How do you make an encounter memorable in a tabletop RPG?

How do you make an encounter memorable in a tabletop RPG?

Short answer: brutal failure and a rematch.

No faceless mooks. In every combat with sentient enemies, there should be at least one guy with a personality. Special abilities or unique powerset are a bonus, but they are not strictly mandatory.
So when you roll a band of orcs on random encounters, it's not just any orcs - they are led by a shaman dressed in a fine red robes, who fancies himself a civilized wizard. Also, they've already fought this orc before, and forgot to make sure he's dead. And he references their previous fight in his banter.

Yes, I stole it from Shadows of Mordor.

It's pretty easy: you need to encompass aspects of the party's backstory into what they do and the resulting encounters.

Make it so that, after meeting certain characters and befriending them... or making new enemies, these characters play a role in the life of the party and the party can make an impact on the lives of these characters.

For better or for worse.

By not using faceless mooks, and by making the combats mean something, rather than just using them as an experience farm.

>tfw there are four similar answers on point

Memorable non-hostile NPCs help alot, if only for the sake of adding context. There's also a fine balance of fellating players egos and pissing them off in measure, so their accomplishements and changes in those NPCs mean something due to the work required. Be careful to avoid Sues and overpowering DMPCS though, always gotta keep the players feeling like they're essential in a certain role. Copy-pasting an example I saved from a thread looong ago.

Cheria. Kind of a DM plot device, but ended up being one of my players' favorite.

>Local Lord is basically trying to bring peace and stability to a city under his rule.
>Lord is basically hiring people to deal with criminals, monster infestations, and similar issues plaguing the city.
>Players have proven capable enough that they're allowed to apply, but the Lord doesn't deal with them personally.
>Players are instead put under the supervision of Cheria, the Lord's spymaster.
>Cheria is... initially kind of a bitch. Acts haughty and condescending around the players, and basically treats them like disposable muscle (which to be fair, they are).
>Players HATE her. Get ragey, tell her she can't do the things they do and basically threaten that they can kick her ass.
>Cheria knows they won't murder her just cos they're pissed though, and basically laughs, says she doesn't need to be able to fight when she's so clever and charming and stealthy ect. ect. and says the brains of an operation never fights anyway.
>Player rage rising, but they swallow it and do some assignments anyway because the pay is good.
>Players gets mission to reclaim a military fort that had been taken over by defectors who were basically using as a base to kidnap travelers and commit banditry.
>Party sets up camp to scout out the base from a distance.
>Despite having kept a watch all night, when they party wakes up in the morning, they find a satchel in their camp that wasn't there before.
>Satchel is filled with potions... and a note from Cheria teasing them for having not noticed her drop it off.

In that moment Cheria went from a character who made the players rage because she hadn't fellated their egos right off the bat to someone who's respect they were starting to earn, even if she hadn't shown it until now. Basically "I know I give you guys alot of shit, but you did good and I want you to keep doing good."

According to my players she's one of the best NPCs I've ever run.

Yeah, she and our party would not get a long at all. We have a very similiar NPC in our game, and we can't wait to meet her again now that we leveled up, so we can punch her teeth down her throat.

Sometimes you can't solve all your problems by simply murder-hobo'ing everyone you don't like.

I mean, I guess you CAN if you play your games as a videogamey Skyrim-style power-fantasy, but you're not really going to have ANY memorable encounters in that kind of game since the entire point of those is all player-focused power-glorification,

>I made an annoying bitch, I wonder why my players want to kill her

>I play my games murdering every character I don't like. I wonder why nothing feels meaningful and why I'm asking people on the internet how to write good encounters.

Your move. A bit of advice though, don't ask people for advice and then throw a non-constructive tantrum when you get it.

I would love to play a prank on her.

Such a water bucket on the verge of tipping over on the door, falling on the head of whoever opens it.

Also a groping mage hand.

Did you even fucking read? That was kind of the point. user never denied the players wanted to kill her. user was demonstrating how he turned a character the players hated into one they liked while making the players feel like they accomplished something.

