Today I ran my third session (ever). We're doing LMoP, and the players are in Cragmaw Hideout. They snuck past the goblins in the blind, animal-handled their way past the wolves, and sent the rogue up the natural chimney. The rogue rolled a good stealth check and the goblins and bugbear. While the rogue was up there, the cleric standing at the bottom made the mistake of yelling something to the rogue. The rogue quickly scurried back down the chimney, but the bugbear and goblins in that room were alerted.
This led to something I was not prepared for as a new DM: tracking the behavior of NPCs/monsters off screen. I felt it was appropriate to try to simulate the behavior of these enemies. I didn't really know how to do this, but what I improvised was, i rolled initiative and included the off-screen characters. On the off-screen characters' turns I thought about what that character would do and played that out in my head. The off-screen actions included things like: goblins waking up their bugbear boss Klarg, Klarg ordering some of his minions to follow down the chimney and some to go remove the wall of rocks to unleash the flood of water, etc.
This went okay, but I found it quite difficult. One of the things that made it difficult is that I couldn't use the battlemap to track the movements of the off-screen characters because... they were off-screen. I didn't want the players to know what their enemies were doing.
Does anyone have advice for how to deal with this kind of thing?
The key thing to remember is that you don't have to get it exactly right, just close enough to be believable. Usually just estimating the time actions will take and rounding up will do the job.
I would wait with initiativ untill they actually see the bad guys. Untill then just move them at the start of a new round. Ideally would be if you can sort them out while your players sort through their actions and dices but this usually gets posible at higher lvls when your players have more options what to do and roll more dice.
I would wait with initiativ untill they actually see the bad guys. Untill then just move them at the start of a new round. Ideally would be if you can sort them out while your players sort through their actions and dices but this usually gets posible at higher lvls when your players have more options what to do and roll more dice.
The rogue did see the bad guys. Edited the original post to say that.
I would certainly not include them in the initiative order before they actually are in combat. Like Bhuraelea said, just make all their moves at the start of each round, and roll initiative when they encounter the players.
Another thing you could do is to call for a 5-minutes break, and use that time to "plot" out what the enemies off screen does, and when things will happen (like in three rounds they will unleash the flood, in four rounds the goblins will appear etc).
Things like this happens, and you just have to get "used" to it. However it sounds like you handled it in a good way (although you thought it was difficult). You'll get better at not using every little rule off-screen, just decide on the broad strokes of what and when things will happen.
It's great that you thought about keeping track of them! I agree with the idea of just deciding at the top or bottom of the round what all the "off screen" creatures are doing to make things simple. I would suggest not rolling specific initiative for them unless they are close enough to the battle that they could join in a round or two.
I also agree that this gets easier with practice, and that you don't need to remember every detail of every creature at all times. Take a moment to decide who might show up to the fight in a round or two, and what in general the others are doing, and then focus on the battle. Remember that a round of combat is only 6 seconds, most fights are over in less than a minute. So your off screen NPCs don't have to make a lot of decisions.
Today I ran my third session (ever). We're doing LMoP, and the players are in Cragmaw Hideout. They snuck past the goblins in the blind, animal-handled their way past the wolves, and sent the rogue up the natural chimney. The rogue rolled a good stealth check and the goblins and bugbear. While the rogue was up there, the cleric standing at the bottom made the mistake of yelling something to the rogue. The rogue quickly scurried back down the chimney, but the bugbear and goblins in that room were alerted.
This led to something I was not prepared for as a new DM: tracking the behavior of NPCs/monsters off screen. I felt it was appropriate to try to simulate the behavior of these enemies. I didn't really know how to do this, but what I improvised was, i rolled initiative and included the off-screen characters. On the off-screen characters' turns I thought about what that character would do and played that out in my head. The off-screen actions included things like: goblins waking up their bugbear boss Klarg, Klarg ordering some of his minions to follow down the chimney and some to go remove the wall of rocks to unleash the flood of water, etc.
This went okay, but I found it quite difficult. One of the things that made it difficult is that I couldn't use the battlemap to track the movements of the off-screen characters because... they were off-screen. I didn't want the players to know what their enemies were doing.
Does anyone have advice for how to deal with this kind of thing?
The key thing to remember is that you don't have to get it exactly right, just close enough to be believable. Usually just estimating the time actions will take and rounding up will do the job.
I would wait with initiativ untill they actually see the bad guys. Untill then just move them at the start of a new round. Ideally would be if you can sort them out while your players sort through their actions and dices but this usually gets posible at higher lvls when your players have more options what to do and roll more dice.
Attack: [roll]3d20dl2+6[/roll] Damage: [roll](if([roll:-1:critical], =0, 1d8, 2{1d8}.expand()))+4[/roll] Sneakattack: [roll](if([roll:-2:critical], =0, 2d6, 2{2d6}.expand()))[/roll]The rogue did see the bad guys. Edited the original post to say that.
I would certainly not include them in the initiative order before they actually are in combat. Like Bhuraelea said, just make all their moves at the start of each round, and roll initiative when they encounter the players.
Another thing you could do is to call for a 5-minutes break, and use that time to "plot" out what the enemies off screen does, and when things will happen (like in three rounds they will unleash the flood, in four rounds the goblins will appear etc).
Things like this happens, and you just have to get "used" to it. However it sounds like you handled it in a good way (although you thought it was difficult). You'll get better at not using every little rule off-screen, just decide on the broad strokes of what and when things will happen.
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InsiderIt's great that you thought about keeping track of them! I agree with the idea of just deciding at the top or bottom of the round what all the "off screen" creatures are doing to make things simple. I would suggest not rolling specific initiative for them unless they are close enough to the battle that they could join in a round or two.
I also agree that this gets easier with practice, and that you don't need to remember every detail of every creature at all times. Take a moment to decide who might show up to the fight in a round or two, and what in general the others are doing, and then focus on the battle. Remember that a round of combat is only 6 seconds, most fights are over in less than a minute. So your off screen NPCs don't have to make a lot of decisions.
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