This can range from Sevipers and Zangoose duking it out to a pack of Mighyenas hunting prey like Buneary. There’s an ongoing fight between Pokémon on the road. Here are some common scenarios where your players might get into a scuffle with the local wildlife. Carnivorous Pokémon may see Trainers as food, but you don’t always have the luxury of building an encounter around those species. When your players are traveling between towns, however, it can be boring to always have a pack of wild Pokémon ambush them for no reason simply so you can give the players something to fight and catch. Pitting your players against Team Rocket or your own custom criminal team is also straightforward. Having to challenge a Gym Leader for a badge or enter a qualifying tournament for the Pokémon League is pretty universal to campaigns with that kind of structure. It’s easy enough to come up with most League-affiliated or plot-centric encounters.

A lot of the advice in this particular section won’t necessarily be exclusive to combat encounters, however, and can be helpful in crafting non-combat events and activities for the players to engage with. The first step to crafting a combat encounter is figuring out why the players will be fighting. This doesn’t have to be a painful process though, and you should have fun coming up with unique and interesting encounters for your players. What’s probably the most time consuming part of being a GM is putting together all the combat encounters your players will face off against.

2 Building Recurring Rivals and Villains.

1.7 Set Unconventional Victory Conditions.

1.4 The Types and Roles of Combat Encounters.

1.2 Basic Encounter Creation Guidelines.

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