Encounters

This meaty episode is all about encounters within your TTRPG game. I'm joined by @XhangoGames and somehow we manage to squeeze an awful lot into a little over an hour! We sandwich mechanical examples for spicing up encounters alongside ways to reframe interactions with NPCs; turn "misses" into misfortune! Xhango opens the episode up with the elegant definition that all encounters should be a "dramatic question" - every interaction (environment, NPCs, and adversaries) should all put something at stake, what could be lost? This includes benign encounters with merchants and even each other. Check out Xhango's latest product on DM's Guild, the Candlekeep Codex!

01:20 - The Dramatic Question - non-combat encounters
17:42 - Time as an expendable resource
19:58 - Balancing encounters and "shifting the blame"
26:38 - Engaging players through the environment
32:47 - Higher level encounters
38:47 - Reappraising CR: designing multi-dimensional combat

Follow (@XhangoGames) on:

Twitter (https://twitter.com/XhangoGames)
DMs Guild (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Xhango%20Games)

Follow me on:

Twitter (https://twitter.com/Danilo_DnD)
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thinking_critically_dnd/)
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ThinkingCriticallyDnD)

References:

Time episode of Thinking Critically
Mistakes episode of Thinking Critically

Intro Music: 'Local Forecast' by Kevin MacLeod

Intermission Music: 'Chill' by Kevin MacLeod

Outro Music: 'Local Forecast - Elevator' by Kevin MacLeod