I will reference good old Hankerin from Runehammer: Encounters needs 3 things: Timers, Threat and Treat. Screw humongus Stat blocks with tons of meaningless details/Impact. Timers indicate an encounter shift incoming: Powerfull enemy move, environmental hazard, etc... Threat is pretty self explenatory: Dont do soft threat, there must be a challenge so it can be memorable, finally Treat: Encounters should have a goal: You dont fight for the sake of combat. Remind what is at stake. Things that helps me: Set some random D6 tables for Timers, roll on this table every D4 rounds. It helps keeping me the GM on my toes too Set some random D6 tables for Enemy moves too if necessary, or simple flow chart to remove decision making during the combat. If your BBE has a palette of fight options, it helps alot for flesh out how it will do. Drag: if combat runs too long, it becomes boring dice rolling games... cut that off. One way to do it is to introduce new/interesting elements in the background, something that changes. This is not homework, this is mostly improv on the spot! (sounds like a Timer). Finally and probably the post important lesson, taken from OSR: Setup situation not solutions, solutions is the players job.
Since you own Descent 2e, you could take inspiration from it. In Descent 2e, about no scenario is about just killing monsters. The heroes always have a primary, diverse objective. Monster's objective too is not to just defeat the heroes - most times they have their own objective too.
I think that’s a tough one. It becomes easier and less like homework when you have enough experience to put together an encounter quickly. Once I have an idea for combat I can make it up and have it ready in minutes. Now sometimes you’ll have to adjust on the fly too in order to make it challenging but not a slog. I’ll be interested in more answers. Good question though.
Give dilemmas, not problems. Combat feels like work when the results aren't exciting. Often because the players know that, 'At the end of this fight they'll all be dead and we might lose some Hit-Points'. Dilemmas are, *being pressed between two unideal results.* Neither is a clear straight win to begin with. Killing the enemies efficiently won't help, though it might give you more time to deal with part of the dilemma. These are also great for escape sequences: "After the McGuffin/BBEG explodes you now all need to flee. You can take the trap door to the dungeon pit and fight whatever is there, in the dark, or, jump into the bubbling moat." They will also be inspired to interject their own creative solution (Which also will not feel like homework). Problems are work that just needs to be done. Dilemmas are moments of tension that you must commit to experiencing. "I know the 'risk' was a calculation, but boy were we bad at math."
Good simpler combat systems are found in Easy D6 and D100 Dungeon. I like a hit location instead of attack roll while using the AC to be the damage deferred with exploding dice. This made combat faster and easier to narrate. A crit was when a die exploded and a D20 crit was a head shot. To me that was really awesome!
Once you get used to a system it usually becomes possible to just make up monsters on the fly. Add in some things that the players can use to do interesting things with and viola, a combat on the spot. Though, personally, I try not to have to do it because it can feel rushed and I personally like having the foes thought out beforehand.
Some planning helps. But you do risk the game becoming predictable if you spend a lot of time poring over the monster manual and making encounters look and feel too calculated. I never use monsters from a core book for example. I use those from books players are less likely to have read-the Fiend Folio remains a favorite-or make up or randomly generate my own.
How do you make combat not feel like homework? I had to give this one a lot of thought. As I'm not the sort of person who has needed this kind of advice (yet!) in my experience as a game master. But, looking how I prepare combats, maybe the following two things are part of why. And may be suitable for other people. I hope they help: 1) Don't prepare more than you need. == It's what it says on the package. Pick up premade content and brandish it at your players in a hundred different combinations. Mixing and matching is only a matter of willingness and ability to do so. Primarily I'm talking about premade creatures and characters, but if you find a combat encounter or a small chunk of a scenario narratively interesting, take it and put a fresh coat of paint on it. Take NPCs with their own stat blocks for example. Give them a new name, or a new place of origin, and suddenly they are a different person. The simpler your game system of choice, the easier this is to pull off. At the same time, there is a certain point where this does become homework. Quite simply because a person can spend a lot of free time getting into changing things for your session ahead of time. And if you don't desire to do that part, that's when I believe you're preparing too much. Just don't shirk necessary ground work or cut corners for time.
