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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orryn Emrys" data-source="post: 1257133" data-attributes="member: 6799">This has really been a work in progress for my group.  I used to treat combat with a fairly abstract descriptive texture... specifically, I generally only became really descriptive in the case of a critical hit, and even then I had a tendency to exaggerate.  Over time, however, as our game has become more roleplay intensive, focusing a great deal on the individual PC's experience and perspective, I was inspired with a general need to "spice up" combat... the players were starting to get bored with lengthy battles that broke up the otherwise fluid perspective of their game.My first concession to this need was a general habit of describing everything for the individual.  For example, I would often describe the results of one person's engagement in combat visually to someone else in the party who could see what was going on... particularly if that individual's initiative was coming up, as it would potentially serve to modify their actions, by modifying their character's unique perspective, and certainly serve to more fully immerse that player in the immediate action.Over time, the players have since become more fully aware of their individual perspective, and never assume that they know everything that's going on around them.  Of course, it's taken a little tempering to make this work smoothly, as I might otherwise constantly have players asking me what their character sees.  They've had to learn to assume a certain amount of this responsibility themselves, being certain to maintain a fluid awareness of their character's focus.And, of course, my descriptiveness became addictive.  Nearly all of my players now tend to describe their actions, frequently with a bit of flair as they're charged up with their character's intentions, before making (or at least announcing) their die rolls.In response to this "individual orientation" in combat, I have in more recent months initiated brief descriptions of the characters' personal perceptions concerning taking damage, as well.  I try to balance the sometimes-graphic needs of this approach with a tendency toward brevity... I'm not wanting to unduly torture the loyal player with his/her character's painful experiences, but I do want to drive home the severity of taking damage... particularly if ir reflects a sizable proportion of their hit points.Which, of course, requires a bit more "bookwork"... but it's worth it in the end. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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