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View Full Version : The encounter you've always wanted to play/run



Lord Il Palazzo
2013-01-29, 05:10 PM
Earlier today, Pandiano posted in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269565) a number of suggestions for making a chase scene fun and exciting in D&D 3.5 and it reminded me how much fun I've always thought such a set piece could be if run well (and how disappointed I am with the default rules for it.)

The first game I ever played in included an awesome chase in which each PC was pursued by an unknown enemy agent through a crowded city and ultimately evaded them in some way that encapsulated their character and style. (The halfling rogue out-maneuvering his pursuer with his small size to find a chance to hide. The barbarian went nuts, smashed some things up and used the ensuing panic to cover his escape. You get the idea.) It was a lot of fun and I've wanted to run something similar for my group ever since I started DMing.

So, what is the scenario you've always wanted your group to play (with you either as a player or a DM/GM/etc.)?

Sith_Happens
2013-01-30, 10:45 AM
I'm secretly hoping that my current 3.5 campaign ends with us dramatically scry-and-dying the BBEG seconds before he finally carries out his evil plot, preferably with the evil plot involving death or grievous harm to some NPC of personal importance to the party.

Why, you ask? Because then the moment will be perfect when I suddenly play this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAlztMvvNkk).:smallbiggrin:

yougi
2013-01-30, 01:14 PM
So many things...

I'd like to have a boss fight like they have in video games, with stages, something like what AngryDM proposes (http://angrydm.com/category/features/the-boss-fight/).

I'd like to run a stealthy infiltration to fight the enemy from within, a la Troy, but with more disguise and bluff and less... wooden horse.

I'd like to run a modern fight were players have to jump from cars to cars at breakneck speed.

I'd like an encounter that my players cannot solve through their character abilities, but still manage to solve.

Khaelic
2013-01-30, 01:29 PM
I'd like an encounter that my players cannot solve through their character abilities, but still manage to solve.

I'll have to find the resource for you, but there is a book that exists with dungeon puzzles that involve riddles, clues, and such that force people to think things through instead of just bashing or diplomacy-ing to victory.

Lord Il Palazzo
2013-01-30, 02:27 PM
I'd like to run a modern fight were players have to jump from cars to cars at breakneck speed.That sounds so cool.


I'd like an encounter that my players cannot solve through their character abilities, but still manage to solve.Yeah, forcing creativity and roleplaying rather than picking the right skill to roll or attack to use would be great. I love having my players surprise me.

This one is more of a campaign but it's a specific fight that really intrigues me. I'd love to run a game that shifts genres abruptly a little ways in. I'd like to start with a spy/special forces type game for a few sessions and then suddenly have a mission where the team starts running into crazy paranormal/supernatural stuff and turns into a magical rather than sci-fi Men in Black-style story. Maybe they get to a terrorist leader's hideout and he's unexpectedly a D&D wizard and starts casting spells or they're sent to investigate some super-weapon a hostile government is developing and it's a nest of young dragons or an eldritch horror they've gotten their hands on. I'd love to see the looks on my players' faces and how they react when the reveal gets dropped.

Gnomish Wanderer
2013-01-30, 02:31 PM
I'd love LOVE to run an 'Ocean's 11' type of heist, but my players always seem to either not bother with planning or muck it up spectacularly (like 'scoping out' teh place 24 hours before the actual heist and end up triggering every level of security the place has by taking their scoping waaaaay too far).

Lord Il Palazzo
2013-01-30, 02:59 PM
I'd love LOVE to run an 'Ocean's 11' type of heist, but my players always seem to either not bother with planning or muck it up spectacularly (like 'scoping out' teh place 24 hours before the actual heist and end up triggering every level of security the place has by taking their scoping waaaaay too far).Bummer. My party has a house-rule/standing fluff that in certain situations, they can "Ocean's 11 it". Though the party's split, they continue to discuss what they're doing with the group, under the explanation of their table talk being the party's planning from before the adventure actually went down. The don't get to do this for things that are legitimate surprises to them, but for things that were reasonable to expect I allow it ("What's the plan if a guard comes around the corner while I'm picking the lock?" "You could say the door's been jamming you're the locksmith they called to fix it.") It's not as awesome as an actually highly planned heist, but it has given us some awesome stories.

yougi
2013-01-30, 05:21 PM
That sounds so cool.