>I wonder why nothing feels meaningful and why I'm asking people on the internet how to write good encounters.
Nice try, I'm not the OP. I'm one of the other poster. You sure got offended because I didn't love the waifu you've made, though. Did I touch a nerve?

stop shaming yourself user.

I got offended because you made a topic asking for help then, instead of actually engaging in any kind of constructive or productive conversation with anyone offering you advice, decided to fling shit at the people helping you, then when called out on it pull the "IT WASN'T ME! IT WAS SOME OTHER user!" play, when you really had no reason to comment at all if that were actually the case.

Kindly go get bent, and next time try being a little more civil when asking for help or advice, because I'm done. Enjoy your (you).

Pull out your gun and shoot your players right in the face. they'll never forget that night. no matter how they drink

>I'M NOT MAD, YOU'RE MAD
Don't ever respond to me again.

But user, I'm totally not the same person.

Also learn some reading comprehension.

I have an example from my last L5R game: as we were travelling the GM played a little kid lost in the woods to put us in a tough spot. The snot-faced little bugger is just adorable and I'm considering taking him with us, given that the village he was in before has probably been slaughtered by bandits

Shame OP had to go and be such a retarded shitter. Topics like this have the potential to be interesting and Veeky Forums needs that so badly. It saddens me that it's turned into shitposting and screeching autism.

A really good memorable encounter starts long before the encounter itself.

It shouldn't be random. Players have to expect the confrontation from long ago. The enemy should be some plot-oriented figure that is important in the mind of players. Not just in yours.
The battle should be the culmination of plot events. Something really fucking important. (It also DOESN'T have to be from the main plotline)

And when the encounter starts, change the rules a bit. This is important. Place players in the position they are not comfortable at. Not in the sence «it's hard» but as in «Unusual». Make them fight in a way they haven't before

Here are some moments from my games that stuck to the players memories as an example (minor subplot):

The players are in Transylvanian shithole. One (overpowered) vampire named Fon Hernet who is an enthusiastic hunter finds them, blows in the Horn and unleashes the hounds on them, proceeding to hunt them. They barely escape with a lot of wounds.
Some time later they are hunted down by him again. They hear the horn, they run. They hear the shout «Remember. No prey ever escapes Fon Hernet»
One levelup and a bunch of strong magical items later the thief steals some shit from players. They chase him and get in the underground complex. Explosion, entrance is blocked. They hear the horn. Everyone instantly understands what happend and shit their pants. They hear an echoing sound «No prey ever escapes Fon Hernet!». Then they had a fight in that complex. Vampire was always keeping a big distance trying ti be out of sight of the players, attacking from distance in unusual position, with his hounds targeting everyone who ever fell behind. Standart procedure «Come close, kill a thing» didn't work so they had to come up with a new plan. Eventually the wizard started exploding the supporting columns trying to make an avalanche. It ended up with blowing up the ceiling revealing the daylight and threw the vamp there.

That sounds suspiciously familiar.
Was an overly courageous fire shugenja involved?

>Yes, I stole it from Shadows of Mordor.
No shame in that. Shadow of Mordor itself is, I feel, attempting to do things in a video game that were previously only available in TTRPGs, and coming back around, it should be a wake-up call to any DM making their encounters too static and impersonal about what can really be done in a game.

Include your magical realm in the most horribly blatant way possible.
You never said it had to be a good kind of memorable.

>Was an overly courageous fire shugenja involved?
He was a true samurai: pretty much in a hurry to die

Reminds me of something I've heard is one of the unwritten rules of cinema. A movie is telling a story, and a fight scene is simply part of that. Just seeing two dudes punch eachother is cool, but a good fight scene continues the story, is part of it and drives it. The participants are drawn to the fight by something and the fight settles something. This makes the warriors you overcome part of the story that develops your character, rather than chunks of exp that are in your way.

Though you can of course go to the other extreme and have every single random orc spout on and on about his hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears and regrets as you stab him through the gut.

make characters lose alot and gain alot during the same encounter
they will remember their own development linked to encounter

Lack combat mechanics and over whelming odds so the players need to think outside the box instead of rolling for fireball damage

My DM always has overpowered NPCs join us in combat - he thinks it makes things more cinematic, but we just zone out while he plays with himself.

