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I consider it useless and tedious to represent what exists, because nothing that exists satisfies me. Nature is ugly, and I prefer the monsters of my fancy to what is positively trivial. Charles Baudelaire (1821–67), Poet. “Salon of 1859,” sct. 3, published in Curiosités Esthétiques |
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| Describing Combat | |||
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Combat in most game systems kills the role playing because so many mechanics come into play. This can make Role Playing become Roll Playing. To avoid this, the GM needs to take a leadership role in their description of the action. Use the Game Session Form to maintain all the details of each PC. Then you will know if your roll hit the PC without having to ask what their AC is or its equivalent. If you start describing the action the Players will soon join in or at least be waiting to hear your interpretation of their rolls. To get the players more involved and to stay focused regardless of their involvement in the action, add a small award for the best in character description of action during a Game Session. (50XP, a bonus Luck Point if you use those, first choice of treasure, etc...) The award can be outside the context of the game by granting the winner the left-over Pizza, or even a small pool that everyone contributes to each week. Let the players vote on who they thought did the best and if there is a tie the pool carries over to the next week. Unlike a scene, Combat requires a description each round. Normally the action becomes the player announcing what they hit and the damage dealt and what type of damage. (The following example uses the d20 OGL for the rolls.) Half Orc Player Character fighting a Bandit. Player: I rolled a 15 with my Base and Strength that makes it a 24. Do I hit? GM: The bandits AC is 16, so yes you hit. Player: That is 2d6 plus 4 for strength for a total of 11 GM: I rolled a 7 plus a 5 for a total of 12. Does that hit? Player: No my AC is 18, my turn again.... Pretty dull role playing, huh? The same could be put forth differently with some understanding. You as the GM should know the players Min and Max 'To Hit' for each PC and NPC. The above Half Orc you know the Min is 11 and a Max of 29. Do not include the Roll of 1, since that is always a miss. (This will vary from system to system.) This makes a total score of 20 average. Anything below a 20 is a weaker hit by this character and anything above is a stronger hit. Damage for this character also has a Min and Max. The Min is 6 and the Max is 16, or on a Critical they are 12 and 32. The average for a normal hit is 11, so even a Min Critical is above average. Each Player should track their own Characters in this manner, possibly for each potential weapon type that their Character may use. The Bandit has Min and Max of 7 and 25 for To Hit, which is an average of 16. The Min and Max on damage is 3 and 8, or 6 and 16 on a Critical Hit. Let's replay the combat. Player: (rolls dice and calculates the results) Kamung swings his Great Sword at the nearest bandit with a powerful blow to the body. 24? (Note, the player still lets you know the roll total) GM: Continue (Avoid saying, “You Hit.” or something similar.) Player: The sword bites into the bandit driven deeper by Kamung's great strength. 11 (again, note the player passes on the damage with a single announcement of the total damage.) GM: (records this hit) The Bandit snarls at you as he clamps his free arm against his side in obvious pain and lunges at your belly with the short sword in his hand (You roll and the total is 12, but since you have the notes on the PC's you know this misses, so you continue), but he comes up short with his stroke. (If Kamung was wearing Heavy Armor, you might have described the miss as, ‘…but cannot find a chink in Kamung’s heavy armor.) Player: Kamung swings again, (Player rolls the dreaded 1, so he knows it is a miss so he explains the miss), but slips in the wet grass and misses his target. (The Player made this description of the miss. Unless you use a critical miss rule, even the dreaded 1 should never put the player in a vulnerable position.) GM: The bandit takes this opportunity to lunge again, (total of 18) and gets the short blade pass your guard (roll damage total of 4) for a weak hit. 4 (Notice you announce the damage so the Player can record the damage. Since there was a miss the previous round, you could use that for an explanation of the successful attack, ‘…and gets the short sword to slide under Kamung’s guard while he is recovering his footing.’) Player: Kamung recovers and drives the blade into the bandit with great force. (The player rolled a 20 which is a possible critical hit. On the second roll the get a total of 25, which they already know will hit since the 24 hit. The player goes ahead and rolls the damage as well for a total of 21) 21. GM: The bandit slumps from that blow dropping to the ground. (The bandit only had 12 points left, so describe the kill. You could get more dramatic, but describe something other than, “It’s dead.”) NOTE: You can expand upon this by doing the same for damage. 11 points would kill most first level characters, but at third it might only be about half. You can use a formula such as this to give indicators to the Players as to the apparent health of their opponent as was done by describing the bandit holding his side. You will also give away other hints with the words you use to describe the damage. An attack with a Short Sword that only does 4 points, but is described as, ‘…dealt with all the attackers effort…’ indicates that this a weak opponent possibly and may be able to be grappled or disarmed instead of killed outright. All this adds to the possible role playing options. Do I do this every time? No. Why? I forget or get rushed, but those sessions where I do are always the most memorable. It takes the Players willing to do the same and sometimes they are not driven to participate. As a GM you need to put forth the most effort to make the game something more than the mechanics that guide the action. Your rhetoric will inspire theirs and theirs in turn will inspire yours. If you keep it up long enough they will eventually join in the fun, which will lead to some of the best tales of gaming. When you get into other forms of Damage just have the players break it down for you so you can keep the mechanics out of the game. Player: Bloody attempts to sneak up on the sentry.29 Hide and 27 MS (Here the player describe the action and passed on the results of their Skill Checks.) GM: The sentry does not seem to notice you. (You can roll the Opposed Checks as soon as the description of the action so you can respond in a timely fashion.) NOTE: NEVER say, “He does not see you.” or, “There are no traps.” Instead use terms that the rolls tell with these types of Checks such as, “You do not find any secret compartments.” or, “You do not hear any noise on the other side of the door.” If the Check is absolute, then use absolute responses such as with Picking Locks. If the Player says his character attempts to pick the lock and then gets a 15 when the DC is a 15 you can say, “You hear the click confirming your success.” or you could just say, “Continue.” and let the player describe their action. You could even say things as they examine the lock such as, “It appears to be a fairly simple lock like the one she opened at the Inn the other night.” Then when the player’s roll results in a 27 they can describe the action since the lock it was described as being similar to was successful on a result of 20. Player: Bloody positions himself behind and strikes with 'Icicle' (a Frost Short Sword) 22? GM: Continue Player: 'Icicle' slides into the sentry's back with chilling ease! 5, 3 cold, and 9 sneak. (Note the Pun for the blade. This will always win a few laughs, which makes the whole night much more memorable.) GM: The sentry turns without making a sound and slams his cold fist into Bloody's head. 8 The Player knows he is most likely facing an undead, and neither the sneak nor the cold will do any damage to this creature. He can still call out the damage in case he is wrong, but you could confirm this, if the Player asks. In another situation, maybe it is not so obvious and until the players notice that the opponent seems to be ignoring certain types of damage they may still attempt the attack. In these cases you will want to reveal only what the Character could determine. Fighting an armored undead may not reveal the opponent’s hidden special features immediately, causing the players to make bad decisions for the current situation. |
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