Write Better Encounters

SENSES
INTRODUCTION
The bare minimum description of every
This is a collection of tips and tricks - encounter tells the players what their
with examples and anecdotes - to characters can see. But you can achieve
enhance encounters, making them a much deeper immersion by appealing
more engrossing, engaging, rewarding, to the players’ other senses.
and memorable for the players.
WHAT CAN THEY HEAR?
It’s all too common for an encounter to
INTRODUCTION 1 describe what a player hears only when
SENSES 1 it’s significant to something about to
WHAT CAN THEY HEAR? 1 happen. Peripheral sounds can help the
WHAT CAN THEY SMELL? 1 players really immerse themselves into
the scene.
WHAT DO THEY FEEL? 1
WHAT ELSE CAN THEY SEE? 2 The muffled chirping of birds can be heard
WEATHER 2 through the boarded-up windows.
The floorboards creak as you walk across
BYSTANDERS 2
the room.
EXECUTION 2
Leaves rustle as the breeze surges and
STEALTH 3
subsides.
AVOIDANCE 3
DIPLOMACY 3
DISTRACTION 3
WHAT CAN THEY SMELL?
NICHE SKILLS 3 My favorite secret weapon of spicing up
an encounter is describing a smell to the
COMBAT 4
players.
REWARDS 4
Inside the old church it stinks of damp
PERFORMANCE BASED 4
wood, dust, mushrooms and mold.
BE CREATIVE 4
PERSONALIZED 4 The medlab has an overpowering aroma
of disinfectants, latex, and a hint of mint.
JUST FOR FUN 4

CALLBACKS 4
WHAT DO THEY FEEL?
PACING 5 Feeling is a sense often used in bland
ways for too-obvious descriptions. The
lava cave feels hot. The ice cave feels

