Creating unforgettable encounters! Running a combat that will leave your party BEGGING for more game time doesn't need to feel impossible. Here are 7 things you can do in your very next encounter to change your combat forever.
Hello, adventurers, and welcome back to the Fantasy Forge. Today, we are going to talk about seven different things that you can do to create unforgettable combat encounters. If you want to master the art of creating dynamic combat encounters, you need to find better ways to keep your players engaged and keep the excitement levels high. So that is what we're going to be talking about today.
KEEP THE PACE MOVING
The first thing you want to make sure that you're doing is keeping the pace moving. If your combat encounters don't have a flow, things are going to get boring. And one of the easiest ways for things to get boring is by having players take too long on their turns. You want to make sure that while the combat encounter is going, that you have a sense of tension in the room.
And if you're giving players all the time that they need in order to make their decisions, you are not creating the tension that is necessary for the encounter to feel urgent and exciting. So what I suggest you do is that you create a time constraint or put a physical timer on the table to encourage players to plan their actions in advance and limit their decision-making time, which helps establish a sense of urgency.
It prevents combat from becoming slow or stagnant. Ultimately, what you want in a combat is for it to be fast-paced, exciting, and adrenaline-fueling.
CREATE ENGAGING ENVIRONMENTS
The second thing you want to do is to have engaging environments. The worst thing that you can do is to not bring the battlefield to life. If you are thinking about the combat encounters as flat two-dimensional spaces, especially if you're in an online game, you are doing a disservice to how the combat could be.
Make sure that you're crafting interactive and immersive environments that actually influence the combat dynamics themselves. I'm talking about including cover, creating hazards like running rivers, traps like nets or actual physical explosives that they could accidentally step on. Find ways to create interactive objects that players can find and use to their advantage.
All of this adds tactical depth to the encounter and can actually create more memorable combat moments. Ultimately, what you want to make sure is that the environment is evolving and changing as the combat is unfolding.
USE EVOCATIVE DESCRIPTIONS
The third thing you want to do is to have evocative descriptions. The big difference between the tabletop and video games is that we don't have the ability to visualize things in Dungeons and Dragons. Obviously, you can help circumvent some of this by having handouts, maps, visuals, or paintings, or even adding music.
All of this helps, but ultimately the best way to paint a vivid picture is going to be with evocative language. So make sure that you are engaging all of the senses and describing the details and everything that they're seeing, the sounds and the smells of the battlefield. Use descriptive phrases to bring the intensity and the excitement of combat to another level and to bring it to life in the minds of your players.
CREATE COMBAT OBJECTIVES FOR THE PARTY
The fourth thing you want to do is create dynamic combat objectives. And what I mean by that is that you want the battle to be more than just defeat or victory. Go beyond all of that. Incorporate dynamic objectives into the game, such as protecting an NPC or disabling a device like a bomb, or by having them have to get to a specific location within a set time limit. All of these kinds of objectives add layers of strategy and keep players engaged throughout the encounter.
Because let's be honest, nine times out of ten, if you were in a combat, you're not going to just stand in the same 50-foot cube waiting until all of the enemies are dead. Things will move in actual combat. Things will change. The battlefield will move across miles sometimes.
So you want to make sure that that is what you're doing in your combat encounters and not just sticking to that little square space in front of you. One of the best ways that you can do this is by creating objectives where they actually have to move from that location.
CREATE TWISTS AND TURNS
The fifth thing you want to do is include twists and turns that keep the players guessing. This can be things like reinforcements or a new boss type by introducing unexpected twists during the combat encounters. You can actually create much more tension and force players to have to adapt their strategies, which keeps them on their toes and actually makes things much more exciting for them. You can also add things like environmental changes, such as a sudden flood or rain that starts to come down, a storm that comes out of nowhere, a tornado, earthquakes, a stampede of animals, revealing hidden enemies.
All of these things can help add suspense and surprise to the combat. And if you're like me and you're running campaigns that go on for a long time, years even, the worst thing that you want as a player is to go back to another combat that is exactly the same as the last one. So make sure to find ways to add layers of suspense and surprise that keep your players guessing.
GIVE THE ENEMIES PERSONALITY AND TACTICS
The sixth thing, and honestly, one of the most important things that you can do, is to find a way to give the enemies personality and tactics. You really, really want to bring enemies to life. So give them distinct personalities, make them think differently, and make them more than just mindless hack-and-slash opponents. Make them use actual battlefield tactics and strategies.
When you are roleplaying them, have them taunt, have them strategize, have them be intelligent, challenge the players. All of these things add depth and realism that makes the combat even more engaging for the players.
Think about different ways that you can reward players and an extra tip. Definitely don't give them hundreds of thousands of gold pieces early on in the game. It's a very quick way to make everything else mundane.
THINK ABOUT THE REWARD
And finally, the last thing that I can suggest to make encounters more memorable for your players is to think about the things that you're going to do to reward the players after the combat is over. You want to celebrate those moments where they were creative or where they brought forth some crazy ingenuity and courage.
Reward the players for all of that, especially during combat encounters. So allow them to use the environment, allow them to use objects that are unique abilities, acknowledge their inventive solutions and their improvisation and their strategies. But more than that, give them cool loot, give them gold, have them find a relic, have them find some crazy MacGuffin that really just serves the plot point.
All of these things are ways that you can reward them for the things that they did during the combat. And the more you reward them and the better those rewards are, the more memorable those encounters are going to be.
BOTTOM LINE
So hopefully, these tips help you guys understand a little more about how you can create unforgettable combat encounters. Leave your own tips in the comments down below if you think that you have other tips that I didn't mention in this post. As always, thank you so much for reading, Forge on Adventurers, and we'll see you in the next post.
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