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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Basic Expert" data-source="post: 9783859" data-attributes="member: 7054049">A few of my tricks:1. Ditch or minimize initiative. I've come to loathe WotC-style sequential initiative where everyone stops to generate initiative scores at the start of a fight and spends the next 15 minutes-1 hour stuck in the same dull sequence. Generally, the aggressors go first as a group and then the opposition. Repeat. After a round or two, when the combat inevitably breaks down into smaller skirmishes and face-offs, I mixed up the order to amp up the intensity.2. Don't stop roleplaying. Don't stop describing. If the PCs are fighting goblins, give each one a distinctive feature. Give them personalities. Have them react to hits and misses believably. If a goblin scores a hit, have it laugh sadistically or make a cruel joke or just laugh gleefully. Invite the player to respond.3. Don't count squares. Some people like the tactical mini wargames. I do not. If it's close, it's close enough. Make a quick decision on if something is doable, requires a roll or is impossible and MOVE ON.4. Don't open the rulebooks during combat. Combat is what is happening RIGHT NOW. This goes for spells and powers, too. Players are responsible for knowing what their PC can do and have their notes ready to go. If they can't or get it wrong, their action likely fails automatically. It's harsh, but it's in everyone's interest for the game to proceed quickly. I still have nightmares of the 3e druid that would take 30 minutes for their turn (figuring out what they would wildshape stats, figuring out what animal they were summoning, attacking with the animal companion, and whatever else).5. Be lenient when in comes to combat stunts. If you saw someone do it in an action movie, you can probably try it in my game. This goes for enemies as well. Have the push, knockdown, disarm, or what not the PCs with their actions in lieu of straight damage.6. Remember that context is important. Never just put a combat in because it feels that there should be a combat at that point in the adventure. This speaks to the goals of the party and that of their adversaries. And, possibly, there might be other ways of accomplishing that goal other than combat. Context also means the setting (arena) and the scenario. Find what is specific to this combat, and accentuate it. The PCs might fight goblins a lot, but they only hold back the goblin horde at the Thunder Bridge, allowing the refugees of Halford to escape, once. Make it memorable.7. Be lenient with retreating. If the party wants to retreat: let them--and let them take any fallen comrades. Hit them with a bit of extra damage if you must, or do some skill checks or equivalent to lose pursuers, but give them an out. Let monsters flee automatically as well. Don't have retreating monsters return to further menace the party except when circumstances demand it as players will inevitably do all they can to get rid of the threats here and now.8. Raise the stakes or difficulty. A few rounds in, reinforcements arrive, a new weapon is unleashed, or the arena is transformed. To be used sparingly, but can turn an ordinary combat into an extraordinary one.</blockquote>

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