There are a lot of risks here as a DM.  What happens if they go where you haven’t planned?  What happens if they start a fight with someone you haven’t fleshed out?

Be warned, you are leaving things wide, wide open for the players.  This means that they will go and do things you are not prepared for.  What do you do?  You get prepared.

Prepare a few encounters.  The most likely that they will face.  Get some monster cards for some human guards.  Or if you are in elf land, some elves.  Make up a goblin encounter for when the party decides to sleep in the woods.  And then treat any “special” NPC’s just as you would any normal character in terms of game mechanics.  Just change the flavor a bit.

Finally, practice negotiating with the PC’s.  Just because they start a fight doesn’t mean you have to end it.  Sue for mercy.  Surrender.  Offer a compromise.  There is no need to flesh out combat stats for something that just lays down its weapons and sues for peace.  Either the characters will slaughter it outright or they will role-play, and trust me it isn’t very fun to just slaughter stuff, especially when the possibility of becoming discovered as murderers is real.

The big question on the backs of some (if not all) of your minds is what about XP and treasure?  Aren’t these fundamental to the system?

Of course they are.  So get together your little treasure packets.  Just like you would if you were having a normal combat game.  Hand out the treasures after the characters do something interesting.  They spend their time gambling, or working hard to win a chess tournament – very good.  Hand them out a couple of treasure packets and XP for beating a hard encounter.  If they fail, hand out less XP and less treasure.

If they find out where the Duke’s daughter is being held, let the Duke award them with a treasure packet.  Give them XP for their level.  If they get her back then give them another packet and more XP.  That nifty chart in the DMG that outlines the target XP awards for an encounter by level is ideal for this.

No go and play nice!

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One of the basics of survival in any combat oriented rpg is to kill the bad guys.  In Dungeons and Dragons there are nearly limitless ways of accomplishing this task, and the less work that your character has to put into it the better.

Online D&D forums are full of all kinds of hints and tips about how to maximize your ability to dish out the damage, but there is far less information about how to eliminate the painful necessity of doing damage at all.

If you are clinging to 3rd edition, you have a few more options here, but 4th edition also has plenty of room for strategy.  In some ways even more.

The first key to keep in mind is that unlike many computer games the bad guys to in fact damage each other.  One of the greater fears about spell casters and their ilk are area attacks that can take out the entire party at once.  Often these types are paired with minions or partners whose job it is to bunch the party together.

Your strategy in these situation should be to always make sure that as many enemies as possible are within all possible areas of effect.  In other words if the caster wants to hit any two party members they should also be forced to hit at least one of their own allies.  This is most easily accomplished by keeping an enemy between the party members.

Next, look for opportunities to force the monsters to use hazardous terrain or to provoke opportunity attacks.  If you have a decent rogue type along then few traps should surprise the party.  Knowing which squares to avoid makes combat not only less dangerous but can be used to your advantage.  Skills such as intimidate and bluff can be used to good effect.  Also, using ranged attacks and blocking the good squares with skillful fighters can force enemies to either risk hazerdous terrain or opportunity attacks or be picked apart mercilessly at a distance.

Finally, never forget about compulsion effects.  3rd edition (and earlier) had many ways of taking control of an encounter.  These can be very powerful effects, starting at first level with charm person.  If you do manage to take control of the enemy, abuse the power mercilessly.  Lesser effects such as suggestion and charm person won’t allow you to cause an enemy to attack an ally or damage himself, but can be used to maneuver them into more vulnerable positions or to trigger traps of which they are not aware.

Always keep in mind that just like a real combat, D&D encounters are more than dice and numbers and the outcome can be swayed very quickly by using strategy and good jugment.

And be sure to have fun!

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