Encounter design - invoking the feel of dangerous streets

[Spore]

Greetings playground,

I will soon debute as a DM and want my Spanish city setting to radiate an aura of danger. For the longest day our heroes' PCs have pranced around the most dangerous areas without sense of real danger. I have told them my fights will at least be challenging (APL+1) and fighting is generally the worst outcome in an conflict. However I will want unavoidable fights.

The group is 2nd level, 25 point buy, Gunslinger/Ranger, Dervish Dancer, Wind Oracle, Gnome Illusionist.

On the opening night I will want a drunkard and his complices (Operation: Centaur if you know what I am pointing at) that wants to harrass the females of the group (and depending on their behaviour when the guards show up a night in jail), a kidnapping (the oracle is a noblewoman and probably worth a hefty ransom) and/or an encounter with corrupt guardsmen trying to press customs for using the street.

Now I need you. My ideas for challenging fights so far:
1) Drunkard (Warrior 2/Barbarian 1) + 2 Cutpurses (Rogue 2 and Rogue 1): I am unsure but I think the combat will be a joke because Sleep or Color Spray. Even if I make one rogue Elvish (immune to Sleep) the combat ends after the Wizard has made his turn. But if he lacks the right spell, the combat will still be over quickly. What to do? Throw in more drunk guys as cannon fodder? Try to remind the group that slaughtering 10 men isn't that welcomed even in self-defense? If they kill those sea men the captain would probably want them to cover for his lost crew.
2) Kidnapper (Elvish ranged rogue with Sleep Arrows) + 2 Thugs (Warrior 2) as distraction. Combat is won when the Ranger spots the archer. Combat is lost when I introduce poison. More thugs are unlikely to be a clever choice for a subtle tactics.
3) Corrupted guardsmen While this encounter is fairly easy on preparing and everything else how do you explain killing the king's guards?

Basically my question is: Are those combats laughably easy or way too much? What would you change? I don't want a stupidly high level single guy that takes out PCs in a single hit while then dying 2 rounds in due to poor action economy.

[GreenZ]

The encounters themselves look fine, but establishing a 'mood' for a game is all about understanding the core aspects of that mood and changing how the game is run to match it. CR and combat encounters are a good way of displaying difficulty but a terrible way of conveying actual threat, for example. As long as the party can see the enemy then there is no possibility of threat, only the difficulty of overcoming challenge.



First, establish danger. Understand your group's common play style and twist it. If they have only ever played games were they are the heroes and defeat almost every combat through strength and cunning, they will have no reason to be threatened. You can make an early encounter something that is very difficult to fight but very easy to avoid or run away from; a group of drunken, higher-level guards that harass the party or such. Even if they lose such a fight, death should not be the consequence.

Second, threat comes from the unknown, not from challenge. Once the possibility of danger is established, make sure that the party cannot simply see all of the enemies at once at the start of combat to gauge their strength at a glance. A half-dozen unseen snipers can be much more threatening than a dozen visible archers.

Third, apply pressure. No matter how dark a hallway is, anyone can stumble through it eventually. You need to have pressure applied to the threat; either through immediate consequences or possible consequences. For example, you mention a kidnapping. Make the risk of a future attempt known. This gives agency to the players while also pressuring them; what do they do about the kidnapping? Also, what do they do about the constant treat of danger until then? Do they avoid the streets because they are to dangerous or stick together in hopes that they do not get caught alone?

Finally, follow through on the threat. Danger without consequence is not dangerous. If someone tries to simply ignore the danger you need to act accordingly. If the group still ignorantly splits up to do things in town, have someone get mugged or an important NPC go missing for a bit. Encourage the party to take action against the threat, sticking together or avoiding trouble areas, and then reward them for doing so.

[Spore]

The encounters themselves look fine, but establishing a 'mood' for a game is all about understanding the core aspects of that mood and changing how the game is run to match it. CR and combat encounters are a good way of displaying difficulty but a terrible way of conveying actual threat, for example. As long as the party can see the enemy then there is no possibility of threat, only the difficulty of overcoming challenge.

Thanks for the tip. I was about to think that. But since everyone in our group is doing DM work and one of them is just coming up with the most ridiculously diffcult - but doable combat. And while he doesn't convey the mood of danger but rather of epic fights.



First, establish danger. Understand your group's common play style and twist it. If they have only ever played games were they are the heroes and defeat almost every combat through strength and cunning, they will have no reason to be threatened. You can make an early encounter something that is very difficult to fight but very easy to avoid or run away from; a group of drunken, higher-level guards that harass the party or such. Even if they lose such a fight, death should not be the consequence.

Their playstyle honestly changes. We like to overcome challenges with mechanical superiority but we do make the WORST decisions in the social parts of the game. The group does EVERYTHING just to have a decent battle (they even free evil undead creating priests just to be able to kill a lich - which just dominated the lich and left). The problem will be the difficulty of combat mainly. If I made combat close to unwinnable, they just make their "challenge accepted"-face and go balls to the wall.

Maybe an end with prison sentence is more appropriate. Would this - along with a comparatively easy escape from the prison and no further investigation aside from the noble woman - convey the image of a corrupt law system? Just to press financial charges from her parents, not to incarcarate her.


Second, threat comes from the unknown, not from challenge. Once the possibility of danger is established, make sure that the party cannot simply see all of the enemies at once at the start of combat to gauge their strength at a glance. A half-dozen unseen snipers can be much more threatening than a dozen visible archers.

That's why I took the encounter with the hidden sniper. But mechanically the group should have a shot at finding them (so no Goblins with a +18 Hide modifier on Lv 1). Snipers should be rogues but then they would kill the group right away with several sneak attack arrows.


Third, apply pressure. No matter how dark a hallway is, anyone can stumble through it eventually. You need to have pressure applied to the threat; either through immediate consequences or possible consequences. For example, you mention a kidnapping. Make the risk of a future attempt known. This gives agency to the players while also pressuring them; what do they do about the kidnapping? Also, what do they do about the constant treat of danger until then? Do they avoid the streets because they are to dangerous or stick together in hopes that they do not get caught alone?

I think they will want to combine both. Which is a problem because that could paralyze their decision making. They're pretty fatalistic like that. They equate street = danger = avoid = never go out again. Ever.


Finally, follow through on the threat. Danger without consequence is not dangerous. If someone tries to simply ignore the danger you need to act accordingly. If the group still ignorantly splits up to do things in town, have someone get mugged or an important NPC go missing for a bit. Encourage the party to take action against the threat, sticking together or avoiding trouble areas, and then reward them for doing so.

The main point of this first few evenings is just "to watch your back". Ultimatively I want a non-lethal way to cut the financial supply of the noble girl. I could've had her parents assassinated (assassin guild right in town - and they pay enough to be above the law) but honestly kidnapped for a long period of time would also suffice.

I want to point them into the direction of sailing and piracy eventually. They should discover, after some island adventures, some foreign coasts, that the King's Admiral is the pirate all along and tries to rally enough money to start a civil war to dethrone the King. It's a campaign idea between the axis of chaos (freedom from the oppressive regime) and law (the king is appointed for life time; never change the running system). Neither the admiral nor the king should be evil. The governor for the city is evil, as is a good bunch of the pirates the admiral hired but in its core the revolution is about the people not about primal alignments. That is also why I will lack good or evil outsiders or extremist divine casters on both sides.