Combat Archives - Page 2 of 2

How To Create Your Own Combat Missions

Want to design your own combat missions, fully tailored to the people, places, and things of your campaign? Today you’ll learn how to do this, including what design questions to ask and answer along the way. Let total annihilation scenarios take a back seat while you light a fire under your combat creativity.

Combat Missions: Adding Glorious Stories to Gruesome Struggles

From Tony Medeiros and Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0631 A Brief Word From Johnn Dungeon Crawl Classics Is A Classic I had a blast this past weekend playing the DCC RPG for the first time. We adventured through the character funnel, 67: Sailors on the Starless Sea. The flavour of the game is great. […]

Mapless Combat + Making Class Matter

From John Large Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0651 A Brief Word From Johnn Murder Hobos Session 12 The plan was to go to Cragmaw Castle and finally deal with the villain, the Black Spider. Everyone agreed. It was how the session began. But then the past caught up with the wizard, and everything went sideways…. We […]

Enter The Combat Swipe File Contest – Deadline Feb 27

Roleplaying Tips reader Adam made the following Tips Request recently: “The other issue is coming up with descriptions that aren’t repetitive after the 3rd combat.” I have the same problem. And it’s time to fix it for everybody. Let’s do a new contest. The prizes will be MyInfo software and some PDF GM books. You […]

Colourful Combat Descriptions

By Rana Loreus 1. Bring the Combatants to Life The barbarian berserker let loose with a cry of savage wildness, and throws himself at his opponent, a swordsman dressed in midnight black. Even as the berserker let loose a torrent of blows at the swordsman, the swordsman’s composure remains calm, and with a smug smile […]

5 Effective Combat Tactics For Assassins

From Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0528 A Brief Word from Johnn Quick, Vote On My Next Book Cover My next book is called Assassin’s Amulet. It’s a massive resource for Pathfinder, d20 and D&D 3.5 GMs. Assassin’s Amulet is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work from Michael Bourke, Michael K. Tumey and […]

Monster Features and Terrain Game Changers

By Ben Scerri Monster Features: The Premise Monsters in RPGs have had a long history of special abilities that add additional cool tidbits to encounters. For example, a dragon’s fiery breath and a rust monster’s corruption of metallic objects. However, seldom do they have attributes that cause players to think outside the box or that […]

How To Reduce Combat

By Mark of the Pixie If you want less combat, try these tricks. 1) Use fewer monsters PCs can only fight if there are people or things to fight. I know a few GMs who throw in monsters as a delaying tactic, to slow the game down. Don’t do this if you want to reduce […]

Hot Pursuit Tips

From Mark of the Pixie How you GM a pursuit depends a little on what sort of pursuit it is. Hot pursuit The enemy is always within sight, and you need to try every trick you can to get away. This includes cinematic chases with shooting and dodging, but can also include the more subtle […]

Speeding Up Combat

From Len Henderson One of the most enjoyable parts of roleplaying for many gamers is combat. However, especially in large groups, players can wait for a considerable amount of time between turns. This sort of wait leads to boredom and cross chatter, annoying the GM and the player whose turn it is. Here are things […]

Tips For Naval Battles

From Mark of the Pixie Age of Sail Battles My general rule is to go with whatever the players suggest. The description is however they want to describe it, but the mechanics stay as normal. So, if they declare they are going to “cross the T of the other ship and broadside its mainsail,” I […]

Get Rid Of The Grid (What I Learned From The Strategic Miniatures Player)

From Dr. Nik Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0282 Get Rid Of The Grid (What I Learned From The Strategic Miniatures Player) Sure, I started out with the boxed D&D game, but I really got into the original Battletech. We used to have battles that spanned the entire basement and took all night. I’ve never forgotten the […]

Battlefield Design Tips For D&D 3.5

From Jake Robins, Edmonton, Alberta Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #0276 A Brief Word From Johnn Battlefield Design Is A Game Within The Game “Dread Pirate” Jake Robins’ article, while catering to D&D folks, is a good lesson for all GMs who run combats. The primary take-away tip is to pre-plan your battlefields and to design each […]

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