D&D Combat: Making It Fun, Exciting & Not Boring

okay roll to hit you hit what's your damage okay right thanks okay you next roll to hit you hit what's your damage okay great thank you no it's still standing please hit again and damage still standing and hit it again and again and again and again hello and welcome to this week's episode of how to be a great gm my name is guy and we're looking at how to make combat more interesting as opposed to just yeah hit your miss you hit you do damage you stay alive etc etc now mechanically mechanically that's a lot of role-playing games that's how they work yeah hit you miss it's a pretty static back and forth occasionally you might be able to do something here or something there or the mechanics becomes so complicated that it's like all right so you're going to do a three-quarter repost on the back flurry after you've parried his second returned uh we don't need to go that far we really don't in order to make combat interesting it's entirely up to you you and your players that's where it actually sits now i was posed this question by someone on our discord that's discord dot gg forward slash great gm and they said how do we make combat more interesting not from a mechanical perspective not from any of those kind of perspectives but simply make it more fun and i had to think about that and i thought well you know what these are things that i try and do i don't often always succeed but these are things that i try and do to make combat less of a role slog and more of a fun cinematic moment after all i mean if we could have fight sequences like they had in lord of the rings or in a good old-fashioned any kind of movie for that matter it's much more dramatic isn't it so how do i go about making combat a little bit cooler well this is what i do first up we have the situational type of combat now again this is not talking about how to make combat more climatic and all that kind of stuff when i'm talking about situational stuff that is you as the gm positioning things within the scene that will make it more dramatic now again you can't use this in every single combat as it will feel a little bit forced on the other hand even if we look at hollywood there are certain tropes about situations that we have to pay attention to so the first one i would say anyway is the actual location itself if a fight is going to happen within a tavern and there's a set of stairs and a balcony overlooking that room the rule of cool says someone either has to tumble over the balcony or roll down the stairs in a dramatic death moment that is something that you as the gm can throw in so easily the archer fires his arrow it slams into the assassin at the top of the balcony who's standing looking over the crowd ready to drop his poison into the duke's drink the arrow plunges deep into his chest in other words yep you're old oh you're older natural 20 confirm okay great thank you right what's your damage 3d 8 plus 12 that's more than his hit points great that's the comparison the arrow lands in the archer's chest at the assassin's chest the assassin groans drops the poison onto the balcony floor as it's about to roll towards the edge of the balcony the assassin clutching the arrow tumbles over the balcony and crushes dramatically into the bar shattering glasses and sending those of weak constitutions screaming in all different directions are and then the scene is over or just yeah roll oh you've got to create yay okay cool so i by making use of the location whether it's a tavern whether it's a street road it doesn't matter think about the way in which if it was a movie the scene would play out we know for a fact that when someone gets shot in a movie they fling themselves backwards or they roll sideways or they fly through the air that doesn't happen in real life you get shot by a bullet you fall down or you explode if it's a big bullet it's as simple as that there's no drama to it there's no fantastical element to it you have to add that in and if you look at role playing games from a mechanical perspective there ain't nothing in there that is dramatic or exciting aside from the die roll now the die rolls are really important don't get me wrong rolling at a 20 is just phenomenal and should be cheered and savored and turned ooh how big your pardon i don't know what the hell that was and turned into a dramatic moment okay so that's that's locations the next one objects if there is a bar stool or if there is a bar table or if there is a glass table in the scene the person and the people fighting must break it it's a law it has to happen however it doesn't have to me at the moment when the villain dies and falls dramatically under the glass table don't limit yourself the player and the car the player character i should say and the npc they're busy fighting with daggers and they're swinging and slicing and slashing at each other ordinarily it's roll the 20 rollers 15 or all of this for all of that but there's nothing stopping you from saying you swipe your dagger at the villain's face he ducks slow he grabs you around the waist throws you to the side you both crash through this wooden table sending splinters in all different directions you roll around for a moment tussling you get back up to your feet he gets up to his feet his dagger's drawn he's ready to strike what do you do i roll a d20 oh i hit i did four damage oh my god you're not getting the point are you anyway the idea is is that you have i don't know why i'm so ranty today anyway that's not the point you have objects in your scene which you might have put in on a map just because it makes the map look pretty you might not have included anything that doesn't mean that the room is empty there is always stuff in there that could be dramatic a chandelier to swing across a bell rope to hang from combine objects and locations and you have a veritable playground of things that you can throw in to describe how things work it could even be as the rose-colored light streams through that tinted window the stained glass angel weeps silently as you thrust parry and block every blow of the lich as it claws dramatically at your face yes norman roll a d20 it doesn't hit you well done