Finally, we come to the catch-all, the miscellaneous.  The Special victory condition means that the PCs can do (or have to do!) something else non-combative while they’re fighting in order to win.   The two primary non-combat options in D&D are skill rolls and pure roleplaying, so someone (or everyone) is involved with either a skill challenge or an intense roleplay concurrent with combat.  The vast majority of Special Victory Conditions are based off of one of the other three alternate conditions or combinations thereof.  Thus, rather than try to describe Special encounters by themselves, here are some examples of how other alternate condition encounters can be taken to the next level with a Special add-on.

Seize or Escort – This Special variant is very intuitive.  Get to that square or set of squares and hold it while you engage in a skill challenge.   It’s very important here to keep the side action moving fast enough that the PCs can’t simply wait until the fight is over to win the skill challenge nor can they endanger any innocents in combat.  The Skill Challenge is a shortcut to what would otherwise be a long, difficult combat; one that the PCs may or may not be suited to take on.  If they wait to finish fighting to take on the challenge, the opportunity is lost to them.  For this reason, your Skill Challenge should probably not require any more than 3 or 4 successes per active character to complete.  Don’t be afraid to change the numbers on the fly.   If they blow the challenge, they have to be able to win by combat, so be prepared to break down your Arrive condition to a standard Rout if things go awry.  Combat success will put the party the same distance down the path of the story that skill success would, just a different branch.

Examples:

Canon Cannon! – The PCs arrive at a temple of Pelor that contains a spectacular radiant artillery piece.  To get to it, though, they must face down a horde of undead that can be defeated, but simply reattach their missing body parts and continue after a round or two.  The Divine characters use Dungeoneering, Religion and Arcana to consecrate and then operate the device while the other characters hold off the encroaching abominations.  Once they get the device going, they can use it to blow away the undead for good.

Checkmate – As long as we have players who aren’t just going to slaughter senselessly, why not have the enemy forces show a little prudence as well?  A modified Checkmate is one good way to get your players to parlay with the enemy on the field of battle.  Good roleplay and dialogue between the PCs and the enemy King is priceless, particularly while they cross swords.  In the comic books, Spiderman is a master of this scenario, goading and provoking his enemies into making stupid decisions.  If the King can’t be taunted, reasoned with or swayed to your viewpoint, perhaps the PCs can bribe him or pay tribute of some sort to escape with their lives.  I suggest freeform roleplaying because you’re letting the players’ mental ingenuity and sense of humor loose here, not the characters’ mechanical abilities.  However, if you have a group that likes rules and structure, a skill challenge is an acceptable way to go.

Escape or Rout – I refer to this as the The Stop’N’Go Slugfest and it’s not for the lazy DM.  First, to get a really good idea of this sort of encounter, watch the Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobe vs. Darth Maul fight from Episode I. (I know, more Star Wars references…) While the encounter is really little more than a three-man fight, Darth Maul himself is only half the battle.  Just getting to him is the other half.   Take a relatively straightforward battle for your PCs and give them something to think about by breaking up the battlefield into discrete sections.  Again, I recommend not involving a lot of skill checks here and instead testing your players’ puzzle-solving abilities.   Just be sure the characters have some way to communicate with each other reliably and the players have something to draw with.  I also don’t recommend this scenario for groups who avoid the ‘metagame’ or dislike moving around  miniatures/tokens since the puzzle-solving aspect can break method acting-type  immersion sometimes.

Examples:

The party comes across a maze of small corridors separated by thick walls and joined only by teleportation circles.  The party must figure out which circles go where in order to pass.  In the meantime, they are harried by monsters trapped in the corridors.  The final exit should rely on different characters pressing switches, standing on pressure plates or performing Arcana checks in different parts of the maze to reroute the circles.

And that ends the four-part series on Victory Conditions.

