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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SnowDog" data-source="post: 1050988" data-attributes="member: 2225">I've never been told I'm particularly good at combat DMing, but I think my players enjoy fights enough.  In any case, take my advice with a grain of salt <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.My biggest "trick" that can be used in every fight is to recap every so often everything that has happened since the last recap.  Remember that the round-based action is just a way to simulate the way combat flows.  Try to come up with a narrative that takes away that abstraction.  I usually recap once per round, and try to take everything that happened that round and put it in a smoothly flowing description, covering up as much of the "turn order abstraction" as I can.  I rearrange the order of events to maximize the drama in the recap.Then I go on to the next round, and recap after that, ending with the last thing I said in the previous recap to give a sense of this continual battle, not this round-by-round wargame.Other things that work: Inject some grim humor if your group is into that.  Add some gore.  Make your enemies talk to the party, and to each other.  Play off their facial expressions.  What are the bad guys looking at?  Are they fanatical idiots?  Are they calculating killers?  Bumbling incompetents?  Make the enemies real.  When the party comes back to a room where they left some corpses behind, mention them -- including, perhaps, the way they died.  (And, in case any of my players are reading this, I know, I know.  I should take my own advice -- hey, I'm working on it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. )</blockquote>

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