How do you RP marking?

[Danceofmasks]

Also, remember that CC can also shaft you.
If a fighter has shield push, attacking someone else could mean you end up swinging at thin air. After getting stabbed.

 

[Mengu]

In my mind, combat is a chaotic mess. The fighter is swatting away the enemy front lines, the wizard pummeling the enemy's crunchy center and creating more chaos by knocking them down and dazing them, the bard shouts words of encouragement, and jinxes opportune targets, Barbarian is a howling ball of destruction on a flank, and in the back, bolts fly out of an unseen globe of darkness. The fighter just knows how to keep the attention of his enemies on him, while perhaps the same enemies fear going anywhere near the howling barbarian, barely notice the bolts of death coming from the darkness, and focus their attention on the central defending figure to try and get to that wizard blasting apart their forces. The fighter's prowess just makes this a difficult tax.

I don't even see marking as any words necessarily (though I would be amused by a player playing it as such). The way the fighter attacks an enemy, and continues to test the enemy's defenses, it just doesn't leave the enemy an opening to focus on anything else. Of course this is a little bit of a stretch for ranged attacks, so some taunting would increase verisimilitude in that case.

 

[UltimaGabe]

The only time Marking doesn't make sense thematically is when you're describing it wrong. If you describe it as someone taunting you, cursing your father, whatever, then that won't work in every situation. Personally, I think that Marking isn't necessarily something the Fighter actively does- it's just something that happens because the Fighter is such a badass.

In other words, a Fighter is able to Mark simply because he's so determined to take down a particular foe (or foes) that his mere presence tells that foe that if they turn their back, by trying to move away or even just by attacking someone else, the Fighter is going to use that opportunity to whack at him. The evil bad guy isn't necessarily choosing to attack the Fighter because he's afraid of him, or because the Fighter made him so angry that he's tricked into doing something foolish, it's because he knows- game mechanics aside- that if he attacks the Rogue, the Fighter's going to get a free hit, and if he attacks the Fighter, nobody's going to get a free hit.

The enemy is, of course, under no compulsion to attack the Fighter- he can choose not to- but if he does, he suffers the consequences.

If anything, I think that this kind of description makes MORE sense, to me, than any sort of magical-compulsion-or-whatever that other classes have as their flavor.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Personally, I think that Marking isn't necessarily something [special] the Fighter actively does- it's just something that happens because the Fighter is such a badass.

I too prefer this interpretation. But some people can't understand it; it makes no sense to them because they don't have the necessary frame of reference. (This isn't a comment on their intelligence, imagination, or worthiness as a human being, it is simply an observation of their behavior and the logical conclusion about their life experiences that is drawn from that [little to no close combat experience].)
For those people, something closer to my first post works better.

The only time Marking doesn't make sense thematically is when you're describing it wrong.

Oddly, so many game mechanics have this issue. Magic spells being one of the biggest, in my experience.

 

[Doctor Proctor]

The only time Marking doesn't make sense thematically is when you're describing it wrong. If you describe it as someone taunting you, cursing your father, whatever, then that won't work in every situation. Personally, I think that Marking isn't necessarily something the Fighter actively does- it's just something that happens because the Fighter is such a badass.

In other words, a Fighter is able to Mark simply because he's so determined to take down a particular foe (or foes) that his mere presence tells that foe that if they turn their back, by trying to move away or even just by attacking someone else, the Fighter is going to use that opportunity to whack at him. The evil bad guy isn't necessarily choosing to attack the Fighter because he's afraid of him, or because the Fighter made him so angry that he's tricked into doing something foolish, it's because he knows- game mechanics aside- that if he attacks the Rogue, the Fighter's going to get a free hit, and if he attacks the Fighter, nobody's going to get a free hit.

Yeah, that's sort of how I view it as well, and I play a Fighter. Basically, combat rounds are a bit of an abstraction anyway. When you make a melee basic attack it's not one single swing in the 6 second round, it's more of a flurry of attacks, one of which connects. With the Fighter, that flurry of attacks is much more dangerous, and much closer to connecting, so you never want to turn your back on him (I picture him doing stuff like knocking an enemies shield with his weapon to get his attention, or just constantly keeping his enemy on his back foot such that he has difficulty winding up for an attack on anyone else).

As for marking from range, that's a little different. In those cases, obviously the Fighter isn't harrying his opponent anymore, and I think it's more about straight up fear. In the case of my Dragonborn Fighter he usually opens combat with his breath weapon (which has been upgraded to Close Blase 5) and then wades into the enemies to try and rip someone's head off. Then, when it's the enemy's turn, they're wary of this crazy mofo who just started swinging a 6 foot axe around and saying "You're next!". I can't hold their attention forever that way (which is the inherent weakness of ranged marks, that you can't usually keep them up), but for a few seconds it proves to be a crucial distraction. And that's all a round is really, is 6 seconds of combat. So I don't think it's out of the question to think that the enemy is saying "Holy crap, who is that guy? I don't want him after me!" for a few seconds.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Don't bother trying. Its an ability and it just works. Trying to rationalize it will give you a headache.

Why does choosing to attack someone else mean you "ignore" the fighter?

If you are being flanked by a rogue but specifically concentrating on fighting him he still gets sneak attack damage so paying attention to an enemy has NO mechanical effect.

The combat boardgame has its own rules that may or may not connect to the rest of the game in any way.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Don't bother trying. Its an ability and it just works. Trying to rationalize it will give you a headache.

The OP isn't trying to rationalize anything. He just needs something to clue his DM into the fact that his character is trying to draw all the hostile attention. Apparently they are a heavy RP table and the DM hasn't yet figured out what it means for combat when one of the monsters gets marked.

For that purpose this thread can be an invaluable tool. Next time read the original post, not just the thread title.

 

[Wormwood]

For that purpose this thread can be an invaluable tool. [/size]

It's definitely been valuable for me. The suggestions have been great, and I feel much more confident visualizing/describing the effects of a Mark after reading them.

Thanks to the constructive posters!

 

[avin]

Don't bother trying. Its an ability and it just works. Trying to rationalize it will give you a headache.

I can't, and that's why Fighter marking is a major problem for me... and the problem remains: if the Fighter's oponent is levels ahead of him and not impressed with his marking tactics at all, why should it work just because the Fighter just hit it for, let's say, a low level damage?

I mix fluff and crunch in my games, we play it that well, and this is something Wizards could work harder.

Instead of endless boring crunch articles where my DDI money seem to be spend on, why not a fluff article, in depth, with tons of suggestions/insporation of how to roleplay some powers?

 

[Zaran]

There are many powers in the game that are hard to visualize outside the mechanics. I've had a GM that doesn't even want to discuss that sort of thing because it will make him quit 4e altogether. Marking is one of the easier ones for me to visualize. Except for the ranged marks a fighter can sometimes accomplish and there was a good suggestion in this thread about that one.