Using Interesting Terrain | Dungeon Master's Blog | DM's Tips & Tricks #6

Make any D&D encounter more fun with interesting terrain

Player: How about a tree, is there a tree with low branches that could hold me?
DM: Sure thing there is (he reaches forward and scrawls out a few blobs with green markers in his wet erase map). These all seem a little small, but this one, and this one over here are big enough.
Player: Is there a branch, say, eight feet up that could take a considerable amount of abuse?
DM: I'm not sure what you're planning, but I'll play along, sure, in this tree here, you could easily stand on the branch, if you balanced yourself against the trunk. But you know you won't be hidden, right? I mean the orcs already see you there on your horse.
Player: Sure thing, that doesn't matter. If one of them hits me, though, like with a spear or a crossbow, will I just fall down?
DM: Maybe. It depends, I'll probably ask you for a constitution check to handle the pain, and a dex check to stay standing.
Player: Okay I'll chance it. I want to ride up over here, and then use my whip to get up in the tree, and balance against the trunk like you said.
The player waits for the orcs to get closer. Luckily, he took cover from the tree trunk and did dodge one of those spears. Then it was his turn:
Player: Okay, so an orc is like 6 feet tall, and I'm on an 8 foot high branch, right? Okay, my whip is 6 feet. For my standard action, I want to called shot to wrap around his neck (he rolls, and barely hits, but it is a hit. The DM says that he has both his arm and his neck wrapped, so not perfect, but it will suffice.). Okay, I grab the whip handle with both hands and drop from the tree as hard as I can, try to land, or roll to my back, and hoist the orc up into the air.

DM: Okay, it will be a strength check to hoist him up. He is much bigger than you (the player rolls and passes). Okay, but now you are right at the feet of his buddy over here (he moves the miniatures about, and the rest of the round continues). The orc still on the ground takes a swing, and hits the player pretty hard, but doesn't kill him.
Player: Okay, I was hoping this guy in the tree would just be dead, but since his arm is wrapped in with his neck, I guess he'll just have to strangle. Can I reach my horse? (Dm shakes his head) Okay, but this Orc here is right in front of me, and I'm still on the ground? (A nod), Okay, then my attack roll will be to loop the handle of the whip into his belt, and my move action will just be to try to knock him over, then next round he will have to untie himself, or be stuck to the tree, and I can roll away next round.

This was a real example of a player, who did an excellent job of playing a cattle drover turned ranger, by the way, interacting with more than just the flat yellowed surface of my battlemat. Even when I make dungeon tiles (or boats, in the case of the Mürmaids), its not as interesting as it could be, which is why, in this dungeon master's tip, I want to talk about interesting terrain.

What Makes Terrain Interesting?

Not every tree is interesting. Not every bush, gravestone or sloping passageway presents something interesting to the players. Terrain is actually interesting when a player can use it, or when it causes a problem or forces them to work around a certain situation. There are three modules that instantly come to mind as having memorable terrain, but the lessons learned from each could be used in any given encounter.

First is the third edition module Forge of Fury. There is a bridge across a wide chasm when the players first enter the keep. You can't see the other side of it, though there is a light source over there, and only one or two people can cross the rope-bridge at a time. It is the perfect place for an encounter, since the players won't want to back out of the keep to the potential dangers outside, and certainly they won't want to just sprint across the bridge once the orcs waiting on the other side show themselves. So the Players, the two or three unlucky ones who volunteered to go first, have to make a choice, head back when the orcs arrive, obviously set on cutting the bridge and sending the players to their deaths below, or sprint forward and face the orcs, possibly alone. This is a great piece of terrain because the presence of it makes the players consider their options and interact with the encounter as a whole, instead of just counting their opponents and carrying on with hack and slash. Instead, they have to make judgement calls about how quickly they can make it across the bridge, or how quickly the orcs will make it to swing an axe at the ropes holding the bridge up. They also have to try to calculate the odds that their companions will be accurate with missile weapons, and whether or not that should be a factor in their decision, and what happens if the bridge gets cut? Can they grab the rope hand-rails well enough? In the room description, did the DM mention that everything in here was a little damp? What if the rope is moldy? You see? This one simple element has turned the encounter into a much bigger experience than just running into three orcs with axes and bows.

The second isn't from a module, but rather from the Chris Perkins adventure Tomb of the Orc Slayer. In this case, he has surrounded one of the areas in a half-frozen over stream. Its not clear whether it is deep enough for the players to drown in it, but it most certainly is unsafe. I used something similar once, a frozen stream that was difficult terrain, meaning they could only move across it at a slow rate. It also happened to be an obstacle for a slime demon the party encountered. Thinking quickly, our intrepid fighter dribbled his oil of impact on a warhammer and smashed through the ice, exposing the water below. With some taunting and some teamwork, the demon wasn't killed, but instead just fell into the water, and was rushed away downstream (to be met again in a later adventure, of course).

Finally is the chasm surrounding the front of the guardhouse in the module Danger at Darkshelf Quarry. This one was both a danger, and was used by the players. First, two dwarven fighters knocked the elven villain into the chasm, and left her for dead. Later, the chasm came up again as they fought Bazili Erak, and he continually tried to throw the players down the chasm. In this case, the terrain was interesting because it was both a tool and a threat.

So why are these, or the tree above, actually interesting details that enrich the campaign rather than just crappy exposition that is read in an encounter description? Because the players used them. They were, in essence, characters just as much as the villains, NPC's and player characters themselves. The terrain is usable, fluid, and a part of the scene as a whole.

Encouraging Your Players to Interact with Terrain

So, let's say you add in the perfect tree for your ranger to hang his own orc from it. How do you convince him to start taking advantage of his terrain? It's not easy. Thats the difference between "you're in a forest" and "my ranger just hanged an orc, tied him to another orc, and used the weight of the second to keep the first aloft and strangling."

I personally like to use a cheap trick as a way to convince the players to start using and interacting with the terrain. As I discussed a long time ago, I use a heavily modified home-brew rules system that is closest to second edition, but has a ton of add-ons. One of those is my concept of combat advantage. I'll give a +1, either to hit or damage depending on the situation, if they can come up with a reason that they have some kind of advantage over an opponent. I'll even allow them to compile, so a mounted, charging cavalryman can have a +3 for being on higher ground (mounted), charging and training his shot for the round before he strikes his opponent. It may be cheap, and too easy to overpower a character that way, but think of how quickly they are incentivized to alter their thinking when you dangle that as a carrot in front of them.

A more subtle way to do is is to have the NPC's and opponents use the terrain as an example, or directly against them. A smart player will start to notice that the ogres are trying to knock the players off a cliff, and all of a sudden, that spell it made no sense for him to memorize becomes amazing when he stops the entire encounter with one word...."grease." Yeah, the ogres immediately slipped, and went off the edge of the cliff themselves. Well done, Tony.