Dm Event Types/Ideas/Suggestions

SO, I was thinking about how my DM events are pretty much always hack n' slash-fests... and that while its better than no event, there are other types that people enjoy. That got me to thinking about how I usually avoid running the other types because I don't feel I properly understand the foundations of their makeup and the permutations that can be applied. At least I dont understand them well enough to feel comfortable throwing them together quickly on the fly... and still being confident they wont suck.

I know, I know... any event will be better with forethought and good planning.... but in our daily lives, taking the time for that stuff is in all honesty a rarity... and the result is few and infrequent DM events.

So, the purpose of this post is basically to get discussion going about the mechanics of quickly designing a various types of DM events. Discussing the types of events, and specifically identifying the key parts of their makeup to ensure they are enjoyable.

Hack n' slashers are really easy, hence why most of my events are this type. Not a lot of planning needed.... just think up a generic 'theme' of baddies and a flimsy excuse for them to be invading... then spawn a crapload of them with a few mini-boss type encounters and a big boss.... then throw em at the PCs and see who dies

I had an idea today for something different. A type of event I would call 'Manhunt'. It would basically involve a single moderate to very powerful bad guy. The goal of the event would be for the PCs to basically organize and coordinate a sort of aenea-wide 'dragnet' to lock down the NPC and defeat it. During this event, the NPC would basically be very focused on hit-and-run tactics, remaining very mobile with foot speed, flight, transference, teleportation etc... and depending the situation the NPC might even hide and make the PCs try to find it in the first place. That sort of thing would probably still involve the PCs needing some form of clue to narrow the search to avoid needle-in-a-haystack syndrome.... but it could be done.

If the PCs effectively study the movement patterns and organize their forces in the right ways, using various techniques of area-denial, ambush, and cutting off escape routes... they would eventually corner the baddie and the big fight would ensue.

The actualy mobility capabilities of the baddie would need to be tailored to the capabilities of the PC's to corner it, and as I havent practiced doing this sort of thing.... until I learn the tricks of the trade so to speak, I may end up doing so rather poorly

All in all I think it could be a lot of fun with a large enough group of PCs.... but thats only one type of DM event.

Other types could be things like:

1. Rescue
2. Smash and Grab/Raid
3. Defend the Camp/Fort/Keep
4. Infiltrate
5. Reconnoiter
6. Diplomatic Envoy

I am sure folks can think of other types of missions. Please post thoughts and ideas to keep the discussion going. The more I learn, the better equipped I will be.

Ideas that just occurred and I wanted to write them down:

For Defend type events. The premise could be to deny entry to a large invading force. The win condition could be to have a certain % of innocents alive at the end. Set up would involve choosing location (should be at least moderately defensible), and spawning a good number of 'innocents' inside the defensive perimeter. As the invading force attempt to penetrate, the PCs would need to organize a mobile defense to ensure that no enemy slip in and assault the innocents.
Reward would be commensurate with innocent casualties, or lack thereof.

For rescue, the event could be 'timed'. A terrible event, such as an excecution or sacrifice could be tipped off to the PCs. Upon the PCs gathering and preparing, once they set out, an OOC time would be announced to set the 'win condition'. If the PCs successfully rescue the target in that time, they win.... and rewards reflect this. If the timer expires, the rescue fails. The PCs may still gain XP and loot from retributive strike against the villain, but bonus rewards from rescue would not apply. In this type of event, one challenge would be to accomodate things like players getting booted offline, etc. The timer could be managed by the DM to 'stop' so long as the party agrees to wait for the player who went offline/ had to leave for a minute due to RL, etc.

daveyeisley wrote:0. Manhunt
1. Rescue
2. Smash and Grab/Raid
3. Defend the Camp/Fort/Keep
4. Infiltrate
5. Reconnoiter
6. Diplomatic Envoy

Manhunt sounds like fun. Part of what can be done ahead of time is talk with players about exactly what kinds of movement they will be using/not using. Sure, it's OOC, but it's kind of like "ok, we want to have fun with this, so let's agree on some limits so the game isn't over in 5 minutes".

Rescue...I'm sure there's lots of poor orcs that are being bullied by PCs at this very moment...

Smash & Grab...isn't this what PCs do whenever they go into a monster lair? hehe...professional home invasion... But if you set up something that PCs don't see during the normal course of play, then you've got interest.

Defend the Fort...PCs defend a poorly fortified location against waves of attacking enemies? Me like. This one could also turn into a capture the flag style event. Also lots of fun (although this version would require more "ok, here's our limitations" pre-event talk so that one side doesn't completely overrun the other based on one or two character's abilities).

Infiltrate/Reconnoiter...a quest that rewards stealth and RP? Nice. Gonna need traps, guards, counter-agents, and smaller quickslotted doses of XPJuice for evading detection and accomplishing goals.

