Out Now on the DMs Guild
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When introducing the game to new players I often say "Don't look at your character sheet, just tell me what you want to do and we'll figure it out." This seems to actually work for the grand total of about one session. There is something about humans that makes us want to optimize our choices, to never do the incorrect thing. I have a longtime friend. He's a really good guy. But sometimes he drives me nuts when we play D&D together because he treats his turns like a chess move. He considers all the possible options, asks for advice out of character, then announces a move only to further consider a bonus action or something else before finally moving initiative to the next person. I know there are methods as DM can employ to help ease that problem along, but this isn't necessarily a post about that. This is a post about how to encourage your players to play for fun and not to play the optimal mechanics of their characters.
First, allow me to share my House Rules with you. That is a no frills document I share with my players before every campaign and thanks to Roll20, I've made it an easily accessible handout available in game. This document is a living document that gets tweaked and improved between campaigns. In its current manifestation, you'll see a section under Combat that reads, "Characters are encouraged to act cinematically and not be restrained by the base mechanics of the game." I then list a few examples. My goal with this statement is to set the tone as the DM right up front. Is it a panacea? No, but it does help. You know what really helps? Modeling the behavior through the monsters I run. When the players see the bugbear use their morningstar to golf swing through the campfire, spewing glowing embers everywhere, that gives them A) Pause and B) License to do something equally as creative. The amazing Mike Shea of @slyflourish had an excellent post on this topic just this week. He encouraged his readers to Replace Flanking with Cinematic Advantage. Give it a read, it helps drive home this point about not playing the character sheet, but playing the scene. My favorite line from Mike's post encourages us as at DMs to draw players out for the mechanics of their characters and into the story of the situation itself. Included in Mike's post is a list of twenty examples of how characters might gain "cinematic advantage." I've stolen five of them at the end of this post and added some mechanics on what happens on a fail. All DCs are assumed to be 12, but of course, you adjust this up or down for your situation. Success on any of these means the character gains advantage on their attack, but please, consider other bonuses as well. Maybe they get extra damage on the hit, maybe they get a wider crit range because of their maneuvering, maybe their momentum allows them an extra bonus action attack. However you decide to go about this, the point is the same. We want more FUN in our games. Crunch and optimization may be fun to some (I would argue they should play a video game or something more blatantly strategic like Magic: the Gathering, but I digress). We want FUN in the game because fun is what we remember. We don't remember how the rogue used their Cunning Action every round or how the fighter attacked, action surged, and attacked again... I hope you enjoyed this post and be sure to checkout the table below. Find me on Twitter if you'd like to discuss at @rjquestgiver. Happy rolling! Cinematic Moves
PS. There's an excellent episode of the Manifest Zone podcast from early 2019 that talks about Swashbuckling Action in your TTRPG games. Give it a listen!
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AuthorD&D 5e enthusiast. Creator on DMsguild. Supporter of creators, content and good times. Follow me on Twitter @rjquestgiver Archives
July 2021
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