By Jason Campbell
The core of games like Dungeons & Dragons is conflict. Whether that is a spoken conflict that results in combat, a social encounter with differences in philosophy, or characters negotiating a puzzle or trap, conflict drives most stories. For most RPGs as the characters get more powerful the opponents’ powers increase to keep the challenge in conflicts. That doesn’t mean that every conflict needs to be deadly or epic, however.
Easy Peasy
Characters gain great powers as they advance in levels in many d20 games. One way to make combat challenging is creating creatures and scenarios that counteract some of those abilities. It’s important to not do this for every scenario. The players worked hard to have their characters gain in power and it’s a good idea to set up scenarios where the players get to “play with their toys”. The GM isn’t determining what will happen, but having a scene that takes place next to a garden to give the druid a chance to use Plant Growth is a good idea.
Many Ways to Have Fun
Some GMs (and players) might react to this in the same way people often react to giving out “participation trophies.” I’m not suggesting that GMs have characters succeed at everything, but it’s important that we remember that everyone at the table – GMs and players alike – is at the table to have fun. Players will have fun finding ways to succeed using their characters’ new abilities in the same way they’ll have fun trying to have their characters survive a deadly combat.
The GM can set up minor scenarios that aren’t critical to the main story so the characters can succeed at these small challenges, and let the critical story conflicts be deadly and epic. As characters get better at perception, a GM can create a trap or secret door that the characters automatically notice to reinforce that the characters are powerful heroes. That secret door might lead to a deadly conflict where the success is not guaranteed without the player making good decisions. A balance can make the players feel their characters are heroes while still maintaining the challenge of the game.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
