On the second post of this series where I analyze and give some guidance on creating and running some of the best Iconic Encounters of old-school style adventures, I am going to talk about a kind of encounter that has become less frequent now a days, but it’s one that always makes me smile when I see it in a recently published module.
I am talking about “Whimsical and Deadly” encounters in which the party stumbles upon exploring a dungeon, ruin, caverns or even some weird place in the multiverse. This encounter has a few characteristics that I will list below and then explore in detail.
- It is usually suited to occur after other more mundane or standard encounters.
- It features weird creatures doing mundane things.
- If left alone, they do nothing.
- If interacted with, you need to play by its rules, suffering if you don’t, or possibly winning something if you do.
You’ve seen things…
After the group has explored part of the adventure, seen most of the creatures they are up against, learned a little bit about the location, visited the most common environments of it, they find something new, weird, whimsical, and why not, a little scary.
Adventures in the old-school style can be a little tense, making players fear for their characters almost every encounter and, thus, it’s almost necessary to have some breaks in this tension mode. Having something weird, different, and not immediately threatening can help bring the energies down a little bit, or at least change its type, allowing it to be brought up again afterwards, giving some rhythm to the game.
But not this!
So the characters now encounter strange creatures that would otherwise make them prepare for combat or would make them immediately tense, but in an ordinary setting, doing something amusing and completely atypical of them.
It can be a group of skeletons playing poker and arguing one of them is cheating. It could be demonic orcs dancing the waltz, but having difficulty with some of the movements. Or maybe some plant-monsters making barbecue but who are unsure how to season their steaks.
This has the purpose of causing some light shock on the players, and letting their creativity run loose a little bit. It allows for some entertaining thoughts and possibilities in the game, helping create some contrast with the other more serious parts of it, making them shine from the rest of encounters.
Just observe…
The point of the encounter is that these creatures, monsters or whatever are busy and are doing things that no one would expect. They are not there just to serve as combat fodder for the PCs. This creates a somewhat verisimilitude for the game, even though a strange one, and makes the players realize that not everything in the setting revolves around them.
And they can actually just ignore everything that’s going on in the encounter and keep moving if they want. Usually. If they just observe and go about their business elsewhere without interrupting the monsters’ affairs they are golden. If they insist that they must interfere or that the encounter is there for them to do something, well…
Or play by their rules!
If the PCs try to interact with the creatures, they will quickly realize they are not interested in much else besides what they are doing. They want to play their game, cool their meal or finish anything else they are preoccupied with. And they usually have an issue that is bothering them in that activity.
If the players interrupt the activity, disrupt it in someway, or get in their way, the monsters won’t like it at all, and will attack furiously. The players might win the fight (they are not always too difficult), but they will use resources, suffer damage, and lose an opportunity to do something different and possibly win something in return.
However, if the PCs join them in their activity, and help the creatures solve the problem they have, not only they will suffer no harm, but they will probably gain something from them, be it valuable information regarding something in the adventure they need to know, unlikely allies that can show up and help them in though situations, some kind of magical blessing, and so on.
This will show them that violence is not the only solution and that if they play along sometimes, they can be rewarded!
Well, that’s it for this Iconic Encounter! I hope you enjoyed it (and check out the other ones we already covered here)!
See you next time!I