i've just said that but now you've made it mechanically sound yay okay and then the last thing that comes to mind when we're talking about how to make the situation work for your game is npcs now it could be horses horses are great npcs horses get scared winnie and run away that's their job so you have a fight sequence in a street a horse rears up and collapses down yes that's my horse sound and collapses down onto the ground sparks flying from its iron shod hooves as it dramatically runs off and down the street in panic and terror you could do that you could have npc on the side the barkeep who looks over oh good one no duck low watch out for that x oh good luck oh god watch out for the table oh no you can throw in flavoring at any time it could even be a goblin who's supposedly dead because he has zero hit points who looks up going oh the pain the death it comes for me oh good hit sir best of luck to you you're all gonna die throw that in it makes combat a little bit lighter a little bit more fun and ultimately more dramatic which is the whole point of this video have fun with the situation that the combat is in utilize it to the best of your abilities as i said at the beginning of the video this is not just about uh you as the gm being more dramatic why do gm's always get saddled with thou shalt do all of the work whilst the players simply sit there absolute rubbish in all accounts so what can players do to make things more dramatic how can they make things work better in terms of combat just telling the gm i roller d 2015 does it hit i hate that question does it hit what are you doing it's almost like ha did i hit you sir i say i don't seem to have drawn anything no i shall try again ha how about that one not not combat so a few little things that i have done in the past which may grate some people's bones but it's hey this is advice take it or leave it first things first i make sure that my players have names for things now i don't do this for the warriors because warriors have a generally easier time of things than spell casters but let's put that aside and just say for now i ask my players what color is your character's magic i will be asking my players in the future what's the name of your sword or what's engraved on your sword what's the color of the steel that your sword is made out of does it have a blue sheen to it is it a grey sheen is it a silver is shiny is it slightly dulled has it got a soft look to it has it got a hard edge has got a jagged edge describe your equipment or your magic so that the player needs to have that in their minds so that when you get onto the next step it makes more sense and it helps them out so get them to describe the clothing they're wearing that i know we often dismiss that as something that's just fluff and and not really important and we don't really make use of that that's a failing those are tools at our disposal to make our combo that much more interesting so as the elf who's told you that he has his bone named um log logian and it has this intricate carving of two naked let's be different men on the bow um or let's say two naked rabbits on the bow there we go um two naked rabbits carved into the bows shaft itself oh my goodness um that's what the characters described as as log loggian is pulled taunt by your fletching fingers you sight down the shaft of the arrow and let loose the arrow arcs gracefully through the air flying with the speed of time and it impacts into the orcs chest just including a little detailing makes it so much more interesting so much more dramatic now that's you as a gm so how is this a player thing well the next point is the player should be describing things so how do they describe things well that's entirely up to them but i pull my magic out of the air i start to form it into a small ball and then i fire it off dramatically at the enemy the balls fly through the air slamming into him and he takes 12 points of damage at some point you have to communicate numbers right but if you make it dramatic leading up to that point it's not so bad so the player character should be the ones describing their actions as they go through the motions they shouldn't be describing i role i hit i roll i hit they should be describing actions again this is not to say that every single swing of a sword every single casting of magic should entail giant dramatic uh descriptions a simple with a with disdain i slash dramatically or i slash at the goblin leader's head that's all it is it doesn't have to be these long complicated things because it's as many words as oh i rolled 15 plus 12 plus 17 plus three okay so i got a grand total of 23. it takes the same amount of time as you say i slash dramatically i'm gonna keep saying dramatically i just want to reinforce the fact that you should be dramatic it doesn't have to be dramatic i slash low at the goblins knees slicing through his lower calf he winces in pain i don't know i mean get dramatic how though you ask hopefully or are you already anticipated this but how does the player know whether they struck or not surely that's the gm's call well yes and no so what i would suggest is our third little step in terms of the players being responsible for making these things more dramatic is that you tell the player the target number that they're looking for this is the armor class or this is it if you've played with players who have played this game numerous times and they are more familiar with the creatures and things they will know those armor class values roughly anyway and they'll be able to determine them if the goblin is wearing leather armor they know that the range is going to be somewhere between 11 and 13 or 14 maybe if you've got good quality armor etc etc so there's no point in keeping it a mystery for the major villains and things like that sure you can keep it a mystery if you want them to be imposing and terrifying but at the same time all you're doing is keeping your secret numbers secret from them and they randomly trying to hit it so are they deriving joy from reaching your target number which is a mystery to them or are they deriving joy from the combat situation that their characters are desperately finding themselves