Vaalingrade
Legend
I'm a fan of blood, but not gore.
so blood tornados are common, but there's not a lot of gibs.
so blood tornados are common, but there's not a lot of gibs.
D&D General In Celebration of Over The Top Violence in D&D
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
borringman
Explorer
I like to use TTRPGs to tell stories, and I think there's something to be said for realistic violence in the context of a serious story. I'd go there, with the right system.
BUUUUT D&D to me is far too weird, anachronistic, and over-the-top to take seriously, so I visualize most of the violence with B-movie camp. Much more like Braindead or Monty Python and the Holy Grail than Saving Private Ryan.
BUUUUT D&D to me is far too weird, anachronistic, and over-the-top to take seriously, so I visualize most of the violence with B-movie camp. Much more like Braindead or Monty Python and the Holy Grail than Saving Private Ryan.
Vael
Legend
I don't mind blood, but I do tend to draw the line and more visceral violence in my DnD.
Kill Bill Vol1, Oren's execution of the Yakuza boss and the big fight between the Crazy 88, for example, is fun and within bounds. Invincible, otoh, Omni-Man shredding his fellow Superheroes, is a bit much for my DnD campaigns.
Kill Bill Vol1, Oren's execution of the Yakuza boss and the big fight between the Crazy 88, for example, is fun and within bounds. Invincible, otoh, Omni-Man shredding his fellow Superheroes, is a bit much for my DnD campaigns.
borringman
Explorer
I mean. . . yeah.
Last campaign my barbarian grappled a baddie, and then moved the baddie back. . . right out a window and off the top of a tower. I figured with rage-induced resistance he'd survive the fall, and he did. The group regularly polymorphs characters into dinosaurs. It was fun, definitely, but this was Curse of Strahd, and it was as "gothic horror" as Disneyworld.
What sort of serious story do you tell with that level of cartoony violence? The Black Knight really isn't out of place in any D&D campaign. TBH I could use a change of pace but it ain't happening with this product.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
In D&D, I generally put my violence at Robert E. Howard level's of description. Gruesome, kinetic, action-packed, but don't linger lovingly on it like a Lucio Fulci movie.
However, in my Cyberpunk Red game, I find myself scaling back - save for the gnarly criticals and when the party takes down significant foes, I tend to keep it more abstract - "you do 12 points of damage, getting past their armor and ablating it by one." Mooks fall over flatlined. I find I have significantly less taste for depicting gun-based violence.
However, in my Cyberpunk Red game, I find myself scaling back - save for the gnarly criticals and when the party takes down significant foes, I tend to keep it more abstract - "you do 12 points of damage, getting past their armor and ablating it by one." Mooks fall over flatlined. I find I have significantly less taste for depicting gun-based violence.
I don't have any problem with violence in the game. Just like I've wasted too many hours to count killing off pixelated enemies over the years, it's just a game. My descriptions of that violence is to a certain degree based on who's playing and it's a bit of a judgement call. But the raging barbarian gets a critical hit with their maul on the enemy that had 2 HP left? Hope your PC that was close to the enemy didn't have their mouth open. 
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
In combat, its honestly pretty tame, but that's because I rule that 0 hp for enemies is defeated, not dead, so I cant have too much butchering. My players need to mercy kill enemies at the end if they care to make them dead-dead; at that point violent depiction can be added, at the player's wish.
