I made this thread to ask some questions I've been having a hard time with but feel free to ask your own.
1. How do you describe combat damage? At lower hp it's pretty simple to describe what kind of a wound 8 damage is to someone who has 12 hp, but when you swing at something with a longsword for 5 damage and it has 50 hp, how do you describe all the hits without ridiculous amounts of lacerations and such at the end?
2. How do non-English people talk about fantasy stuff? In Finnish, we have the same word for elves and faeries for example. And it doesn't do good for immersion to switch languages all the time.
3. (DnD 5.0) Balancing a single encounter and counting exp is easy, but how should I go about letting the party recover between fights? It's not realistic to give that opportunity every time they finish a fight, but how do I keep it fair and challenging for them? And calculate the exp?
Thanks in advance
>>46175260
1. pic related helps me. also just takes practice, use a wide variety of adjectives and wound types such as gashes, cracking sounds, blood, etc. it's whatever.
2. use an english word for fairy and a finnish word for elf and stick to it
3. use the xp tables provided for each creature, use fog of war to obscure the map if you use roll20 so you can tone down enemies they haven't ran into yet if need be, or just diminish things as you go on tabletop. Don't be afraid to teach them a lesson when they overstep their bounds or do something stupid or else they won't learn. Let them camp and recuperate when 2-3 members are in danger of dying, etc. It's all a balance that depends a lot on your players and what you design.
>>46175260
1)Yes, make it a lot of lacerations. Warriors of great skill do not just get skewered, they gradually wear each other down.
2)No effin idea, I haven't seriously talked about fantasy or done any TTRPGing in my native russian.
3)Fuck D&D
>>46175260
>In Finnish, we have the same word for elves and faeries for example
Well I imagine you're referring to Tolkienesque elves, which aren't really what you're talking about when you refer to the Finnish words for Elves and Fairies. So use your word for Fairies, but use something else for the Elves. If 'Elves' takes you out of it, use a new word, either an appropriate Finnish/Elvish one, or make one up entirely. Half the time Elves appear in fiction they have some other fancy name, like 'Eldar' or 'Eladrin', etc. I think Tolkien Elves call themselves Quendi. Or you could steal good words and repurpose them like 'Ilúvatar', etc.
>>46175260
1. Don't describe the combat all by yourself. Ask the players what they do. HP isn't literally just the body's physical limitations. It's stamina and dented armor and bruises. If the fighter hits for five damage, the orc may not actually be hit, but he may be winded after a hard block.
2. Use an adjective.
3. Just ask them what they do. If it's not feasible, let them know. Make THEM get creative.
>>46175260
>>46178747
Forgot this one
>1. How do you describe combat damage?
Some people balk at this, but 'damage' is already a pretty abstract combat, and you don't have to treat damage as purely representing physical injury. You can also see it as a characters overall ability to survive combat, letting HP represent combat fatigue and luck, etc.
So instead of having to treat a striking arrow as 'oh it hits your shoulder - you take 5 damage', if the character is still quite 'healthy' in the traditional sense, you could say stuff like 'it glances off your armour, bruising you' or 'you catch it in your shield, but the bolt makes using your shield somewhat more awkward' or 'you twist your ankle, dodging the arrow' or 'you're starting to tire'. You'll have to explain what you're ddoing with your players ahead of time, of course, and be very clear as to when they lost hp, otherwise they'll be confused to what happened in some scenarios.
>>46175260
Personally I tend to lean towards colourful and gory descriptions of wounds that should logically incapacitate a person, but don't because heroic willpower.
I actually like Rune Quest's system better though, as your average human in it will never have say, more HP than an elephant, and armour works on a damage reduction basis; so you don't have to over explain how your friend's four foot tall Trollkin bandit managed to parry a swipe from a dragon's paw, because chances are he has a broken neck.
