Help with encounters for an adventure

[Ronnocius]

So I am running a "one-shot" for my group (I have one-shot in quotes because the player characters are going to be in the main campaign but right now we are just going through 'episodic sessions' that aren't related to each other at all so they can gain XP). I am expecting 4 level 1 characters although there could be a 5th. A few of the players are new but they have a handle on the basics.

Taking a bit of inspiration from Out of the Abyss, I decided the characters would be slaves of a fire giant and find themselves in the middle of a slave revolt, giving them time to escape and navigate the Phoenix Mountains, trying to reach civilization before being recaptured by his servants. The players will each take control of another slave NPC (I am thinking a scout, a thug, and the rest bandits) to essentially serve as meat shields.

Here are some rough ideas for encounters I have had (unless the players choose not to, I will give them an opportunity to raid the armory and get all of their starting equipment in order):
- as they are exiting the fire giant's stronghold they encounter a pair of magmin (CR 1/2 each)
- in the courtyard of the stronghold they are harassed by a magma mephit and a trio of smoke mephits who will (1 CR 1/2 and 2 CR 1/4)
- as they flee into the mountains they encounter a giant strider* being attacked by 3 wolves (the wolves focus on the giant strider, any wolf that is attacked by a player will switch targets. giant strider flees after reaching half hp; 1 CR 1 and 3 CR 1/4)
- they are ambushed (or have a chance to be ambushed) by three firenewt warriors* (CR 1/2 each)
- perhaps something to do with a fire snake or multiple fire snakes

I was also planning on having a search party of a gnoll flesh gnawer* (CR 1), 4 gnolls (CR 1/2 each), and a hyena (CR 0) pursue the party. Every time the party takes a rest there is a chance that the gnolls will arrive as they face the next encounter (probably a round or two in). The gnolls are not allied with the firenewts so they will attack each other as well as the party. After the party escapes the mountains the gnolls catch up to them only to be run down by a prince/baron's son/etc and his knights who will take the party to safety.

So does anybody have any recommendations for either more encounters (also whether this will be enough to occupy a session), modifications to existing encounters (also ideas for ways to make the environment/terrain interesting), thoughts on having party members control NPC meat shields and whether or not a deus ex machina to save the party from the gnolls would be appropriate, and finally how to resolve the gnolls pursuing the players (a system similar to the drow pursuit in Out of the Abyss?)

Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated.


* Volo's Guide to Monsters

[opaopajr]

You are scripting more than seeding; this will lead to frustration as too narrow and scheduled a track. Make this place a real place first by seeding it with content. And be sure to provide a mix of content value, so at least one idea for each game column (combat, explore, social) with a range from very good to very bad.

Since this is one-shot, focus on a major facet: escaping the lair, surviving the mountain trek away, or negotiating a return to civilization. Pick one travel leg and do it well. Make that place an area of interest, make the nouns (person, place, or thing) therein intriguing yet formidable.

Having NPCs to be meat shield victims with a mere string of combats feels... honestly 'video game level' boring. Shake it up with what video games cannot do! Use competing agendas, have NPCs offer different opportunities, yes including any 'enemies'.

Don't design for something that is fire and forget. Design for memorable and aspire to return. This is where random tables and adjectives can help fire the first layer of creativity! :smallsmile:

[Ronnocius]

You are scripting more than seeding; this will lead to frustration as too narrow and scheduled a track. Make this place a real place first by seeding it with content. And be sure to provide a mix of content value, so at least one idea for each game column (combat, explore, social) with a range from very good to very bad.

Since this is one-shot, focus on a major facet: escaping the lair, surviving the mountain trek away, or negotiating a return to civilization. Pick one travel leg and do it well. Make that place an area of interest, make the nouns (person, place, or thing) therein intriguing yet formidable.

Having NPCs to be meat shield victims with a mere string of combats feels... honestly 'video game level' boring. Shake it up with what video games cannot do! Use competing agendas, have NPCs offer different opportunities, yes including any 'enemies'.

Don't design for something that is fire and forget. Design for memorable and aspire to return. This is where random tables and adjectives can help fire the first layer of creativity! :smallsmile:

Thanks for the advice. I am aware that this game would be somewhat 'rail-roaded' but since we have new players and everyone has a new character I think a slightly more 'rail-roaded' adventure would be appropriate. Based on what your input is I think I will develop at least one exploration opportunity (cave or something), and for the NPCs I am just worried that without any help the PCs would be slaughtered at level 1.

[Plantae]

In a longer campaign, a branching story is usually the better approach, but in a one shot like this, a linear narrative is completely acceptable. As long as your players know what to expect (in this case, starting as a Fire Giant's prisoners and then escaping back to civilization), then you're good to go.

If you decide to use NPCs, I'd suggest using only bandits, so there's no power differential and so that the players don't need to worry about multiple NPC stat blocks. You should also give them some reason to care about these NPCs so they're not so eager to use them as meat shields. One dastardly but effective way to do this would be to go with a "chain gang" situation, where each PC is bound to a bandit NPC until they get some opportunity to break the chains.

