I got this idea for a series of posts about the most Iconic Encounters in old-school style adventures. I don’t mean this type of adventure is repetitive, but there are some types of encounters that appear with certain regularity, are quite entertaining and challenging, and thus have become iconic for me.
The first of these I would like to talk about is the “You must be this tall to ride!” encounter, which often is found in the beginning of an adventure, or in a section that will introduce the meaty part of it. I first heard about the term hearing Jim Wampler pass around some of his wisdom. It has a few characteristics I will examine further below.
- In the beginning of the adventure or at the beginning of the most important part of it.
- Involves a very difficult challenge that can cause a TPK if not handled well (it can be a powerful monster or group of monsters, a devious trap, powerful spell, and so on).
- There must be tips the player can pick up that indicates how the PCs can deal with the challenge.
- The challenge can be dealt with in a much easier way using cleverness and exploiting some weakness (which can be inferred using the tips).