Contrive a way for the situation to change drastically from round to round. Never let it go to the point the encounter is just movin' and rollin'

Gotta Worf that shit. If story demands an overpowered PC join the party, that nigga best be dead by the end of the first encounter to show how serious the villain is.

I tend to make enemies start off as faceless mooks, but they chit-chat, are generally willing to parley, have a rough character outline should it come up, etc. While it's fun to have the occasional Ginyu Squad show up, I don't think every encounter should be that. At some point you have to run into the run of the mill brigands/imperial troops/minions of the dark lord/etc.

Have to at least partially disagree with this too, if only because players don't always think outside the box. Reward them for being creative, but don't make the fight a boring one if they aren't. Mechanics act as a comfortable middle between just full-attacking it to death vs. the party crafting a Rube Goldberg machine to throw a cold iron pie in the fae's face. Plus I just like designing encounters, it makes the planning stage of GMing more fun.

Add a quirk or more to it.

Memorability isn't planned, it comes out naturally.

Add a midget powered by Tard Magic and name him after pasta.

...

>if only because players don't always think outside the box
Train them, making their enemies also think outside the box. Put a mechanic that can be used by both enemies and the PCs

Like water geysers to stop mages from casting fire magic, and rocks around to block the geysers' hole or something. Can be used by both the enemy and the PCs at their will.

You beat the living hell out of your players, kill all but one and fuck the corpses in front of him.
There's no way he ain't gonna remember that encounter.

This seems disturbingly familiar.

Tee hee hee.

This.
A really memorable encounter was the finale of the campaign I finished playing recently. Our party (A human sorcerer (me), an elf rogue, and a human mechanic/our tank in power armor) had been dealing with the enemies for the last half of the campaign. An alien commander who uses a Duel Disc to shoot magical metal playing cards, an intergalactic assassin contracted by the commander, and a Broly level ripped war criminal brought along from space for the ride. We battled the enemy party composed of counterparts to each of the party members and tested our skills. Each opponent used gimmicks that played to our strengths yet still provided a challenge. The fight was exhilarating all the way through, and the satisfaction of killing them one by one was amazing.

A few striking details and some interesting mechanics.

You have to always frame an encounter in reference to the players' level of investment.

Always remember that your players could be doing anything other than play with you. You owe it to them to make sure they get a return on investment.

Like, every shortcut you take in storytelling (and making the story compelling), the player loses ROI. When they start to lose on those returns, they lose interest. It's hard to remember a moment when you aren't invested.

Prime example:

>Playing campaign
>Party finds a wand
>Attempts to figure out its purpose
>DM asks what we wish it did
>Guy blurts out that he wishes it made fresh, buttered noodles
>DM and party laugh
>Everyone agrees it's a noodle wand
>Carry noodle wand everywhere, even feeding the hungry
>DM slipped in a side arc about recovering the noodle wand from bandits
>Everyone agrees we had a blast through the campaign
>All because a DM was willing to take the party's ideas into consideration

That's what you have to do, OP. You can't tell a party what to do. You have to be a conduit for their joy. If you are DMing because you want people to worship your writing skills, your heart is in the wrong place.

A good DM is malleable and makes things memorable by making the players care. Gathering investment from player ideas is a good way to do that.

I wish you luck, and I hope you have lots of fun with your friends, OP!

You kill a player

I have some

>Have "filler" session for two players
>They get tasked to help some little cute dumb tiny cat creatures
>They go to a giant natural tower to help find one of the lost cats
>They go ahead and meet the bodyguard of the current BBEG's daughter
>One of my players goes to apprehend the daughter but the bodyguard stops him
>Fight starts
>Long and ardous with the damage dealer of the party holding back while the Bodyguard progressively gets more serious and dangerous
>In the end Bodyguard wins the encounter, but as she leaves, she steals one of the party members prized posessions in pure spite
>One player asks if he can get one last hit in due to the transgression
>Not an asshole GM, so I let him do it
>Rolls high as fuck (like 4 6's in a dicepool of 10)
>Have fun with it and decide that the bodyguard doesn't defend since it takes her by surprise
>Hit is so massive that it creates a shockwave trough the tower
>Bodyguard gets her cheek torn off permanently by the gigantic backhand slap