Diplomatic Envoy...interesting. This one will take a lot more set-up and RP on both sides (DM and PC). This one would likely mean DMs teaming up to deliver a more robust adventure with multiple possessed NPCs and spawns. Need a reason for multiple-PC diplomacy. Need to get the PCs all on the same "team" (not just working to fight the same powerful enemy...the PCs would need to come up with their own reasons for working closely together toward the same goal).

A few of these I'd personally try to limit to the "under 20th level" crowd just to keep PCs from mowing through enemies like Adamant in the demonic barracks.

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:Smash & Grab...isn't this what PCs do whenever they go into a
monster lair? hehe...professional home invasion...

I have to say right here... I ROFLMAO'd when I read that

I like the sound of those ideas, alot actually.

Monty Hall:

DM Narration "An unlocked chest with +5 Tomes (one for each Ability) and a 1 Billion GP Custom Item Voucher stands before you. Nothing can stop you from plundering it, nor will there be adverse consequences for doing so and using the items you find. There is at least one such chest for each participant.

What do you do?"

Pc: "I take all the stuff and use It to Become a deity."

DM: "An Aspect of the cosmos devours you."

Pc:"you said no consequences!"

DM:"I lied... Or uhhh... I changed my mind... Yeah."

Pc:"You suck."

The stealth missions sounds very interesting simply because I've have never used stealth in Dm events as a tool and not just as a more cynical way of killing people (laughs darkly before slipping his blade into the victims kidney). Any type of sneak in steal blank item or sneak in kill one target leave without touching anyone else would be awesome.

__Ua__ wrote:The stealth missions sounds very interesting simply because I've have never used stealth in Dm events as a tool and not just as a more cynical way of killing people (laughs darkly before slipping his blade into the victims kidney). Any type of sneak in steal blank item or sneak in kill one target leave without touching anyone else would be awesome.

Duh... how could I have forgotten...

7. Assassination

Shadowchild rogue + stealth mission = wow, something I had in mind when I created Jay and have never been able to do any real justice to.. ... sneaking past a horde of NPC's just isn't all that hard (they either completely fail to notice ye or have true seeing).... ...

, any chance we might be able to set up a subforum with sticky threads for each type of DM-event identified thus far so that they can each be discussed separately?

For stealth missions, infiltrate/assassinate/reconnoiter....

I am wondering if any of our players who have 'stealth specialist' PCs would be able to fill me in on exactly how close they can get to an NPC before it is 100% assured they will ne noticed? If screenshots of 'this is as close as I can get', and 'this is where I get automatically spotted' would be awesome.... I am assuming right now that the distance will be similar to invisibility and sanctuary, but I dont want to be wrong....

The reason I want to know is that some narrow areas will simply not work properly for this type of mission, so if I am scouting for a location to run one.... I want to make sure the environment will accomodate the challenge properly before I waste my time setting up, only to have players waste their time and get frustrated.

As far as I know, stealth PCs don't become "visible" like PCs with invis/imp/invis when they get close to a creature/other player (never noticed if sanctuary and greater sanctuary behave like that).

You either see them or you don't. It's a battle of hide vs spot and move silently vs listen checks.

There's load of mitigating factors to the check as well, even down to use of corners and walls within a tileset (but not 'placeable' walls, actual walls within the tileset that break LOS). Light sources on the stealther can make their checks harder, loads of factors.

I can dig up the developer info on all the factors in the stealth mode checks. The primary thing though is the spot-listen checks on the creatures.

Another thing I've noted too... in DM mode, you can't really tell when a player is in stealth mode (other than they're "walking", but even then they could be in detect mode, or just simply walking as I tend to do with my PCs).

You can't tell either when you're possessing a creature w/ full powers. HOwever, while possessing them normally, you're using the creature's own spot/listen skills, and don't have that "DM True Seeing", so while you do "lose track" of player positions while possessing a baddie normally, it lets you actually see if the PC's stealth skills are beating the creature's spot/listen skills.

If you want story ideas, I'd be more than happy to divulge some of my list.


I DM on another server, and haven't the time to even come near finishing the ever growing list of event ideas.... note that many of them are indeed hack-n-slash, but they have nice story to them, and I usually have an interesting twist to the standard hack-n-slash quests that you're used to.... and the epic levels of power in Aenea just might make some of the ideas more feasible than the other server....

For stealth with Jay, enemies didn't usually spot him until a big floaty-text "Sneak Attack" alerts them that have a blade in their gut.. .. but then he was a HiPS'er, with maxed hide and MS ... not so sure how that would fair now.... ... in times of old the only things that spotted him were dragons and the bee-elder, since re-incarnation I'm not so sure that would be the case... ....