Your Favorite Type of Encounter?

Greetings all,

Just curious what is your favorite type of encounter and why? For purposes of this thread, I guess I would put these into the following categories:

1. Duels - 1 v 1 combat
2. Skirmish- Party vs party
3. Mass Battle- Units vs Units
4. Intrigue - Encounters solved with dirty deeds like blackmail, extortion, bribery, deception
5. Social - Encounters solved via social skills like persuasion, diplomacy, negotiations
6. Exploration - Encounters where searching or locating is a key to resolve
7. Puzzles and Traps - Encounters where figuring out a mental challenge is key
8. Stealth - Encounters that involve sneaking around
9. Infiltration- Encounters where you are trying to join or blend in with the group
10. Movement - Encounters that involve running around like races, chases, and the like

I am sure there are other categories as well. However, what is your preferred type of encounter to engage with while playing?

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Originally Posted by Easy e

Greetings all,

Just curious what is your favorite type of encounter and why? For purposes of this thread, I guess I would put these into the following categories:

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1. Duels - 1 v 1 combat
no
2. Skirmish- Party vs party
Sort of
3. Mass Battle- Units vs Units
In a different edition, yes
4. Intrigue - Encounters solved with dirty deeds like blackmail, extortion, bribery, deception
Often enjoy
5. Social - Encounters solved via social skills like persuasion, diplomacy, negotiations
Often enjoy
6. Exploration - Encounters where searching or locating is a key to resolve
Love
7. Puzzles and Traps - Encounters where figuring out a mental challenge is key
Often Enjoy
8. Stealth - Encounters that involve sneaking around
Love
9. Infiltration- Encounters where you are trying to join or blend in with the group
Often enjoy
10. Movement - Encounters that involve running around like races, chases, and the like
Often enjoy

My favorite is probably mysteries, which would go under your 'puzzles and traps', 'exploration', 'intrigue', and 'social' categories maybe in that order? But less of a 'solve this riddle' or 'demonstrate Towers of Hanoi' and more like, here's a weird place with stuff going on - figure out what exactly is going on and what you want to do about it.

Another one that is sort of under 'puzzles and traps' but not like it's usually meant is the kind of 'magical MacGyver' type of problem solving. More open-ended invention of both things you could do and ways to do them, rather than specific things with a specific success state and a few ways of getting there. So things like 'hey I found this metal that changes its inertial mass whenever it's exposed to an electric field - what can I do with this?'.

My favourite encounters are ones where there are multiple paths to success. With 4 or 5 of the options listed in the OP being viable ways to ‘win’ the encounter.
For example getting past a well guarded door might include options such as
- combat - defeating the guards
- social - bluffing your way past them
- puzzle - decoding the cryptic clues to find the secret door that bypasses the guards
- intrigue - extorting a pass from the lead guard
- stealth - sneaking past the guards
- infiltration - joining the [cult/gang/whatever] and walking past
- exploration - finding another way into the area.
- deception - forging a pass and making fake uniforms.

With each option having its own set of pluses and minuses. Obviously having 8+ viable options is probably too many for most situations, except maybe for heist scenarios.

The encounters I dislike are the ones with only one programmed way for the party to progress. This nullifies skills/abilities that characters may have that don’t fit the predetermined path to success. This probably applies more to skill based games where characters tend to be more well rounded than to class based games where GMs can design encounters to give specialist party members equal time in the spotlight.

As a a player I really enjoy intrigue and infiltration.

As both player and DM for combat I prefer combat that is also a social encounter, IE the NPCs speak to the players and are willing to accept terms.

- But I still have opinions on some the other kinds -

Duels - only use very sparingly, this is akin to not only splitting the party but atomizing it. Duels have to be super meaningful and super justified.

Stealth - often ends up just being "roll stealth, they either see you or not". The saving grace is that it's over fast. Anything more complicated and it's turned into my favorite: infiltration.

My least favorite is puzzles and traps, however that's mostly due to my DM doing them wrong.

Mysteries! How did I overlook those? Those are some of my favorite adventures, but they can be hard to pull off depending on the system/setting.

Duels generally suck. If the game accommodates multiple characters, a 1v1 is going to be exceptionally shallow.

