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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 5051798" data-attributes="member: 2303">While I like the idea of making combat more narrative, I also see a lot of dangers with it. Here are a few tips and an alternate idea, based on my experience with narrative combat. This assumes it was narrative combat you were looking for, and not just a rock-paper-scissors rule.Having played Feng Shui a lot, where stunts are legio, it can get a bit repetitive to have to describe each action you do in such detail. Especially in a long-winded combat system like 3E. Effectively allowing more encounter powers would of course speed up combat, but you might find your players doing cool but endless variations on Come and get It. Narrative combat works best in narrative games, like Amber Diceless Roleplaying. The reason 4E powers are set up like they are is to even the battlefield and create variance even for poor to mediocre players. Setting higher standards can be rewarding if your players are good, but be very hard on those who cannot keep up.Keep an eye on yourself and avoid being predictable or use too much of your own bias. If your players learn that leg sweeps work 90% of the time and wild charges 50% of the time, they will all be doing leg sweeps. You also need to make allowances for the player's abilities; if one player is such a good narrator that he can use encounter powers 90% of the time, and another only manages 40%, it will feel distinctly unfair, close to mobbing. Thus the standards have to be at least partially based on the player's narrative abilities, with higher goals set for better players, which in turn can feel unfair to them.Idea for a RuleI would make it less a matter of DM-player negotiation and more of a "stunt" thing where players describe their action and the DM assigns a bonus or penalty if the stunt makes sense. Or, in this case, the DM would allow the encounter power if the stunt sounds cool and make it a basic attack or at-will power use if not. I think it would be worthwhile to decide on a fall-back attack for each encounter power, so there is no dispute about what it reverts to when insufficiently described.</blockquote>

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