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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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<blockquote data-quote="The Grassy Gnoll" data-source="post: 6573094" data-attributes="member: 6788652"><p>This may be off-topic, but there's a 'rule' of improvisational acting, usually the 'first rule of improv club', that says: "always say yes - embrace it". The 'second rule of improv club' is: "add something".</p><p>These are rules that allow crazy outcomes to work in unexpected ways. Similarly so for RPGs, especially for the random element of the dice.</p><p>So, the dice hate the PCs in combat. Everything is a swing and a miss, or worse, a fumble. Meanwhile, the monsters have had their Ready Brek today and everything is hitting and doing top damage. The first rule says, "yep, they're toast if they keep this up". The second rule (essentially failing forward) says "the monsters drive you back towards the wall, where the sleeping pallets have been upended during the fight...they're big enough to duck behind and good for half cover", or "the fighter is knocked prone but from his floor level view he sees that the lead three monsters are all stood on a rough carpet, which is just within reach for him to try to yank them off balance".</p><p>Alternatively, Boss Monster appears, war axe in hand, twenty stone of solid muscle wearing a necklace of adventurers testicles, designed to really test the heroes to the max. The PCs take him out in round one. Indiana Jones moment! The first rule says, "yep...he's toast. Dang", the second rule says "he falls dead with a thud, his huge bulk splintering one of the pillars holding up the Temple...as you grin at one another in celebration, the ceiling starts to shake and collapse as the pillar cracks and falls...make a DEX check to avoid falling masonry".</p><p>Recent example - the players were on their last legs, and a desperately cast Thunderwave spell took out all but one bad guy, who made his save and only took half damage. One more hit and two of three characters were down. Bad guy had two attacks... First rule said, "yep, it's his turn now too". So I judged (second rule, add something) that all the coins on the table (they had been gambling), and the table itself were also hurled at bad guy due to the spell, doing a further bit of damage...the die I told the PC to roll providing just enough to take him out. Fudging maybe but in a different way to just adjusting the HPs. Also the image of having to pull the silver pieces out of his face if they wanted all the treasure was a memorable one and prompted some nice RP.</p><p>It's basically embracing the dice as they are but giving the PCs options to avert defeat or consequences to ensure they are challenged - failing forward/succeeding sideways.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Grassy Gnoll, post: 6573094, member: 6788652"] This may be off-topic, but there's a 'rule' of improvisational acting, usually the 'first rule of improv club', that says: "always say yes - embrace it". The 'second rule of improv club' is: "add something". These are rules that allow crazy outcomes to work in unexpected ways. Similarly so for RPGs, especially for the random element of the dice. So, the dice hate the PCs in combat. Everything is a swing and a miss, or worse, a fumble. Meanwhile, the monsters have had their Ready Brek today and everything is hitting and doing top damage. The first rule says, "yep, they're toast if they keep this up". The second rule (essentially failing forward) says "the monsters drive you back towards the wall, where the sleeping pallets have been upended during the fight...they're big enough to duck behind and good for half cover", or "the fighter is knocked prone but from his floor level view he sees that the lead three monsters are all stood on a rough carpet, which is just within reach for him to try to yank them off balance". Alternatively, Boss Monster appears, war axe in hand, twenty stone of solid muscle wearing a necklace of adventurers testicles, designed to really test the heroes to the max. The PCs take him out in round one. Indiana Jones moment! The first rule says, "yep...he's toast. Dang", the second rule says "he falls dead with a thud, his huge bulk splintering one of the pillars holding up the Temple...as you grin at one another in celebration, the ceiling starts to shake and collapse as the pillar cracks and falls...make a DEX check to avoid falling masonry". Recent example - the players were on their last legs, and a desperately cast Thunderwave spell took out all but one bad guy, who made his save and only took half damage. One more hit and two of three characters were down. Bad guy had two attacks... First rule said, "yep, it's his turn now too". So I judged (second rule, add something) that all the coins on the table (they had been gambling), and the table itself were also hurled at bad guy due to the spell, doing a further bit of damage...the die I told the PC to roll providing just enough to take him out. Fudging maybe but in a different way to just adjusting the HPs. Also the image of having to pull the silver pieces out of his face if they wanted all the treasure was a memorable one and prompted some nice RP. It's basically embracing the dice as they are but giving the PCs options to avert defeat or consequences to ensure they are challenged - failing forward/succeeding sideways. [/QUOTE]
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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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