I have previously dealt with the notion of the cliché on this blog, and closely related to that is the notion of the archetype. An archetype is an ideal example of a type, to give the dictionary definition. Carl Jung also made use of the term to define an inherited unconscious idea. Plato’s ideas can [...]
The most obvious encounter is the combat encounter. The other articles in this series were aimed at adding other types of encounters instead of combat to keep things interesting and varied in a campaign, and promoting player character balance by increasing the value of non-battle skills to a player.
In this part, we instead look [...]
A while ago there was an episode of the DnD podcast from Wizards of the Coast that had a tip for DMs to start every session with the players rolling initiative. This usually indicates that combat, or at least some action sequence, is about to play out and initiative determines the order that the characters [...]
Another form of encounter that plays out well is the Puzzle Encounter. The encounter challenges the players directly, and relies little on either skills or combat. The ever popular "what do we need to do to move on?" gag is pretty standard fare, as is the "gotta figure it out before we die" method, but [...]