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| Encounter Guidelines for Player Characters | |
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It's time! You've created your character, you've assembled your garb, you're finally at game ready to play. Here are some things you should know about how encounters work.
Description
Non-player characters have a variety of rules and guidelines that instruct how playing them works. When playing a player character there is tremendous freedom in what a player can do. We want to leave PCs as much ability to decide what to do for themselves as possible. There are a few guidelines that PCs should know while in play. These guidelines are about encountering NPCs and how to make sure the whole community has fun.
Adventuring Zones
Camp Kingsley is a large section of land that we have available to us, however the best locations for our purposes are in a relatively compact area. To help deal with this we have divided the site into zones to communicate to both PCs and NPCs what kinds of encounters to expect in different areas.
The central area is the Town Zone. Here is where plots are typically going to focus on being inside of Maplewood. Citizens live here, and both PCs and NPCs should take that into consideration with what they do. There are no special rules for this, its just a guideline for what is in the area. Inside of the Town Zone there are no encounter size limits. If 20 player characters join a plot in action: that is fine.
Outside of the Town Zone is the Random Encounter Zone. Here NPCs will periodically be sent to act as random encounters. These could be fights, they could be role-playing oriented, they could be anything. What matters is that player characters can initiate encounters here simply by finding what is happening. Player characters are welcome to role-play patrolling this area looking for encounters and such. Non-player characters who are in this zone are welcome to wander into town looking for easy prey. There is nothing to prevent this, but generally they will be out in the Random Encounter Zone because most predators don't want to be in the middle of a heavily populated area.
Finally everything outside of that area is the Hooked Encounter Zone. In this part of the site PCs can expect to only encounter NPCs if they travel there with the hook meant to bring PCs to the encounter. NPCs should always act as wind and not engage with PCs who are not there with their hook. This helps to make sure that when PCs follow a hook to a location they aren't going to arrive just in time to see another group has already engaged with the plot. PCs are welcome to go into the Hooked Encounter Zone any time they wish to, but they should not expect to run into ANY encounters while there without a hook. The hooks will be going into town to find adventurers to help them. When PCs are in the Hooked Encounter Zone and an encounter comes to where they are, it is appreciated if they attempt to relocate if they are able to do so. This allows whoever gets the hook can have the expected encounter there. If the players are unable to relocate (such as if they are in the middle of cooking breakfast or something like that), work with the NPCs to either stay out of the way, or to send the NPCs to a new location and then let the hook know where to go instead whenever they arrive.
Much like having an adventuring group cap this is about allowing groups to have meaningful encounters within what the game can offer, even if it comes at the cost of some immersion.
Encounter Size Limits
While we strive for immersion and a natural unforced feeling at game wherever possible, sometimes we need to make rules to help with the flow of the game. By sacrificing some immersion in one area we create more opportunities elsewhere.
One of these situations is the character limit on encounters. The town is full of adventurers looking for action. If little Timmy falls down a well and needs help, but 30 characters respond... it's very difficult to plan a balanced encounter. This is why there are limits on how many can respond to encounters.
When going to an encounter (outside of the Town Zone) players should always deliberately limit themselves to 6 total player characters. NPCs acting as hooks should keep a head count of how many PCs are coming to the encounter, and say something if there are too many. Comments like "I don't think you'll need so many people to help with this" or "You seem tough enough not to need that much help" can be used to clue PCs in to the fact they are over the encounter limit.
PCs under level 20 do not count towards this limit, but that is not an invitation to bring thirty level 19 PCs to an encounter, these characters do not count to allow experienced parties to bring new PCs along so that new PCs can get in on the fun as well.
Sometimes the sounds of an encounter brings other nearby PCs. If you are one of those PCs it is your responsibility to stay at least a short distance away and let the encounter play out. Standing there watching is still a form of participating in an encounter. Your very presence limits where creatures can roam or prevents things like an ambush from behind. Providing spells is a form of contributing to an encounter too.
In summary good encounter etiquette is to let the group that went on the encounter go on the encounter alone. Stay back, out of sight of whatever is happening. If people who went on the encounter come back and ask for help or after things go quiet THEN go see what happened.
Encounter Frequency
Sometimes PCs try to go to the inn and on their way there they run into 5 different story hooks all trying to get their attention. When this happens, generally it means somewhere, other PCs are probably off wondering: Where are all the encounters?
When you run into this sort of situation it can be helpful to take (or send) all the plot hooks to the inn and split them up with other groups. Finding ways to share encounters will keep you from being overwhelmed and will come back to benefit you when others have the same situation occur.
Groups and Individuals
Adventuring parties have distinct advantages for both the members and for the Game Masters trying to run a shift. But, they don't work for everyone. That's ok. This leaves two major categories of PCs during a shift: Parties and Individuals. The game is healthiest when those two categories work together to make sure everyone has a good experience.
Parties should periodically talk to PCs who aren't affiliated with groups to take them on encounters they pursue. Conversely individual players should talk to groups about going on encounters with them. When groups go off by themselves at less than the encounter cap, that can be a let down for individuals sitting around waiting for something to do. Meanwhile, when individual players just tag along with a group without saying anything, it can create issues as well.
