boring combat

[Romotre]

and both need to tell me exactly how they're attacking/dodging/parrying/whatever.

This gives me a great idea!

My players are decent role-players, and great roll-players. We all have watched too many action movies.

here's my great idea

When the players announce the way they dodge or attack, give em a circumstance penalty/bonus from -2/+2. Same with bad guys. This get the players involved, and makes fancy bad guys a little cooler.

This is so basic i'm sure many people have already done it. Ok maybe its not "my" great idea, but it still "a" great idea.

What do you guys think?

 

[LostSoul]

It also helps to stand up and move around when you're describing things. Then you can really get into the action!

 

[NemesisPress]

These are all terrific ideas of course - but I think the problem can be symptomatic of a deeper ennui.

I've watched my friend's game go this route - and it seems to be because both the players and the dm have lost interest at a more fundamental level.

There also has to be both a long-term goal that their characters are interested in - as well as some kind of roleplaying development that the players are actually excited about. (But that's easier said than done.)

I approach these kinds of things in two ways - first by keeping a sense of mystery: I don't use anything out of the book (spells, monsters, etc.) without modifications to fit the campaign. And second, I customize both these and the goals of the characters to match what the players want to do. It takes some discussion and careful balancing, but it is worth it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Do they have a motive to fight?

Other than the usual "Oh, look, Trolls are threatening our lives. Guess we'll kill 'em."

Maybe a little break from bashing things is in order. Do things in a town for a while. Get deeper into the story without combat. Introduce interesting NPC's.

Just change up the pace a little bit. Shake it up. It'll be the better for it.

 

[Masked]

I don't know if this will help, but ...

Last Monday we were in the middle of our second combat encounter. One of the five player's commented when his turn in combat came around again "wow - it feels like its been 15 minutes since my last turn." Normally they blame all the slowness to combat on one particular player, but this time it was just dragging overall.

And so - I plunged into. As the DM you have to be fast and furious with your calls, attacks, and decisions during combat. If you act that way it seems to get everyone else moving. Just a thought, I don't know it if it'll help too much.

 

[sleeponcouches]

First off, thanks for all the tips. Its amazing at how well these boards work. We had a session tonight, and i tried some of these techniques. The plateu at the top of the hill was suddenly littered with rock outcroppings, the brawl in the tavern traveled down two flights of steps and into a back room. I also added alot more description and guess what? The players actually followed my lead. Its incredible how, by just adding a little flavor here and there, the players will take an average, run of the mill encounter and try to make it an epic one. Definitately a welcome change.

The Dodge rule is still new to our group. The conversion of the 3e rules to our 'house rules' is moving along a little slow but its something that sounds like a great idea and im sure will be playing a bigger role in the future.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice and if anyone else has more suggestions, i'd love to hear them.

-sleep.

 

[Fenes 2]

I would probably just concentrate on the more important fights, making them more challenging, and just skip rolling the cannon fodder encounters in favor "With only a couple of minor scratches you dispatch the 6 orc guards and continue".

But then, I do not use XPs in game, just regularily level the party, so no one could complain about missed exp for a combat encounter.

 

[Uller]

You know...I've never been particularly cinematic in my combat descirptions. As DM, I figure it is the responsibility of the players to use their own imaginations to fill in the details beyond "The troll attacks you and...hits with a bite and a claw for...15 points of damage." If they want to imagine their character ducking out of the way of one claw and then the troll scything through their armore with the second claw and bite, that's their business.

As a player, I often resent the DM telling me how my character reacts to the attacks of the monster.

If a player wishes to describe the actions of his PC in combat, good for him.

On top of that, there are only so many ways you can describe the action. I'm very much preoccupied with tracking the monsters, keeping the adventure material organized and up to date and acting as ref. Having to come up with creative and new ways to describe how the orc chieftain swings his morning star and misses the heavily armored fighter is just not very productive, IMO.

So I tend to reserve the cinematic descriptions for killing blows on the PCs or important NPCs or for other rare and interesting situations.

 

[kengar]

So any one out there have any tips or suggestions on keeping combat fresh and new?

Marmosets. Thousands of them.

 

[Henry]

Last time I DM'ed, I did something that worked rather well.

I sat with the players.

When combat began, I got up from behind the DM Screen, I took an empty chair, and I sat alongside all the other players, and simply DM'ed. I told them what they saw, moved the counters, and rolled the dice openly. It did wonders to involve the other players. (Except for one, who was very tired from a previous late night, but to his credit he kept attention to detail the entire way through, which says something.)

The "group storytell" seemed to work pretty well, and took down a barrier that existed before. I still had my DM screen to get up and refer to notes if needed, but for the most part the story stayed fast and engaging when I sat with the players.