It's no secret that I love TVTropes.org. I will out myself as a hopeless academic, and I love to scrutinize things like media. Playing through Half-life made me think about Videogame Setpieces and their applicability to tabletop games.
A setpiece is an impressive scripted event that happens only once and has a gameplay impact. For example, you are driving a boat down a river and a factory smokestack is blasted with a missile and falls directly into your path. You then have to try to navigate past this falling chimney, and onwards to safety. Chimneys don't fall down regularly, and this isn't something happening off in the distance. They make the game world seem more real by making it seem like anything can happen. A lot of good setpieces will make something the players think is safe seems more dangerous. A great example of this is in the original half-life when you are shimmying down a vent, like you always do, and suddenly the vent comes under fire from surrounding military troops and falls to the ground.
In video games, setpieces are a hell of a lot of work. You have to design it, program it, playtest it, bugfix it, and then after all that work, the player will only see it once. The models and animations for a single setpiece may take as long as the design of a recurring enemy that the player will interract with much more often. However, in roleplaying games, you don't have to program a setpiece. Moreover, it's hard to overuse them, because each one is unique. If you use something repeatedly, it stops being a setpiece and becomes a recurring device.
First off, you may already be using setpieces in your game. Most traps are set pieces, and a lot of skill challenges are based around setpieces. Think about what makes those elements work in your campaign when designing setpieces.
Second, a good setpiece will entice or force your players to interact with it. In combat situations, have enemies and players both be able to use most setpieces to their advantage. If there is a boulder propped at the top of a ramp, let the players manuever the enemies in front of it using thei character's abilities, and unleash hell. In fourth edition, a setpiece's effect should be similar to the players' encounter or daily abilities. This ensures that the player doesn't feel like they "Wasted" their turn using it. Setpieces are cool, and players enjoy using them. Be honest with yourself, would you rather throw a fireball at a group of enemies (like you always do) or crush them with a boulder? For out of combat situations, setpieces should contain story or affect navigation, as approrpriate. If the players are trying to navigate a maze like cave, having the tunnel collapse below them forces them into a situation where they are lost again. If the characters are in the city, having an angry mob chasing after someone shouting something about the specific plot coupon they are looking for makes the players want to get involved.
One last thing to keep in mind. You should try not to punish your players for interacting with your setpieces. You want them to occur, and a lot of times you will make them unavoidable. It can seem rather cheap if you force players to use their precious resources to deal with the aftermath of something they couldn't help. Particularly in examples like the cave collapse where you toying with the character's navigational progress, give them something of value, like a tool for completing a future puzzle or a some free loot. "The hardwood floor you are standing on creaks under your weight. *roll to hit the character's reflex* Before you have a chance, to move however, the floor collapses and you take, *roll* 7 damage." This would be annoying, but then it would be totally made better by, "As the dust settles, and your light begins to cover the room you realize that you've fallen into a hidden chamber. Valuable artifacts cover the walls, and a pedestal stands at the end of the room, holding a pair of silvered gauntlets." For harmful setpieces, always allow the player to either mitigate the damage of it through intelligent play, or turn even it into an advantage. Combat setpieces should be budgetted into the overall Exp.

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