2) Don't be spectacular all the time. == It's really easy to raise the bar and not lower it over time. Which puts pressure on the person making the combats. It's a lot easier to just make things a bit interesting every day, then every once in a while do something BIG. Some good advice to this effect is have a few good mundane "templates" for what you plan to do over the course of several sessions already in mind. Your goblin squad, your pack of wolves, and your patrol of guards all have similar dynamics, but they operate distinctly and differently enough to make a difference. If you have those lined up (ready to drop in like a random encounter, not like a preplanned encounter as would be found in a 5th edition adventure or a dungeon room for example) then you can put them in where it makes sense to have them. In that way, it's kinda like slowly building up warbands of troops for wargames. Once the pain dries you're good to go. :D That preparation leaves you room to rest and imagine what special combats look like at your table. Usually, it's a shake up of the established routine in a major way. Contrast a fight with a band of goblins with suddenly breathing fire from a dragon on high, or a Bullete (D&D Land Shark) bursting forth from the earth and gobble one of them up. It's a surprise! Roll for initiative! And you can "roll" with that type of pattern in reverse as well. Hunt dragons for a while, establish a routine of where the danger is. Foreshadow a bit, then in the night on the way back from a dragon attack, mix it up. A pack of wolves starts trying to separate the party, picking them off one by one. Or a group of goblins wanders into your camp late at night and they don't realize it until everyone has bedded down by mistake. Panic and combat ensues. Point is, prepare an mix it up a little bit every time. And when you go big, go BIG! The way to keep this from not feeling like homework is to include your own special tastes. Do you like Wolves? Go with wolves. Giant squid? Find a way to make it work. The idea is to figure out what your favorite kinds of combat are, and your players, and focus your efforts on those. Make the hard to prepare ones rare and the easy to prepare ones regular.
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I will reference good old Hankerin from Runehammer: Encounters needs 3 things: Timers, Threat and Treat. Screw humongus Stat blocks with tons of meaningless details/Impact.
Timers indicate an encounter shift incoming: Powerfull enemy move, environmental hazard, etc...
Threat is pretty self explenatory: Dont do soft threat, there must be a challenge so it can be memorable,
finally Treat: Encounters should have a goal: You dont fight for the sake of combat. Remind what is at stake.
Things that helps me:
Set some random D6 tables for Timers, roll on this table every D4 rounds. It helps keeping me the GM on my toes too
Set some random D6 tables for Enemy moves too if necessary, or simple flow chart to remove decision making during the combat. If your BBE has a palette of fight options, it helps alot for flesh out how it will do.
Drag: if combat runs too long, it becomes boring dice rolling games... cut that off. One way to do it is to introduce new/interesting elements in the background, something that changes.
This is not homework, this is mostly improv on the spot! (sounds like a Timer).
Finally and probably the post important lesson, taken from OSR: Setup situation not solutions, solutions is the players job.
Since you own Descent 2e, you could take inspiration from it. In Descent 2e, about no scenario is about just killing monsters. The heroes always have a primary, diverse objective. Monster's objective too is not to just defeat the heroes - most times they have their own objective too.
What is Descent 2e?
@@FamilyTableTop Descent :Journeys in the Dark 2nd Edition.
Watch Stephanie Plays games episode on Vibes based combat, she summarizes what many of do to avoid that.
I think that’s a tough one. It becomes easier and less like homework when you have enough experience to put together an encounter quickly. Once I have an idea for combat I can make it up and have it ready in minutes. Now sometimes you’ll have to adjust on the fly too in order to make it challenging but not a slog.
I’ll be interested in more answers.
Good question though.
Give dilemmas, not problems.
Combat feels like work when the results aren't exciting.
Often because the players know that, 'At the end of this fight they'll all be dead and we might lose some Hit-Points'.
Dilemmas are, *being pressed between two unideal results.* Neither is a clear straight win to begin with. Killing the enemies efficiently won't help, though it might give you more time to deal with part of the dilemma.
These are also great for escape sequences:
"After the McGuffin/BBEG explodes you now all need to flee. You can take the trap door to the dungeon pit and fight whatever is there, in the dark, or, jump into the bubbling moat." They will also be inspired to interject their own creative solution (Which also will not feel like homework).
