encounter fomat test game

Hello Gamers of the Plane,

The encounter has Hp (which I call progress), the characters can 'damage' it and when it runs out of Hp it's solved. However, every turn the encounter itself can 'attack', which can mean a lot of different things.

In this particular encounter, it inflicts time, and events that hinder the PCs. It's about getting across a river. It has three stages, depending on the current Hp (progress): this side, middle, other side. Each stage has its own list of events, each of which defines the losses and the necessary rolls.

During each turn, after the turn's event is revealed but before making any rolls, every player can activate any character ability or use any item in creative ways to get bonuses either for making progress or dealing with the turn's event. Or whatever rolls you make. Tell me what you use, you'll get some bonuses.

The very simple story: The Enemy is a dark presence rising in the west. Lady Paula Karamito, a paladin of some renown went to investigate a few months ago. A few days ago the town where the PCs are staying received a message from her by a homing pigeon: Two children have witnessed an agent of the Enemy. I've escorted them near Wideford and sent them there. I left them to draw away the pursuers, but it's only a matter of time before they find the children. Get them before they are caught.

You are the people sent by the town to rescue the kids and the lore they have. You are standing on this side of the river, watching the two frightened kids holding each other's hands on the other side. The task is time-critical, as you can see a group of riders approaching in the distance, by the group's estimation about half an hour from the ford.

All players with a finished character are accepted to the game, and I'll make (or you'll make) groups of up to five to play through the encounter. I'm looking for short-term fun, and lots of useful feedback on the idea.

D&D 5e, 27 point buy, level 3, any WotC sources are ok, starting equipment +500 Gp, which includes borrowed stuff specifically for this mission.

Open details of the encounter
Hp: number of PCs x100
this side: Survival vs. 15 for 1d3/2d4 damage, AND either Str 10 for 0/1d6 damage or Dex 10 for 0/2d4 damage
middle: ???
other side: ???

I'd be interested in giving this a try

Hi, Kirin, good to see some interest so fast.

I also edited the condition for the ability/item use each turn.

I am up to test/experiment ideas and love providing feedback. I would like to get a better insight on the thing you are proposing. Would you please tell me
1) What do you find complicated ? 5e rules? The way other DMs are running games on PbP? 5e combat rules? Anything else?
2) Which of the following 5e elements do you plan to remove from your game: Combat, Exploration, Socialization?

Hi,

1) Not really specific rule set, but the way most games handle encounters is a mess. There is no unified system, only a very detailed combat system, and all other encounters are just handed off as make some skill checks based on your intuition. I find this mess complicated, and would like to come up with something generally working and still fun. So I based the idea on the combat encounter format: you scrape away the challenge while having exciting sub-challenges you can approach creatively as a player. And, to make it tangibly exciting, the challenge 'hits back', but equally creatively and diversely.
2) Neither. I'd like to unify them into a single, consistent, creative, fun, and system-agnostic format.

I dare to dream big :)

Neat premise / mechanic / take -- if you haven't, check out Index Card RPG. Some similar thinking in that game...

I've checked it from the outside, but its price is too high for me to look inside. Still, a very nice idea.

Well I mean, I'm up to test anything if the learning curve is tiny. An since you plan to have 5e player creation rules the curve should be minimal. Nevertheless I'm still puzzled what details of what you are trying to test there.
Could we do the following: I will try explain you how I understand your idea and then you tell me how wrong am I. Deal?

First of all I understand there will be no combat encounters and only narrative play. That's clear.
The rest I Assume:
The problem: outside combat in 5e when a player attempt to do something to help party progress toward the quest goal, the result is based on :
1) DM's subjective decision about ho creative the player was (apply rule of cool to set DC)
2) DM's subjective decision about obstacles: apply advantage or disadvantage
3) The dice roll
4) PCs ability score and if he is proficient

You find it wrong that dice ad DM's subjectivity impact the progress toward quest goal too much

The solution:
You have plan to add more elements to the equation that would be based on
4) If there is an ability on char-sheet that somehow stack with the cation player is doing
5) If player were lucky enough to obtain a piece of equipment that reflects to the action he is trying to preform

The way I understand it, it's an attempt to run non-combat encounters more similarly to how combat is run. The challenge (crossing a river, in this case) has HP like a monster and the actions you take whittle down that HP while turns and twists that happen along the way affect your HP (basically, as if the challenge was attacking you).

I think it's an interesting idea. Not sure it's completely my personal cup of tea, but it might be neat.

DM announcing party progress toward the quest goal in numbers (HP) instead of narrative. I get it.
But I believe there is more than that, just don't understand exactly what

Deal. Best way for me to clearly word my thoughts and ideas for others to understand.
There will be all kinds of encounters, using this format I came up with. It includes game mechanics, because lots of skill / ability checks will play a big role, but also all character abilities and equipment can count if the player decides so, and I will award bonuses to the PCs based on what they use.

The problem: every encounter aside from combat encounters is too simple and without any real format, and the very complex combat encounters are based on the idea that both sides just try to kill each other.

A potential solution: every encounter has the same format, based on a progress copied from combat encounters (Hp of the opposition). During the process the encounter does stuff the PCs don't like, so getting it done ASAP is useful, so the players are interested in getting those bonuses they can get from using stuff creatively.

stuff the PCs don't like
- in this first encounter, it's mainly time, but it will have some physical attacks and some condition attacks as well
- in a combat encounter where the opposition is destroying the books / scrolls in a library, the encounter's attacks can destroy items important for the PCs
- in a social encounter about pursuading the bandit queen the encounter can 'heal itself', a lieutenant or romantic partner trying to dissuade the bandit from doing what the PCs want
- in an exploration encounter, the supernatural phenomena opens small portals in the region until the PCs find the artifact doing it and stopping the effect
- in a combat encounter, the siege will succeed when the PCs' allied army breaks in, but will this happen in time before the demon is summoned? the encounter will inflict 'time damage' (or just fails after a certain amount of turns) and losses to the allied army which will have a serious battle later
- in an occult exploration encounter in a mindscape, the encounter inflicts social damage (hurting connection with allies) on the PCs as it messes with their minds and memories

There are so many possibilities, basically anything the GM can think of.
Not just the PCs' HP, as you can see above, but all kinds of nasty stuff. Otherwise, a nice summary of the idea.