You can give the players clues as to what’s coming. In my upcoming campaign, I’m going to put out a “recent events in the area” page that will tell the PCs what some of the critters they will face if they take up that quest.

Let’s face it, that happens a lot. The PCs generally have some idea what’s coming. For example, in H1 for 4e, the PCs pretty much know they’ll be tracking down kobolds in the second encounter. Most published adventures have some sort of led-in that the DM/GM reads to the players that tells them what to expect, at least partially.

As heroes (or even villains who practice enlightened self-interest), the PCs are going to catch a lot of rumors that say “monster X has been behaving badly in area Y.” That’s all most PCs need to get drug into a cage match.

So much of a good match is the lead up– how do you get the players excited about their upcoming match with the monster of the week? Is it always a surprise, or do you have some announcer who talk smack about this week’s opponent? Or challenging trash talk around the table: Oh, man, the dragon’s going to waste you guys. Hope you have a lot of healing potions!

I’d like to add to it a bit though. The pro wrestling analogy isn’t just helpful for designing fun encounters, but it helps you build up potential encounters. This is especially useful when you need to establish a boss or villain. The simplest way to do this is with an ally NPC who betrays the party. You get to show off the ally’s abilities, so the PCs know he’s more powerful than they are (but don’t overdo it – one showing is enough, kinda like when you played with Sephiroth for 5 minutes in FF7). Then when he turns on the party (either with an unexpected steel folding chair to the face or a “sweet chin music” through the barbershop window) not only do they already fear his skills, they hate him on a personal level. Establishing villains leads to far more effective villains. Show the PCs why he’s powerful (usually by putting him over something else they know is powerful) and then make it personal. That’s what wrestling and GMing both come down to.

Anyways, good post. I’m throwing a harpy at my party this weekend to mix things up.