Game mastering questions

[Rawhead]

Alright, so, I'm attempting my first real venture into the world of game mastering. Building dungeons, check. creating worlds and maps, got it. Populating towns with interesting npcs, easy. The issue I'm having is with encounters. Now, a single encounter is easy enough to design, what with Pathfinder's xp budget guide and whatnot. The problem is the amount and frequency of encounters I should be throwing at a party. For example, Let's say I want to have my level 1 players engage a warren of Kobolds. Does the whole warren count as one encounter, or does each separate cluster of the tiny, yipping pests count as one encounter? If each group is an encounter, how many separate encounters are too many? So far, I can't seem to find a good answer in the core rulebook, and some advice would be awesome. Also, how do traps factor into the cr of an encounter? As it's not always the case that a trap will be triggered.

[Cuchulainn]

If you look at the warren as a "dungeon" then each room of the warren that is occupied by kobolds is an encounter.

Sometimes, especially in scenarios like this, there is also the Wandering Monster. You may decide that the players have a certain chance of running into one or more kobolds by just moving through the tunnels. This would also be considered an encounter.

A trap is an encounter if the party interacts with it. If they simply pass it while it is inactive or unarmed, then it is not an enounter.

Hope that helps. Welcome to the GM ranks!

[cwslyclgh]

Assuming that Pathfinder uses the same paradigm as 3.5, then every encounter of a CR equivalent to the average party level should use 20-25% of the "party resources" so the average party will be about tapped out after 4-5 such encounters. Encounters of lower CR then the party average will use correspondingly less resources, and thus more of them can be dealt with before the party needs to retire and rest, while encounters with a CR higher then the APL will use more resources, and thus make it so they have to rest sooner.

Hope that helps.

[bcpeery]

Kind of depends mostly on how well the party is equipped to handle certain encounters.

Typically what I do is plan 1 or 2 encounters at Average Party Level (APL) -1 to give the party an idea of what is coming. After that I plan 3 to 4 encounters at APL and the final conflict at APL +1.

I will also put a few of non-combat encounters just for a change of pace so the game gets a bit more RP in its dungeon crawl.

[0gre]

So of it depends on how the kobolds react to the party. When the party attacks the first room do the rest of them rush in? (If not, why not?)

The game is broken into encounters so the party doesn't get overwhelms and killed. Generally encounters are separated by at least a little time to allow them to heal or prepare a little for the next but you can also string them together so they start one right after the other.

Usually there are 4-6 encounters in a day but sometimes designers put in more or less based on how challenging the individual encounters are and at lower levels usually there are fewer so the party can rest.

[Mok]

The assumption of a single encounter would be that there is enough time for players to regroup, cast healing spells, etc.

So you wouldn't want to just throw four encounters of kobolds one after the other at the party. It could be a whole warren, but first you deal with lookouts, then with a couple of sorties of kobolds trying to ambush the party, and then finally the boss battle with a kobold sorcerer and his guards. Each of those elements ought to give the players a couple of minutes in between for the party to patch themselves up.

That's the basic theory at least, but the system has a lot more fine grain detail to it. If the party is six or more players then they can deal with problems much better than a four person party, thus they get the +1 to their APL.

[meabolex]

cwslyclgh wrote:

Assuming that Pathfinder uses the same paradigm as 3.5, then every encounter of a CR equivalent to the average party level should use 20-25% of the "party resources" so the average party will be about tapped out after 4-5 such encounters.

There is a significant change between PF and 3.5:

PRD wrote:

Easy APL –1
Average APL +0
Challenging APL +1
Hard APL +2
Epic APL +3

So a challenging encounter is CR = APL + 1 -- in 3.5, the challenging encounter was CR = APL. "Average" APL was "Challenging" in 3.5.

In my experience, a PF party can take on a lot more in one day than a 3.5 party could hope to. I haven't tested the bounds, but I bet a typical party could probably take on *numerous* average encounters. I'm not quite sure how many challenging encounters a PF party can take before running ragged.

[Beorn the Bear]

UnsureSanity wrote:

The problem is the amount and frequency of encounters I should be throwing at a party.

This depends greatly on your player's capabilities and party dynamics. If you play with a group that is good at maxing their characters and using a lot of teamwork, then they can handle a lot more than if they were using characters of decent build and not so good at working as a team. I would recommend using the first few encounters as a way to feel out the player's abilities.

How well are they working together?
How much damage can they absorb in a few rounds before being knocked out?
How efficient are they at healing?
How much damage do they do on average?
How high are they typically rolling on their attacks?
What sorts of DR can they overcome?
How capable are they at overcoming SR?

Obviously for low level characters some of these won't be a big deal, and there are lots more things you could look at, but don't be afraid to give your players a couple of easy encounters early to test their abilities. Once you know more about the group, it will be easier for you to determine what sorts of encounters are suitable for the difficulty you are trying to achieve. Getting a number of encounters will be much easier then too, just adjust the difficulty so that you get as many or few encounters in as you want, and the players want.

One last note, don't forget they are playing the campaign, not you, so build it in a way that you will all like it. Don't try to force them to play the type of game you would like, but balance it. If they like tons of fights, give them lots, or if one person likes puzzles, get one in there for them. Tailor the gameplay to what the players like to do, and give them all their 15 min of fame each session.

[Carpjay]

Also, there is nothing wrong with throwing a best-guess CR at them and having a few reinforcements waiting in the wings that, assuming they come in early enough, raise the CR to a higher level; obviously, these reinforcements don't actually need to show up unless the PCs are having an easy time of it. You are doing this not to cheat them, but to gauge their strength and your own encounter creation, and the "extras" that you don't need to throw at them can then be lurking around at the next encounter.

Similarly, you could have certain elements of the planned encounter retreat suddenly, perhaps to a bugle call or other mysterious signal, which would lower the CR if they were struggling too much. This has the added benefit of adding some mystery and anticipation to the event, as long as it's logical in the context of the adventure.