To those who get to play RP focused TTRPGs all the time: you lucky beautiful thing. To all the other drama lovers, I hope this helps! Big thank you to Skyler @theADHDM for his help, the Corkboard appreciates your sacrifice. (And yeah, it took me way too many takes to figure out how to pronounce quantitative, and I’ve still no idea if I got it right).

@TheADHDM

7 ай бұрын

Great video, had fun recording my dumb little part!

@Stone_Orchids

7 ай бұрын

It just sounds your combats are not mortal enough

@kalleendo7577

7 ай бұрын

Awesome!

@LB_adventurer

6 ай бұрын

Your quantitative was perfect, your qualitative felt like it was missing the "a" in the middle. But that is from the perspective of an East Coast, Canadian English speaker

@Dragowolf_Rising

6 ай бұрын

I'm an english speaker from the american mid-west and I thought all of your pronunciations were fine. I understood clearly what you were saying, as you were saying it. Also... great video! Mostly stuff I'm aware of but a reminder or rephrasing from time to time is nice.

There is a phrase, I don't remember by whom, related to musical theatre. Songs should come in when the characters' emotions are too intense for talking, and dancing comes when the emotions are too intense for singing. I believe that the same is true for combat in RPGs: they should come from the characters' emotional energy, not an interruption of their story but a significant part of it.

@TheADHDM

6 ай бұрын

That's cool as hell

@UntoTheBreach24

6 ай бұрын

Yes

@sammelm5357

6 ай бұрын

The quotes from Howard Ashman, among other the producer of the Little Mermaid.

@LucasDeziderio

6 ай бұрын

@@sammelm5357 Thank you for your service!

@davidolverapalestina

6 ай бұрын

Ohhh this is sick. Love this. Thxk for sharing it!

"After all, Agnes is a sensible person, she really enjoys not being dead," Is maybe one of my favorite quotes of all time now.

The algorithm has blessed me with a great new DM to watch!

as a GM who loves both the combat and roleplaying parts of ttrpgs but hates how separated they usually are, this video is incredibly useful! also, this is the first video of yours I've seen and your presentation, writing, editing, and everything is so cool and good. instant subscribe

Interesting point. I always try to make my games as character-centric as possible, and most times it leads to really dramatic scenes due to players put a lot of their own personalities into character. But I never before thought that combat may be the perfect place to push those triggers! Thank you for this deadly weapon!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

"Deadly weapon". YES. that's the right energy

I love the dedication and exquisiteness you pour in each video. As for this one, I can deeply relate: I am fond of combats, but they are like food (it's very easy for it to end up completely dry and tasteless). Marinating any game mechanic in good amounts of storytelling, conflict and meaning will hook both players and narrators for a scrumptious meal that won't be forgotten too soon! ❤

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

that is a brilliant metaphor and i'm going to abuse it so much

@carruagemdalua

7 ай бұрын

@@corkboardsandcuriosities hahah you're so kind

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

@@carruagemdalua you're the one who started it with these unbelievably kind words!

Well done and solid advice for adding drama to combat. A lot of combat videos try to add player incentive through mechanics or a bigger payoff after the battle, as if it were a stepping stone to the game's story rather than a way to inject story into the game. This is one of the few videos I've seen that blends the potential for plot development into combat almost seamlessly.

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

haaa thanks! i was hoping that coming at it from that angle would be interesting, i'm glad to see it resonates!

I have always played combat with story bits in mind! My Paladin, who has grown up all their life believing her only usefulness is through enemy slaying is slowly finding out why her patron never spoke directly with her before. And as her group faces 3 hags to save a childhood friend, for the first time since forever she chooses to protect her friend instead of giving chace, trusting her allies to keep the hags off as she uses her strength to break the chains. She even casts "Protect from Good and Evil" on said NPC when it becomes clear she needs to get back out there as soon as possible. Very relevant to point that she's been downed in almost every encounter with a boss too, and left her companions to bail her out of it. She was considering to train harder, a bigger sword, to get stronger... all the wrong lessons she could take from her own shortcomings. It wasnt until the desire to protect was stronger than her fear of "not being enough" that she hears her patron: "You are worthy". Sanctuary is casted to get them out of there. She's stopped being the sword and is slowly learning to be the sword AND shield. A Paladin.

@33amra33

4 ай бұрын

That's awesome. I started playing recently, I'm playing a paladin and I'm loving it.

@angelalewis3645

3 ай бұрын

That’s BEAUTIFUL. ❤ Well done!

this video is my fist introduction to your channel, and aside from this useful guide for us fellow drama lovers, i absolutely have to say that the visual style of your videos is amazing ✨ thank you for your work, subscribed for more!

Such wonderfully advice. I can't wait to try and nestle this in my games

This is an amazing video! The editing, the pacing, the quality of the information, the vibes, it’s a miniature masterpiece! I hope more people get to see this!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

thank you so so so much! i've been having more and more fun with editing lately haha, hoping to keep experimenting a little!

On top of the content being excellent, this video is SO well made! Well done!

@TheADHDM

6 ай бұрын

Famed Necromancy apologist Dael Kingsmill!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

6 ай бұрын

thank you so much! means a lot coming from you! so happy you liked it!

I can only really think of Combats as a conflict, and none of this Drama bits. I envy you drama people.

Good video as usual val, hope the YT algorithm actually does its work and more people get to see it

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

thank you! I think the youtube algo is being quite nice to me already! think about it, i've only been uploading for like 7 months hahaha

I stumbled upon your channel by accident and was quickly taken in by your presentation and the richness of your advice. There have been many videos about improving rpg combat, but yours ramps up the action by ramping up the drama of the story. I found this to be quite amazing! I’m not quite sure how I will be able to implement it comfortably, I guess I will just try to do it and keep at it. My one criticism is that I have already made my way through your other videos. Hurry up! lol seriously though, well done!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

6 ай бұрын

this makes me so happy! thank you so much! hhahah yeah i'm a new and slow channel, but i'm gonna do my best to be more consistent with uploads!

Simply the best video about RPG combat I have seen. Everything, to the letter, resonates with what I preach. I used to want to love combat but always hated it, until I focused on the things you mentionned and used a minimalist system that did not restrict storytelling. Great work (and great voice). +1 sub.

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

oh my! un compatriote! et avec les mêmes goûts en plus! merci et bienvenue à toi!

@lestatjdr6882

7 ай бұрын

@@corkboardsandcuriosities !!! J'avais cru reconnaître un léger accent de l'est; c'est rare que je ne repère pas l'accent français haha. Pour ma part je me suis tourné vers l'audience française, et c'est moins vaste il faut admettre !Ca fait plaisir une chaîne comme ça, J'ai écouté celle sur l'enquête aussi, vraiment d'adhère. Beau boulot.

I don’t think my players will remember any combat from my campaign more than the one where one of character’s mentors and father died in a related fight. And THEY WERE BOTH REVIVED!

This was genuinely fantastic! If it didn't cure my long-running GM burnout, it's helped me make a huge step back towards running games again!

Fantastic video, some of these tips are things I've been implementing more recently, but you've gotten some gears turning on how I can improve future encounters. I'm also not a big fan of combat, both as a DM and a player... It's always been more about story and roleplaying, so this video really resonates with me.

I've been a ttrpg player for many years and only recently gotten into DM'ing. I love making horde encounters but adding subplots to the battle or just giving a narrative reason to why a player missed an attack has really gotten me excited. Thank you!

"When you add more variety to the possible ramifications of a fight, then you refresh the story with each combat scene. Each time opening up new story paths..." Brilliant. Love it. Subscribed.

Watson is far from dumb, he's an experienced doctor and knew that being a sounding board for Sherlock's erratic genius was where he was most effective.

Earned yourself a new sub with this editing, truly terrific! Can't wait to see more

Great video! I enjoyed the quality of the information, the clarity of delivery, the mood/vibes, and how much the editing synergized with your message. Thank you for this-I shall listen several more times for inspiration. Subbed!

These are great ideas, thanks, I love it when combat matters, like song, survival or anything else it should be part of the story and characters, it doesn't have to further them, every time but it should always be a roleplay moment.

I just discovered your channel and this is just the advice I needed for my first campaign as GM. Thank you. I'm going to follow your channel right away.

Man this is some fantastic advice! I love your examples too because when my brain here’s goals, it immediately jumps to big things, and your examples are simple and grounded.

I realized this when I started playing Fate*. Playing fiction-first systems in general opened my eyes to these details that make the scenes more meaningful to the progression of the plot. Today I incorporate much of what I learned from these systems into all of my campaigns. *note: I recommend it to anyone who is willing to break paradigms and venture into new systems, Fate gave me a lot of cool ideas that can be applied to any rpg.

I love this! The best fights are always the ones that move the plot forward! Ended up taking session 0s really seriously so I could get into the mind of each character to make the fights really matter to them. Had a pirate-con artist-Sisyphus type who was constantly terrified because an irate God had shut the door on his ability to come back from the dead so had a sort of ghost rider/wolf from puss in boots type unstoppable bounty hunter always tracking him. Made the fights really high stakes

Just discovered your channel and love your style. I've always though of TTRPG's as cooperative storytelling and not just the video-game style of numbers and fighting. Keep up the great work, I've subscribed and look forward to more!

I recommend giving Burning Wheel a read. When you engage in a conflict, you decide what is at stake for both sides, and the characters have Beliefs which are challenged by conflict. It's a system built to do a lot of what this very good video describes, and it helped me learn to be a better GM and create better conflicts in games other than Burning Wheel as well.

40 seconds and it’s already the Frenchest TTRPG video I’ve ever seen. 😂💖

Oh my goodness! This video was so succinct and absolutely enthralling, I feel like this helped me reflect on how I run battles. Thank you!

This is part of why my favorite RPG is a game called Mythras. It could be called a very simulationist kinda game, but it's not _as_ cumbersome as many games like that are, and most importantly... Combat _matters._ Like, choosing to fight someone is a big choice. Mythras fights are actually blow-by-blow duels rather than "and then I swing my sword again", physical injury is a serious problem, and there's a LOT of opportunities for someone to surrender for the sake of their lives. So it doesn't happen often. Combined with the game's big focus on connections to your local community, when a fight happens, it's mechanically interesting in a way that satisfies the "I wanna fight" people, it's almost always narriatively significant, and it's detailed enough that it feels like you're still in RP mode, just with way more structure, rather than everything becoming very abstracted. Most players recognize the price and stakes of pulling a weapon on someone so everyone defaults to literally any other solution, which just feels right narriatively. (Also it manages to do all of that without the "oh, there goes your 1hp, I guess you're dead" issue.)

Just discovered your channel, thanks for the inspiration. This is just what I needed to help advance my RP. Subscribed!

I love this! I love your voice, love your presentation, love your accent (from my perspective), and these amazing tips

I love this approach so very much. Your video gave me quite some interesting ideas for my tables, although it will give me headaches having all of this in my head at the quick recall within moments while juggling numbers and the fight. Thank you

Thank you for codifying so many of the things I’ve been feeling about how I run combat! Haven’t really been able to articulate it until now but the lack of story cohesion with compelling combat is something I think I can better address because of this video!

I love Chronicles of Darkness in this regard, all combat, all chases and investigations require someone pointing out their intent to get something done or if the intent is actual removal of an individual/group. Each player states their intent and you get a meta discussion before jumping back into the game to resolve the various points of intent.

This is both well put and super comprehensive. I'm saving this video to watch later.

Just wanted to say I really appreciate the softer lighting in your video , and your humour too .

This is excellent! I very rarely watch short rpg content, but you had me subscribing in three minutes. On a par with a lot of the best written blogs.

Great stuff as always! Keep em coming!

Straight up solid advice all the way around. Some people just want to win at combat, but even those can often be sucked into the right story. Nothing sidetracks murder hobos like the sudden realization that they have been outplayed, and are working toward the wrong (often painfully so) objective.

Really cool! I have compiled lots of info for combat to make a guide for myself, I didnt put a lot of emphasis on this, now I have, I feel like its the most important thing and I didnt notice until now. Thanks

This is absolutely wonderful and helpful. Thank you ❤

Love this video! Thank you for the inspiration!

Great content, love the vibe of this channel. I always wanted to run a game or play in a more Noir style and your channel fills exactly this niche! Great advice! Love it! :D

Thanks for this video! You really gave me a lot of ideas to make combat way more interesting

I just discovered this channel, and you're already one of my favorite DnD youtubers to listen to. Your content is so well presented, and interesting, and your voice is very nice to listen to. I don't usually leave comments, but we need to help the algorithm show you to new people.

YT algorithm really did some good work here! Found you today and watched all your videos. You're a really really creative person and surely a great GM! Thank you for great tips, stories and a spark of creativity

A lovely video. Thank you. I now have an idea for an extra element to add to an upcoming fight for my players in a mine.

Love the video. We can all get stuck in a rut where combat has little to no meaning. This makes it so much more interesting. Hope you make a lot more of these!

I'm impressed. You've worded it far better than I could. Bravo. Sharing this to my protégé.

This single video of excellent content and your lovely accent have made my day after a very very long shift at work. Thanks for cheering me up and inspiring me. Instant sub.

The depth of content and introspection in these videos are on the same level as Dungeon Masterpiece (Baron Du Ropp). It takes me a few watches to internalize and apply it on my table. Thank you for making these videos!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

6 ай бұрын

Baron is super cool and I am super flattered

Hello! I just wanted to say your content is just what I needed for motivation for my own games. I'm a GM and I struggle with making non combat encounters. I found your channel and you are outright amazing in the way you explain your methods and creative ideas. Thank you so much for sharing your craft and ideas :)

Damn this is EXACTLY what I needed for years! Thanks for bringing that up in a condensed form. Because we record our sessions for a podcast I also try to get away from roll heavy rules based combat (and the players also are way more interested in RP

I must say, this is quite good. Very good job, and great ideas. This has been missing in my games. I will attempt to integrate and learn from you, thank you.

You are not just a game master, you are an artist. i look forward to more.

Inspiring & intriguing. Thank You!

Great video! I love the way you laid this out, I feel like I've had this problem a lot lately. My combat & roleplay have almost felt like two separate games. I hadn't seen any of your stuff before, but consider me a new subscriber!

Excellent video! If the DM throws enough NPCs at you, your entire group will really like one of them. It's very motivating to realize that the NPC could die, or worse.

I guess I follow some of these tips unconsiously, but it's nice to be more conscious of it.

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

having been a player at your table, i can confirm you are a MASTER at that

Great video, thank you so much!

For dozens of reasons, your accent not the least of them, I want to play Curse of Strahd with you as my GM. =) Thank you for the great video!

This was fun! Thanks, and sharing with my D&D friends right now!

I personally enjoy combats, but with one important condition: combats should serve the story and enchance it, and not being fillers to have players drain resources or beat something up. Every combat (but I prefer the word "conflict", which is more generic) can be a powerful moment to drive the plot and raise drama if it makes sense story-wise and is done well (and also when it doesn't take like 2 hours to finish!)

@claudiolentini5067

7 ай бұрын

I agree. Too bad that DnD 5E resource balance directly encourages you to put those fillers in to drain player's resources and make the more significant confrontations shine. If the players have the possibility to go nova, particularly at higher levels, they will render those confrontation much less dramatic If you don't believe me, try to put what is the villain/main bad guy of the adventure as the first or sole combat of the day in front of the players, and see how it goes and how the combat feels

@thatguyyouhatealot

3 ай бұрын

Filler combats are necessary in any heroic fiction game. If every combat is a difficult narrative based encounter, they start to all feel the same. These filler combats can enhance the story too Plus some games are balanced around draining the parties resources with these kinds of encounters

This is a really wonderful and useful video! Cheers!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

aaaah thank you! means a lot coming from you!

I love "ominous af crystal" and will try and introduce one into my campaign when I run it next year, thank you! Oh, and all of your other fantastic approaches. Thank you.

Great content and you have an amazing voice to listen to! You have gained a subscriber! :)

What great quality stuff - I really enjoyed that video and it gave me loads to think about.

This is really great advice. I have sort of been doing this already, but I like how this video creates a method for it. The conflict framework was really useful. Though, I knew it in general the aspect that the characters come changed after it was new and exciting one. It makes sense, but I just hadn't put it to words yet. I like structure in my storytelling and that helps the most when you have to improvise stuff up (which is most of the time for me :D). Recently I have experimented with other systems besides DnD. Thirsty Sword Lesbians (and the PbtA engine) made me realize how combat can be exciting and how you can add stakes with each roll into an everturning tide where the players get some but the baddies almost always get something in return. I think it opened me to switch things up on the fly a lot more since the system encourages it through mixed beats (good stuff with a consequence) and down beats (bad stuff happens). It encourages you to add stakes to each situation with each roll. Of course they can be smaller or greater, but it encourages you to think of each encounter (social, combat, intrigue, etc.) as having stakes. I think the advice of tying the story to the PCs stories is the most crucial one. The players have to care about the stakes and the best way to ensure that is to have personal stakes. Sure, the end of the world is bad, but what if you are merged with the BBEG, also in love with them and the PCs you are fighting are your friends. Would you still want to destroy them to save the world? (This happened in my last Thirsty Sword Lesbians game.) Awesome video. Really got my creative juices flowing~! 😄✨

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

oh my, I've been wanting to try Thirsty sword lesbians for a bit hahaha, i love PbtA games so much. I think this video doesn't really apply to most PbtA games, so many of them have mechanics that inherently makes combat storytelling oriented! Love it!

This is one of the best DND commentary videos I've seen, and seeing that it's coming from a small channel (that's my size!) is really, really cool. Super well done, you should be proud!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

OH MY, I SEE STOP MOTION

@mc_cheshire

7 ай бұрын

@@corkboardsandcuriosities Haha, yep! I do a lot of media reccomendations, but I also edit a DND webseries over on kzread.info/dron/niX7X2iU91sXYPZ2DOCcJQ.html (though we're reworking episodes 001 and 002 right now since it's not up to our current polish)

@rubededcii2395

6 ай бұрын

@@mc_cheshire I saw a little and wow. who does the art for the videos? its really impresive how many ilustrations there are in a video. And the music, editing, I mean thats a lot of effort for a yt video.

This is so cool! Thanks for the cool ideas!

Getting into the swing of doing conflict based Combat has been something I've been moving towards. Making a list of things which a combat must accomplish is an idea I hadn't considered. I've moved away from encounter days and have started building encounters on the principle of "What exists in the world exists in the world." Moreso building interesting locations with inhabitants which might come into conflict with the players. Making foils is another good technique I've started, and it has worked wonderfully. It drives my players insane.

I was nodding along at each point. All of these are how I like to craft my conflicts as well. Regardless that I am a 20+ year gamemaster veteran, I still seek out videos like this one to keep my thinking on track with making impactful encounters. My favorite thing to do in encounters, as you mentioned in your qualitative outcomes topic, is to place moral quandaries, double-edged swords, if you will. There isn't always a clear, "right path" for every member in the party. For some, it may be crystal clear what to do, others are likely to disagree. This is a method I like to use to inspire the members of the party to have to compromise with each other. Great video!

Fantastic video! Informative and pleasant to listen/watch. Thanks!

Thanks! A lot of nice ideas and advices included into these 9 minutes

This is such good advice and such a high quality video! Commenting so more ppl see it :) Also, to anyone whose interested, I believe the narrative dice in the Genysis rpg by fantasy flight games work very well with this sort of play.

00:26 I take that declaration as a personal challenge, my friend. Wonderful vid! My own little take is the "three-round rule". Basically, if this is not a boss fight where people are not having fun, the best turn round to cut it off or change it up is at round 3. Having an escape plan, an arena-breaking trap/incident, or even just a room change can switch up the pacing of the combat. This combined with your tips can definitely enrich D&D and other adjacent combat-based systems easily. Most would say DnD is difficult to have drama-filled combat because of its rule system. Even one terrible piece of advice that says just fudge the dice to have the outcome you want for drama. Don't. If you can hide it well, good. But most of the time, your players can feel it. Then, the sense of achievement for anything moving forward is gone.

We need more TTRPG KZreadrs like you, with fresh perspectives and whose experience is not limited to DnD. In regards to the topic, I think a good amount of my frustration with combat in TTRPGs (especially DnD and DnD-adjacent games) is how the mechanics get in the way of the narrative rather than support it, and how it drags the pace of the story to a halt. Maybe you could touch on how you approach that aspect?

I love the editing on these videos. Great work. More people need to find her :)

This is stupid-good inspiration 😍 Thank you so much for making this video!

Spectacular! Thank you for that!

Really great ideas to add story to any combat. Thank you for the video

New sub. That was the most thought provoking piece of D&D content I've seen in a while.

@corkboardsandcuriosities

6 ай бұрын

yup, you did it. I'm about to cry happy tears. thank you

Holy crap that was good! 2nd video I’ve seen from you, absolutely subscribing!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

2 ай бұрын

Haaa welcome! Happy to have you!

I think this is what I needed to hear going into my Feywild chapter! Trying to find a way to integrate one of my player’s backstory without boring the rest of the table is my issue right now and I think this is how I’ll do it! ❤️

Great video, Val.

Another excellent video with excellent advice and I love that this video has advice that can be applied to all sectors of DND and not just combat!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

7 ай бұрын

haha yeah, perhaps i like RP and storytelling a little bit too much, I am hoping to make a vid that is more broadly about these topics but outside of combat.

@stef4981

7 ай бұрын

@@corkboardsandcuriosities No, I think it's not that you like roleplay too much; DND doesn't do a good job of making combat feel narrative. :p and as long as everyone has fun, that's what matters :)

Great tips! Thanks a bunch, going to use the story beats in a fight. An easy way to add in some more information to fights

Oooo, this is such a nice channel!!! :D Quite aesthetically pleasing.

As i am slowly building up tension for my group for a potential fight to come, this vid is a godsent

Secondary Goals are IT for me. Not the only tip for combat, but those secondary goals are wonderful. They make the "reason for combat" necessary. Your bit about adding stoey beats and keeping the timing of the changing circumstances in mind really changed my thinking. Thanks for this. Earned a sub from me for that. Gotta think of this the next time I plan and run the game.

I am a forever DM in several groups and settings, I even dm'd for several smaller groups that wanted to try out DnD and other PnPModules on a larger Discord Server, causing me to run several mini campaigns at the same time which ultimately were woven together to make different parties meet, fight or generaly interact with one another! That out of the way, a few pointers I can give to make combat awesome (according to almost all those players, they specifically told me these sessions were some of their favorites due to these tips) - Narrate the Combat order! Example: your Barbarian just attacked the hulking Otyugh, its tentacles waving around him like wicked arms ready to strike from any direction! - Instead of "Barbarian is done? Great, Wizard its your turn!" you say "Sevron ! (character name I pulled out of my bum) Wittnessing this reckless attack into the onslaught of whipping tentacles by Ognash, utilizing his mighty Warhammer, you notice an opening presenting itself to you ! The Otyugh is off balance, stepping backwards from the assault while trying to engage its tentacles to push back the Orc infront of it. What do you do?!" -> player gets send into the narrative (if they happened to not pay attention it tells them again what has to be done and what someone else did before them) and also it narrates the fight a bit better to keep people engaged in their characters roleplay! (for example, wittnessing the otyugh being off balance and trying to step away, maybe they wanna try a dexterity saving throw spell to try to make it topple or simply suggest it might not be able to dodge!) - Address the players Combat-actions as the villain when they do them! Utilize 'free' roleplay actions to do so ! Example: The Parties Gnome managed to sneak behind the BBEG, but sadly, even with advantage and +20000 to dexterity, their Ultra uber 2d400 Sneak attack fails for the THIRD turn in a row. Instead of trying to 'get done with combat' since its been dragging on for so long and all your players can do is fail every second roll, Address their failure ingame, as the bad guy! (and why they ended up failing! coz man they're lvl 14 at this point, godlike powers are aat their fingertips and here they are failing to open a lock..??) "Ah, Hobnob the Gnome is it?" The Ancient wizard speaks as time slows around you, your friends freeze in place, their very breath seems to be stuck in mid air, forming smaller pockets of mist infront of their mouths. The air you breath is cold, dense and wet. Your throat aches as your ears pick up his words "What a futile attempt, by a lousy Rogue such as yourself..." His face slowly turns to meet your gaze, eyeing you over his shoulder before he shifts his posture a mere few inches to adjust for the incoming attack. As you come to your senses, fully realizing time has stood still around you, it is already over. The arrow gets flung forward and in an unnaturally swift maneuver the other players notice his otherworldy reactionspeed. The arrow clanks against the wall across the room before Hobnob's pupils tighten in fear. The wizards eyes, still focused on the rogue behind him portray an expression of overwhelming power. You've never seen something like this before. Hobnob. you're beneath him. And you know it. Also: Try to do the same for the players, invite them to describe their greatest feats at any moment they're overcoming an enemy, as they finish a good / important roll, narrate first "The Halfling tumbles forward, the momentum of his last strike send him forward too much, driven by baals influence, his only interest was spilling your blood! But perhaps.. that was his undoing?" - invite them to continue, show the other players what their character is capable off and also refer back to those moments with NPC's and other things, congratulating them on their feats, victories or just singular moves! - Set the tone for your combat scenarios BEFORE you have them. Example: Instead of simply throwing your characters into combat, suggest them to engage with their surroundings before it happens. (Unless surprised completly with suddenly popping up enemies) "Cirilnur, your elven eyes pierce the veil. For but a moment, you can see a reddened flicker around The Dukes body. Mother nature itself is trying to warn you, as the air around you tightens, you try to warn your fellowship. How do you prepare for what is to come, if not, try to prevent it entirely?" -> gives the group the warning "oup, shouldn't have said that to the duke!" and also prepares them for combat without dragging them out of the game's narrative. - Fit in Perception, Insight, Survival and other checks into your fight! Prepare specialized surroundings that make sense in the encounter. Example Nudge them into a certain way of playing if you're introducing this mechanic to the game. While they're fighting narrate after they attacked / didnt get hit "your clashing swords propell magical waves throughout the entire hall of the Mountain King. The nobles are entertained, and yet you've not had ample time enough to adjust in the dark. However, the weaves of magic, glimmering through the darkness reveal a possible attempt at gaining the advantage! your poor eyesight would not betray you: There's a chandelier hanging above the battlegrounds, being the source of several, green emerald gems, barily illuminating your surroundings. -> Incite them to try and make the thing fall onto the enemy for trying to find weaknesses in Structures around them, let them utilize bookshelves to block off passages and oil to make non-flammable things flammable!

I really needed a video like this! I love combat but I'm running a campaign for a group of players who really don't care for it, so this is super helpful for me. Thanks!

@corkboardsandcuriosities

6 ай бұрын

hahaha sounds like your players are just like me. If that's the case, it means they're likely to make you do more work haha, but i promise they will reward you with great rp and engagement!

This is the stuff I live for, awesome video! Gets me excited for my next session!

One mechanical house rule I feel creates a narrative effect (I ask my players if they want to do this session zero), is have the possibility that a critical can become a severe critical but only in BBEG fights. This means both they and the boss are subject to it and could result in the loss of an ear, eye, hand, foot, arm or leg. It's very difficult to get as you need two criticals in row, but it *has* actually happened and we have never forgotten it. Even when it resulted in a character losing something, it created a memorable moment for everyone at the table and one that the player was able to then use to build meaningful story around as well.