phoenix240 Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 What level of detail do you try to have when it comes to your character's actions in combat both as a player and GM. Do you stick to basic mechanics, for example "I roll a 10 to hit and do 36 Stun 10 Body." or do you try for more flamboyant descriptions like "Crackling red energy seethes around my fist as I unleash a Quantum bolt at the cackling villain!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kap Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Re: Combat and description I personally enjoy the purple prose descriptions. Feels more comic booky. I also enjoy super hero and villain soliloquys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted February 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Re: Combat and description I personally enjoy the purple prose descriptions. Feels more comic booky. I also enjoy super hero and villain soliloquys. I like getting descriptive too. Maybe not the third or fourth time a character uses the same attack but adding some color spices up the fight, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kap Posted February 11, 2012 Report Share Posted February 11, 2012 Re: Combat and description I like getting descriptive too. Maybe not the third or fourth time a character uses the same attack but adding some color spices up the fight' date=' IMO.[/quote'] Agreed, I wouldn't want to "re-describe" the same thing over and over. For instance, I don't know that there are a lot of great ways to decribe Cyclops shooting his optic blast. Maybe you could describe the results differently. Hand-to-hand combat lends itself to lots of great descriptions and sound effects. But even if you don't describe the same attack the second time, you can add some flavor by having the hero say something like, "No one threatens innocent children while Cyclops is around!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ndreare Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Re: Combat and description I like to generally be quick, and usually only discribe one or two actions per combat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Re: Combat and description What level of detail do you try to have when it comes to your character's actions in combat both as a player and GM. Do you stick to basic mechanics' date=' for example "I roll a 10 to hit and do 36 Stun 10 Body." or do you try for more flamboyant descriptions like "Crackling red energy seethes around my fist as I unleash a Quantum bolt at the cackling villain!"[/quote'] Kind of depends on what I'm doing. If I'm doing something interesting ... a flashy move, an unusual/rare power, I'll usually throw more description into it. Something that a movie director would zoom in on during an action scene; if all I'm doing is standing and blasting or punching or shooting, then I keep it pretty generic, frequently just pantomiming the action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted February 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description In face to face play it can be a problem striking a balance between a good description and speed of play. Lately I've mostly been playing online so its less of an issue,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ndreare Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description In face to face play it can be a problem striking a balance between a good description and speed of play. Lately I've mostly been playing online so its less of an issue' date='.[/quote'] I imagine in online play the expectation would be for much heavier narrative? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted March 12, 2012 Report Share Posted March 12, 2012 Re: Combat and description I personally enjoy the purple prose descriptions. Feels more comic booky. I also enjoy super hero and villain soliloquys. Yep, I'm in that camp. Really over the top stuff with a pulp feel is my bread and butter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted March 12, 2012 Report Share Posted March 12, 2012 Re: Combat and description I prefer a mixed approach. On the one side, clear communication of the environment is nessesary. I can't decide an action when I don't know if the enemy is 20 or 200 meters away. This is all the more important in Play-byPost where Question may need some time to make the round. I also think the game effects should be communicated: What special effect, relativey power levels (8d6 or 12d6?), if it was more luck or Skill letting the enemy avoid thsi attacak (a relative guess of the enemies OCV/DCV inrelation to your own). Also, clear communication of Limitations. Is that sword an Focus, Material manifestation or just a Special Effect? Is this armor a Focus, OIAID or Special Effect? The heroes should have a way to find out and preferbly the GM makes the Roll for them and just tells it to them. The GM already knows all the weaknesses of the players, the players should also have a chance to learn the weaknesses of the NPC's. And Iron Man is able to give you a valid guess of where the weakpoint of that armor/robot is. Now the other side is, how you describe the action: Here I think, that as long as the end results stays the same descrption can be free. Gronds "punch" that just knocked the hero 20 meter back? Can as well be described as him grabbing and throwing the hero. That final Martial Arts "kick" that knocked out the mook? Why not describe it as "you grab him and head-butt him into unconsciousness"? That single blast attack with all CSL to OCV to hit that agile foe? Why not describe it as "You fire a series of blasts in quick succession and manage until you manage to overwhelm your enemies dodging ability and finalyl hit with one"? Your mage puts hits CSL into DCV. Why not desctirbe it as "with gestures of your hand you create mini-barriers that successfully stop the enemies attacks"? I personally think that 90% of all comicbook combat scenes can be done with Standart Maneuvers and that a viable Green Lantern (able to do any combat trick seen in the comics) can be built with just Barrier, Entangle, Blast, KA and TK (with Physical manifestaion) in a Multipower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description Generally, how much about an incoming attack/power do you tell your players? Just the visible special effects? Advantages? Exact dice of Damage it will do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ndreare Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description I tell them both the discription and the Mechanics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description Generally' date=' how much about an incoming attack/power do you tell your players? Just the visible special effects? Advantages? Exact dice of Damage it will do?[/quote'] Accordign to the rules, they do have access to at least: Special Effect (real, not apparent. a Fireball with magic FX would be detect as Magic). Relative Power (that last one was weaker [8DC], this one is strogner [12 DC] and this one is overpwoered [18 DC]). Uniqueness. By that I mean they can identify the power for later use (so they know that this is an AOE/Indirect after seeing it once), to target it with Drain and the like. There is at least some precedence for Limtiations: Foci are "obviuosly" the source, and Extra Endurance Cost and side Effects are mentioned as being "visible". And there is a lot of precedence for people with fitting skills (KS: Superhuman World, Power Armor/Gadgeteer when confronted with Technical powers) sucessfully deducing other Limtaitions (charges, that it uses the end-battery). There is similar precedence for deducing Advantages, when experience in that area exists. Some advantages like AVAD/NND can be tricky. But I think that should simply be handeled like any other advantages (a mage might know that even minimal Mental Defense Blocks this spell, most others might not). When using PbP giving them the rolls directly is the easiest. Just add Advantages, Special Effects and applicable defenses to that, so they can figure out the damage on their own. If they have some way to adapt to the attack (VPP; fitting Multipowerslot), then let the heros make to rolls to see if they "figure it out". Player Knowledge is not Character Knowledge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description I try to give players the information that would reasonable get from their available senses and actions. Some things won't be obtainable until until after the attack is used and possibly until after it hits and its effects on the target or environment can be observed. There no way to know if that mauve blast of light is a Killing Attack, Stun Drain or basic energy blast without some sort of detect or seeing what it does when and if it strikes (and maybe even that would take some investigation). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Holck Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Re: Combat and description I tell them both the discription and the Mechanics. hit location helps I describe near misses and unlikely hits the sputter of a shorted lightning bolt when damage is low the puddle the villain was standing in when damage is high Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted May 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 Re: Combat and description I've been watching allot of Young Justice recently and some of the scenes, particularly the mental duels between Ms Martian and Psimon reminded me of a small issue I've had with Champion's mentalists. Specifically that mental combat is a bit dull and hard to describe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 Re: Combat and description I've been watching allot of Young Justice recently and some of the scenes' date=' particularly the mental duels between Ms Martian and Psimon reminded me of a small issue I've had with Champion's mentalists. Specifically that mental combat is a bit dull and hard to describe.[/quote'] APG II has a dozen pages to make Mental Combat more interesting. Including a complete host of "Mental Combat Maneuvers". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix240 Posted May 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Re: Combat and description Yes, the Ultimate Mentalist had similar rules but I was talking more about flavor and interesting description than adding more mechanical complexity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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