in it's an interesting question to ask in my opinion the latter is much better an answer in terms of making the game engaging so i will throw out the armor classes of the characters that the pcs are trying to hit so they can roll the die do the math and then describe i take my spear and i lunge forward stabbing it directly into the gut of the ogre dealing 12 points of damage as the gm i don't have to care if they hit the number or not if they want to cheat and just have every hit hit that's fine i'll do the same and have every hit of mine hit them as well i mean ultimately the dice have to control us in one way shape or form and if we don't have any trust in each other what are we doing playing the game anyway all right so enough about that moving so awfully along to the third category and that is you yes you the gm what can you do to make combat much more interesting well the very first thing i would suggest is that you need to inject descriptions now i've been doing that throughout this entire video if it hadn't been apparent you need to inject descriptions if you are the gm sitting there going the york rolls 12 does that hit your armor class the goblin scored a hit you take four points of damage that's going to be a problem the orc should be swinging his mace wildly bellowing out war cries summoning his allies the horses should be shrieking and running off in the distance all of that kind of stuff you need to be describing that so what exactly are you describing well this is entirely up to you in terms of building up your own knowledge now combat there are many different types of combat you've got unarmed combats you've got weapon combat all sorts of things they all have fancy terms for things that they can do riposte counter strike lunge thrust all those kinds of wonderful words you don't have to get a thesaurus but if you can just get into your head a few words of terminology or at least some kind of understanding as to what characters are most likely doing or have a strong picture in your head you can then describe that out add in a few words go and read a small treatise on two-handed weapon combat it won't take you long i promise you and if you pick up a few words like faint or god or things along those lines it will make your game that much stronger it really really will so throw in all of those into your descriptions and suddenly it becomes this very dramatic thing which has a realism to it because you are using terminology that the players might be familiar with as well finally another last suggestion which you as the gm are in control of is i would always advocate having music it is difficult to find music that fits appropriately and to control that is an additional thing that the gm is responsible for doing of course it is an extra burden but if you have something like spotify make your playlist and off your go fill it with combat tracks or quiet tracks there are thousands of composers out there producing amazing music all the time for you to use in your games having combat music in the background really will elevate everything and it will hopefully encourage you to be a little bit more dramatic as the music is crescendoing and crashing around and doing all of that wonderful stuff that music is supposed to be doing you are following along just having this absolute description fast and turning a mundane combat into something much more dramatic those are my thoughts on how to make combat a little bit cooler what have i left out only you know comment down below just to share your thoughts so that we can learn from each other i mean ultimately that is the point if you found anything in this video interesting remotely engaging hit that like button or the subscribe button it will make the uh marketing goblin exceptionally happy and she has this very cute little dance that she does so i suggest you look at that the web goblin will dance too but he's more of a two left feet kind of goblin nonetheless let's look at today's sponsor world anvil is the sponsor of today's show now world anvil is a world aggregator a storage facility for all of your ideas your adventures your npcs your maps a complete package in terms of solving the question of where do you keep your notes when you're running your games as well as your pcs and imagery and ma it's just everything absolutely everything now this month they are running a competition called uniforms and you if you enter you get to design a uniform or an item of clothing an outfit basically you have to tell them why people wear them and who the people are who wear them and um then how has those things evolved like high heels for example were originally developed for men and women and it was designed to elevate the individual out of the muck that uh would proliferate on the streets due to complete lack of sanitation uh wonderful original idea then of course it became exclusively the purview of uh women to wear and nowadays who cares who wears what it's uh a free-fall so if you want to wear high heels and snap your ankles that's what i do uh then you go for it it's no longer about elevating yourself out of the muck so enter that competition now if you do want to sign up for a subscription to world anvil they have different tiers and each tier unlocks more and more powerful tools for creating your worlds use the code great gm and you will get a significant discount that's it from me for this week a massive thank you of course to our patreons who keep the channel going and to you for watching all the way to the end until next week i wish you and yours the very happiest of gaming

Channel: How to be a Great GM

Views: 135,821

Keywords: creating the campaign, campaign creator, how to be a great game master, how to gm, great gm, campaign creation, dnd campaign, dnd campaign design, dnd campaign ideas, rpg campaign design, rpg campaign ideas, rpg campaign, role playing campaign, campaign design, fantasy campaign, running the game, game master guide, dungeon master guide, gm tips, dm tips, rpg combat, ttrpg combat systems, rpg monsters, cool combat scenes, making combat interesting 5e, d&d combat

Id: KFUyg_3-xmk

Length: 20min 21sec (1221 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021