 

The Alamo, the Great Wall of China, Stalingrad – there’s nothing like a stalwart last-ditch “you shall not pass” heroic defense to inspire courage and stimulate the imagination.  Defend is probably the least often seen Victory condition in D&D which is why it’s my personal favorite.  In a Defend situation, you don’t necessarily need to win – you just need to not lose…  usually.  There are three main variations of Defend and I have named them after fictional or historical battles, more or less.  I’m not going to explain them all right now (that’s what Wikipedia is for) but look them up later if you’re interested.

Rourke’s Drift or Koan Defense – This is the classic Defense option.  All the PCs have to do is stand there and take it for a certain number of rounds, at which point something awesome will happen.

The enemy force is inferior man-to-man (i.e. lots of minions or significantly lower-level non-minions) but outnumbers the PCs many, many times over.  Conversely, the enemies are of equal skill and ability but have some strategic disadvantage, like being downhill, across difficult terrain or on water.  After a certain number of rounds, the opposing forces will recognize the PCs superior spirit and simply give up, someone else will intervene to save them or the villain will miss his big chance.  This version is particularly fun since the DM gets to either completely panic the players or make them feel like the baddest dudes ever.    Again, there’s a sort of deus ex machine effect here since the PCs aren’t actually the heroes.  Be sure the players are OK with that in some way and really buy in to the fact that every once in a while, they need some help.

Thermopylae Defense or Custer’s Last Stand –  Yes, I know Custer’s Last Stand was not a defense, but just go with it.  A very unique take on the Defense idea – the PCs are going to die.  It’s planned in advance out of game (by both GM and players!) and destined in the narrative.  These characters will not see the break of dawn tomorrow.   Their only goal is to hold off the enemy for as long as possible in the hopes that someone else can either prepare their own defense or escape.  Ideally, the longer the PCs hold off the enemy, the greater benefit (either mechanically or narratively) to the next group of PCs that the players create or use.  Doing so creates a sense of continuity and reinforces that the first group of PCs did not die in vain.  This scenario is best run with Epic-level characters about to complete their destiny, but lower-level “throwaway” characters are alright too.

If you’re planning on running a Thermopylae Defense on an open field without much terrain, it should start with a handful of quickly dispatched enemies and then get progressively difficult as the rounds pass.  This is an attrition battle, so you want the PCs to feel like they fought long and hard, rising to the challenge, rather than blowing all their big guns up front and then being shot like fish in a barrel.    Status afflictions should increase as the PCs burn through their resources.  but avoid dominate.  Do not dominate your PCs; this is their last scene – having them fall to each other’s attacks only works if you’re doing a supernatural horror thing.   Otherwise your players may feel cheated out of a heroic end.  Also, set a definite endpoint in your own mind.  For instance, you know that if the PCs make it 10 rounds, the next wave is completely undefeatable. If you decided to use terrain, you can bring out most or all the enemies at once rather than in waves and give the PCs strong tactical position that they can use to minimize the enemy army’s ability to attack them.

The Frodo Defense – The Frodo Defense is perhaps the simplest Defense variant, but it comes last in this list because it’s not a Defense in the truest sense.  In a Frodo Defense, the PCs must Rout the enemy – just defeat them all – but must do so while keeping them away from a certain square or NPC.  In this way, the Frodo Defense is the opposite of an Arrive and the step-cousin of an Escort.  The PCs have their own King or Key that must survive in order to truly win the battle.  Setting up this fight is relatively simple; follow the standard encounter design rules given in the DMGs for a normal battle but take some cues from the Escort win condition as to how to have the enemies behave.  You may want to allow more ranged attackers for exactly the same reason that the Escort scenario discourages ranged attackers, that is, cover for the King or Key.<

In this installment of the Aberrant Rules alternate victory condition series, we’re going to talk about the Arrive condition.
There are several variations of Arrive, but the basic theme is simple – ‘move to this square to win.’  There is a spot on the map that if the PCs can make it there, it ends the encounter.  Maybe they push the button on the arcane machine that causes it to meltdown and send everyone running.  Maybe planting a battle standard in a certain spot is a way to claim a relatively bloodless victory among ‘gentlemen combatants.’    However it works, your goal is to claim territory, not lives.  Add more tension with a time limit!

