Flourish - a mechanical bonus in combat for roleplaying

[Daniel D. Fox]

I have a very proactive group of roleplayers in social situations, but during combat sometimes things get a bit watered down.

So, I now give what's called a "flourish" bonus during combat. On each person's turn, they have to narrate their movement and attacks. If all players completely narrate during their turn, the group gets a cumulative bonus of +1 for every round that they narrate. If they narrate three rounds in a row, they get +3 damage for each attack. If they narrate for ten rounds in a row, they get +10 damage for each attack and so forth.

This makes combat move much more swiftly in regard to length of combat and keeps players attuned to roleplaying their wounds, their feints and their strikes. They even like to describe deathblows now.

 

[Engilbrand]

Nice.
I like the idea of stunting bonuses. If they give a nifty description of the scene, they get a +1 to attack. If they USE the scene, especially in a way that would involve a skill check, they get a +2 bonus if the check succeeds, the standard +1 if it doesn't. If the description is awesome, +3.