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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 1139482" data-attributes="member: 11574">Most of the descriptions I come up with as a way to not have combat be such a numbers game "you hit, roll for damage, take 3 hp". Plus when you make injuries "happen" it makes the player take a very active roll in combat. Bimbar's player rolled a "1" for his reflex save to dodge the boiling water, his player came up with the "deer in headlights" explaination. As you know the kobolds aren't listed as armed in the room, I threw in the spoon and apron to make it obvious she was the cook, then when Alriand rolled a "3" to hit with the dagger I ad lib the kobold knocking the dagger away with the spoon.Preparation is key, knowing the BAB of the party and what they need to roll to hit the AC of the enemy. I watch the roll of the players and once before it's done "rolling" I know if it's a hit and how I'm going to describe it. For the kobolds I rolled up about 25 rolls before the game started so I won;t have to wait for my roll to know if they hit or not, that way I plan the kobold's action out about 3 rounds so the combat seems more seemless than what it really is. Another thing that helps, is the more the players ROLEplay their characters, the more I side with them, and grant little bonuses. The player with the best background for their character got bonus starting money, when a cleric turns undead they have to "act out" the turning, mages have to keep track of components and do the verbal and somatic parts of the spell (it's all of their choosing and doesn't require a degree in drama, just an effort) you can guess what bards have to do (which explains why no one has EVER played a bard in my game). I learned the most about DMing this style of game was from Ed Greenwood, who DM'd a game at GenCon last year. Rolls meant nothing and the better you described your actions the better the chance you succeeded, by the end of the game the thief was describing how he was picking the lock on the door. It gets contagious and either the players get really involved, or they leave the game. Luckily I've had no one leave the game for this reason. I hoped that explained it enough, let me know if you have any other questions.  <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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