Hi, i'm a new DM and started playing this recently.
I just bought the starter set and begin a campaign with some friends.
In some point one of the PC challanged a chief goblin to a duel, this was a big moment and everyone had high expectations. But with the rolls the duel prolonged to much and started to bore the other players.
How can i narrate a 1 on 1 combat without turning this way
I'm a fencer IRL and have practiced (to varying degrees) German Longsword, Rapier, Poleaxe, Saber, Spear, Staff, and Wrestling. The greatest narrative realization I came across was that Hit Points don't always equate to actual bodily harm in combat.
Let's say a legendary knight in shining plate squares off against an ancient dragon. The dragon lands a "hit" with a bite attack, but it doesn't drop the knight to 0. Did the bite clamp down, pierce the armor, and rend flesh? Of course not, because that would almost be a death sentence. Instead, what if the dragon's mouth was stopped by the knight's shield and sword, but the force of impact and compression caused damage instead?
Adding non-lethal, non-bodily near-misses is a great way to spice up routine hits and many misses. Not only does it add vivid narrative, but also a sense of the looming danger of combat. In your example of a duel with an orc chief, if an attack misses by over 5, maybe it's totally blocked/parried/deflected. With anything closer, the PC is knocked around a bit, by ultimately defends without injury. If the chief has an axe for, say, 5-19 (2d8+3) damage, break out the damage range into chunks named for severity of injury. A blow across a breastplate or directly over the handle of a shield may not cleave the target, but it will definitely hurt and have an effect on "Hit Points" due to pain, iniury, or battle fatigue.
Let's play an example: Orc has a greataxe and lighter armor, human has heavy armor with shield and sword; the orc has 3 attacks, the human has 2. The orc chieftain charges and slams into the human's shield, using the butt of his axe to leverage an opening around the shield (far miss). His second attack wheels the axe over and hooks the shield; the force of which overwhelms the adversary, dropping the shield low (near miss). Seizing the brief opening, the orc makes a short swing that slams the knight's helmet, dazing the human for half a step (hit, moderate damage). The human retaliates with a hard swing of both sword and shield which sets aside the orc's axe (near miss). Sensing the impending difference in strength, the knight tries to pierce the orc's body. He deftly slides his blade forward, but only severs a few rings from the orc's chainmail hauberk (hit, low damage).
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Sometimes as a DM you have to just create the extra stuff. You could have see if you can get the other players wanted to place bets; the goblins used the fight to set up an ambush on the rest of the party. Just really anything or get their opinions of their characters while the fight is going on.
I just had a 1v1 tournament where mine the two that weren’t fighting were just sitting around. I have an in game PC I play as well. He is a Human Wizard. He decided to talk to the rest of the party about their fights and bring up other stuff. He joked and paved way for some future quests.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi, i'm a new DM and started playing this recently.
I just bought the starter set and begin a campaign with some friends.
In some point one of the PC challanged a chief goblin to a duel, this was a big moment and everyone had high expectations. But with the rolls the duel prolonged to much and started to bore the other players.
How can i narrate a 1 on 1 combat without turning this way
Matt Mercer did quite well here: https://youtu.be/FM6L4tuyXq0?t=28m00s
I was also just thinking of one of Grog's pit fights as an excellent example as well.
One on one combat could get sum with dice. We often call it "sweaty groin punching".
One GM turned it into a word game. You know the kind where you have to rhymn but can't use the same word twice.
The GM described an attack and I said a counter... And that kept going until someone couldn't think of something new. That was a hit.
I'm a fencer IRL and have practiced (to varying degrees) German Longsword, Rapier, Poleaxe, Saber, Spear, Staff, and Wrestling. The greatest narrative realization I came across was that Hit Points don't always equate to actual bodily harm in combat.
Let's say a legendary knight in shining plate squares off against an ancient dragon. The dragon lands a "hit" with a bite attack, but it doesn't drop the knight to 0. Did the bite clamp down, pierce the armor, and rend flesh? Of course not, because that would almost be a death sentence. Instead, what if the dragon's mouth was stopped by the knight's shield and sword, but the force of impact and compression caused damage instead?
Adding non-lethal, non-bodily near-misses is a great way to spice up routine hits and many misses. Not only does it add vivid narrative, but also a sense of the looming danger of combat. In your example of a duel with an orc chief, if an attack misses by over 5, maybe it's totally blocked/parried/deflected. With anything closer, the PC is knocked around a bit, by ultimately defends without injury. If the chief has an axe for, say, 5-19 (2d8+3) damage, break out the damage range into chunks named for severity of injury. A blow across a breastplate or directly over the handle of a shield may not cleave the target, but it will definitely hurt and have an effect on "Hit Points" due to pain, iniury, or battle fatigue.
Let's play an example: Orc has a greataxe and lighter armor, human has heavy armor with shield and sword; the orc has 3 attacks, the human has 2. The orc chieftain charges and slams into the human's shield, using the butt of his axe to leverage an opening around the shield (far miss). His second attack wheels the axe over and hooks the shield; the force of which overwhelms the adversary, dropping the shield low (near miss). Seizing the brief opening, the orc makes a short swing that slams the knight's helmet, dazing the human for half a step (hit, moderate damage). The human retaliates with a hard swing of both sword and shield which sets aside the orc's axe (near miss). Sensing the impending difference in strength, the knight tries to pierce the orc's body. He deftly slides his blade forward, but only severs a few rings from the orc's chainmail hauberk (hit, low damage).
Characters:
Grishkar Darkmoor, Necromancer of Nerull the Despiser
Kelvin Rabbitfoot, Diviner, con artist, always hunting for a good sale
Bründir Halfshield, Valor Bard, three-time Sheercleft Drinking Competition Champion, Hometown hero
Sometimes as a DM you have to just create the extra stuff. You could have see if you can get the other players wanted to place bets; the goblins used the fight to set up an ambush on the rest of the party. Just really anything or get their opinions of their characters while the fight is going on.
I just had a 1v1 tournament where mine the two that weren’t fighting were just sitting around. I have an in game PC I play as well. He is a Human Wizard. He decided to talk to the rest of the party about their fights and bring up other stuff. He joked and paved way for some future quests.