I have a easy showing of power, simply give the players a challenge and watch the enemy blast through it. In my case, the players just defeated A wight, with scary glowing green eyes and sharp bone protrusions. After that combat is over I opened up to a hallway with a iron door blocking the path, where masked men with the equivalent of flamethrowers scorched 11 wights instantly, before pulling a lever and having the iron door slowly open... with the party on the other side. It was awesome and the chase was epic.

[JohnPetritis]

Wow a video I don't have to speed up! This guy talks at an excellent rate.

[RPG_Angie]

I've got an idea. I've noticed that many of us Critters are more or less experienced DMs, so we already know the basics, but we still love to watch Matt talk about DMing, so we'll definitely watch this series. But we would love to hear something a little more advanced and in-depth. So how about mentioning examples of difficult/complex DM decisions during the Vox Machina campaign? I'm sure the newbies would love it, too. For example in this episode, you could bring up an encounter from Critical Role and show us how you put the monsters together.

[eliontheinternet]

We were (cheap and broke) college kids when I started playing. We had a large whiteboard, and we used nail polish to make 1-inch marks around the frame. Each inch was 5 feet (which was the scale of our minis) and it made it easy to draw the terrain’s outline. It wasn’t very pretty, but it was very useful for spatial awareness!

[voiceofgosh]

i have been role playing for about 25 years and GMing for about twenty. the info Matt gives may be very basic and when you hear it its obvious but you either get stuck in bad habits as a crusty old gamer like me or don't know because you are new to the hobby, thank you Matt you have inspired me and many others.

[victoriajaburek]

I just want to thank you for making this series. I am a new DM and this has really made this a less frightening challenge and help me, who loves to be highly organized, be a bit better prepared for pc randomness. I have been a player for decades but it is a whole new world on the other side of the DM screen.

[FuerstHardos]

This is like that series Bob Ross did to teach people how to art

[oQuindo]

6:20 If you do that make sure you have a plan for the party somehow killing it.

I have been in a few games where the party somehow found a way to kill something that should have TPKed them.

[cryptidtwink]

"Feel free to tailor your game for fun." God, I wish I could just shove that quote into everyone's face who says CR doesn't know the rules.

[idleeidolon]

It's.... *rolls dice* ...high noon...

[timothywhitney]

Matt, you rock! The tips are great! I have been DMing for 1 year now and love it! I appreciate your wisdom and stories of experience to help us newer DMs. Thanks man! I am gonna try and run an evil 1-shot sessions soon!!!

[CaptainFlintthePirate]

Matt where were your videos when I was 12 and running my first games. These videos are a treat.

[shardliveactionroleplaying]

Thumbs up for "murder hobos" @ 6:47! Considering your antagonists' motivation during an encounter makes it much more dynamic. A greedy opponent may be swayed by diplomacy and coins. A hungry monster might be tempted by food. An enemy with a vendetta against a particular character might ignore other combatants to take a swing at their nemesis!

[BoneHeadPlaysGames]

I started watching these videos to aid me in video game design and now I am watching these for general life tips. These lessons can be applied to all relationships outside of games. Good work Geek & Sundry!

[Generalth]

This is some GREAT advice! I'll definitely be watching these videos as I work on my creative projects. On the topic of new and interesting encounters, one of my favorite monster ideas was a dire elephant with the fire elemental template rampaging through a town. When you can describe a monster to the players and they have no idea what it is, except that they're terribly scared of it, that's awesome.

[rageracing]

Nice series of videos. I started gaming as a young boy in 1983. Played all types of systems until about 2005 when life got busy and ran out of gaming friends. I’ve recently started again (2024) and find my GM skills have gotten rusty. Watching Matt DM on YouTube and getting these tips from these videos really helps this old man try to put together epic campaigns again. Wish me luck, and my players good dice rolls.