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Thanks everyone!

It’s not that I don’t describe combat, if something warrants it, then I do. I hate being repetitive. I describe enough so that the players know exactly what the creature is doing and everybody can get a visual on what’s happening. I don’t get too gory, as this can be misleading to players, and totally destroy what should be a great combat.

I don’t use any bloody Critical Hits lists, because this can damage my campaign. I may not be a slave to all of the rules, but I am a slave to creating a good yarn! Somebody getting a lucky hit on an enemy NPC that I spent good prep time on would make me as mad as me doing it to one of my players characters.

In regards to hit points and combat, I did have somebody explain their own personal logic about how it works and I really loved it! In a nutshell, Health always stays the same, but a more experienced fighter knows how to minimize the damage caused by getting hit, thus he can take more hits then a novice fighter that doesn’t have this degree of skill.

Ripper Xs last blog post..Prep and Game: Weathermay Estate pt. 2

Hit points being reduced means that the character’s stamina is running low. An opponent attacks with a barrage of swift and powerful blows that the character can barely defend against, for example.

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Ruined City:
Blasted building licked by fire and filled with rubble, with no complete buildings and only hidden rooms and half-standing floors. The smell of sulfur and a fine coating of dust always floats on the wind, with forlorn cries and whimpers always off in the distance. What few people are caught out in the open are scared or dangerous, moving quickly and always looking for the advantage. Random puddles of burning liquid, smoke filled skies, and faint fires that dim the skyline by night should complete the feel. Food is scarce, perhaps the residents favor cannibalizm, and water is always dingy and brackish. Only alcohol is safe, but it’s potency here is doubled by the aura of hopelessness and senseless violence the permeates the place. Sorrow is on every street corner.

Abandoned City (almost):
Think Silent Hill with dark skies, thick gray clouds and dark rain that leaves trails of dirt and ash. Light is scarce, as everything prefers the dark and light draws the nasties. The whole city smells damp, decayed, spoiled. Grease and oil are everywhere, thick and hard to get off so that once it touches you the PC’s feel infected by it. Only glimpses of movement several blocks down, the whispers of children in fear, and the soft moans of undead should permeate. Evil, mutated animals with glowing eyes and snarling sounds should haunt the PCs, following just a ways before stopping suddenly. Every building is hollow, dark, and has a haunted feel as though you’re being watched. Supplies are scarce, but still viable, and random dried blood splatters and locked doors with undead and demonic entities should persist. Chase scenes and mob sudden mob battles are the bread and butter here.

City of Insanity:
Things should be startling, and nothing here makes any sense. Mobs stoning others because they wore shoes on holiday, people lining up to taste the blood of a captures angel bound in the multitude of the public stocks with demons selling parts of him like a grocer’s market. Packs of homeless children and giant rats fighting turf wars over midden piles and garbage heaps, then eating the other sides casualties. A necromancer who pimps out his undead, charging extra for the one or two free-willed ones. Crowds that gather to cheer random people jumping off buildings, and demons that randomly walk the streets and offer fine food and wine to those to sell them their sorrows and pains in return… selling their lives away little bits at a time. The city should smell like sweat, open sewers, and fresh coppery blood. The sounds of city are fighting, often between groups of people, of screams and laughter, lots of senseless laughter. Battle should be scarce, and random without reason or rhyme. Insanity wears ones morals into tatters, and the PC’s should feel this the longer they stay.

These are just the ones off the top of my head, and you can use just one or makes each type into it’s own sub-city with clearly defined borders and walls so that once the PC’s enter they can’t leave again unless they can buy/fight/manipulate their way out. Remember that the concept of Hell is relative to the human condition, and that an easily relate-able human weakness will strike to the core of the player’s mentality and always leave a more tangible impression.

Persistent horror in a campaign is not about the threat of death, it’s about the sense of hopelessness and meaninglessness that comes with realizing that the worst of humanity is not something we can beat or destroy, but something we all must learn to somehow accept and transcend… slowly.

Hope that helps!

nw_meyers last blog post..NE of Metroplex DM

Pacing is everything in combat and D&D 3.5 are long enough as it is. When I’m ‘in the zone’ I try to focus on punchy description of key maneuvers… when a critical hit is scored I go bananas…

But that brings me a question… how do you accurately describe a combat where hit points are only an abstract representation of one’s stance, endurance and health? I some times feel that I spend 1 hour describing the numerous scratches the PCs get…