During the journey, you can have the NPCs share their stories about how they were captured. Give each one some personality to help the PCs care. They can help the PCs and also whine and gripe as they make their way through the treacherous mountains.

For encounter environment/terrain, think about the kind of terrain you'd find in a mountainous or hilly environment. Plentiful rocks, slopes, low and high elevations, etc. Loose rocks could be used as a trap by PCs or NPCs. On the less mundane side, the PCs are escaping a fire giant's lair and many of the enemies you mentioned are fire-themed, so it might be fun to add some geothermal features like small geysers, steam, hot springs, etc. I'd avoid anything too deadly, but this can help create some hazardous areas in each encounter space.

Structurally, you're going to want more than just encounters though. There's a couple main elements to the escape, as opaopajr mentioned. First, the actual prison break. Then, traversing the wilderness. And at the same time, evading any potential pursuers.

The best way to model this would be with some sort of evolving skill challenge. For the prison break, there would be checks for sneaking, making distractions or diversions to slip past guards, etc.

For the wilderness sections, you could have ability checks for the PCs to navigate the area and avoid hazards, forage for food and water, spot shortcuts and passes through mountainous terrain, and many other things. For every length of time they spend traveling, they might risk certain complications: their pursuers catching up to them, random encounters, rockslides and other terrain hazards, minor injuries that slow them down, etc. Also consider what role the elements play - whether the weather slows them down or helps them.

For the chase, you can use opposing ability checks. These could be simple Dexterity or Constitution checks, or they could be more complicated. PCs might lay traps for their pursuers or create false trails. They might cover their tracks by taking circuitous routes or crossing water. Give the PCs a headstart and use a simple map to model whether or not they are increasing the distance between them and their pursuers.

If you want the PCs to encounter the gnolls in the end no matter what, then instead give them some advantage for keeping their pursuers at bay. Maybe the gnolls arrive to the fight even more exhausted then the PCs and so have some penalties during the battle. Maybe the hunting party has to split up to cover more ground, etc.

Another note on encounters - you've listed quite a few (more on encounter balance below). This might be a bit much for a single session, but your mileage may vary depending on how experienced you and your players are. Also, low-level encounters tend not to last quite as long. I think the general ideas you have for creatures here are good; just build on this with more detail and consider each encounter spatially.

On Encounter Balance
With NPC allies, balancing encounters gets a little difficult. Here's the standard XP thresholds for four, 1st-level PCs.

Easy = 100 XP
Medium = 200 XP
Hard = 300 XP
Deadly = 400 XP

The bandits aren't quite as tough as a 1st-level fighter, but they're reasonably close. Maybe around 75% as tough, based on their effective HP and damage per round. So four NPC bandits is roughly equivalent to about three 1st-level PCs. Which gives these adjusted thresholds:

Easy = 175 XP
Medium = 350 XP
Hard = 525 XP
Deadly = 700 XP

Based on these thresholds, the encounters you listed have the following difficulty ratings, with* and without NPC allies.

2 Magmins (CR 1/2) = 200 XP (Easy* or Medium)
Magma Mephit (CR 1/2), 2 Smoke Mephits (CR 1/4) = 300 XP (Easy* or Hard)
Giant Strider (CR 1), 3 Wolves (CR 1/4) = 525 XP (Hard* or Deadly)
3 Firenewt Warriors (CR 1/2) = 450 XP (Medium* or Deadly)
Gnoll Flesh Gnawer (CR 1), 4 Gnolls (CR 1/2), Hyena (CR 0) = 900 XP (Deadly* or SUPER DEADLY)

So with the NPC allies, only the gnoll encounter is potentially problematic. Without them, the giant strider, firenewt, and gnoll encounters may need some adjustment. I'd keep the general idea of the encounters you have, but make some of them optional (depending on how long things are taking) and scale back the ones that are a little too deadly for the PCs.

[Ronnocius]

In a longer campaign, a branching story is usually the better approach, but in a one shot like this, a linear narrative is completely acceptable. As long as your players know what to expect (in this case, starting as a Fire Giant's prisoners and then escaping back to civilization), then you're good to go.

If you decide to use NPCs, I'd suggest using only bandits, so there's no power differential and so that the players don't need to worry about multiple NPC stat blocks. You should also give them some reason to care about these NPCs so they're not so eager to use them as meat shields. One dastardly but effective way to do this would be to go with a "chain gang" situation, where each PC is bound to a bandit NPC until they get some opportunity to break the chains.

During the journey, you can have the NPCs share their stories about how they were captured. Give each one some personality to help the PCs care. They can help the PCs and also whine and gripe as they make their way through the treacherous mountains.

For encounter environment/terrain, think about the kind of terrain you'd find in a mountainous or hilly environment. Plentiful rocks, slopes, low and high elevations, etc. Loose rocks could be used as a trap by PCs or NPCs. On the less mundane side, the PCs are escaping a fire giant's lair and many of the enemies you mentioned are fire-themed, so it might be fun to add some geothermal features like small geysers, steam, hot springs, etc. I'd avoid anything too deadly, but this can help create some hazardous areas in each encounter space.

