🗺️ Encounter Prompt Ideas

Use these prompts as creative starting points when generating encounters. Each entry suggests a campaign phase and an encounter type to help shape intent, pacing, and player focus.

Early Campaign Encounters

• Combat — A sudden skirmish with enemies testing the party’s defenses rather than trying to kill them.
• Social — A tense conversation where saying the wrong thing could turn allies into enemies.
• Exploration — A location that appears mundane until careful observation reveals hidden dangers.
• Skill — A coordinated effort to stabilize a failing situation before it spirals out of control.
• Puzzle — A simple mechanism that teaches the party how this environment responds to interaction.
• Moral — A choice between two imperfect outcomes, neither of which feels heroic.

Established Campaign Encounters

• Combat — An organized force that fights with discipline and retreats if pressed too hard.
• Pursuit — A chase where terrain matters as much as speed.
• Social — Negotiations with someone who holds leverage the party cannot ignore.
• Exploration — A dangerous area that rewards patience and planning.
• Skill — A prolonged challenge that tests endurance, coordination, and adaptability.
• Moral — An outcome that benefits one group only if another is harmed.

Late Campaign Encounters

• Combat — A decisive battle intended to demonstrate how far the party has come.
• Puzzle — A complex problem whose solution permanently alters the location or story.
• Pursuit — A high-stakes chase where failure has lasting consequences.
• Social — A confrontation where words can avert a war — or start one.
• Exploration — A hostile environment that feels actively opposed to intrusion.
• Moral — A choice that defines what kind of heroes the party ultimately are.

Story-Driven Wildcards

• Skill — A rapidly evolving situation where success depends on improvisation.
• Puzzle — An encounter that appears solvable through force but rewards insight instead.