After last week’s unplanned delay, I’m continuing with my series on planning and running non-combat encounters! This post will cover the basics of the third format of non-combat encounter presented in the GMH, which is designed to model complex situations with many moving parts, like heists.
This topic is complicated enough that I’ll be splitting it up and providing a full, working example in a later post, next week.
Nodal Encounters
Finally, if a non-combat encounter is complex, featuring many interacting factors and challenges to be overcome, the best way to design and run may be as a nodal encounter. Nodal encounters get this name because they are structured like flowcharts, with various boxes, or nodes, representing the different challenges in the encounter and connections showing how they interact with each other.
Basic Concept
In a nodal encounter, there are multiple obstacles, represented by nodes, between the PCs and their goal. Some of these may be direct obstacles, like a cliff to be climbed or a door to be unlocked; others may be complicating factors that make it harder to overcome the direct obstacles. The PCs thus have a choice not just of how to solve each node between them and the objective, but also of what order or route to use in solving them.
- The players roll initiative and enter a turn order like they would in combat.
- On their turns, the players can describe how their character attempts to resolve a node. The GM then calls for a check of an appropriate kind and Difficulty.
- The players overcome the encounter by resolving all of the obstacles between them and the encounter’s objective node. Some encounters may also have ways for the PCs to fail if they don’t resolve a node correctly.
Rather than begin by giving an example of a nodal challenge, let us first discuss some different kinds of nodes that could be put together into a nodal encounter:
Objective Nodes
The objective node naturally represents the players’ objective: they win the encounter by resolving or bypassing all other nodes preventing them from reaching the objective node.
An advanced nodal encounter might feature multiple objective nodes, requiring the PCs to reach all of them, which is harder than reaching just one, or allowing them to just reach one, which is easier.
Examples:
- The treasure vault that the PCs are raiding.
- The kidnapped NPC that the PCs are rescuing.
- The secret knowledge that the PCs are attempting to discover or pry out of an NPC.
Blocker Nodes
A blocker node represents the factors that prevent the PCs from just going straight to the objective node. Blocker nodes must be resolved by PCs succeeding on appropriate checks to progress towards the objective node.
A blocker node may be permanently removed when it is resolved, or it may only remain resolved for a limited time (one round, for instance). A permanently-removed blocker might require multiple successful skill checks to remove it.
Blocker nodes can have consequences for failing to resolve them, up to and including making the PCs fail the encounter entirely.
Examples:
- A tower wall that the PCs must climb to reach the vault (Athletics, requiring 3 successes for an individual character to climb and causing fall damage if they fail badly).
- The locked door to the cell of the kidnap victim (Strength to break down noisily or Subterfuge to pick quietly, requiring only one success but with a high Difficulty).
- A geas preventing a learned scholar from revealing crucial information to the PCs (Arcana, to dispel the ritual and allow them to question the scholar, or Deception, to work around the wording of the geas and allow the scholar to answer one question per success).
Complicating Nodes
A complicating node makes it harder to resolve other nodes in certain ways. Like blocker nodes, a complicating node can be resolved (maybe permanently, maybe only temporarily), making it easier for the PCs to resolve those other nodes.
Complicating nodes can work in many ways, such as by increasing the Difficulty of certain kinds of checks or imposing disfavor on them, requiring that PCs also make and pass an additional check when attempting certain kinds of check, or adding consequences for failing certain kinds of check.
Examples:
- Guards are stationed outside the tower, that could see anyone climbing up it. (A character attempting to climb the tower must also succeed at a Stealth check, or the encounter is failed; can be resolved until the end of the round by distracting them, e.g. with Charisma, Persuasion, or Subterfuge.)
- An Alarm ritual is set on the kidnap victim’s cell door and will alert the guards when the door is opened, causing the PCs to fail the encounter unless they get the door open by the end of the round. (The PCs only notice this complication if they succeed on an Arcana check, which they make automatically before attempting to resolve the cell door. They can resolve it permanently by dispelling the ritual.)
- The djinn that placed the geas on the learned scholar is nearby, and can sense when someone interferes with the geas. (Attempting and failing to dispel the geas alerts the djinn; can be resolved until the end of the round by being sufficiently interesting to the djinn, e.g. using Cunning to engage it in a game of riddles.)
Bonus Nodes
A bonus node gives the PCs some kind of optional reward, which could be gold or other treasure, a resource or opportunity that they can use to their advantage later in the nodal encounter, or a way to alter how the story plays out following the encounter.
Taking a bonus node should always involve a tradeoff, even if it is just that taking the bonus replaces a PC’s opportunity to resolve some other node this turn.
Examples:
- There is a large, heavy chest of treasure in the vault, which a PC could take with them but would encumber them until they can get the lock open and remove the valuables from it. The PC carrying the chest is encumbered and has disfavor on checks using physical abilities; it can be broken open with Strength or the lock picked with Subterfuge, but these are difficult checks.
- The PCs locate the guards’ armory, which contains several guards but also some spare uniforms. If they take the time to don the uniforms, they can make easier Deception checks instead of Stealth checks to move around the prison without alerting the guards.
- The PCs could break the binding that forces the djinn to serve their foes, but this requires so many skill check successes (involving Arcana, History, Religion, etc.) that they would be unable to get all the answers they need out of the learned scholar.
Locations
An advanced variation on a nodal encounter splits the encounter into multiple locations, such that some nodes can only be resolved from certain locations. PCs can move between locations instead of attempting to resolve a node.
There can also be additional restrictions on moving between locations: a blocker node may prevent movement until resolved, or a complication node may require certain skill checks when attempting to do so.
It can even be possible to move certain nodes between locations, affecting which routes to the objective have blockers, or which locations suffer from a complicating node.
Examples:
- The guards patrol only around the outside of the tower containing the vault: once the PCs are inside (requiring them to climb the tower wall or resolve some other blocker), they are no longer in danger of being spotted.
- The cells where the kidnap victim is held are divided into several cell blocks, and a guard patrol moves at random between them, forcing PCs to make Stealth checks to remain hidden while in the same location as the patrol. The patrol can be drawn to a specific location by a Deception or Subterfuge check.
- The djinn initially resides far away from the scholar, and the PCs must split the party for some of them to distract it while the others get their answers out of the scholar. If the djinn is alerted, it teleports directly to the scholar’s side while the PCs must take several turns to get there.
Up Next
Keep an eye out next week for my post demonstrating nodal encounters with a worked-out example, modeling a bank heist!
Aetrimonde 
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