I didn’t prep much for the first Encounters session because I didn’t know what to expect. Prepping for this game, I try to give a little more. Besides building the board with my Dungeon tiles, I setup my Ipad with KeyNote (a presentation slide program) to make a little slide show of the kanks that the PCs could see. I also grabbed Initiative Tracker for the pad to try that out for combat tracking.
This game started with one returning player (hey Bob!) and three new players. Two are totally new to 4e and one of them is an enthutiastic newcomer to roleplaying in general. Wooo, new people! Everyone except the one returning player is pretty new to Dark Sun; I take a second to explain what Athas is like then sketch the basics of 4e to those new to the system.
We start with the Fleeing the Wastes skill challenge. I pose the question: ”What are you doing to survive?” I then tell them to flip over their sheets. No looking at your skills! I won’t let anyone look at his character sheets, but talk briefly with each player about what his characters do within the bounds of class or personality. We get some really good answers, answers that I know we wouldn’t get when players are trying to match their best skill to the challenge. Skill challenges are boring when you think of them in terms of what skills to use; skill challenges are exciting when you think in terms of what you want to do in the story.
One of the new players, using Castri the elven ranger, keys right in on the nature-loving aspect of the ranger, tracking birds to lead them to an oasis. The group only acquired one failure when the Barcan the sorcerer failed to channel the stars for answers.
After surviving the wastes, the adventurers find themselves face to, uh…flame? with a flame spirit. They of course do the adventurer threat-test. “Does this thing want to kill us?” After vetting the creature’s
non-desire to kill or eat them, the players speak with it. With no voice, the spirit must speak by using shooting gouts of flame to fuse sand into letter-shaped pieces of glass.
Which of course brings me to the question I asked each player: Can your character read? This is of course completely off track and not at all asked for in the adventure, but I think this detail helps players invest in who the characters are. Polling them, they decide that the gladiator and ranger cannot read, but the sorceror and the ardent can, leaving the pair to translate these glass runes.
After learning from the flame spirit of the Green Age (a time where Athas was lush and verdant), the conversation fades off a bit. A bit of banter back and forth gives the players a little history lesson, but I think that the lack of familiarity with the format –was this the one encounter? Where is it? Should we move on? — keeps the group from pressing into anything deep withe the elemental. They aren’t sure what to make or do with this mini-encounter, so time to move on to the fight! The flame spirit dissappears and the kanks — giant Athasian desert beetles — attack, presumably drawn by the flames.
The combat goes well for the players. Being new doesn’t prevent the player using Castri the Ranger from rolling incredibly well and dealing some insane damage. The kanks definitely threaten the players, but no one drops. The two new players have a lot of fun, and I think that we might have some newly converted 4e players!
Tip: Narrate Combat
Something I do that I believe increases fun and makes pickup style games such as Encounters incredibly “sticky” is to invest heavily in combat narration.
What’s more fun?
“You hit for 24 damage. The kank is bloodied.”
or
“The kank grabs at you with its pincers. You weave under the attack, and catch your weapon in its soft spot,drawing blood. 24 damage and the kank is now bloodied.”
I know which I would rather hear, and I know which players like better. The latter provides texture that players want to see and in my experience enjoy. If you’re not narrating the combat, you need to start!
Here are some tips from starting.
- Use Your Body You don’t have to improv verbally. It can be just as exciting, sometimes more exciting, to show the players how the enemy ducks, lunges, calls forth ancient spirits, and dies as it is to describe it. Don’t be afraid to just act out what’s happening.
- Ask your Players Don’t be afraid to ask your players what they do, but don’t let their participation decide whether there will be description in combat. A player may not have anything in mind, even though they delight in what you describe. Always give players a chance and encourage them to participate in describing combat, but keep the description going no matter what. Sometimes players won’t be used to this, but by the end of the session they’ll get into it.
- Action-Reaction If you’re at a loss to describe what happens, keep in mind the basic narrative element for an action scene. Action, then Reaction. What does the player do? How does the enemy react to that? If you ask your players what happens, then you’ve already got the first half.
- Keep it Short Don’t narrate for a minute for every miss and hit. Always go for impact over detail. I would say to definitely give the least time to misses, because you can alway turn them later (see below).
- Slow it Down Give turns where something big happens more emphasis in your narration. When a player criticals or deals a lot of damage, talk it up. If a monster does the same, give the monster a little descriptive love.
- Turn it Around Remember how I said to downplay misses? It’s best to downplay misses so you can turn them around when big things happen. If a monster misses and a player then scores a critical against that monster, you can then turn that miss into an event that leads into that huge critical. If a character misses with an attack, then spends an Action Point to hit with a daily, the former becomes a setup to latter.
What tips do you have for making exciting running narrative for your combats?
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
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Remember what kind of environment your characters are in when providing description. My PCs were playing thru the Scales of War adventure in which the PCs ram an ice ring around a tropical island and are set upon by a frost giant patrol. Needless to say, once the first giant was bloodied, describing the spray of blood landing on the snow was an evocative image.
Great run! As for what I do for combat, I do a little of what you do, but my first question is to have the player tell me what they are doing. I encourage descriptive narrative combat, not just “I attack that guy.” The latter gets a roll of my eyes and my general disdain for lack of trying, while if someone gives me a really friggin awesome description, I may give them a bonus, like a bonus to the attack roll or an action point or something.
(addenum to last post, got ahead of myself) Then after EVERYONE describes what they’re doing in addition to rolls, I narrate how their actions affected combat as well as tell them dice results. Find it makes things great getting the characters narrating combat along with me.
Narrate Combat.
wow its great to know Im not the only one who puts heated description in to their games. Sound effects and environmental (described) atmosphere. I hardly ever sit during the games that I run as I put actions and physical descriptions into my games. I try and get the players to say as well as they can how they attack or how that action takes place. Adding as much as possible without the dice taking over. If a player really conveys a moment that is exciting and colourful then all the better for the group and the story its self.
Thanks for posting!
@Thorynn good tip, and a great reminder of the things good narration can reinforce. It will help you and your players remember where they are and what that means.
@MagusRogue the wonders of reincorporation! Get all that input and then weave it into something bigger than the pieces. Also wonderful.
@symatt yeah, the only way that I know to make combat fun is to get into the details. Good call on the sound effects.
Flavor text is the main reason i make sure I have a list of weapons that correspond to characters in the initiative order so I can properly elaborate on what the dice mean.