Ok, if you’ve read my information on making encounter cards, and have read my information on making monster cards, and have followed it, then this is really the easiest way to run any campaign. In fact, it means you don’t have to do ANY other preparation work whatsoever and can still have a great time. And the best part is: the players will never know the difference.

So, you went out and spent 40 bucks on the latest zero to thirty level pre-made campaign. You have a couple of great dungeons. You’ve started the PC’s off in a cool town and dropped all the hints you could. You even gave them a map to the dungeon AND told them about the treasure on level two. But those jerks decide to go wandering in the hills for the next thirteen sessions “looking for something to do.”

Enter encounter swapping.

I assume at this point that sitting at your side is a pile of encounter cards, all dutifully prepared from the premade campaign (though really once you get the hang of it you can do it yourself in less time). Each of them represents a block of XP and treasure, as well as some interesting NPC’s. All you have to do is hit the party with these encounters, adjusting names as necessary and dropping hints that the party really should go to the dungeon.

If you think of those goblins in room one not as the servants of Borath the Butt-Ugly, but as 125 XP and 25 GP the party need, this becomes much simpler. During the first day of travel the party will run into the cousins of Borath the Butt-Ugly delivering a message to him. Simply remove encounter 1 from the dungeon.

Down the road a few miles they will run into Borath’s other cousins. If they keep it up they will eventually run into Borath’s twin brother Dorath the Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Eventually, of course, you will run out of encounters from that dungeon. What do you do? Move on to the next dungeon, of course. What if the PC’s go back to that dungeon later? You have a couple of options here.

1. Play the dungeon as is (always makes for a good dose of déjà-vu)
2. Remove the dungeon entirely. Oh no, an earthquake ate it.
3. Continue the swapping madness. Now instead of goblins there are orcs there.

Just be sure to have your handy pile of encounters at your side and you’ll never have to worry where the PC’s go or what they do. Their balanced level progression is guaranteed. Which is seriously important. One of the quickest ways for a party to get completely un-balanced in game terms is for a DM to start throwing ad-hoc encounters together. Many players know this and will exploit it. So do a little prep work and save yourself the headaches later.

As always, enjoy the game.

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This encounter is designed as a level 8 encounter as a tough challenge for a 5^th level party.  The treasure listed with the encounter card is for a level 5 party.  You could easily substitute in a treasure packet of any level appropriate for your party.  The encounter, of course is generic enough to be dropped into any campaign, or used as a random encounter.

 

The orcs here are led by their leader Hard Fang, an old, scarred orc who has trained his followers in the use of the trident.  Hard Fang has spent years developing his gang, and favors hit and run tactics.  Because of his vast experience, Hard Fang has learned patience, and to wear his enemies down.  His followers, however, are prone to fits of rage and sometimes ignore his commands.

 

Hard Fang has no problem using muscle from any race, and has brought a pair of gnolls into his group. 

 

The setup for this encounter involves an ambush for unwary prey.  Everyone in the group is familiar with the terrain and they try to remain mobile, engaging their foes only from superior positions.  The melee combatants do their best to draw the enemies into a position where they can be fired upon easily.

 

• Hard Fang Orc Chieftain (700 xp) level 8 elite brute
• 3 Orc Forkman (200 xp) level 5 brutes
• 2  Gnoll Huntmasters (200 xp) level 5 artillery

 

You can download the encounter card here.  You can find all of the associated cards on the downloads page.  And if you need more information about how to use encounter cards, there is an article here.

 

I suggest using the blades camp map from Faiths of Eberron, available from the Wizards of the Coast, though you should definitely choose a map of your liking.

 

Hard Fang will have blocked off at least one of the entrances to try to force any enemies into the area to the west where he can use cover for his archers. 

 

Hope this provides some inspiration.

 

As always, enjoy the game!

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If you visit any Dungeons and Dragons forum, you’ve probably heard of monster cards and power cards, perhaps even magic item cards.  Today I’d like to introduce the Dungeons and Dragons Encounter Card.

 

This is a handy little device that keeps me from forgetting a key component of an encounter.  Have you ever forgotten some bit of treasure?  Remember a trap only after the second player should have activated it?  Left out a monster?  Scramble to count out minis for your set up?  The encounter card is designed to help avoid those little slip ups.

 

The encounter card is very simple.  In fact, the term card is used pretty loosely here since I don’t always bother to print it on a 3×5″ card, often I just print them all on a page and then paperclip it to the monster stat cards for that encounter.

 

Here is the information I usually put on them.

 

• A list of the monsters that will be involved.
• The total XP award for the encounter.  (If I know ahead of time how many players will be there I may divide it out to an individual award as well).
• The total treasure award, including items for the encounter.  I always write the GP value of any items in this section.

 

See, pretty simple.  I then paperclip that card together with the monster cards for the encounter as well as any magic item cards for that encounter.

 

The beauty of the encounter card is that if the PC’s go off in a totally different direction than expected and I have to ditch the dungeon I prepared I don’t have to worry about upsetting the delicate balance of treasure and XP.  If they are slated to battle 2 orcs, and an ogre, well by golly there will be 2 orcs and an ogre, complete with treasure waiting for them wherever they happen to go.

 

I’ll get more into how to adjust the story later, but once you try it a time or two, you’ll see just how much flexibility this little tool can add to your campaign.

 

You can find a list of the Keep on the Shadowfell encounters (spoilers) which has the information that would be included on an encounter card.  I have also included a 3×5″ encounter card (Microsoft Word Format) that you can download and customize.

 

All downloads are available on the download page.

 

Thanks, and enjoy the game.

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