Option 1: Escape – It’s going badly for the PCs.   You don’t want to TPK them…  this time…   Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.  What do you do?  Pick a square on the map . Any PC who can get to that square escapes the battle with some amount of XP The Escape condition lets PCs feel some sense of tactical accomplishment in the face of conventional defeat.    Follow this up with a good chase scene skill challenge for maximum effect.

Most of the time you’re not going to plan this victory condition in advance  The Escape battlefield looks like whatever other scenario you had written up, just with really  trashed PCs and a couple fewer enemies.    Due to the sudden nature of this condition’s creation, it’s difficult to arrange the field tactically.  In general, though, there are a few guidelines to follow to make the most exciting Escape you can from what you have at hand.

1. Slow Enemies –  Most NPCs should stay relatively in place and open up with ranged attacks.  A couple melee pursuers are ok, but remember that you already made the decision to let them try to legitimately skedaddle.
2. Unfortunate Escape Square –  don’t place the Escape square in some random spot with nothing going on nearby.    Good Escape squares are across pits or stationary traps, up ladders, or on the other side of that hoard of minions.  The PCs should either have to make a couple Skill rolls or bust out a unique movement power like Fey Step or Expeditious Retreat to surmount the final obstacle.  Not only does this add tension during the last couple rounds, it also gives you a reason to have the PCs’ pursuers delayed, thus allowing a daring escape.
3. Escape Is Still Victory or Failure is Fun – The PCs shouldn’t just be running from something, they should also run into something – just not something immediately lethal.   The next place the PCs end up should still be relevant to the story somehow.   The Escape zone should provide the PCs another method with which to acheieve their goal.

Option 2: Escort –  a specific person has to get to a specific point on the map, at which time the encounter ends.

Once again, this is really a battle against the clock, not against the NPCs.  A hard, plainly stated time limit is one way to go about it, say four rounds.  Another is to have most of the NPCs focus fire on the Key so that he or she will be dead or captured  far quicker than the PCs can Rout the enemy forces.  The attacking enemies need to be mobile enough to respond to  the Key utilizing terrain, like cover and concealment, yet be legitimately stymied by a couple good Defenders and maybe a Striker or Leader. Finally, the Escort path shouldn’t be any more than about half the length of the battlefield.  When the players feel “so close and yet so far,” you’ve done it right.

Option 3: Seize –  Seize something, a PC has to Arrive at that special point and then stay there for a round or two.  During this time, the PC may have to rub out the magic circle, beat down the door or do some similar time-consuming task.   Whereas the difficulty in the Escort is getting to the destination, staying there is the difficulty of the Seize .    Brutes are bags of HPs with low defenses and medium damage output and Push effects which are handy for dislodging that obnoxious PC from his Seize point as well as action-denying conditions like Daze and Stun.    Once the main PC arrives at the Seize point, he really only needs one action per round to perform the necessary activity, so being Dazed is actually a problem that the rest of the party has to deal with, i.e. keeping everyone else from using that Combat Advantage.   Finally, consider upping the amount of ongoing damage versus initial impact damage. Seize encounters are going to be longer encounters to begin with due to trying to hold the Seize point and all, so the effect of ongoing damage becomes greater the longer the fight wears on.

 
A while ago, I was over on a well-known RPG forum site and was dicussing the relative merits of some new powers that had just been released through Dragon Magazine.  There were a few relevant answers followed by one that jumped out and smacked me upside the head:

“The best condition to put on your enemy is dead. The sooner you figure that out, the better.”

Now I’ll give that forum member the benefit of the doubt that he (or she) wasn’t intentionally being rude, simply stating a point.  The best thing to do to an enemy in D&D (or many RPGs for that matter) is just straight out damage, because a dead enemy is no longer a threat.

The more I thought about, the more I agreed with him; the only reason you stun, immobilize, daze, push or do anything other than damage an opponent is to prevent it from damaging you while you try to damage it.  In that light, the whole thing seems very underwhelming, eh?  Why not just do more damage?