I KNOW RIGHT?


Yeah, forcing creativity and roleplaying rather than picking the right skill to roll or attack to use would be great. I love having my players surprise me.

Isn't it just the best feeling in the world?


This one is more of a campaign but it's a specific fight that really intrigues me. I'd love to run a game that shifts genres abruptly a little ways in. I'd like to start with a spy/special forces type game for a few sessions and then suddenly have a mission where the team starts running into crazy paranormal/supernatural stuff and turns into a magical rather than sci-fi Men in Black-style story. Maybe they get to a terrorist leader's hideout and he's unexpectedly a D&D wizard and starts casting spells or they're sent to investigate some super-weapon a hostile government is developing and it's a nest of young dragons or an eldritch horror they've gotten their hands on. I'd love to see the looks on my players' faces and how they react when the reveal gets dropped.

Like From Dusk Till Dawn?

which starts as a western kidnapping story and becomes a zombie survival story halfway in?


I'd love LOVE to run an 'Ocean's 11' type of heist, but my players always seem to either not bother with planning or muck it up spectacularly (like 'scoping out' teh place 24 hours before the actual heist and end up triggering every level of security the place has by taking their scoping waaaaay too far).

I know, my PCs have the same allergy to planning. If they plan for longer than 5 minutes, one of them just Leeroy-jenkins in. Lucky for the rest of the team, the barbarian has started precising that whenever they plan, he sits on the elf with 8 Str.


Bummer. My party has a house-rule/standing fluff that in certain situations, they can "Ocean's 11 it". Though the party's split, they continue to discuss what they're doing with the group, under the explanation of their table talk being the party's planning from before the adventure actually went down. The don't get to do this for things that are legitimate surprises to them, but for things that were reasonable to expect I allow it ("What's the plan if a guard comes around the corner while I'm picking the lock?" "You could say the door's been jamming you're the locksmith they called to fix it.") It's not as awesome as an actually highly planned heist, but it has given us some awesome stories.

That is an AWESOME idea. Plus, it kind of plays out EXACTLY like in Ocean's 11!

Lord Il Palazzo
2013-01-30, 07:44 PM
Isn't it just the best feeling in the world?It doesn't happen often, but when it does it makes every bit of work that goes into DMing worthwhile.


Like From Dusk Till Dawn?

which starts as a western kidnapping story and becomes a zombie survival story halfway in?I haven't seen it, but I think now I'll have to. Thanks for the tip.


That is an AWESOME idea. Plus, it kind of plays out EXACTLY like in Ocean's 11!I hadn't seen the movie the first time my group did it (back when I was playing rather than DMing) and the other player named it. It's made for some fun sessions and captures that feeling well. It's much more fun when an intricate plan pays off perfectly, but this works in a pinch.

scarmiglionne4
2013-01-31, 03:34 PM
Bummer. My party has a house-rule/standing fluff that in certain situations, they can "Ocean's 11 it". Though the party's split, they continue to discuss what they're doing with the group, under the explanation of their table talk being the party's planning from before the adventure actually went down. The don't get to do this for things that are legitimate surprises to them, but for things that were reasonable to expect I allow it ("What's the plan if a guard comes around the corner while I'm picking the lock?" "You could say the door's been jamming you're the locksmith they called to fix it.") It's not as awesome as an actually highly planned heist, but it has given us some awesome stories.

That is a great idea!

I would like to run an encounter that puts the players in the middle of a war. I want it to be centered on the characters, the way movies like The Last of the Mohicans do it. I did run something like this in a city. The PCs were standing on a hilly part of town looking down as several ships stop on the banks of the river and unload thousands of Kappa warriors. Someone they knew lived by the docks, so they began running down the hill.

I basically ran it like a series of endurance battles. I described the battle that was going on all around them. They would move into a section of the city, fighting as they travel, clear a section of street, and move one. It ended with them reaching the bank and attempting to board and sink the ships that brought the kappa once they had made sure their friend was safe.

I would also like to run a memorable one-on-one duel.

Another type I am interested is a scene like in Final Fantasy VIII where that big Robo Spider is chasing the party. I would love to run an encounter where the PCs are trying to get away from a creature that they can only slow down or temporarily drive away while they run.

Darius Kane
2013-02-01, 05:18 AM
This. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_30_iniqiAE&list=PL5CF524D335C3DC9C&index=1) Actually, I would very much like to run this campaign.

