How vivid is the violence in your game?

[Anabstercorian]

How realistically do you handle violence in your game? I don't mean damage or hit point variants or anything like that, though you can bring that up if you like. I mean, how much does the sheer messy unpleasantness of violence come up? Do characters ever have to deal with the fact that they leave a trail of decomposing bodies where they go? On that note, is my party the only party that leaves a trail of decomposing bodies wherever they go?

Anyway, my point is this - Do you think that vividly describing the unsanitary and shocking nature of violence could stem unnecessary violence on the part of players?

 

[Nightfall]

Not unless you brought real physical harm to the players. I doubt there is much you can do if a player chooses to use physical violence to solve things. It's part of their nature.

 

[alsih2o]

i describe the sights, sounds and smells of combat pretty realistically i think.

i tell my players about snapping bones on crits and blood spatter and everyhting else. i am not sure it discourages violence so much as it may encourage it

 

[Aaron L]

Blood and guts flying everywhere!


A common DM phrase is " You plunge your sword into his gut, and his liver spills at your feet!"

Actually, not really.

 

[Sixchan]

When I do combats, my players normally go wide-eyed, and have a tendancy to say "Cooooooooooooooooooooool." So, pretty realistic.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I believe in at least a reasonable amount of description. I tell them where the shots land, what sorts of wounds they leave (in general terms), and I usually describe deaths in slightly more detail.

Actually, in one of my recent campaigns, we had sort of a running gag where the psionicist would get splattered by blood at the end of every battle, and have to watch it trail down his inertial armor.

 

[Gellion]

Orc:*Explodes into ogre*

 

[demiurge1138]

Yeah, there's blood. Entrails. Broken bones. Etc.
It isn't a Sam Peckinpah-style bloodbath, but the messy bits of combat are mentioned, and bodies are left behind (except the ones the lizardfolk fighter eats, but that's a different story).

Demiurge out.

 

[cptg1481]

Question

I'd like to have more in my game...I try but in the heat of combat it just sounds lame for my lack of improvization ability in this particular arena.

There is a one small part of the DMG that gives like 20 examples of how to describe action when it comes to certain feats, skills or combinations of the same etc., has anyone seen anything else in this regard? Anywhere...?

I'd love like a chart or table of some kind to reference when describing the outcome of attacks, spells, skills etc., especially in combat.

I'd be interested in some key phrases you all use in conjunction with certain feats, weapons, or types of attacks and magic effects and the scaling of the outcomes of said effects based upon the pllayer's die rolls.

A link to some wonder product would be cool but ad-libbing will help me just as much.

Please, I need to give better descriptions of the action to keep my guys interested.

Thanks in advance,

 

[astralpwka]

I like to exaggerate, with blood errupting 20 feet in the air on a crit, like in the Samurai X cartoons... blood raining down everywhere!!! Wooohooo!!!!