Creating Dynamic Battles

Have you ever been gaming with a few of your friends and found your mind drifting because the GM is running you through a pretty dull adventure and the battles are just endless math and dice rolls? Have you ever been a GM and find it hard to keep your players’ attention off their phones and on the game you’re trying to run? Well, perhaps the answer to both of those problems is to keep everyone engaged with more fun and dynamic battles!

Here are a couple of tips to think about as you are running your next battle:

First of all, try to be more descriptive in your actions and encourage your players to do the same. Instead of just saying, “The goblin swings his club at you. He rolls an 8 and misses”, try saying, “The goblin, enraged by you killing his brother and interrupting his dinner, lunges in and takes a wide swipe at your head with his club, but in the nick of time you raise up your shield and deflect the club before it can smash your skull in!” See, that’s so much more fun!

The point is, don’t just state the facts, because that is tiresome and boring. Every interaction between the GM and player has the possibility of being very entertaining, so try and breathe some color into your game!

Another thing to keep in mind is that as a GM you should try and give the players and monsters alike the chance to interact with objects in their surroundings. And remember that the monsters are smart too!

In the scene below, you see that there are two goblins that have entered the room through the door to their right, and the players, a heroic fighter and mystical wizard, have entered the room from the lower right.

Without any props, it would be very easy for the goblins to just attack. The fighter steps up to fight them with his sword while the wizard hurls in spells from behind. Everyone just rolls their dice in turn until one side wins. Personally, I think that is rather depressing.

Now, just imagine if the same room was instead a small goblin camp. There are some straw beds, a small stack of crates filled with supplies, and a cauldron filled with some grotesque gruel boiling over a fire.

Now, instead of the goblins attacking right away, what if they stay back for a bit to draw the fighter forward? Then, just as he and his wizard friend are distracted by the goblin brothers, another goblin that was hidden behind the crates jumps up on top of them and starts firing a bow! Then, moments later, another goblin pops in through the secret door to the south in order to engage the wizard directly.

Now the wizard is surprised and can’t help his friend, and the goblin with the bow has a height advantage on his rolls.

But, because of the rest of the props, perhaps the fighter kicks over the cauldron causing the fire to light the straw on fire, potentially catching the crates, and the goblin on top, on fire as well!

The point is, as the GM, try to give your encounters as much color as you can and as many possibilities for fun roleplaying as you can. Be descriptive and have fun!

Would you like to purchase the dungeon tiles used in this example? Of course you do!