Is Encounter still a good catch all term for “roleplaying game event centered on its premise” or is it better communicated by Scenario?
- He/Him + They/Them
One Canuck built the #ttrpg tag and the #mecha tag. And that was me.
Cohost Cultural Institution: @Making-up-Mech-Pilots
Priv: @Scampriv
You must log in to comment.
in reply to @Scampir's post:
I like Encounter or Challenge more than Scenario, because, i dunno, Scenario feels almost too broad? Like it could refer to a situation built up by the GM to be dealt with and it could refer to a player-created scene.
Yeah I think Encounter is good because it’s like, “you are meeting or finding something.” Challenge feels good as long as it’s set in opposition to the players.
Scenario and Situation admittedly dig into some real “roleplay is a broad term” tones.
I tend to think of Encounters as a single event or scene. Scenario invokes something broader for me, like Campaign or Adventure.
Scenario feels more like a frame for an entire session or multi-session series (adventure).
I tend to think of a scenario as one "mission" in a larger campaign and an encounter as a specific event within a scenario, usually involving danger (or equivalent depending on the system).
In terms of in and out of game time I think it roughly goes Campaign -> Arc -> Scenario -> Scene -> Encounter