© 2022 Thomas Davis

 Write Better Encounters
cold. Duh. Try to add a little more
finesse.
The incessant drumming of the holy ritual
is causing your head to throb and ache.
The endless flights of stairs have left your
leg muscles burning.
The humidity of the cavern is causing your
clothing to stick to your skin.
Your flesh tingles as if there’s electricity in
the air.
WHAT ELSE CAN THEY SEE?
Circling back to what the character sees,
it’s a common missed opportunity to
only describe what’s obvious to the
encounter: walls, doors, furniture, etc.
Always try to sprinkle the scene with
some ornamental visuals.
Cobwebs cover every corner of the old
church and stretch from pew to pew.
Decades of dust and condensation have
left dirty streaks running down the stained
glass windows.
The small pond sparkles as the moonlight
reflects from the ripples on its surface.
WEATHER
Weather is a fantastic way to add some
variety and challenge to an encounter in
addition to providing an even deeper
level of immersion.
A thick layer of clouds can
obscure the sun’s position in the sky
making it difficult to keep track of time.
© 2022 Thomas Davis
Rumbling thunder in the distance can
convey a sense of foreboding.
Rain has a distinctive smell
(senses) and might mitigate fire-based
attacks. A blizzard can hinder visibility
while deep snow slows a character
down.
Strong winds can make it harder
for characters to hear each other, and
sudden gusts might require skill checks
to avoid falling flat on their asses.
A scorching sun can drive
characters to strip off all their
cumbersome armor or suffer
devastating fatigue and roll penalties. It
can also be used to gently nudge them
in a desired direction, towards the
promise of shade or water.
BYSTANDERS
Consider some innocent NPCs that
might be sucked into the encounter by
happenstance. Maybe a courier is trying
to deliver a package in the middle of a
heated argument. Perhaps a janitor is
mopping up a spill when the party
barges into the room. Perchance the
blast radius of a fireball consumes an
occupied outhouse. A world populated
with “normal” people going about their
mundane business seems a little more
real.
EXECUTION
Every encounter idea starts out like a
scene in a movie. You expect the
characters will do X and the results will
be Y. But the beauty of role-playing
 Write Better Encounters
games is the unpredictable nature of the
players. Each encounter needs to be
flexible.
STEALTH
Is there a sneaky way to complete the
encounter? If the characters have
invested in stealthy skills, give them
opportunities to use them.
Conversely, if you don’t want the
players to pull off some sneaky antics
for some particular plot point, have you
contrived some logical counter-
measures that don’t come across as
blatant railroading? For example,
crinkly leaves on the ground, shallow
water to splash in, perhaps a thick layer
of dust on the floor which would reveal
the footprints of an invisible intruder.
AVOIDANCE
What if the party decides to completely
skip an encounter? It’s a real bummer
when you’ve put a lot of work into
creating an awesome experience and
the players just say, “nah, not
interested.” It happens.
I typically just re-introduce the
encounter later on with a different coat
of paint. If the players didn’t engage the
first time around, they’re not going to
know you’ve recycled it.
For example, I had a classic
cave-behind-the-waterfall encounter
in one campaign. The cave was full of
treasure and had one of those
stick-to-the-ceiling creatures with all
the teeth and tentacles (Roper, D&D).
But the players got distracted and rode
© 2022 Thomas Davis
right on by without a care in the world.
So I just moved the whole thing to the
underside of a bridge further down the
road. The first victim to cross the bridge
got grabbed by a tentacle and we’re
back in business.
DIPLOMACY
Can the party talk their way through
this encounter? Most systems have
skills like diplomacy, persuasion,
charisma and the like. Consider how the
NPCs might react if propositioned,
bribed, bamboozled, etc.
DISTRACTION
If the party takes their time and plans a
clever strategy, it shouldn’t result in
“cheesing” the encounter - unless you
want to reward them for their
ingenuity. If they pull the fire alarm and
the guards all flee, do you want to let
them stroll in uncontested, or have you
considered contingencies?
NICHE SKILLS
If a player has spent some precious
character points on a “flavor” skill (as
opposed to the usual min-maxing for
DPS) I like to reward them with
plentiful opportunities to show it off.
For example, if a character has a
skill like “investigation” then most
encounters will likely have some
“clues” which - if discovered - might
make the encounter easier to complete
and result in a better payoff.
 Write Better Encounters
COMBAT
Tried and true the staple of role-playing
encounters is combat. But even with the
most cookie cutter cliche rumbles you
should try to ensure each players’ skills
are useful most of the time. Try to make
sure the unarmed monk has something
they can punch and the illusionist has
something to mesmerize.
On occasion, it can be a fun
challenge for an enemy to be immune to
some players’ primary skills, forcing
them to think outside the box. But you
want to avoid having a player feel like
their character is dead weight for most
battles.
REWARDS
If there’s no reward at the end, what’s
the point?
PERFORMANCE BASED
You never want to punish a party - we’re
all here to have a good time - but when
things get out of hand you typically
don’t want to reward bad behavior
either. You may have written “large
emerald worth 100gp” in your notes,
but after the party accidentally burns
down half the town and slaughters a
dozen important NPCs you might want
to change that on-the-fly to “a
worthless chunk of green glass.”
© 2022 Thomas Davis
BE CREATIVE
Rewards don’t always have to be cookie
cutter tangible items like ten gold
pieces and a magic sword.
During his nightly prayer, the farmer gave
thanks for your help, and so his deity has
granted you a free reroll on your next
saving throw.
PERSONALIZED
I like to create rewards tailored to
specific characters, often to help
balance out their role in the party if
necessary. For example, some
enchanted hand wraps that let the
monk’s punches count as arcane
damage, or a few glycerin-tipped
arrows to let the archer blow some stuff
up.
JUST FOR FUN
Sometimes I like to add rewards just to
let the players have some fun and blow
off steam. Perhaps my favorite was the
Ring of Disrobing (D&D 5e). One player
had missed the session when the ring
was acquired so the rest of the party had
some fun at their expense during the
following meetup.
CALLBACKS
The party’s actions should have
consequences - they are shaping the
world they live in.
When the party makes a
remarkable connection with an NPC,
good or bad, consider how you might
 Write Better Encounters

bring that NPC back in a future

encounter to provide a little nostalgia.

As you ride through the streets you hear

the urchins singing limericks of One-Eye
Joe the Goblin Slayer. It seems little old
farmer Joe might have been taking credit
for your good deeds in your absence.

My favorite example was a

character foolishly pawning a priceless
artifact. When the party returned to
town a week later, the inn was throwing
a raucous retirement celebration for the
now-rich shop owner. She bought the
party a round of drinks, of course.

PACING
My final tip is to alternate combat and
non-combat encounters. Non-combat
encounters give the party a chance to
catch their breath. These encounters
could be puzzle solving, diplomacy,
gambling, investigation, etc. Or they
can be just plain goofy. I once ran an
encounter where the characters
snow-boarded down a mountain (riding
on giant slabs of bark) making skill
checks for various obstacles and stunts.

© 2022 Thomas Davis