So that train of thought came onto the platform and got pointed down another set of tracks.  Why wouldn’t I want to deal more damage?  Is a push, pull, stun or restrain meaningful on its own?  Sure, you may have roleplaying reasons to not kill your enemy.   But mechanically speaking, what incentive do I have to use a less-damaging power or inflict a condition for its own sake?  Well, in these first four episodes of Aberrant Rules,  we will be offering to you various battlefield victory conditions to add variety to your combat encounters and make your PC’s Ranger actually decide that Twin Strike might not be the best option for once.

The first alternate victory condition to discuss is  Checkmate.   Most of you have probably played chess before and will get the basic idea without much explanation.  The opposition has one guy – a leader or a boss, let’s call him the King – that holds the opposition team together.  If you take the King out of the picture, the rest of the baddies will fall apart.  (This may be literally true if the King is a necromancer.)  All the PCs have to do is get that guy, and they win.  They do have to get him, though.  If he escapes,  the PCs don’t get full experience, or they can’t take a short rest, whatever – there’s some kind of penalty.  The King should be dead or otherwise rendered helpless for full completion.  There are several variants of the Checkmate, each with its own specific encounter design:

1. Standard Checkmate – The Standard Checkmate scenario is pretty easy to set up.  You need a somewhat vulnerable King and then a bunch of baddies that won’t stay down.  You could use your basic unending wave scenario, you could make the support enemies unkillable for some reason or just place entirely too many enemies on the field and make it obvious that they’re  not minions.   In any event, you want to cue to your players that this fight is not ‘balanced’ in the conventional sense – they will get overwhelmed if they don’t figure out the trick.  After the PCs learn the gig, the King should fall in maybe two to three rounds and the rest of the troops surrender, die, run  away, etc.
2. Pacifist Checkmate – the King’s cronies are unwilling or somehow innocent.  Maybe they’re captured and fighting against their will.  The PCs don’t actually want to harm them.  As a DM, you give more experience for a live enemy than a dead or injured one.To set up a good Pacifist Checkmate fight, you need minions, and I mean LOTS of minions.  Scads of minions on the field that can take opportunity attacks but are themselves verboten slow your PCs’ movement down and give the King lots of places to take cover from your PCs’ ranged and area attacks.  The minions should not hesitate to take attacks against nearby PCs – their lives or loved ones are on the line! – but will probably not be aggressive or move much if no PCs are nearby.  They’re essentially mobile terrain features.   Smart PCs will use Bull Rush, Grab, Cause Fear or similar non-damaging slide/push/pull effects to clear a path to the King.
3. Stalemate – the PCs simply aren’t powerful enough to stop the King.  They don’t have the magic weapon to pierce his armor or he regenerates until you destroy his phylactery or something. Perhaps the PCs would be out of their jurisdiction or social rank to hurt him.  All they can do is corner the King, keeping him temporarily contained (grabbed, immobilized, prone, etc) until the cavalry arrives.  The PCs should be star of the adventure and this is kind of a deus ex machina, so I wouldn’t use it often.  It is, however, a great way to set up a recurring or future villain that the PCs can take on properly at some later time.Determine what the endgame is, here, that’s the important part.  Do the PCs simply restrain the King?  If so, make sure they have some kind of item that lets them overcome the King’s high defenses to do so.  Also, there must a be condition progression of some sort.  For instance, their +6 handcuffs of Citizen’s Arrest only work if the King is Helpless, so the PCs have to figure out on their own how to get him to Helpless.  Preferably, Helpless should be the eventual outcome of first being Prone and then maybe Grabbed or Dazed or something.  Terrain powers are also important since some parties don’t have a lot of status-inflicting capability.  A quicker way is just to put out some kind of hazard or trap that the PCs have to maneuver the King into to defeat him – pits, bodies of water and lava are standard tropes here. Once the endgame trigger occurs, it’s Game Over for the King, regardless of HP.