u/TheNatureGM

My high school production of Peter Pan had a flying rig! North Houston suburb, 2009.

The Peter actor slipped one time and screamed, and her boyfriend hopped up so fast that the theater director rolled his eyes and suggested that he relax. In retrospect, it did seem sort of dangerous.

I played bassoon in the orchestra pit. The greatest danger I faced was a solo during the Captain Hook monologue.

(Responding to Elliot's comment in Ep 492 that the high school play is unrealistically sophisticated with a flying fairy. Au contraire!)

Because Draw Steel is designed for fairly large combat scenarios with multiple squads of minions, I'm having trouble conceptualizing how to whip up an impromptu combat encounter when the story demands it.

Do other directors already have pre-calculated encounters in the bag that you can drop onto the map as needed? Do you pause the game to calculate EV?

To give some context, for the past couple of years I've mostly played Shadowdark and have grown accustomed to rolling on random tables to increase DRAMA. Draw Steel doesn't seem especially conducive to random tables because its assumption is to have 10+ opponents facing the heroes. Actually, now that I think about it... montage tests may satisfy a similar narrative need as random encounters by raising the stakes in an otherwise uneventful situation (or by applying a mechanism to existing stakes).

In my current Draw Steel game, the heroes are exploring an Eastern fantasy setting which has been overrun by demons. If the party does something unexpected and gets themselves in a dangerous situation, they may face a group of hostile creatures that live in the local area (let's say a community of basan, which are fire-breathing chickens). My Shadowdark and 5e GM self would have a group of 3-4 basan appear. While thinking with a Draw Steel lens, I'm having trouble imagining 10-15 basan showing up out of nowhere just to give a meaningful combat challenge.

Having typed all this out, I think what's actually tripping me up is the scale of the encounters. The number of opponents is simply larger than what I'm used to. Does anyone frequently play with higher level monsters to have smaller-sized encounters? Does it radically impact the gameplay?

Interested in any reflections on your own experience!

In the tomb of the elf king Varond Elderflower, which is guarded by gargoyles, skeletons, buffed animated armor, etc.

I initially thought about making the gold cursed. However since the dungeon establishes animation magic, I think it's more fun to let the party have the gold but also pick up a nuisance doll.

Suggestions?

Setting is coastal and semi-Nordic, though they're currently in a misty temperate forest region.