So if the creative juices ain’t flowing, I guess I’ll try waxing analytic.

This is the first of what will be a series on the theory of encounter design. In it, I will analyze what an encounter is, what makes an encounter interesting, etc. I’m going to take a half-serious, half-mocking, half-inconsistent approach to it. Also, all math will be done modulo 50, so no matter how many halves you add on to something it’s still equivalent to 100%.

The Goal of Unified Encounter Theory

The ultimate goal of Unified Encounter Theory (hereafter shortened to UET) is to produce a system for creating the framework of an enjoyable encounter. Something along the lines of “Add in equal parts dynamic landscape, unusual opponents, and a twist,” but more rigorous and scholarly. Actually, that would work well for many encounters, but then this whole series thing would be cut short and that’s no good at all.

I’ve preemptively named this not-yet-created system the UNITY system (because UNITY sounds kind of like UET), which stands for:

What is an Encounter?

The first step in this whole process, of course, is making sure that we’re all on the same base. Thus, we need to define what exactly an encounter is. I’ve thought long and hard on this question, and I’ve come up with the following all-encompassing definition, at least in the framework of a typical RPG with a GM running the game for several players. All you elitist indie gaming snobs who play games where everyone is the GM can come up with your own theory.

Encounter: An encounter is when something happens in the vicinity of at least one PC which is notable enough to be described by the GM.

What is notable about that definition is what it does not say. It does not say an encounter happens to the PCs, it says it happens near them. It also does not say that an encounter affects the PCs. It may, it may not. By this definition, witnessing an explosion kill your father, a strange beggar asking for your cape, and an arrow lodging itself in your throat are all encounters. A distant king hiring an assassin to track down and kill your PCs is not an encounter, unless a PC happens to be scrying on the king at that particular moment.

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s it for the introduction to UET. I welcome all feedback, and hope that people will have suggestions and comments which I might incorporate into future installments.

Next time: Classifying encounters