Collateral Damage

[Watchman-BN]

I'd like some GM advice on adding items to the battlefield for players to use during fights, or even during non-combat time.

One former player used to have a great visual sense of what items would be in a given room (chemical lab, night club, bank lobby, etc.). His character was somewhat underpowered--a skill-centered martial artist--but he used the environment brilliantly to his advantage.

The really nice thing was, he'd suggest or ask if an item was there and it always made perfect sense.

I've had other players who suffer either from (a) lack imagination or (b)a lack of common sense. I've experienced far too many, "it's a chemical lab so there must be a powerful acid in one of the vials." type of questions. For fun, sometimes there's acid, but there can't always be some poweful (destructive) item in easy hand's reach.

Besides, it just takes too long to draw or describe everything in a room.

Suggestions?

[pinecone]

Use paper counters or use a generic luck roll..."Roll 3D6 plus any you've got" Basicly what you're unhappy is bad roleplaying so by all means discourage it. Maybe reward the most basic roleplay and slowly raise the bar..."Why yes there most certainly is....how do you propose to find it?"

[Old Man]

The trick is to picture a similar location in your head. This works especially well for mundane places you've been to. What's in a 7-Eleven? Rows of shelves full of Twinkies, refrigerated shelves along the walls, a counter with one or two cash registers and a box of Slim Jims, a magazine rack, a bored and irritated clerk, the Slurpee and Big Gulp machines, and (if it's one of the fancy 7-Elevens) a heated shelf for hot dogs and whatnot.

Non mundane locations like power plants or oil rigs or secret laboratories are much more difficult. For these I usually have to try and remember similar locations from the movies.

[Watchman-BN]

I like both ideas. I've modified every roll in the game at one point or another but never thought about adding dice of luck to a roll. Cool thought, pinecone.

And, Old Man, I agree (hey, I respect my elders!) with visualizing the setting. I don't have a problem doing it, but the players seem to have a hard time visualizing a reasonable setting unless I bog down the story line with exposition...

I *think* I reward creative use of the environment sufficiently to act as an incentive. Certainly the villains duck behind tables (that I may not have drawn on the map, but would reasonably be there), wield candlesticks as weapons, and so forth.

Anyone play a lot with HA or EB, OAF weapons of opportunity? Do you tell the player what's available, or let them suggest reasonable items?

[Killer Shrike]

I used to wargame a lot, so I understand the importance of good terrain. It makes a ho-hum superfight into a cool struggle in an interesting venue ;)

Try to layout props if possible; it adds a lot to the fights. It also has a tendency to keep fights more contained, and avoid running battles. Players will usually instinctively stay inside the boundaries of an elaborate terrain set up, where as they are more likely to range afield on a bare hex map. IME, etc