Skirmishes are a delight, assuming a good system and competent GM.

Mass battles are almost exclusively a matter of framing. You’re still doing skirmish stuff, there’s just scenery and implied bountiful reinforcements. Actually putting 40 guards on the board as individual units is folly.

Social, which intrigue is an extension of, really depends on the specifics. If I don’t care about the scene or the characters the town can be left to rot while we move on to interesting things.

Exploration is... well it’s just a default mode of play when other things aren’t popping up.

Puzzles usually fall flat. With my usual groups the trivial ones are solved near instantly, while the ones that demand more time almost always lead to tedium.

Stealth and infiltration tend to be a delight. Almost always player initiated, heist planning is its own kind of joy.

Movement encounters need to be blended with something else, they don’t offer enough on their own generally.

What type of encounter is “lynch the chatbot”? I’m not a fan but help is appreciated in rooting out these nuisances (Kerr)

Sigh. A longer reply was eaten. In short, let’s pretend…

#3 - small elite force (PCs) vs an army. Still, it’s a waste in an RPG if that’s all there is to it.

#2 - social interaction as intelligent puzzle (#5, but with #7’s description). Don’t just “roll Diplomacy at them”, actually evaluate their responses, learn from them, and (ideally) gain goals through your interactions. Requires (that these interactions be with other PCs, or) NPCs that are actually built with the fidelity of People, with personalities and goals and experiences of their own, worth interacting with.

#1 - Exploration + Utilization: cool, unique features with consistent underlying mechanics, able to be utilized in creative ways. “Rocks in this area defy gravity? Well, let’s…”

Also, I’ll strongly second the “no set path, no one right answer” sentiment.

I've never really gotten to do it because my DM's seem to avoid it, or just don't have it planned in. But I'd really like to experience a Mass Battle sometime in my game.

Give me our party + a handful of NPC's, and pit us up against like... 30 baddies all at once. Maybe they're all a lot lower level then us or something to help keep things balanced. But just let me experiance a warzone-type situation where everyone can truly shine in their own individual skirmishes.


Ideally without some mage going "I cast win battle!" and detonating some battlefield-covering fireball or whatever that eliminates all the baddies in one turn, while leaving all the allies and partymembers unharmed. The goal is for it to be a challenge. If the party isn't fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive, and walking out by the skin of their teeth in single-digit hitpoints, then it ain't worth it.

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Originally Posted by Draconi Redfir

I've never really gotten to do it because my DM's seem to avoid it, or just don't have it planned in. But I'd really like to experience a Mass Battle sometime in my game.

Give me our party + a handful of NPC's, and pit us up against like... 30 baddies all at once. Maybe they're all a lot lower level then us or something to help keep things balanced. But just let me experiance a warzone-type situation where everyone can truly shine in their own individual skirmishes.


Ideally without some mage going "I cast win battle!" and detonating some battlefield-covering fireball or whatever that eliminates all the baddies in one turn, while leaving all the allies and partymembers unharmed. The goal is for it to be a challenge. If the party isn't fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive, and walking out by the skin of their teeth in single-digit hitpoints, then it ain't worth it.

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I'm actually planning on running a mass battle in the near future, though instead of putting down 30-60 NPCs on the battlemat and I'm coalescing the men at arms NPCs into *swarms. A single swarm counts as 20 units, that way I can put down one or two large swarm units and a few knights to flank and target the ranged PCs.

*the swarm is an abstraction, individual man at arms can reinforce or depart from the swarm at will. The main benefit here is that I get to keep track of WAY fewer hit points. It also slightly benefits players since their overkill damage is not wasted anymore.

My preference is any encounter that is different from the last three. Variety being the spice of life and all that.

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Originally Posted by Kane0

My preference is any encounter that is different from the last three. Variety being the spice of life and all that.

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If my last 3 encounters were my ex, a rampaging tractor tailor (seriously, that thing could not stay on the road), and a judge with tummy troubles, I kinda doubt my Fantasy will disappoint.

That said, I’m left wondering how many games at actual tables meet your criteria. Very few, I’d have to imagine, based on my experiences. Systems and GM’s tend to lean into what they’re good at. And so do PCs, for that matter.