Advice/Help Interesting things to put between combat?

[Femboy]

Hey, thinking about RP plots and quests within mind and one thing I’m struggling a little with is what things could be put between combat encounters to keep players entertained and interested. This is also since unique game mechanics and systems, or puzzles, can feel uninteresting or too much for some. Any ideas for interesting midway encounters in exploring areas or dungeons and stuff? Preferably that allow creativity to their actions and choices that also allow for an outcome decisive on the player actions.

 

[Idea]

The answer to this will heavily depend on the kind of RP you have, what kind of setting and circumstances you're working with. Still, here's some general sources for things you can include:

• Post-Combat Environment - With rare exceptions RPs don't really just host combats in a total void. Combat can occur on the way to some objective, or at least happens in some place. Where are the players going and what is that place like? If they didn't have any particular direction, what does the place they just fought in look like? The later question, depending on the RP, can open up activities like looting or investigating, or perhaps attempt to reconstruct the place, clear evidence, save hostages... And whichever the players choose can prompt further matters of interest. Maybe they find an intriguing clue or one of the hostages turns out to try to escape. Just examples. As for the places they travel after the combat, well I think you can often be safe just doing some degree of worldbuiling or survival-type things. In a forest? Maybe you need to locate a source of water, or some animal stole some trinket. In a town? Well, there's no shortage of people just making their living with various services the players may be interested in engaging with.
  You could also derive the next scene from consequences - maybe you just killed someone you shouldn't, so the guards come and now the players need to face an obviously rigged trial.
  Yes my examples are pretty fantasy-esque. Just what my usual trade is, but I do think it should be reasonably easy to apply this to other genres as well.
  
• Larger Plot - Another approach is to consider the larger plot. This is a little less universal - not every RP has a clear overarching plot from the getgo - but if yours does you can present the next problems to deal with in regards to that overarching plot and let players react as they prefer. If the spies have just dealt with pursuers maybe they need to find a way to get the enemy off their trail and find another way to infiltrate. Maybe the scientists who just managed to collect a sample of the alien species they were fighting can take it to their lab and test for the results, or alternatively they can choose to stay to collect more samples or for some other reason. Maybe the villains in a superhero RP dropped a warning about their evil plan and the players have to decide how to react. Maybe the post-apocalyptic survivors you just rescued told you about a secret hidden base full of survivors uniting into a single faction.
  
• Character Examination - People love having their work appreciated and personally I'd consider involving the players a necessary part of a great GM. Furthermore for the willing a decent character sheet can be a goldmine of information and ways to tie a character to the current events (in some ways more strongly than others). A simple 'like' or 'favorite' could show up in a random small activity, or you could go as far as using a between-combat event to hint at something about a character's backstory or bring in someone they know, or maybe you prepared something for the character to notice or learn about that relates to one of their current or overall objectives. This method will work better the more your players match their roleplaying to their actual character, but even if it doesn't create the full intended effect it may still be a source of inspiration players may be able to have fun with.
  
• Worldbuilding - Well, presumably something about your plot or setting has attracted players to your roleplay. Something about it is that "it" that really drives what's supposedly so interesting about it. If you're not careful it can be a bit to out of the blue, but there are certainly circumstances in which you can simply have players come across one of those extraordinary draws, the most interesting parts of the setting the characters are in.
  
• Ask the players - If all else fails, you could just directly discuss it with the players.

Frankly the most interesting in or out of combat tend to be player driven, and the same kind of applies to most character-to-character interaction-based events, but those are pretty dependent on the kind of players you get.

As a final note, slow moments are an inevitability in RP. Trying too hard to avoid slower moments will result in a cacophonic mess and diminish the impact of scenes with more action or activity. So rather than running from slower moments, it may pay more to know to handle them when they arrive. How to do that precisely... I'm honestly not too sure about it. I do know that it's important to keep an eye on your OOC though - the degree of OOC activity is often related to an RP's survival, as disengagement from one is often related to disengagement from the other.


Hope this helps, happy roleplaying!