If the party is pursuing a personal plot they are now in the awkward situation of asking the individual player not to tag along, or sometimes groups want to have an encounter with just their own roster. Letting them accomplish that once in a while is healthy. As with most things, striking a balance is the ideal.
References
Adventuring Parties
Over the history of the game many hundreds of players have come and gone. Many stick around for long periods of time and get into all kinds of adventures over the years. Others never really get engaged or maybe don't find what they are looking for. The primary difference between the two is often that players who band together into parties tend to have a better time overall.
There are a couple of different reasons for that. From just a basic structure standpoint, parties are groups of people who often become very close real world friends over a long enough window of time. When you spend 10 hours during a weekend most months with the same group of people that tends to happen. This inherently makes the game a lot more fun, because now you are doing cool things with friends.
Groups also help keep each other entertained. Maybe you don't have anything happening right now, but the druid in the party has something they really want to look into. Now you have something to care about too.
From a staff perspective groups help tremendously with allowing targeted plots to function. If an average event has 60 or 70 players, even with many GMs learning 60 or 70 character histories and then writing specific plots for all of those characters is a lot of work. And remember the GM's are all volunteers with other parts of their lives to keep balanced too. Then those same GMs need to come up with normal plots, plus lores, running PIPs, and still find time to be a PC themselves. It can easily get overwhelming. However, it is practical to try getting a plot together for each group. Sending targeted plots at a group of players is significantly more manageable.
Hooks
When we send a plot to a fixed location somewhere far in the field, we need some way to bring the player characters to the plot. We call this the "hook" for the plot. Generally this will be an NPC who is sent to where the PC's are congregating (generally the inn) to ask PC's to come with them to where ever the plot is located.
Sounds simple right? It can be. But, like everything else, once it makes contact with the PCs it can sometimes get very complex.
One problem that can occur is when the players don't want to go. They're tired from something else, engrossed in another plot, or any number of other things are keeping them away. A good hook knows when it's time to find a different group of players, leaving the ones you found alone versus when to pester those players to go anyway.
When the plot is targeted, you should be sure to indicate that somehow so they know this is something special and they should drop what they are doing as soon as possible.
What if players are farther away? Do you roam trying to find them, or do you wait where you are? The answer depends on where you are and what is happening. If you are at the inn, your best bet is to wait there. Players should know the inn is a good place to get hook for plots and are more likely to go there looking for things to do. If you are anywhere else, then roaming is probably the correct answer. Ideally you should always roam in the direction that will take you towards the inn.
Sometimes when you are a hook, you take 3 steps and suddenly players come running up to you, what do you do? Generally in this situation something has already gone a little wrong. This might be because you just left the logistics building and players are either watching it (which is bad) or they just happen to be passing by (which is ok, but not ideal). In this situation encourage the players to come with you to the inn so you can "catch your breath" or something like that. The reason you want to do this is so that other players will also see the hook, and if one group hasn't been able to get to many plots, the PCs can discuss amongst themselves which group is going to answer the plot.
Other times you'll encounter PCs right away because those players are "patrolling". At a site with more locations for encounters this can be very reasonable role-playing. Unfortunately, Camp Kingsley has many great locations for roleplaying "in town", but not as many ideal locations for fights. This means that PCs can go "on patrol" at those ideal combat locations and deliberately encounter more plots than other parties. This is poor behavior (even if they really are trying to role-play) because it disrupts the distribution of encounters among the players.
If one person or group gets all the encounters for a shift, it can be a lot less fun for others. When you see players doing this, you should do what you can as a hook to not directly reward it. Sometimes if you know they are doing it, approach from a different direction than you had intended. You'll know its happening when you see them there on your way out from logistics to the encounter site. When you do, approach from a different direction than you planned so that you won't run into them. Go past them as wind so that you can arrive from a different angle where you won't encounter those PCs right away.
Another issue that can occur while hooking is that sometimes players who are behaving extremely badly will see the npcs pass by as wind, going out to the location of the encounter. These players, behaving badly, then start "exploring" in the direction they saw the npcs go. Sure enough they then run directly into the hook or into the encounter without the hook being there.
When this happens, ESPECIALLY if your encounter's hook is in town looking for PC's to bring, the encounter should remain as wind until the hook returns with PCs. The PC's following the encounter are the ones acting in the wrong by trying to take the encounter immediately, without whatever set up the hook may be delivering to tell the story.
Finally, it happens sometimes where you're a hook for a plot. You've arrived in town to get some player. The first people you talk to... stab you dead. Now what? The first thing to keep in mind is that your encounter is out there alone waiting for you. They don't know what happened and depending on the weather may not want to be out for a very long time (in the extreme temperatures or rain/ snow). Let the PCs do whatever they end up doing with you as quickly as you can manage. Sometimes, you can still act as a hook by finding an alternate way to hook the PCs. For example maybe they find a note on your body. One you didn't prep a real prop for, but you can tell the players about so they know you were a hook and give them enough information to find the destination. Or perhaps you can tell a different NPC who is out about the information they need to be the hook for you.
If you can't solve relay the hook easily your next step is to head straight into logistics to let them know what happened. Ideally the game masters can send a back up hook out to get the job done. Failing that they will send a runner to let the encounter know it's time to come back.
Every situation is different, but a good hook can make or break an encounter.
Categories: Encounter Rules
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