Topic: Encounter difficulty

[Ginger McMurray]

Are there any guidelines for determining roughly how hard an encounter will be? For example, D&D has challenge rating. I'm all for giving players an opportunity to die a horrible death at the hands of ultra powerful monsters if they choose, but I'd rather not accidentally throw something overwhelming at them without fair warning.

[Hurin]

There have never been any good guidelines, imho. Creatures have levels, but they dont correlate well to real power. A Tyrannosaurus Rex for example is only a level 8 creature, but is immensely powerful.

RMU is trying to change this by tying level more closely to creature power, but for RM2, the best you can do is keep creature OBs and hits and numbers around or below those of the PCs. Getting outnumbered is really dangerous in Rolemaster too, so keep that in mind.

[brole]

You could try using Creatures & Treasures. There is a table called "Random Encounters Keyed to Power".
There are power ratings from weak to mighty, so you could start at weak power if low level PCs and can use the table for ideas on creature power.

Regardless I try and give PCs options and escape routes for encounters should they pass skill rolls.

e.g. A successful 'read tracks' attempt will allow a party to avoid a large monster ahead should they wish.
e.g. A successful 'bribery' attempt allows the party to be released from a militia group that outnumber them.

[Ginger McMurray]

Thanks! I hadn't noticed that section. I'll use it for most stuff. For encounters "off the beaten path" I'll be using the standard random encounter tables.

I agree completely in alternative means of survival. If you're third level and stumble into a dragon's lair you'd best start with the flattery!

[intothatdarkness]

I'd say the best guideline is common sense, followed by experience. RM in any flavor is deadly by design (crits), so you always need to be kind of careful.

I usually started my parties off with encounters against bandits or rogue mercenaries, just so they'd get a sense of how the system worked by fighting something similar to themselves. I also used my own encounter tables, so I wasn't relying on someone else's judgement (or lack thereof) when it came to random stuff (most of my encounters were planned in some way as well).

[Ginger McMurray]

I'm sure I'll use the random encounter tables from C&T. it's only the planned ones I want to limit, since they'll be things that the PCs probably have to get past somehow in order to do whatever it is they want to do at the time.

Random encounters definitely won't be "a war troll pops out from behind a bush. Roll initiative!" If they roll something scary, they'll have warning ahead of time. Maybe the dragon is just flying over and lands nearby to feast on a mountain goat. Maybe the giant is a couple of hills away and plodding along towards them, oblivious. They can opt to turn it into some sort of encounter, or they can go on their merry way.

[Spectre771]

As the GM, you need to see what your PCs skill values are.  I look at their average OB, DB, and HP and plan the baddies accordingly.  Barring the possible 1st round crit-kill, you have to make sure your NPCs aren't overpowering the party with sheer numbers or with high bonuses.

A while back, there was a thread on this board where a new GM sent two level-1 rats against two level 1 PCs and the PCs lost.  What he hadn't considered is that there were 10 attacks going against 2 players.  At best... 5 attacks per person, of which only 2 can be parried against, leaving very little left over in OB to even hit a rat, let alone squish 10 of them.

I'll set values where the PCs outnumber  higher level foe, or a group of lower skilled NPCs with low OB, but I'll let them get position to try to get a flank bonus.  Again, there's no stopping that 66 E-Crit from killing someone on the first roll. 

I would be less concerned with the level of the creature and more concerned with
-  its DB (can the PCs hit it with an average roll 0f 50?)
-  its OB (will it crush the PCs with one hit or will they have to full parry and have 0 OB to attack with?)
-  number of baddies (will they surround and get too many flank and back attacks?)

[Spectre771]

A while back, there was a thread on this board where a new GM sent two level-1 rats against two level 1 PCs and the PCs lost.  What he hadn't considered is that there were 10 attacks going against 2 players.  At best... 5 attacks per person, of which only 2 can be parried against, leaving very little left over in OB to even hit a rat, let alone squish 10 of them.

EDIT:  The GM sent ten level-1 rats against two level-1 PCs.  Sorry.  I didn't catch that when I posted.