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Last article we talked about how to create situations. Now, I want to move over to setting up encounters.
The biggest reason improv seems near impossible in 4e is the game’s dependence on maps (we won’t get into gridless right now 
). The assumption for many with 4e is that every fight is a set piece, with more “production” placed around the battles than any other edition of D&D before it. To even get part of the way to a nice looking battle requires planning. What happens when your characters get into a fight all of a sudden? What then?
Most 4e GMs take great pride in building awesome and elaborate set pieces with Dungeon Tiles, Dwarven Forge, and more I used to print custom color maps with Dundjinni. I own an automated paper cutter just so I could build scenery. Have you looked at the sets that Mike Shea uses? Seriously awesome. I don’t expect GMs to give that up — I don’t — but what you should have is a good backup. If players want total freedom, they have to cut you at least a little slack on presentation.
What I suggest is this: build libraries of maps in different locals. In part I do this by hoarding poster maps (generally means buying lots of adventures though) and combine those and Dugeon Tiles to have a collection of maps for regions we’re in or near. If players are in a city that’s near a swamp, it’s reasonable to have a few city maps and a few swamp maps on hand. If you can, recycle these maps whenever possible — you can always add different terrain and objects to vary the terrain. Most players aren’t going to stress repeats, especially if it means you can more easily support whatever crazy things they are going to do. When you have this base of extra maps, you can still build something that looks decent without fearing players will go off rails, leaving you totally unprepared.
The other thing you need are monsters to fill those maps with. This is very easy if you subscribe to DDI; just keep your laptop nearby with the compendium and you are just a few clicks away from filling out an encounter. What I recommend that you do on top of that is to prepare a list of the basic encounter types according to the DMG, along with the encounter XP budgets appropriate for your PC’s level. It takes a few extra minutes of prep, but here’s how it can work in play:
You see that the players are investigating a topic that you meant as a minor detail. Rather than stifling their efforts, you decide you can expand on it. The investigation is going to bring the ire of some thugs, you decide. So, while the PCs are discussing what they will do, you use the compendium and your encounter list to draw up a quick encounter. You want it to be a quick skirmish, so you use half the XP of a normal encounter. As the PCs make their skill checks and roleplay, you’ve gotten a little encounter for this new direction that they’ve taken. They take a turn into an alley, and you pull out your reserve map…
With a little bit of forward-thinking and structure, you can turn even the heavy prep aspects of 4e into something more conductive to low-prep, on the fly GMing.
What tools do you use to prepare battles on the fly?
I promise not to be annoying with this…but have you checked out Etherkai yet? For $2 you can support the site and get an awesome solo to terrify your players with.
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A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
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I have not run into a problem with improvising in any game I run even more so with 4e. Prep time? I have a few things ready to go if the need arises, I do have a set of maps I have from running Encounters and the various maps from the published adventures and they fit nicely in my DM binder I have.
I do not subscribe to using electronic tools to run my game so it is all done before hand. I will take the scores of monsters available with the DDI tools and print them into Microsoft One Note or even just PDF and combine them in one file and print them off when I think things might take an unexpected turn or i want to give a diversion in the story.
It is just the prep work that is the tough part. I am a DM/GM who likes to fly by the seat of his pants so 4e has me grounded a bit as compared to a game like Star Wars Saga or some old school games I ran like Mekton where I could run ad-hock encounters on the fly.
I am glad I was not the only one though who took all the maps and put them into one pile for those quick uses.
Worth checking out as a complementary approach to JIT encounter building/mapping is from SheDM on NewbieDM’s blog http://newbiedm.com/2011/07/15/the-easiest-combat-map-youll-never-make/
This also has the advantage of meaning the players are unlikely to think the map is anything other than perfect if they have designed the map themselves (while you gather together monster stats).
Mixing up the techniques for coming up with encounters between set pieces, player designed maps and the approach in this post (and any other approaches) can help keep things from getting stale for longer.
Personally, I think the best way to have an encounter on the fly is with a grid that you can draw anything on and do it on demand.
I use this.
I’ve always been partial to drawing on battle mats with a wet erase marker. You don’t need high resolution maps to make a compelling encounter. Scribble the basi cs and let people use their imagination. The place I don’t skip is minis. I just like using one as close to the monster as I can get.
Good sources of map ideas like that can be the sample dungeons inside each DT set. Sometimes they need 2 copies of a set (like the one from DN1 – Caverns of Icewind Dale), but they’re usually interesting.
Incidentally, the editor in me wants to note that you meant “locales,” not “locals.”
I tracked down (via eBay) a copy of City of Perils specifically for city adventures. Even though the maps were made for D&D Minis games, they still work great. I also like having Power2ool up on a laptop for the session. Before the game, just build 3-4 encounters of various builds/locales and just pop up each one as needed. The tie-in to the Compendium makes it worth its weight in electrons.
I use a method similar to the NewbieDM one posted above. I describe the map to the players and they draw it on the mat as I go. (just make sure they don’t press too hard and leave a permanent mark
)