When laying out a big set-piece for a fight scene, often for a boss fight, it can be tempting to make only one entry, and maybe a different exit, and a big arena-shaped blank space so you don't have to worry about different rules and complications. I'm going to recommend exactly the opposite, though!
Letting some players choose to sneak around to flank an enemy, or hide behind cover, or use their actions to do fun cinematically-cool stuff instead of just standing there and duking out hit points for the bad guy are a LOT more fun. Have some steps, some walls, some destructible cover that might hide someone from a firebolt (but not for long!), or some prisoners who might reach out to grab people nearby. The more that you can let your players be in the moment, not just thinking about how they can get the biggest damage, the better your storytelling is going to be, and the better they're going to play off of that. Having an atmospheric location that actually does things can be really useful and fun, and much more interesting than yet another rectangular battlemat encounter that involves plonking down a named sack of hit points and damage. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 20 May 2021. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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