HI all, long-time first-time. Unless they're in a dungeon, I struggle with giving my players enough encounters to fill the requirements of an "adventuring day". I know I'm not taxing my players enough and they're taking most encounters at full strength, but I simply find it too difficult to narratively justify throwing fight after fight at my players if they're not already in that dungeon environment.

I've always been told encounters include social, exploration stuff, traps and environmental hazards too, but I've found so little structure and so little resource expenditure in these so far. Therefore, after playing Uncharted 4 and watching Nathan Drake navigate handholds giving way and bridges collapsing, I decided to treat environmental hazards like monsters in themselves. After a bit of tweaking, I've come up with the following guidelines for creating these "natural monsters".

"Natural Monster" encounter guidelines

1. Have an order. Whether the party decides their marching order or you roll initiative, this gets everyone into an encounter headspace.
2. Establish the hazard’s “HP” and the win conditions. We’re often told HP is just an abstraction, and it’s never been more true than looking at environmental encounters. Environmental hazards come in two different kinds: single HP pool, which requires all the characters to complete the hazard together, or multiple HP pools, which requires each individual character to complete it alone.
3. Have the hazard make an attack. On the hazard’s turn, it makes an “attack” which requires saves from multiple characters dealing a relevant damage type. I tend not to use instant death (you might feel differently) so I abstract HP further here: if it's a cliff above a river of lava, I use a failed save to mean the characters might fall a certain number of feet before grabbing a last handhold. HP damage is dealt by the shock to their body, the effort made to cling on, and the heat of the lava below as it spits at their feet. At my table, only repetitive failures lead to certain death.
4. Have the hazard use a reaction. Have a trigger in mind which might provoke a reaction from the hazard, which usually acts as a smaller version or variation on its main attack.
5. Establish a consequence. What happens if the characters fail?

I've provided two examples of these encounters below:

Single pool example: The sinking ship

The Wind’s Fancy is sinking in a storm: there are holes in the boat’s bottom, and

My gf and I have Saturday-Monday off like everyone else and want to check out SH for a couple days. Probably take a sleeper train Friday night and get in around 6 AM Saturday.

Were staying at a Holiday Inn in Pudong，just off subway Line 4 Pudian Rd. We expect places to be slammed with people for the holidays，but can anyone recommend some cool things to do？Not really looking to party or anything. Just want to get the best bang for the buck over the course of 48-60 hours.

I think well pass on Disneyland until we have kids. Can you do to Bund early in the morning or is there nothing to do there at that time？Is it worth it to go to the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower/Shanghai Tower/World Financial Center？Maybe some cool，cheap parks in the area like Century？How’s the aquarium/zoo？Any other underrated spots you can suggest？

Thanks for your help.

Or Dragon Tamers please.

At the end of season 3 episode 5 of RTTE, we see the Buffalord lift a dragon hunting ship, and that makes me wonder, how heavy are they? I'll start with an estimation of about 30 tons.

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Yes, I am starting this is February when the Dragon Boat Festival is June 14. You can participate in making this event if you are an approved submitter or a notable person on r/polandballart. The team will make up of ~10 people, more or less. If you are interested, please comment so.

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Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate - 將軍澳工業園

The first piece of holographic technology that was developed by project Xihe will debut this summer at the The Hong Kong “Tuen Ng” Dragon Boat Festival this year. Xihe researchers were invited by the organizers of the festival to debut their work. In this presentation a large scale hologram of a dragon boat will be projected at the start of the race. At 12 meters it will be a 1:1 projection of a traditional sized dragon boat, in the classical style.

Expected to wow the audience and others from the entertainment industry that have been watching Xihe closely, the projection will also be accompanied by techs from the lab who will analyze and rate it on the following parameters:

1. Shape structure

2. Clarity

3. Image detail

4. Color vibrancy

5. Motion blur/motion capability

Scores on the 5 categories will remain confidential for purposes of the test, although we expect that news media will be reporting on the categories and giving their own ratings to accompany the event.

Milestone: Mass Holographic Displays; 2/6

Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate - 將軍澳工業園

Xihe holographic technology saw its debut as last year’s Tuen Ng Dragon Boat Festival in the heart of Hong Kong, wowing media critics and spectators alike. The technicians on site were themselves impressed with some of the results, though they noted several areas that could use improvement. Overall, Xihe is proceeding as expected and will be truly revolutionary for the realm of immersive media and advertising.

Results from the statistical data collected from analysts at the event also reveal promising results, as well as areas that the Xihe team needs to focus on.

1. Shape structure The dragon boat clearly had the shape of a dragon boat. Occasional dropped frames in the projection seemed to break up the ship at times, and roughly every two minutes the bow inverted in the projection. That being said, this is slightly ahead of the stage the Xihe team expected to be at. Overall rating: 64/100.

2. Clarity Clarity left much to be desired. Occasionally, colors would muddy together and blend, even though image detail was preserved. Shadows and midtones frequented to blend, especially around the more detailed sections of the projection. 3D effects occasionally fell away in favor of 2d warped imagery, though even this was not too disruptive and only occurred when frames were dropped. Overall, Xihe is behind schedule on this, and additional resources will be devoted to this issue. 19/100.

3. Image Detail Image detail was as expected. Much detail was conveyed at the level of roughly 1inch, though smaller detail was only intermittently projected; wood grain, for example, was not projected in detail as we would like in the final product. Overall: 47/100

4. Color Vibrancy The vibrancy of the colors from the projected dragon boat were quite impressive. Red and pinks and purples flowed together seamlessly and showed a rich difference in lighting and hue. Dynamic range was preserved, and color balance was able to be adapted to the space on location with little to no difficulties. Slightly ahead of Xihe projections for this stage of the process. Overall: 63/100

5. Motion blur/motion capability This is where Xihe really shined at the Dragon Boat festival. Replicating realistic movement across the water with impeccable accuracy, with near lossless projection at 120fps, the hologram was reported by analysts as “moving like a real dragon boat.” Even the technicians back at the lab were shocked at the resu