Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 1403980" data-attributes="member: 158">I need to get to the second half of your question - the specifics.I add flavor in two ways. (1) I add in things and bits from third party supplements that I deny the players. This actually serves to make these things rarer and more interesting when they appear. I also (2) Create some things on the fly, and don't assign more solid rules to them until someone is in a position to know these things. In (1), I ensure that the rules ARE there if I need them. In (2), it really adds the unknown - in some cases the fact that I don't know the whole story until it's time even makes it more interesting for the players.I have a couple of "gamists" in my group - ones who get nitpicky if they don't understand every rule. However, in the end they trust me to make it fun and give them some of what they want - the chance to kick butt, or to get their hands on something neat. The others in the group don't mind so much if something is not excruciatingly detailed or perfect, as long as it's fun. As long as the players get what they ultimately want at least some of the time, then everyone stays happy.Oh, one other thing - one thing that adds flavor to combats especially is having them in exciting places. On rickety bridges, on a rocking boat in a storm tossed sea, in the middle of springing death traps - something that gives the players a new mechanic to play with, and keeps them on their toes. Last game in my FR group was the first time they fought in a seriously underground environment - they're used to open areas, or simple rooms. They fought 6 darkmantles in a 10' wide corridor, FILLED WITH wagons and mules, and all sorts of narrows and twists and turns. Six Darkmantles (CR 1) befuddled a party of EIGHT seventh level characters, and severly damaged two of them. What should have been a cakewalk became an infuriating nightmare of blindfighting, hitting each other, missing, and dispelling. They won, of course, but it really took a lot out of them to do so. Darkness is fun, especially when only one character thought to use light spells to do something about it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification