Looking for guidance for both in-person and PbP formats. Do you narratively explain it? Or just say “Villain takes legendary action x” as an action, at the end of a player’s turn?
I do out-of-character so my players know I'm not accidentally skipping turns. In PbP games, I have separate gameplay and mechanics channels to help distinguish this. In person or over voice chat, I just announce it. After handling the mechanics, I'll narrate the action like I would for any other villain attack.
Almost identical process at my table as well. Announce it to let the table know that I'm not botching initiative and then narrate the action as normal.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I generally don't announce Legendary actions or any other actions or reactions a monster take, unless the players ask for justification. I just narratively explains, prefering to tell what happens when taken based on what they can perceive.
I announce and go as far telling them how many legendary actions said creature have - e.g: The dragon uses two of its three legendary actions to do a wing attack. I describe in a narrative way afterwards.
I like to have the two layers of play, to help the players realize that the creature is bounded by mechanics and it's not pulling things out of his ass just because I want to.
But that is a very table by table feel, some tables like to be more free and the players are ok with the full narrative approach - where DMs are not bound by the same rules as them, so, they are not even paying attention to things like legendary actions or reactions and such, because the narrative is the full front of everything.
For others, the narrative is still important, but the mechanic backbone of the interactions is what validate the experience.
I think you need to figure out where you stand in that spectrum, as I said, personally, I hate playing without the mechanics visibility both as a player and as DM. As a player it annoys me when DMs are playing the creatures with things like infinite reactions or using extra actions just because they want to and, as a DM, I like to be bound by rules that the players understand as we play, so that they can strategize accordingly; thus making combat feel more like a game.
But in the end, it's a matter of how you and your group like to play, to be honest. Is the same spectrum of discussion as hiding/showing rolls, fudging/not fudging dice... etc
I have a standard explanation "Creature X using his Legendary Action Y". Then I give a narrative in-game description of the action. It's pretty simple and my players do not seem to feel it takes anything away from the game...well except when the Legendary action goes off.
"At the end of your turn, the legendary green dragon lashes out with her tail." While announcing where in the turn it occurs offers some metagaming information, it still presents the danger to the players of letting their guard down. Legendary actions have a bit of a similar metagaming aspect like Legendary resistances, though lesser depending on your party. One group will count resistances to ensure they can burn through them before hitting with their top level spells, but since actions refresh per round counting them becomes less of a concern and just a recognition that they are fighting a powerful creature.
First time I used a legendary action with a beginner group, I briefly went "Ok, just so you are not confused, legendary creatures sometimes get legendary actions outside of their turn in initiative". I didn't explain the mechanic in detail, but I also didn't want them to scratch their heads about why this monster is allowed to act now..
Once they understood that such a thing exists, I just narrate "Before you get a chance to act, the XXX suddenly YYY"
My group fought a dragon last weekend and Legendary Actions came up. When they asked how the dragon could do some of the things it was doing, my response was... "Please, I'm a dragon!"
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Looking for guidance for both in-person and PbP formats.
Do you narratively explain it? Or just say “Villain takes legendary action x” as an action, at the end of a player’s turn?
thanks!
DM - And In The Darkness, Rot: The Sunless Citadel
DM - Our Little Lives Kept In Equipoise: Curse of Strahd
DM - Misprize Thou Not These Shadows That Belong: The Lost Mines of Phandelver
PC - Azzure - Tyranny of Dragons
I do out-of-character so my players know I'm not accidentally skipping turns. In PbP games, I have separate gameplay and mechanics channels to help distinguish this. In person or over voice chat, I just announce it. After handling the mechanics, I'll narrate the action like I would for any other villain attack.
Almost identical process at my table as well. Announce it to let the table know that I'm not botching initiative and then narrate the action as normal.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I generally don't announce Legendary actions or any other actions or reactions a monster take, unless the players ask for justification. I just narratively explains, prefering to tell what happens when taken based on what they can perceive.
I announce and go as far telling them how many legendary actions said creature have - e.g: The dragon uses two of its three legendary actions to do a wing attack. I describe in a narrative way afterwards.
I like to have the two layers of play, to help the players realize that the creature is bounded by mechanics and it's not pulling things out of his ass just because I want to.
But that is a very table by table feel, some tables like to be more free and the players are ok with the full narrative approach - where DMs are not bound by the same rules as them, so, they are not even paying attention to things like legendary actions or reactions and such, because the narrative is the full front of everything.
For others, the narrative is still important, but the mechanic backbone of the interactions is what validate the experience.
I think you need to figure out where you stand in that spectrum, as I said, personally, I hate playing without the mechanics visibility both as a player and as DM. As a player it annoys me when DMs are playing the creatures with things like infinite reactions or using extra actions just because they want to and, as a DM, I like to be bound by rules that the players understand as we play, so that they can strategize accordingly; thus making combat feel more like a game.
But in the end, it's a matter of how you and your group like to play, to be honest. Is the same spectrum of discussion as hiding/showing rolls, fudging/not fudging dice... etc
I have a standard explanation "Creature X using his Legendary Action Y". Then I give a narrative in-game description of the action. It's pretty simple and my players do not seem to feel it takes anything away from the game...well except when the Legendary action goes off.
"At the end of your turn, the legendary green dragon lashes out with her tail." While announcing where in the turn it occurs offers some metagaming information, it still presents the danger to the players of letting their guard down. Legendary actions have a bit of a similar metagaming aspect like Legendary resistances, though lesser depending on your party. One group will count resistances to ensure they can burn through them before hitting with their top level spells, but since actions refresh per round counting them becomes less of a concern and just a recognition that they are fighting a powerful creature.
First time I used a legendary action with a beginner group, I briefly went "Ok, just so you are not confused, legendary creatures sometimes get legendary actions outside of their turn in initiative". I didn't explain the mechanic in detail, but I also didn't want them to scratch their heads about why this monster is allowed to act now..
Once they understood that such a thing exists, I just narrate "Before you get a chance to act, the XXX suddenly YYY"
This is a bit "tongue-in-cheek," but...
My group fought a dragon last weekend and Legendary Actions came up. When they asked how the dragon could do some of the things it was doing, my response was... "Please, I'm a dragon!"
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Since I and my players are all also MtG Commander format players we have a tendency to end up using phrases/conventions from there.
IE: For a reaction - "in response" and For Legendary Actions - "at the end of your turn ..."