Daftendirekt
2013-02-01, 05:32 AM
This. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_30_iniqiAE&list=PL5CF524D335C3DC9C&index=1) Actually, I would very much like to run this campaign.

That has got to be the most ridiculous game I have ever seen.

Eurus
2013-02-01, 05:37 AM
I'd love to be able to run Age of Worms successfully. I must've tried about half a dozen times, never got a party past the first 25% or so of the campaign. Some of the later stuff looks pretty fantastic, and the very end... literally fighting an emerging deity? (I'm not considering that a spoiler since it's practically the selling point of the campaign). You can't get much more climactic than that.

Sith_Happens
2013-02-01, 09:28 AM
This. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_30_iniqiAE&list=PL5CF524D335C3DC9C&index=1) Actually, I would very much like to run this campaign.


That has got to be the most ridiculous game I have ever seen.

"Lemme guess, Asura's Wrath?"
*clicks*
"Yup."

mistformsquirrl
2013-02-01, 09:38 AM
I'd like another shot at a Seven Samurai* campaign myself. I was actually IN one on these boards for a short while - everything seemed to be proceeding quite awesomely - roleplaying was top notch, much fun was being had...

And then the DM disappeared. I have no idea what happened there, but... just gone. Vanished. Poof.

Possibly the saddest I've ever been about a campaign dying.

---

DMing-wise... I want to do an airship based campaign. I made mention of it in the Other Roleplaying Games section, since I'm not sure what system to use for it just yet; but I still think it could be pretty incredible having 4 players each in command of his or her own airship...

Honestly the hardest part of that campaign isn't even going to be me finding a system that works... it's going to be fleshing out the bridge crew for 4 seperate ships. But that'll be part of the fun too.

*Thematically based on the movie, but certainly not an exact copy and with an entirely player made cast. I think the cast is part of what made it so awesome, you could *kind of* align characters to characters from the movie, but never exactly so there were plenty of neat curveballs to be thrown. It was good stuff.

Kaveman26
2013-02-01, 09:47 AM
I planned a campaign where a true undead apocalypse went off. The entire world would be converted to undead except for the PC's. The group's cleric would become the single most important entity on the Material Plane and the objective was to get him to the peak of a pyramid where he could reach the Pantheons and potentially reverse the outbreak.

It would take an extended amount of time and the PC's would have to delay and harry the undead long enough for him to complete the ritual. Never got around to running it.

Kane0
2013-02-01, 07:24 PM
A BBEG fight at the end of the campaign where the battlefield shifts and warps as the players whittle him down. Then towards the end of the fight the BBEG begins to use it to his advantage as his own power fades.

Maybe work the battlefield into some kind of inhibitor for the BBEG, where changing it to the players advantage makes him stronger as he becomes less bound to the surroundings.

That would be great.

Actana
2013-02-01, 07:49 PM
I have a ton of encounter concepts I kinda want to run, but haven't either got a game to fit them in, or just haven't worked on the game in a long time due to other reasons. That said, there's something that has always intrigued me as a concept:

Tower defense. :smallcool:

Yes, I'm serious. A tower defense minigame in a campaign would be a very interesting and memorable encounter if done right. 4e would be a definite fit for the concept, and it'd be easy to assign powers to different types of towers.

The problems of course come in spades. How to make it interesting, how to make it fun for the players. How to integrate it into the game, and how to keep it short but sweet. Lots of problems, but lots of potential.

For an example of mechanics, the players would have a few rounds to place their towers. During their round, they can either control one tower, or place another. Maybe have an encounter/recharge/daily power that does something more powerful. Enemies come in waves and either try to bypass or eliminate the towers. Include lots of routes the enemies go through, and have a varied amount of towers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. You'd have your standard high damage, low damage AoE, slowing, blocking towers and whatever you can think of. Maybe even upgrading towers.

Enemies would likely be set into two separate categories: attackers and runners. The attackers would obviously try to eliminate the towers, or at least draw fire. The runners would attempt to get past the towers. Have one or two objectives to defend, and if the enemies get past them in sufficient number, have a combat encounter with the PCs directly involved.

Done well, it might make for a really memorable encounter with tense moments that wouldn't be found in other encounters. Done badly... Eeesh, it might well turn out to be an exercise in tedium.

