Do you have a party of player characters that hit a dungeon like a well-trained SWAT unit?
This is a party that moves through corridors and chambers like a well-oiled machine, muscling past lesser challenges and traps with speed and efficiency. These folk blow down doors and don’t stop to loot the place until the big bad is dispatched.
While that level of competency is to be encouraged and applauded, a good GM should prepare a counter to this tactic if there is a story need to slow down or stall the party’s advance.
Consider an assault on their senses.
Bright lights, big city
Hit the players with bright lights, which either blinds them (even temporarily) or otherwise obscures their vision.
One good tactic is to have an opposing force carry bullseye lanterns. The lanterns’ bright light, contrasting with the ever-present dark of a dungeon, can be blinding. And even if it isn’t debilitating – in game terms, anyway – it should be able to obscure the nature of the advancing force. Ever try to make out details of a person walking toward you with a flashlight? It’s much the same thing.
Flares or torches that emit light of a specific color can also be useful. It’s a means of camouflage. A room bathed in red or green light may make it difficult to perceive opponents that blend into that part of the color spectrum. A gung-ho party might run past assassins hiding this way, and be susceptible to a sneak attack.
Likewise, flashing strobes and a light reflected off a spinning mirror ball (or a dancing lights spell) can be disorienting. Ever tried to make out faces on a dance floor? It can be like that.
Don’t overlook the possibility that the casting of light-generating spells by allies and enemies alike might have a debilitating effect. The wizard’s flaming sphere cast in a dark room produces bright light that might force other PCs to shield their eyes. Perhaps the GM may require PCs in the vicinity of a lightning bolt to cope with the after image of the flash. There would be spots in the eyes, at least.
I’m particularly fond of the power of divine light to inflict damage. The cleric whose holy symbol emits a sacred flame can inflict radiant damage.
Sound and fury
Don’t overlook the impact noise can have on combatants. Even those groups trying to fight stealthily might be surprised how much noise they are making even incidentally. A chair knocked over, the scraping of an old door or screech of rusty hinges can alert defenders of a party’s approach.
Better yet, though, are things that go boom! While it is true Hollywood movies overstate some sounds for dramatic effect (clashing swords don’t have that clear ringing sound and Indiana Jones’ Navy revolver doesn’t sound like a shotgun blast when fired, for instance), other elements in a the party’s arsenal are potentially deafening. Combustible alchemical bombs and thunderstones, for instance, add more than a little pop.
And don’t forget the noise some of the monsters are likely making. The big ones, especially, must howl, roar or growl to tremendous effect.
And sounds seem all the more jarring when they break a longstanding silence.
Unleashing those sounds, if they don’t outright deafen some party members – making verbal communication impossible – it might leave them stunned and otherwise unable to speak or move from the shock.
Consider: Does a wizard’s force spells (such as magic missile) make the piercing noise of a “Star Wars” blaster when unleashed? Is the aforementioned lightning bolt followed by a crack of thunder? Does the air crackle with electricity when shocking grasp is called forth? Does a spiritual weapon appear accompanied by soaring chorus of angels?
Those are just a few suggestions on how a fantasy battlefield might raise the decibel level. And if you have any doubt that noise can create confusion or hinder communication, try talking on a cellphone (or the person next to you, for that matter) during a programmed fireworks display.
So, don’t be afraid to unleash your descriptions of special effects, whether they be sights or sounds. It might be just the thing to put a confident party on its heels – and make an otherwise ordinary clash with bugbears memorable.
I try to describe what PCs’ other senses would perceive, especially sound & smell, but I’ve never given that much thought to it in combat. I’ve tried to have NPCs react as intelligently as they could (w/o getting GM knowledge getting involved), with the information they have.
It’s true that the side effects of some spells could have consequences. Lightning bolts and fireballs are a very flashy manifestations of powerful magic. Just as a hand grenade has after-effects, so should some spells.
I will definitely keep this mind for the future. Thanks Troy.
Another great article from the ‘Stew
The grenade / spells analogy was exactly the thing that got me thinking about sight and sound in combat.
I really like this idea, however, I think it needs to be used cautiously. If this happens too often, it would likely seem to players that they are simply being punished for working together. How many times have GMs moaned that the PCs don’t work as a team? After finally getting the SWAT team cohesion, the GM starts using the party’s fireballs against them. Which message are you’ sending?
Again, I like this idea. In fact, I’m stealing it. But I think that judicious use is the best way to use this. The article said to use it when you need to slow the party’s down, and that is fine. Using it often, that is going to cause problems more than add aNything to the game IMO.
I agree. I think there should only be a story reason to interrupt the well-oiled combat machine. I think the players could argue — quite effectively, in fact — that the game presumes this level of distracting elements all the time, but because they are experienced adventurers, they are coping with it as a matter of course. But every once in a while, it’s good to throw these types of parties a curve ball, if only to create a new challenge and enhance their playing experience.
I like this idea of adversaries using relatively low tech/low magic effects to challenge the party. In games with crunchy mechanics you’ve got to employ it judiciously, though. Such system already have mechanics for vision, hearing, etc. Generally the effects of mundane items like torches and lights are already described in the rules and they do not have harmful effects on normal PC behavior. Players may cry foul, and rightly so, if you try to paste on arguments like, “You can’t make out the identity of the person holding the lantern because you can’t see well when you’re staring straight into the light. That’s just reality.“
You’re right to anticipate player objections. But for a special occasion such as this, I think the GM can invoke Rule 0 so long as she is not doing so to screw the players but heighten the table experience and create a challenge where one wasn’t previously.
I like it, but then I usually run Call of Cthulhu where the players are attuned to hardship and expect adversity.
I also think HF RPG GMs have a tendency to overthink the business of bringing hardship to a “well-oiled team” – which I believe to be a misnomer for “people used to the grid”.
Consider using “natural” caves rather than dungeons. How do you differentiate them from a difficulty standpoint?
Well, the floor is difficult terrain in most places witgh small islands of flat for combat. See your well oiled team deal with a situation where they have to stand in twos to fight or risk a broken ankle (a one rolled on the DC for allowing an in-combat move from one island of flat to another).
Stalactites make flying a bit more hazardous too, in combat. Fly checks are called for.
Tossing very destructive spells could open the possibility of breaking a weak spot into an underground river for yet more chaos.
Or just have your dungeon passageways designed to make it hard for a crack team to infiltrate. Ziz-zags and Tucker’s Kobolds.
This is more for the modern games, but #4. Everyone is completely deaf during a firefight.
Your link reminded me, I got a chance to “see” a “talking” demonstration by National Guardsmen three or four years ago of machine gun assault. It was eerie how seemingly slow-motion, yet relentless, that was. If I was on the receiving end of that kind of assault. I’d give up immediately.