Structurally, you're going to want more than just encounters though. There's a couple main elements to the escape, as opaopajr mentioned. First, the actual prison break. Then, traversing the wilderness. And at the same time, evading any potential pursuers.

The best way to model this would be with some sort of evolving skill challenge. For the prison break, there would be checks for sneaking, making distractions or diversions to slip past guards, etc.

For the wilderness sections, you could have ability checks for the PCs to navigate the area and avoid hazards, forage for food and water, spot shortcuts and passes through mountainous terrain, and many other things. For every length of time they spend traveling, they might risk certain complications: their pursuers catching up to them, random encounters, rockslides and other terrain hazards, minor injuries that slow them down, etc. Also consider what role the elements play - whether the weather slows them down or helps them.

For the chase, you can use opposing ability checks. These could be simple Dexterity or Constitution checks, or they could be more complicated. PCs might lay traps for their pursuers or create false trails. They might cover their tracks by taking circuitous routes or crossing water. Give the PCs a headstart and use a simple map to model whether or not they are increasing the distance between them and their pursuers.

If you want the PCs to encounter the gnolls in the end no matter what, then instead give them some advantage for keeping their pursuers at bay. Maybe the gnolls arrive to the fight even more exhausted then the PCs and so have some penalties during the battle. Maybe the hunting party has to split up to cover more ground, etc.

Another note on encounters - you've listed quite a few (more on encounter balance below). This might be a bit much for a single session, but your mileage may vary depending on how experienced you and your players are. Also, low-level encounters tend not to last quite as long. I think the general ideas you have for creatures here are good; just build on this with more detail and consider each encounter spatially.

On Encounter Balance
With NPC allies, balancing encounters gets a little difficult. Here's the standard XP thresholds for four, 1st-level PCs.

Easy = 100 XP
Medium = 200 XP
Hard = 300 XP
Deadly = 400 XP

The bandits aren't quite as tough as a 1st-level fighter, but they're reasonably close. Maybe around 75% as tough, based on their effective HP and damage per round. So four NPC bandits is roughly equivalent to about three 1st-level PCs. Which gives these adjusted thresholds:

Easy = 175 XP
Medium = 350 XP
Hard = 525 XP
Deadly = 700 XP

Based on these thresholds, the encounters you listed have the following difficulty ratings, with* and without NPC allies.

2 Magmins (CR 1/2) = 200 XP (Easy* or Medium)
Magma Mephit (CR 1/2), 2 Smoke Mephits (CR 1/4) = 300 XP (Easy* or Hard)
Giant Strider (CR 1), 3 Wolves (CR 1/4) = 525 XP (Hard* or Deadly)
3 Firenewt Warriors (CR 1/2) = 450 XP (Medium* or Deadly)
Gnoll Flesh Gnawer (CR 1), 4 Gnolls (CR 1/2), Hyena (CR 0) = 900 XP (Deadly* or SUPER DEADLY)

So with the NPC allies, only the gnoll encounter is potentially problematic. Without them, the giant strider, firenewt, and gnoll encounters may need some adjustment. I'd keep the general idea of the encounters you have, but make some of them optional (depending on how long things are taking) and scale back the ones that are a little too deadly for the PCs.

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely take it into account. I think that using bandits is the best option for the NPCs after considering your post, especially after seeing the adjusted difficulties of the encounters. The gnolls are meant to be extremely difficult for the party to defeat even with NPC help (which is why they do not simply turn around and attack the gnolls). The firenewts are not allied to the gnolls and I will give the characters a reasonable chance to escape while their enemies fight each other (firenewts will switch priority to gnolls while gnolls target characters until firenewts attack them). I am thinking that at the start of every encounter there is a 1 in 4 chance that the gnolls will show up during the fight, or a 1 in 2 chance after taking a short rest. If a short rest is taken and the gnolls are able to follow the tracks to their rest site they will be attacked (likely by only one or two before they summon the other ones into the fray).

Once the party reaches safety a band of roving knights will run down the gnolls. I will also follow your advice regarding making the NPCs more sympathetic so they are not sacrificed lightly.

Thanks again for the post.

[opaopajr]

Set pieces can get ugly, regardlss of how simple it looks when running new players, because players are so ingenious, (especially new ones who haven't internalized tropes yet,).

You'll be doing more work with less improv flexibility. This can lead to frustration on both sides of the GM screen.

Here's an example of how to 'seed' versus 'script':

Prisoners, 10 humans & demi-humans:

a) Bandits (6) -- mostly middle-aged, gruff veterans, two green rookies. Will let party tag along, but no handholding. May expect friendship and favors if you all survive.
List of names, personality adjective, and reaction rolls to your party...

b) Homesteading Family (4) -- Parents, grandma, young child. Utterly terrified reluctant combatants, but adults will take instruction for sake of the child. Knows the forest trails and a few civilization contacts. Will feel indebted upon survival.
List of names, personality adjective, and reaction rolls to your party...

index card notes are great for this, btw.

This way you can spin out more interaction from a quick blurb and some adjectives. Regardless of how players choose, they are forced into decisions that induce roleplay color.