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<aside> 🏆 GOAL Define a goal your players want to achieve to move the story forward. Do not dictate the method in the definition. Use multiple goals for more dynamic encounters. Use the table below to inspire ideas for goals. EXAMPLE - Obtain a magic chalice.

<aside> ⚠️ STAKES Define the stakes beyond their own injury or death. You can use multiple stakes to add complexity and tension to encounters. Use conflicting stakes, or stakes that cannot both be mitigated easily. Showcase these stakes at the start of the encounter to strongly establish them. EXAMPLE - A beloved NPC needs the chalice to heal themselves of a malady.

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<aside> 🚨 ANTAGONIST Define the antagonist(s) and their goals. Defining the antagonists’ goal(s) will help you react to the many different approaches the party could take in achieving their goal. EXAMPLE - A pseudodragon whose only treasure in their horde is the single chalice and the group of kobolds who worship them. The pseudodragon wants more treasure, the kobolds want to keep the pseudodragon safe.

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<aside> 🏔️ ENVIRONMENT Define the environment and create a short list of interesting environmental features. Try to include obstacles, cover, environmental hazards, and interactives. Avoid dictating a clear beneficiary unless the environment has been designed in your world to benefit the antagonist, like a lair for instance. Limited time can also be a fun environmental pressure. EXAMPLE - An underground Kobold lair that includes small tunnels, piles of kobold garbage, goblin captives, puddles of acidic pools, and a crude, dangerous portcullis operated by a lever, a kobold is running for the lever - they have mere seconds before the portcullis falls.

<aside> 🔥 STAGES Plan the stages and changes within your encounter. Each stage brings with it an amplification of the previous stage. EXAMPLE - The Kobolds start by surrounding their leader, they then rain arrows from tunnels above, then they swarm the party into the acid pools while their pseudodragon leader escapes.

<aside> ↔️ OUTCOMES How does the story continue if the party does or does not accomplish its goal(s)? Determine how the world is affected by their success or failure, and what new story thread is introduced as a result of their success or failure. Consider “yes and…” or “no, but…”.

EXAMPLE - They obtain the chalice, the NPC is cured, and now powerful dangerous figures are interested in the chalice. OR The pseudodragon escapes with the chalice, the beloved NPC is on deaths door, and a mysterious figure makes them a dubious offer for a cure.

<aside> 📜 INTRODUCTION Write some descriptive text or make notes for yourself of what the players need to know going into your encounter so they can properly assess the challenges and you don’t forget any of the details you have planned. Consider writing a single line for each stage of the encounter. EXAMPLE - A chortle comes from a tiny voice in the darkness, “welcome to your worst nightmare”. Bubbling pools of acid border the edges of the cavern, halfling sized holes dot the ceiling and fringes of the cavern…

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