Hi all, I'm looking for some better tips on describing combat. I find myself often using the same phrases, and last game was particularly tough when my group faced a bunch of Zombies that would not die. The Zombies kept making save after save, and I was eventually like uh....he's still standing.
I find that i used alot of the same phrases, pointed out to me by my characters in jest sometimes. Any tips on being better at descriptions of what happens when someone gets hit, misses, is killed, etc.?
I find that it helps if you have your players describe their attacks and other actions a little bit so that you have something to play off of.
As an example with the zombies, say your player is stabbing into a particularly close zombie. You ask them to describe the attack and they say something like "I drive my sword deep into it!" From there you can roll the save for the zombie. If it fails and dies you can say something like "The zombie sloughs off your blade as you draw back, collapsing to the floor in a heap." If it succeeds, you can say something along the lines of "Your blade bites deep into the zombies innards, but instead of becoming inert, the undead creature pushes forward, driving your sword deeper into its empty cavity as it claws for your vitals!"
As people get better at describing things, the flow of battle begins to feel more cinematic. Think about how monsters react to things in movies and try to incorporate those descriptions into your stories.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Watching some HEMA videos may help as well, as you can use the organic back-and-forth between combatants to inform you on weapon handling, striking, compensating, etc. One useful thing in watching the videos is seeing just how truly diverse weapons are, such as swords. Skilled swordsmen used every bit of the weapon, from the pommel, to the cross guard, to the various parts of the blade. So often our descriptive minds as GMs are informed by the highly choreographed movies and videos we've seen in media that we forget how unscripted reality made people innovate with their weapons and fighting styles.
Here's an example: 50 seconds in shows the use of the pommel; 2 mins in shows one combatant forcing an opponent to stab himself with his own sword. Even so, the combatants are providing demonstrations, so their moves are choreographed.
Hi all, I'm looking for some better tips on describing combat. I find myself often using the same phrases, and last game was particularly tough when my group faced a bunch of Zombies that would not die. The Zombies kept making save after save, and I was eventually like uh....he's still standing.
I find that i used alot of the same phrases, pointed out to me by my characters in jest sometimes. Any tips on being better at descriptions of what happens when someone gets hit, misses, is killed, etc.?
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
I find that it helps if you have your players describe their attacks and other actions a little bit so that you have something to play off of.
As an example with the zombies, say your player is stabbing into a particularly close zombie. You ask them to describe the attack and they say something like "I drive my sword deep into it!" From there you can roll the save for the zombie. If it fails and dies you can say something like "The zombie sloughs off your blade as you draw back, collapsing to the floor in a heap." If it succeeds, you can say something along the lines of "Your blade bites deep into the zombies innards, but instead of becoming inert, the undead creature pushes forward, driving your sword deeper into its empty cavity as it claws for your vitals!"
As people get better at describing things, the flow of battle begins to feel more cinematic. Think about how monsters react to things in movies and try to incorporate those descriptions into your stories.
Thanks for the advice, bringing them in should definitely help
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
Watching some HEMA videos may help as well, as you can use the organic back-and-forth between combatants to inform you on weapon handling, striking, compensating, etc. One useful thing in watching the videos is seeing just how truly diverse weapons are, such as swords. Skilled swordsmen used every bit of the weapon, from the pommel, to the cross guard, to the various parts of the blade. So often our descriptive minds as GMs are informed by the highly choreographed movies and videos we've seen in media that we forget how unscripted reality made people innovate with their weapons and fighting styles.
Here's an example: 50 seconds in shows the use of the pommel; 2 mins in shows one combatant forcing an opponent to stab himself with his own sword. Even so, the combatants are providing demonstrations, so their moves are choreographed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmLaZHStmI
HEMA training video (guy rolled a nat 1 at about the 3:55 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NmbXXXE7pQ
An example of how unelegant medieval fighting could be:
https://youtu.be/c04-L36fGhc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYxQR5haqTs
Polearm fighting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdVYW9r2G3U
Sword v Spear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8RWLxlzTiM