The two players ended up loving it and kept talking about it for hours

Then what's probably the most important moment in the campaign, at least for me

>80% of the campaign wouldn't have happened if they hadn't decided to talk to completely unplanned background NPC that had rabbit ears

Generally, the only way you make things memorable in a game, other than unexpected critical bullshit, is to take away something the players like. Gear and pets, mainly. The saddest I have ever seen players in my life was when one of their pets was petrified, and when the bad guy stole their bag of holding.

Holy shit were they sad about that dead donkey.

That was bad wording on my part. I mean more casual mechanics. For instance in my setting a fem barb wanted to use her lance to spear through a scrub and hit the person next to him. She rolled a crit so she got a double kill. Sometimes when I'm DM'ing I play it by ear and let them just tell me what they want to do and see if it should be possible, you'll be surprised how much your crew can grow as players

Consider Intelligent Systems' strategy games. Each of the levels has brief interactions with the enemy leader. So even if I beat them and never see them again. I still remember that mustachio'd tanky fuck from FE:Awakening and the annoying guerilla loli from AW: DS

Why do I understand this reference. I've been on this fucking board too much.

An adult response.

That's a recent copypasta, though.

Always shoot for the TPK.

Rape a player.

Lies.

Player: Why didn't you have my character roll perception?

I think its pretty horse-plop that a character can a) todge the best efforts of vigilant pcs
b) do so with so much power and ability that they HAVE TIME TO WRITE A CONDESCENDING NOTE WITHOUT BEING CAUGHT TOO.

Why was this character employing subterfuge against the PC's? Did they get to roll?
Or was this just a case of your Mary Sue crudding their best efforts and them just having to take your manly gm efforts right in the hitpoints total and tell you it tastes like cherry?

Ima call crap on you, gm. Boo. Its one thing to be able to sneak past pcs, its another to sneak past PC's AND WRITE A NOTE IN STEALTH TO INSINUATE INTO THEIR MIDST.

I'm not your player, so you don't have to give a rat turd what I think.

Having said that, I hate it, hate it HATE it when the world just happens to have an Arcane Archer shaped hole, or a Diplo-mancer shaped hole in it that just happens to let all the pcs through it.

It disgusts me, makes me rage, and makes me want to gm. I don't want anything in the game to correspond to what my character WISHES things to do except for a goddamn wish spell.
Thats what a wish spell is for.

If a wish spell was used from a wand to make a wand of noodles? Legit. If it was just doing something that the gm add-libs on the spot?

I feel theres no substance to that world. No reality. It stops existing the moment my character closes his eyes. Its paper thin. Its not just that the world needs my PC for its existance, its that, and everyone KNOWS it, including the NPCs.

Wubbalubba dub dub! Nine More seasons Morty! Thats our new catch phrase Morty! Thats what we're doing!

Sounds to me like the DM did a good story moment that his players loved. That's the best thing a DM could possibly do.

>his players loved
Good for them. But for the other party, this moment wouldn't work, and his Mary Sue would become even more unlikable after that sequence.
>Oh, so she's so great that we don't even get to roll if we spot her?

Make the antichrist a really engaging and fun guy who's current plot has already worked out and he's just hanging around for giggles before heading off.

Are you actually an idiot, or is this bait?
Whatever, I'll open wide and swallow it down.

1st: The scratching of pen on parchment is pretty quiet.
2nd: The note would probably have been written pre-sneaking. You dumbass.
3rd: At no point was it stated that the PCs had any exceptional sensory abilities or were high on the powerscale for that game.
4th: This NPC is a spymaster. You know, someone who's entire life is being the best smart, sneaky, master of espionage in the country? Does it offend you that a literally spy is good at sneaking?
5th: Mary Sue has a definition, and a spy that's only good at spying isn't it.