Problems are work that just needs to be done.
Dilemmas are moments of tension that you must commit to experiencing. "I know the 'risk' was a calculation, but boy were we bad at math."
Similarly, adding countdown timers or increasing threats helps. Any dynamic obstacles to keep gameplay from settling into cruise-control.
Good simpler combat systems are found in Easy D6 and
D100 Dungeon.
I like a hit location instead of attack roll while using the AC to be the damage deferred with exploding dice.
This made combat faster and easier to narrate.
A crit was when a die exploded and a D20 crit was a head shot.
To me that was
really awesome!
Once you get used to a system it usually becomes possible to just make up monsters on the fly. Add in some things that the players can use to do interesting things with and viola, a combat on the spot.
Though, personally, I try not to have to do it because it can feel rushed and I personally like having the foes thought out beforehand.
Some planning helps. But you do risk the game becoming predictable if you spend a lot of time poring over the monster manual and making encounters look and feel too calculated. I never use monsters from a core book for example. I use those from books players are less likely to have read-the Fiend Folio remains a favorite-or make up or randomly generate my own.
@ I generally customize any monsters that I use from common sourcebooks for that reason.
@@Vaerceagoth 👍
How do you make combat not feel like homework?
I had to give this one a lot of thought. As I'm not the sort of person who has needed this kind of advice (yet!) in my experience as a game master. But, looking how I prepare combats, maybe the following two things are part of why. And may be suitable for other people. I hope they help:
1) Don't prepare more than you need.
== It's what it says on the package. Pick up premade content and brandish it at your players in a hundred different combinations. Mixing and matching is only a matter of willingness and ability to do so. Primarily I'm talking about premade creatures and characters, but if you find a combat encounter or a small chunk of a scenario narratively interesting, take it and put a fresh coat of paint on it. Take NPCs with their own stat blocks for example. Give them a new name, or a new place of origin, and suddenly they are a different person. The simpler your game system of choice, the easier this is to pull off.
At the same time, there is a certain point where this does become homework. Quite simply because a person can spend a lot of free time getting into changing things for your session ahead of time. And if you don't desire to do that part, that's when I believe you're preparing too much. Just don't shirk necessary ground work or cut corners for time.
2) Don't be spectacular all the time.
== It's really easy to raise the bar and not lower it over time. Which puts pressure on the person making the combats. It's a lot easier to just make things a bit interesting every day, then every once in a while do something BIG. Some good advice to this effect is have a few good mundane "templates" for what you plan to do over the course of several sessions already in mind. Your goblin squad, your pack of wolves, and your patrol of guards all have similar dynamics, but they operate distinctly and differently enough to make a difference. If you have those lined up (ready to drop in like a random encounter, not like a preplanned encounter as would be found in a 5th edition adventure or a dungeon room for example) then you can put them in where it makes sense to have them. In that way, it's kinda like slowly building up warbands of troops for wargames. Once the pain dries you're good to go. :D
That preparation leaves you room to rest and imagine what special combats look like at your table. Usually, it's a shake up of the established routine in a major way. Contrast a fight with a band of goblins with suddenly breathing fire from a dragon on high, or a Bullete (D&D Land Shark) bursting forth from the earth and gobble one of them up. It's a surprise! Roll for initiative! And you can "roll" with that type of pattern in reverse as well. Hunt dragons for a while, establish a routine of where the danger is. Foreshadow a bit, then in the night on the way back from a dragon attack, mix it up. A pack of wolves starts trying to separate the party, picking them off one by one. Or a group of goblins wanders into your camp late at night and they don't realize it until everyone has bedded down by mistake. Panic and combat ensues.
Point is, prepare an mix it up a little bit every time. And when you go big, go BIG!
The way to keep this from not feeling like homework is to include your own special tastes. Do you like Wolves? Go with wolves. Giant squid? Find a way to make it work. The idea is to figure out what your favorite kinds of combat are, and your players, and focus your efforts on those. Make the hard to prepare ones rare and the easy to prepare ones regular.