You could also, to integrate the encounter better into the game, replace the towers with something else. Regiments of troops? Different types of troops: footsoldiers, archers, knights, flying cavalry, supporting mages, the possibilities are endless. Just need to keep the HP of the enemies low, the pace fast, and the encounter itself relatively short.

Joe the Rat
2013-02-01, 08:58 PM
Bummer. My party has a house-rule/standing fluff that in certain situations, they can "Ocean's 11 it". Though the party's split, they continue to discuss what they're doing with the group, under the explanation of their table talk being the party's planning from before the adventure actually went down. The don't get to do this for things that are legitimate surprises to them, but for things that were reasonable to expect I allow it ("What's the plan if a guard comes around the corner while I'm picking the lock?" "You could say the door's been jamming you're the locksmith they called to fix it.") It's not as awesome as an actually highly planned heist, but it has given us some awesome stories.

These are the kind of rulings that I love to see. One of the critical issues that comes up in games is that we as players are not necessarily as competent in key areas as our characters are. This kind of meta-planning can fill in the gaps. Also, don't discount the fact that its not planned through - while it doesn't play out as if fully planned, it plays out as if a fully planned heist were being presented in story. Heist stories nearly always leave out some detail in the telling that is only revealed when it comes into play. The Ocean's remake and sequels were squarely built on that style.


Me? The one thing I'd love to do as a player is pull off a major "let's you and him fight" scenario. Trick the manticore into attacking the wyvern, have the bandits waylay the necromancer, that sort of thing. Closest I've gotten was having another PC take a challenge of succession for me - but that was a planned event to retire the character. He won, by the way.

Seharvepernfan
2013-02-02, 05:10 PM
Off the top of my head, there is one I can't wait to use on my players.

The location is a big castle on the top of some sort of hill/mountain/mesa/whatever, with a huuuuge dwarven dungeon underneath it that sprawls all throughout the hill/thing. The players, over the course of several sessions, work their way down through the castle/dungeon and get to the bottom for whatever it is they wanted. Then on the way back out, the hobgoblin army/nation/empire (a big antagonist) has sent a special strike-force to kill them, and has been planning this for a long time.

The hobgoblins, using sappers and odd-job arcana, hem the players into a specific area (using collapses, iron walls, whatever), then drop a lot of Anchor Mist into that level of the dungeon, so the players can't just port out. So, the players have their backs to the wall and are closed in on from like three sides by this hobgoblin army.

There are rogues/ninjas/monks/assassins who are sneaking around with poison and what not (ready to disrupt casting), invisible evokers readying counterspells and disrupts, black full-plate wearing soldiers carrying tower-shields and fighting in phalanx formation slowly closing in on the party with a few champions in the mix (fighters or warblades or martial-themed clerics) who are being led by marshalls or bards with war-drums and have a few warmages and adepts in the ranks who are wearing armor as well. The players will have a very hard time fighting their way out. Each of the warriors has an AC of 30 or more, and any spellcasting will be met with hell. The players did find a portal down there at the bottom, but they'll have to fight their way to it or otherwise think themselves out of the situation.

Gizladlo
2013-02-03, 09:02 AM
I mentioned this before, but I've always wanted to do a timetravel encounter where the party fights themselves twice, first losing, second time winning.

Synovia
2013-02-03, 11:47 PM
That sounds so cool.

Yeah, forcing creativity and roleplaying rather than picking the right skill to roll or attack to use would be great. I love having my players surprise me..

I'm torn on this sort of thing.

On one hand, making players think is a good thing.

On the other hand, the fact that I can't talk my way out of a situation shouldn't keep my bard from being able to. The fact that I can't figure out a specific puzzle doesn't mean my INT 30 factotum wouldn't be able to... you get the point.

Lord Il Palazzo
2013-02-04, 01:59 PM
I'm torn on this sort of thing.

On one hand, making players think is a good thing.

On the other hand, the fact that I can't talk my way out of a situation shouldn't keep my bard from being able to. The fact that I can't figure out a specific puzzle doesn't mean my INT 30 factotum wouldn't be able to... you get the point.Of course there are problems at the other extreme too.

My point was entirely that it's really boring for a game to degenerate into "I use bluff on him." *rolls dice* "30. Do I win?" and the like and that players should have to use at least some creativity rather than expecting one or two big numbers on their character sheet solve every problem without them needing to think.