Mike Shea, guest writer here and head honcho of Sly Flourish, interviewed me once again, this time about “The Out,” a method for shortening combats by defining alternative ways that the battle can end instead of one side or the other being wiped out. We discuss why to use it, how to implement it, planning it, some potential pitfalls to using it, and more.
Further Reading:
- Avoiding the Early Out
- Three Examples for Ending a Battle Early
- Designing 30 Minute Skirmishes in 4e
- Sly Flourish’s Dungeon Master Tips Book
The Combat “Out” (50 minutes, 24 MB)
[Download MP3 version | Podcast Feed | iTunes Link]
Excellent, detailed discussion surrounding the ‘The Out,’ very much enjoyed listening to this.
Between ‘The Out’ and DMG2’s alternate victory condition and Encounter as Story ideas, there’s a lot of inspiration for DM’s to go beyond “Just Kill Everything!” in combat encounters and make them a much more engaging and memorable D&D experience.
Great podcast!
This is one of the aspects of encounter design that Masterplan uses.
When you generate a random encounter in Masterplan, it will often generate a randomised ‘out’ (or alternate victory condition).