5 Easy Ways to make Combat Awesome in your RPG - FYC

[Music] hello and welcome to this episode of for your consideration my name is guy and today we're looking at five ways of making combat more interesting now we're not talking specifically combat on floating machines over pools of lava or hanging upside down or on the back of a jet plane we're not talking about situations that make combat more interesting we're talking about the way in which you describe and handle combat to make it more interesting there are in my opinion five key factors that you can utilize to really make your game work better now something that I need to emphasize before we even start on this journey is that although there are five ways of making combat more interesting you don't need to apply all five to every single situation to every single dice roll that can become too much and can slow combat down quite a lot sometimes a hit is just a hit sometimes a miss is just a miss you don't have to go into this elaborate description using these five different methods to make that hit a spectacularly amazing narrative point every single time sometimes you can just move through and it's about getting a balance between the two that will allow your players to get the joy of a very rich well and interesting combat without spending the entire session slowly working through a play-by-play of each and every single hit I think I've made my point so moving on number one the very first way of making combat more interesting is to look at the weapon that the character is wielding and ask what we expect from it or what was its design purpose so when a character swings a war hammer at the opponent what was a war hammer designed to do a war hammer much like a mace although much more pointed was designed to bend plate mail armor and to fracture bones and burst organs it was a particularly nasty little creature it was also designed to puncture and cause even more damage because of such a small point of contact so a hammer is a particularly vicious weapon that's what we expect from it it's this short hard-hitting sound this this is what we expect as opposed to a long sword which is designed to slice it's designed to thrust it's designed to hack from a distance that's what we expected to do it's not closed up and it's not personal daggers are close up and personal lightsabers are supposed to float through the air because they have no weight to them or very little weight anyway which is what supposedly makes them so dangerous a polearm is supposed to be held at length to keep one's enemies even further away or swung around and great big circles to clear out these big patches within the battlefield as everyone steps back to trying to avoid this polearm that's busy swinging around wildly so what do we expect once you've worked out what you expect you can tailor your descriptions specific to that weapon so it's not just I hit with a longsword I hit with the lightsaber I need to know more I slice with that long sword with the lightsaber I make quick simple little actions with the wrist rather than with my entire arm because I don't need to actually do that it's visually more dramatic but I don't actually need to do that there's no force behind the lightsaber except for the force but you know what I'm saying I don't want to force the issue oh shut up anyway right so that's one way is what is the expectation or the design of the weapon and how can we use that to describe to describe the way in which the attack is done another thing to look at and this was particularly within fantasy games as well as in certain science fiction games what is the color of the power how does it visually manifest so often I have players go oh I cast a fireball what color is your fire bolt it's orange sure that's fine it's a burning flaming orange with Changez of yellow in it and it is very cords bright white because it's so hot the color of the magic there's no rule saying that fire bolt has to be orange it could be purple with tinges of green it could be pink that slowly changes color to a deep dark red on the edges it could Sparkle it couldn't instead of being a solid lump of flame perhaps it isn't a lump of flame perhaps scorching bolt or fiery bolt or whatever you want to call it maybe it's actually a series of tendrils of fire that streak out rather than a globule it's a streak who knows who knows you do or at least your players might so then you can incorporate that into making your magic attacks also that much more interesting and it gives differentiation if the necromancers magic is always green which is what we expect that's absolutely fine but what if it's purple what if it's black what if it's pure white what if it's like blue all of these things help you to describe things in a better way and then you can twist it so that every spell whether it's levitation they're these little tendrils of blue energy washing off of the character's feet as they rise up into the air you can use that to make your descriptions better next up number three I can't remain ODEs ah I can I'm trying to read golf it's not golf its Gore Gore is entirely up to you some players don't mind Gore some players do so you need to assess what your players feel about Gore can you describe how as they hit they feel the rib cracking underneath can you describe how as the blade hits the skin there's that moment of resistance where the skin pushes back and then there's suddenly a release as the blade then slides all the way through can you describe as the blade sticks out of the back of the figure that there is this point where the skin stretches out over it and then suddenly the skin peels open and the blade pulls out and then blood sprays out spilling around on the ground is that what you can describe or your players not like that do they not really want to focus too much on seeing the layer of fat and then the layer of muscle and the bone pink and shiny as the blade or the hatchet cuts through or as the lightsaber slices through the torso there's black and mass as all of the soft tissue is burnt to a crisp because of the energy of the blade how gory can you be that's entirely up to you and again think about what the weapon is designed to do if it's a Warhammer you're not going to describe how the characters arm falls off on the other hand you might describe how his arm suddenly twists out at 90 degrees and it looks as if he's got two elbows because the upper arm femur want to say a femur is broken and it's hanging at 90 degrees and then as elbows hanging at night it's how far do you want to go with that so that's entirely up to you but it can add a certain amount of drama especially as the character gets punched blood sprays out of the corner of his mouth and splats across the face of one of the characters and then he steps back wiping it from his it's entirely up to you now you can also use the emotional tone the drama is the character fighting desperately are their attacks furtive are they just going into a frenzy you can describe