D&D 5E Cinematic Advantage

[overgeeked]

Although it's been mentioned a few times, I haven't seen any threads on this, so here goes.

Back in January Sly Flourish published an article on replacing flanking with Cinematic Advantage...

Replace Flanking with Cinematic Advantage

Instead of using the optional flanking rule, offer deals to players to trade ability checks using in-world features to gain advantage on their next attack. Chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide offe...

slyflourish.com

In May, DungeonCraft released a video on it...


For me, that's just about the best house rule I've seen for 5E. It offers up a reward (with some risk) to the players and encourages them to get creative, interact with the environment, and move around the scene instead of being boring and generally standing in one place until someone dies.

 

[Morley_Dotes]

When a friend of mine runs a game, in any edition or system, he gives advantage in roles (in whatever form that system takes) when a PC does something Errol Flynn-ish in style and execution (he was a big fan of the Errol Flynn antics in movies). There were some brilliant successes, and some pretty brilliant failures, as players tried to do something creative in his games.

 

[cmad1977]

I mentioned it in a different thread but….

I grant advantage to an action that the player can tie to one of their BiFTs, 1 time per session per Bift. It seems to encourage the players to take more “not on the character sheet” actions that are still in the characters “wheelhouse”.

So you get things like
“Well… I’m super close to my sister… I tap into that while I’m lifting this gate.” From characters who aren’t necessarily “the buff one”.

 

[overgeeked]

I mentioned it in a different thread but….

I grant advantage to an action that the player can tie to one of their BiFTs, 1 time per session per Bift. It seems to encourage the players to take more “not on the character sheet” actions that are still in the characters “wheelhouse”.

So you get things like
“Well… I’m super close to my sister… I tap into that while I’m lifting this gate.” From characters who aren’t necessarily “the buff one”.

I tend to do something similar with backgrounds. Any non-attack action that would reasonably tie in to your background gets advantage.

 

[cbwjm]

I remember posting something like this a few years back and people complained that it was too punishing by the numbers if the fail the check for the action and something bad happens. Still something I'll use though, gives a reason for people to play like action heroes.

I mentioned it in a different thread but….

I grant advantage to an action that the player can tie to one of their BiFTs, 1 time per session per Bift. It seems to encourage the players to take more “not on the character sheet” actions that are still in the characters “wheelhouse”.

So you get things like
“Well… I’m super close to my sister… I tap into that while I’m lifting this gate.” From characters who aren’t necessarily “the buff one”.

Bift?

 

[billd91]

I remember posting something like this a few years back and people complained that it was too punishing by the numbers if the fail the check for the action and something bad happens. Still something I'll use though, gives a reason for people to play like action heroes.

I think it would really depend on the DC you set and how severe consequences might be.

 

[el-remmen]

It is a kind of cool idea, but not a fan of what it is emulating. While there are certain "action" elements and tropes that come up in D&D, I don't think of D&D as a kind of action movie simulator and have never been a fan of when DMs use cinema language of slow-motion, zoom shot, cut-away, or panning to describe a scene. Then again, the "stand in one place til someone dies" thing has never really been an issue in my games. I do mostly play grid/minis, but occasionally use TotM for some scenes - and can see it more useful for the latter style.

For the record, in one game I am running we are playing with the flanking option from the DMG and in the other we are not.

 

[overgeeked]

Bift?

Bonds. Ideal. Flaw. Personality traits.

 

[overgeeked]

I think it would really depend on the DC you set and how severe consequences might be.

I also think it might also be a good idea to remove the consequences entirely. A lot of players are notoriously risk adverse. They'd likely rather not possibly incur a penalty even if they're passing up potentially gaining a benefit. All carrot, no stick. That seems to be the general trend of the game and player culture.

It is a kind of cool idea, but not a fan of what it is emulating. While there are certain "action" elements and tropes that come up in D&D, I don't think of D&D as a kind of action movie simulator and have never been a fan of when DMs use cinema language of slow-motion, zoom shot, cut-away, or panning to describe a scene.

"Cinematic" here is an easy short-hand reference word. D&D is an action-adventure game. Always has been. This house rule is meant to emulate those action-adventure tropes. Whether in film, on television, or in prose. Three Musketeers. Conan. Zorro. Elric. John Carter of Mars. Captain Alatriste. Any pulp novel. More than half of Appendix N.

But I agree with you about the camera-angle language some DMs use. I'd rather they didn't frame the game as a film. It breaks immersion.

Then again, the "stand in one place til someone dies" thing has never really been an issue in my games. I do mostly play grid/minis, but occasionally use TotM for some scenes - and can see it more useful for the latter style.

It's always been a problem in games I've played in. Not me, but other players. When I play martial characters I'm always moving around and trying to interact with the environment. 4E's page 42 was written to deal with players like me. Which is why I love cinematic advantage. Anything to get players to move and interact with the environment. Treat the world like a real place instead of a flat 2D battle map.

 

[el-remmen]

It's always been a problem in games I've played in. Not me, but other players. When I play martial characters I'm always moving around and trying to interact with the environment. 4E's page 42 was written to deal with players like me. Which is why I love cinematic advantage. Anything to get players to move and interact with the environment. Treat the world like a real place instead of a flat 2D battle map.

I think between just the style of play developed with my regulars over the years and my modeling that kind of stuff with the opponents when I run the game, this approach eventually develops in my games even when it is not there from day one.