The Art of Escalation | RPG Mainframe

[@tw7086]

"The rules weren't etched in stone and handed to us by Moses. They were made by Hasbro!" - Professor Dungeon Master

[@Runehammer1]

Hasbro? uhm....

[@tw7086]

@@Runehammer1 The game and toy giant Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999, for about US$325 million. They may be the owner of the IP, but their rules aren't law and won't get in the way of fun at my table.

[@freddykingofturtles]

I use two variables. Level and Alarm. Level keeps encounters vaguely related to player progress, while alarm is a dynamic x factor that rises and falls based on decision making. So while encounters are somewhat equivalent to player ability, there's an in-built escalation system players can impact.

[@MatthewBrpg]

He's a goddamn genius. A lot of gms and designers understand the concept he articulated at the start, but the vast majority cannot explain it as clearly as he did. An even smaller number could give you such a simple mechanic to convert like he did. An even smaller number could give you the "towards infinity" advice. No one else could put it all together like this.

[@Runehammer1]

:D

[@AKImeru]

I'm a Savage Worlds head and the advice given here is fantastic and one most designers doll out to people converting things for that system. "Convert the spirit, not the mechanics" As in, convert the idea of the Red Dragon, not the fact the red dragon has a legendary action that your system lacks the math logic behind it to make it work.

[@solomani-42]

Good stuff mister runehammer. I do conversion professionally - mostly 3rd edition era (including pathfinder) to 5e as well as a bit of 1e. My advice: 1) conversion is more art than science. Don’t get hung up on number detail too much. Convert based on spirit. What made the original interesting (if anything) and how I translate that across. 2) you have to know each system’s rules well. This helps with the spirit of conversion. 3) rule 1 is more important than rule 2.

[@theflyinggoat4503]

Dude, I'm loving your new videos.

[@williamtweed6377]

Awesome, absolutely awesome advice! Not just for RPG. Bit also for any artistic hobby! Thank you, so interesting & helpful.

[@Jdufore19]

Excellent thoughts, especially about escalation rhythm! Thank you for the insight.

[@christophseel8757]

Equipment ❤ Mechanics 😮

[@calebdreams]

RPG MAINFRAME to get my juices juicin! Thankerin, Hankerin!

[@MortonFMurphy]

Just had my Wednesday game rescheduled to tonight and I've got a really mean encounter tonight. I was concerned and considering nerfing it but I trust my players enough that they'll see it through. Having this drop on an impromptu game day is just what I needed to keep the momentum rolling.

[@midnightgreen8319]

Never nerf encounters. If they die, they die.

[@jayteepodcast]

In the bigger picture it is just gambling. You wage something (character) and either gain or lose with your actions of the dice. But like gambling the house always wins. The DM can stop the story or combat at anytime. Many Dm feel they have to continue the story or combat to completion. I never got that with people who tpk a group. If your getting your butt whooped move the narrative and the same for monsters if its to easy.

[@lordofdorknessdm3085]

Fantastic content as always. I love getting that perspective into your mindset for these things. I feel like many of these concepts are things that we are unconsciously trying to accomplish as GMs, and your RPG Mainframe content does an excellent job of midwifing these ideas to light. :)

[@jaytomioka3137]

I am one of Runehammer’s “Lumpy Headed Legionnaires”! 😂

[@kimmoffat6429]

Absolutely excellent as always Hank! Absolutely loved your final principal!

[@trollge3712]

amazing episode

[@PetesDracolich]

That was glorious!

[@rogerreed9885]

Thanks. This helped a lot.

[@Joshuazx]

more good content by the guy who has previously done so many times!

[@therealdoomsage]

Fuck I hope he's not actually waiting for me to que the music.

[@solohelion]

Totally agree

[@AdmiralWindy]

gamer thyme babey~

[@AltogetherGuy]

If D&D’s CR is so notoriously bad, and constantly balanced encounters are just boring why not just stick to CR religiously and let the two problems cancel each other out?

[@lordofdorknessdm3085]

I think the issue is that it tends to skew in one direction consistently, so it's always 'sorted' in the same way. Consequently, it takes some GM nuance to correct. For me personally, I throw out the CR system to some extent and use my best judgment, which has been honed over the course of years.

[@bholl6546]

It isnt an if. There's no way to mathematically plan for player agency and the exponential power growth of magic items.

[@beardyben7848]

Sly Flourish has the Lazy Encounter Benchmark just Google it. It's pretty consistent and the article explains the reasoning.

[@merlintym1928]

​@@bholl6546 Not true, you can do it, look at baulders gate 3! All you need is millions of dollars, dozens of employees, years to prepare and thousands of early access players to run through your encounters over and over again while you tweak them and you can mostly kinda get it right.

[@ericlimjc]

Did Hankerin changed his name?

[@Runehammer1]

?

[@ericlimjc]

@@Runehammer1hello Hankerin, who’s Brandish Gilhelm? The name pops up by the end of the video

[@TrairFrair]

Might be his stage name. Because lately he's been rocking it like a rock star!

[@ericlimjc]

@@TrairFrairYeah, might be.

[@xStormbloodx]

Heh... the Master is known by many names

[@al2642]

And not just balance. All God's are false God's.