How do you discribe combat?

[Imperialus]

I just finished reading the Semi-Rant: Maturity and dumbing down a game thread and was orriginally going to post this there but figured it would get lost among the good fun vs bad fun vs posts. I would like to hear about how others discribe combat and their characters/NPC's actions/reactions during it. Do you roll the dice, say what AC you hit and then how many points of damage delt leaving it at that? Or do you discribe in minute detail the actions and emotions of your character, at some point hopefully mentioning that you rolled an 18 to hit and 12 points of damage? Something in between?

Personally when I DM I keep a list of a couple hundred varous combat manuvers grouped by weapon type (slashing piercing crushing, ranged and unarmed/improvised) that I've written down over the years (mostly stolen from novels) that I can pick essentially at random to discribe how a blow plays out. I keep them brief, discriptions like; "your *weapon* strikes below his ribs tearing the chainmail, he lets out a grunt of pain." I tend to only pull this list out when the PC's are fighting a BBEG, participating in a fight that I want to otherwise be memorable or roll a praticularly spectacular critical hit. It keeps me from repeating myself too often and helps provide memorable experiances for the fight. When it comes to a killing blow I also have a list of "finishing moves" that I use for BBEG or even for mooks who's deaths are unusual enough that I want them to be remembered.

In regards to mook fights I don't tend to discribe very much. If there isn't going to be anything praticularly memorable about the encounter then why waste everyones time discribing the barbarians axe cleaving through yet another orc skull. Sometimes though the actions of the players a mook fight will turn into something memorable but usually it's just "roll, hit AC X, do X+2 points of damage, next!" I do truely wish that I could make all my encounters exciting and memorable but I'm not that good a DM, and somtimes the PC's just need an XP mill.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think the key is that when you use descriptive text, you have to follow some of the laws of good action writing.

Specifically - don't put a lot of effort into describing the pedestrian. If the PCs are fighting their hunderedth orc, you don't need much beyond "you hit" unless a critical occurs.

I also tend to describe special defenses - if a critter has DR/good, then all attacks with a nongood weapon will result in a red flash deflecting the blow somewhat. Other DRs might be due to quick healing etc. If someone is using combat expertise, then my players will be told that their blows are being expertly deflected. If the creature has a low touch ac, but a high ac, then they get told that they struck home, but failed to penetrate the creatures thick hide/magical defenses.

In short - if my players pay attention to the combat descriptions, then they can adjust their tactics and take advantage of a creature's weaknesses.

 

[gamecat]

Over the top - kinda a matrixy style of combat - even the party tank is kinda quicklike - think nightmare from Soul Calibur.

The players seem to like it.

 

[zoroaster100]

Imperialus, that list you've compiled sounds like a goldmine for DMs. Any chance you have it on Microsoft Word or some other electronic format and would be willing to share it?

And to answer your question, I usually provide a brief amount of color to the description when it is the killing blow or when there is some special defense at work, or when it is a critical hit or a hit that causes a lot of damage. I'd say about one third of attacks get no special description, one third get a tiny bit of description, and one third get more detailed description.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I dEscribe combat as the rules (including critical effects and other weirdness) dictate, with my own embellishments added for extra flavour.

Indeed though, that list sounds useful. I do virtually the same thing in some ways, but using my poor overloaded brain, with its seemingly limitless capacity for 'fuzzy logic', instead. :\

 

[Emirikol]

I'm very descriptive (I made a girl throw up once).

I encourage my players to describe their attack, but at the very least I REQUIRE them to tell me what they attacked with. So, they'd say,"I swing my sword, AC 18, 8 points if I hit."

Nothing more annoying than players who are stuck in the numerical rut of, "AC 18, 8 points." BOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG!

jh

 

[Imperialus]

Imperialus, that list you've compiled sounds like a goldmine for DMs. Any chance you have it on Microsoft Word or some other electronic format and would be willing to share it?

Unfortunatly everything is handwritten... I started the list almost 10 years ago before I had a word processor. I have long been meaning to compile it into a word doc and if I ever do you guys will be the first to get it.

 

[Li Shenron]

I always use lots of descriptions of places and creatures, it's a good way to make for some lacks in my DM abilities: if I can't provide an interesting plot, at least I try to provide interesting scenes

But I definitely don't go overboard with descriptions of battle actions. I do add an in-game/in-character sentence to nearly each attack, but it's usually just a few words (normally, it's a mention of where/how hard you hit, or why you missed), not a novel for each strike...

 

[jdrakeh]

I describe combat as a series of maneuvers, much as they appear on a movie screen or in a novel. I do not describe combat using rules jargon (i.e., DC, AC, DR, Damage, et al.) - these things are written on character sheets and in rule books so that they may be referenced and applied during actual play without the need to announce them. The sole exception to this rule of thumb for me is feats.

Feats really must be called out by name, as each is a small sub-system unto itself and, thus, must be identified by name so the DM and/or player knows what rules to apply when. Saying "I jump leap forward and thrust my sword between the guard's ribs!" is enough description to resolve a simple 'to hit' roll, but not enough to illuminate what feat (if any) is being used and what special rules it introduces into the scenario.

Incidentally, I am not a big fan of mechanics that intrude upon drama in this manner. Feats always, without fail, remind me that this is 'just a game' - this jars me out of character (both as a player and as a DM) and greatly decreases the amount of fun that I have while playing a game. Feats are possibly my least favorite aspect of d20/OGL games for this reason.

 

[Wil]

I tend to follow a formula:

1) Quick segue (a few seconds at most) of the previous combat round that ties into the current combat round
2) Do rolls/rules/brief description of immediate results
3) Quickly summarize what just happened, tying it together into a cohesive whole
4) Wash, rinse, repeat

Now, sometimes this gets rolled over in long or very large combats, and I tend to put more effort into things when it's an important fight. Of course, I don't play D&D and I hold to some notions that might be odd to those who do. Particularly:

* I really dislike "combat rounds" - I understand that I need them to manage chunks of action, but I feel that "Round 1 - Round 2 - Round 3" progressions get tedious and break up the flow of combat. Hence, I do what I can to blur the lines from one combat round to the next.

* Initiative isn't how fast you move, but opportunity. While it helps to be fast as quicksilver, hesitating or not knowing when the most opportune time to strike will kill you. This is most prevalent in #3 above, because when I try to tie the rolled actions together into what really happened, just because player A rolled to hit first doesn't mean that in the game he actually moved first

* I'm very much in favor of deferring some penalties (particularly wound penalties) until the end of the combat round. Real life is full of examples of people who should have gone down due to their injuries, but didn't until much later.

I actually wrote and article with another guy on this kind of stuff - it's dated and it's for Silhouette, but some of the concepts apply almost anywhere: http://users.keyway.net/~sinner/tribe8/articles/goodfight.htm