Cool idea for more narrative combat

Killing Minions with Style, which I got to from another good post, 4th Edition and the Case of the Hideously Long Combat. Both worth a read. (They're short.)

Old... what's his name...

"So you approach the table enveloped in shadows near the back of the tavern. The figure at the table leans slowly forward and the guttering lamp's light reaches up to his face. He can see the many scars on his bare arms and the trace of elf linage around his eyes. He cocks his head and rasps, "Ah, the salvage team finally arrives in Stormreach. Well, welcome my name is... uh... uhmm... Gai... no wait... Titts... oh god... no... Kalistrumfilisthanatol... *sigh*."

Ok, so maybe you guys won't slip up that badly, but I have and I quickly found an easy cure for quick NPC names. Since I tend to think of NPCs uses first and names second I have frequently shown up to the table with major NPCs being nameless. It's all part of the illusionist play style to cover with a handy name that fits perfectly after the fact. It looks like you've had that name ready all along. This is where random name generators and a little prep time comes into play.

Here's my short list:

http://www.squid.org/rpg-random-generator
http://unique-names.com/word-mixer.php
http://www.namemasher.com/default.aspx
http://www.degraeve.com/invent-a-word/index.php
http://www.wordconstructor.com/index.php
http://www.unled.net/

As you can tell I'm a big fan of "realistic" sounding names. If the NPC has to be called some huge polysyllabic word everytime they show up it gets old quick. Also, player's will tend to nick name those NPCs and nothing makes your Titan Beholderlich Lord named Sparualiziltikk, seem more silly than having it renamed "Spunky". Of course a Titan Beholderlich Lord is pretty silly anyway.

So I like word combiners. It also lets me put in concepts and phrases. So I can put

• Zug
• Loktar
• Kek
• Thull
• Axe

Into http://unique-names.com/word-mixer.php and get back the awesome Ulthu. Now add a title like Orc Chieftain Ulthu and you're set. Maybe I'd throw an umlaut in there for extra awesome, but you get the point. The main thing I watch out for here is names that sound like snicker inducing mood breaks. The Medusa horror that has been terrorizing the village of Omletle being named Labias is going to possibly look fine on paper, but when the players arrive in the village they are going to be rolling. Then when the Medusa hisses out "You will pay for trespassing on the lair of Labias!" you might as well put away the Cheetos and call it a night. Learn from my pain.

Then there are name generators that try to be "authentic" that just always seem... well cheesy. Or unpronounceable. However, I still go to them now and then for base words.

http://rinkworks.com/namegen/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010208b
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound/

Finally I also like to generate a few hundred names now and then. I'll take the list and cull it for obvious problems and then save it somewhere so that if I need a name quickly I don't need to find my generator and hammer out a name. I'll just keep this giant pool of plausible names handy and when the time comes they are ready.

4 Ed Eberron: The Stormhawks

Well, we had our first adventure and after throwing out a mock combat (the team against a group of 3-5 level Kobolds) that allowed our new players to essentially see the mechanics of the thing and get a sense for what combat in D&D is like, we started up the campaign.

And of course things quickly went sideways.

What was supposed to be a night composed of a skill challenge, some general roleplay and 2 (possibly 3) encounters instead turned out to be a skill challenge and around 4 hours of roleplay as the party did some CSI like investigation into the death of a doppleganger that was following them and general exploration of the city of Sharn. This wasn't my intent but they circumvented the two encounters by either going in the opposite direction or talking their way out of combat.

It was pretty cool, all said, and the party seemed to be really enjoying themselves. They really loved the hybrid version of the Skill Challenge that I've swiped from Dave.

All in all, my players kept me on my toes, did things I wasn't expecting and roleplayed like we never have. Despite not getting to the Encounters that I was looking forward to seeing played out, I'm putting this night in the win column.

House Rules

Here is a list of all our current house rules. I'll try to explain my rationale behind each choice. Some of this is happening because we are also testing the iPhone apps I'm writing and need to make sure that things flow smoothly. Some of it is just a matter of flavor. We try to keep the action moving and tend to lean more towards narrative. Some of these changes are really "gamey", but it works for us. I'd love to hear if you guys house rule anything and why.

• monsters will be reduced in total hit points by 25-50% - pc's hp stays the same

Combat in 4e is very pokey. The universal solution to this seems to be, reduce monster hit points down and/or use more minions.

• monsters will do 1 die class larger in damage (d4s become d6s, d6s become d8s) - pc's damage stays the same

Monsters need a little more punch typically to get through all the healing surges that PCs bring to the table. With the “weeble wobble” nature of Defenders this isn’t as scary as it might seem at first. Sure, there is a lot more healing flying around, but I like the flavor.

• you can spend an action point to count any d20 roll as an automatic success

Missing on a daily power that needs a hit to activate is just heartbreaking. We toyed with the idea that Dailies always connect, but it seemed too powerful. This way you can choose to guarantee success, but not without a slight cost.

• you can spend an action point on a "action card"

Action Cards are a home brew solution that allow action points provide a little more leverage. They are randomly distributed and then players can trade among themselves. They are basically rule breaking actions like “free standard action” or “use a healing surge” or “double damage”. I’ll try to post them up here soon.

• natural 20 is automatic max damage or total success

• natural 1 is the worst possible outcome or automatic miss/fail

We don’t use crit/fumble tables so this tends to hit a nice middle ground.

• at the beginning of the encounter all monsters stats will be revealed and a dungeoneering or nature roll will determine how much information is revealed with a bare minimum of hp

We just all feel that the players can make better choices when they know exactly what they are up against. I usually don’t reveal “powers” until the creature uses them in combat.

• as we learn the system, players can change powers around to better suit their understanding of the game
• gold can be spent freely on any items from legal WOTC sources. So potions, gear, everything is for sale. If it's a really powerful item we spend the gold and then the item shows up in the next treasure bundle.
  

Question

If you throw down a big monster, something that you know for sure would eat your players alive in a few rounds, how do you subtly get the fact across to your players that running truly is your best course of action without just openly saying that you have no chance in beating this thing at the moment, you better run?

I know this is not something you want to do too often in the game, but I think that it sort of goes hand in hand with D&D and provides a different type of gameplay that should be put into use.

Comments Feed for this site

If you're like me, you miss a lot of the comments on this site because you use an RSS feed reader to read it, and there isn't an obvious comment feed link.

I found it.

Randy's Gaming Links Episode 2

Couple things from around the web:

Skillforge - Haven't done much checking on this yet, but it's a website devoted entirely to skill challenges

Robot Viking - Rise of the Super Minion - Robot Viking, sister gaming site of io9, offers up a way to deal with absent players. Check out the comments, because the "roll 1d6 to determine player's actions" seems like kind of a funny way to deal with it as well.