the emotional state of the wielder maybe not necessarily for the player characters because they will know how their characters are feeling in the combat but certainly for the NPC's the Goblin who's completely overwhelmed you can see that he's just hacking at anything that comes near him his face this grimace of fear and terror and sweat pours down his features as he slices and misses with his dagger that's a lot more interesting than just oh he misses that's the idea right so using the emotional state of the individuals to describe the attack helps to make the attack feel that much more real to get a sense of what's going on again you can mix it up with gore as well as of course what is the expectation of the weapon that they wielded is the tired woman who wields a double-handed war hammer does she's swinging and it kind of causes her to spin around twice where she moans out in frustration that she can't use this weapon correctly is it a simple quick little dagger which she jabs in multiple times while screaming in an absolute hatred at this vigor this figure that she is now killing how do we how do we use the emotions to describe the attack then finally the last thing that we look at is the senses you should be using the five senses as often as you can to describe scenes for players it helps to make it just that much better so when we talking about combat we're talking about what do you see the movements they take up of a defensive stance they move back you don't have to necessarily recreate every hit you don't have to do that if you don't want to you can if you like but you should describe it they jolt to the side their arm twitching up and defense their head snaps you can use all those kinds of wonderful descriptive words to show us tell the players what they see they consider their minds oh when we hear stuff what are we hearing as the opponent groaning as they are they screaming out in pain when they get hit are they laughing with delight as they happily just slice through everybody are they absolutely quiet as they concentrate firing their blaster at the enemy what are we here what do we feel now this again is entirely up to you the jolt of the swords as they slash against each other and smack up against each other's blades the movement of the armor as you rotate out of the way to avoid the incoming attack the physical nature of flesh being smacked slashed cut burnt obliterated dissolved all those kinds of things what do we feel physically feel smell what do we smell in combat there is such a strong sense of aroma that it's it's very well worth exploring that idea and think of specific things if it's just other the general smell in the air that doesn't mean anything there is a smell of fish rotting dried fish that all scent of the sea that permeates this entire area mustard jasmine sweet smells horrid smells smells help to really put the players in that situation and of course taste what can you taste during combat well you can certainly taste blood when you bite your own lip or when you get smacked across the jaw there is that blood that's happening within the mouth that happens very frequently as a larper I know have you been with foam weaponry often you kind of go oh I'm tasting blood in my mouth because I tripped I fell I spoke too weakly whatever I got hit in the head with an axe doesn't matter the idea is you tell them what they can taste now if you have ever been around a body not necessarily a human body but an animal that's been killed for whatever reason there is a definite taste in the air there's that kind of coppery scent we can smell it but we also end up starting to taste it slightly that gamy taste or the taste of sweat that's dripping through your moustache into a mouthful if you don't have a moustache as pouring into him out whatever people who don't have moustaches do all of those kinds of things can be brought to the fore so those are the five ways that I try and make combat that much more interesting that much more real and again not every hit needs to be described in this meticulous way sometimes it can just be you smash your weapon into him next player you roll out of the way you come up you taste the sweat Sting's in your eyes because it's so hot and that dust is everywhere your mouth is dry your blade is ready the orc in frustration you can then expound and expand on certain certain aspects within that combat I hope this has been inspirational at the very least in terms of how to up your combat and make it that much more interesting thank you to you for suggesting this as a topic by the way I do appreciate it if you have more topics to suggest get on over to the website you can log them with us there as well as of course you can leave comments below if you didn't know YouTube is closing down the messaging system so you won't be able to send private messages through to the channel anymore so bear that in mind leave your comments below I do read them on every video until next time if you haven't discovered RPG table finder calm yet what are you waiting for hit all over and have a look if you also haven't discovered world anvil comm well you should go and have a look at that as well it's definitely something to look out for if you are trying to design your campaign in its entirety literally everything down from the types of documents that you might find within the world all the way through to the different deities and the different people the maps histories buildings all that is all held in World anvil comm they're one of our affiliates and if you are a pathfinder player and you're looking for information on how to play pathfinder head on over to ask a pathfinder they michael is running his shows now well done to you Michael on YouTube he's been going for a little bit a little bit of a while now so there are a couple videos for you're going to have a look at he talks you through everything there is to know about Pathfinder he is of course asked a pathfinder it makes sense he used to play mataró on the windswept and he's now the GM on the adventures of the stars with the Stars sorry the star getting ten tide the star Swift chronicles the star Swift chronicles in which I am playing the captain of that starship and that's going to come out shortly as well very exciting on that so Oscar Pathfinder comm world and Volcom RPG table finder calm and have a blast until next time have a great weekend [Music]

Channel: How to be a Great GM

Views: 265,475

Keywords: dnd 5e, dungeon masters guide, Dungeon master tips, Dungeon building, Dnd gm tips, dnd, d&d, dnd gm tips, game master tips, Great game master, Tabletop Roleplaying, GM, How to GM, How to be a great game master, Game Master, Great Game Mastering, How to, How to be a great dungeon master, DM Tips, Dungeon Master, RPG, Game Master Tips, Dungeon Master Tips, GMing Tips, DMing Tips, d&d combat, rpg combat, best combat rpg, combat dnd, combat role playing, role playing combat

Id: t51cK9a_JEg

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 29 2018