Bringing Combat to Life Part 2

I’d much rather describe the scene and let the players figure it out for themselves. In real life, opponents don’t have a health bar above them, you just have to guess how well you did. A good idea is to find a thesaurus and look up words to describe attacks and wounds. Not only can it be fun (or I think so at least) but it will help bring the action to life. Keep words like graze and glancing for the small damage and save words like gouge, sunder, and decimate for when the players really give ‘em hell. Not only do these words better inform the players, they tend to smile more when you can add some dramatic verbiage.

Depending on much health the character has left you can loosely tell your players by describing the after effects of the attack. If they just cuss and swing back in a furious rage then they know that the attack wasn’t effective but if he wobbles on his feet, breathing labored while he steadies himself then they know he’s on the ropes. The after effects are what really bring the reality of the situation home as people always react to the things around them. No matter how bad ass the antagonist might be, they will notice if they are injured. This is also a good chance to bring up extra details of the setting and additional action, further elaborating on the scene.  By narrating the mechanics rather than just repeating results you’ll get a more interactive scene. To tie this all together, let’s look at the first example if done properly.

Player: I’m shooting that guy *rolls dice*

GM: Okay, now damage

Player: *rolls dice*

GM: You steady yourself, trying to get a bead on the man. The gun barks as the bullet collides with his shoulder, knocking him off his feet, swearing as blood erupts from the wound. He steadies himself against a wall, leaving a dark crimson mark against the wallpaper. Desperately, he raises his hand in a gesture of surrender.

See how much better that sounds while providing more information. This way your epic action scene remains epic and not just a series of numbers that drags down the feel of the game. I can promise you that by heeding this advice your players will talk about their battles like old soldiers and you will enjoy writing these scenes just as much.

Bringing Combat to Life Part 1

         While conflict is central to any good story I find that combat can really bog down a game. Each turn usually only represents seconds in game time but it can take minutes to roll the dice and record the results meaning that this is the one place where action slows down. In my experience, too many epic battles tend to end up like this

Player: I’m shooting that guy. *rolls dice* Did I hit em?

GM: You got em by three points, roll damage

Player: *rolls dice*

GM: Okay, looks like you did five points of damage

And this repeats several times until the fight is over. If that sounds boring and repetitive it’s because it is. Just telling your players the mechanical portion of combat is what makes this process drag on. However, combat doesn’t have to be this way. It should be way more exciting; this is the scene in the action movie where all the action happens.

The trick is to narrate the mechanics behind the game. This involves translating the numbers on the dice to describe how the scene looks. If a player just barely manages to score a hit then it’s best to describe how the opponent put up a struggle before the blow landed or if they beat them by a wide margin then it’s best to describe the total lack of skill and defense of the opponent. Listen to the difference between “You beat his defense by three points” and “You fire at your opponent, striking him through the shoulder”, which sounds more interesting? The second option sounds much better and all I had to do was translate the marginal success to mean non-vital area. Had they been more successful I would have just changed the placement. The trick is to show rather than tell.

Same can be said for damage. The above example of lackluster combat tells the player how much damage they did mechanically but overall that doesn’t really tell the players much. If he has ten hit points then it’s a lot of damage but if he has seventy then that is nothing special. It doesn’t explain how much further the players have to go to slay the man, how effective it was in bringing them down, or contain any story elements to it. It’s best to translate the damage with descriptors like how the blow landed and how terrible of a wound it left. To keep with the above example of the shoulder shot if the damage is minimal in total when you can mention that “the bullet just grazed his shoulder, leaving a small trickle of blood” or if more grievous you can say “the bullet blasted through his shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain as it shatters bone and rips through muscle”; now that is an action scene right there.