101 Ways to Spice up Combat and Non-Combat Action Ideas

Codex introduction

1 Group HP: Your baddies have a hp pool and until that is gone , they all are in the fight, just like most systems swarms

2 Modified Group HP A: As group hp but at certain levels the effiecency of the group diminishes(less powerful attacks or lesser numer of attacks

3 Modified Group HP B:group is only capable of certian attacls/tricks/spells at certain HP levels, for example at 25% health group is capable of despirate attacks and damage increaces signifigantly.(sort of Mage Knight or Hero clix related)

SKILL CHECK 'BATTLES'

I lost my link to this great idea on EN World. (Wish I could give proper credit for this idea)The basic idea is that you substituteSkills(such as athletics) insdead of standard combat.Specific examples follow.While you can just meta game this and say 'You are entering A Skill Battle, it will work slightky better if you gently lead them in the direction.Normally you are going to want to use 2=3 diff types of skills in each of these to leave no party member out.

4 In a game with Battle Mechs, Your opponents have super tech armor and your weapons are ineffective. By skill ull use of piloting skill you can, push, jump and use the local terrain to achive victory.

5 You are in a large cave filled with blood missle sprouting cultists. There are so many you can never bein to kill them all.Use Relgion to make them commit suicide. Use athletic s to jump around them and force lare numbers off ledges

6 You are in a canyon filled with magneticly levitating boulders . Use Arcana to cut them off from their power source, use Athletics to outmanouver them and crash against each other

7 You are in a library and being attacked by flying books. Religion, Arcana, Athletics(These 3 are often your 'go to ' skills for this idea.)

8 A Sea of Orcs attack you. Intimadate and scare them, Religion and frighten them. Fast talk and confuse them.

CHASES

The key to a good chase is keep the game going at a rapid clip, don't let the players take long periods of time in deciding their actionx. have course of chase well mapped out ahead of time or have a table of random events handy. Workmen moving large sheet of glass and fruit carts almost required. Pathfinder has an excellant system in its DMG.

9 The foot chase, I had planned in my illconceved supers game a foot chase across Gothom City,skyline The PCs persueing'Cat and Mouse' a super Man and Wife Burlar team..The team has course mapped out for them ahead of time with obsticles and minor traps along the route Cat will prefly attack from time to time to keep PCs off balance.Fliers need not apply.

10 Horse chase. rough ground and Riding skill.

11 Pegasis and Dragons throu mountianous canyons

12 as above but aero space craft

13 asteroid field with star fighters.

14 car chase in vrs ongoind wrong direction LA freeway traffic.

TERRAIN

A VERY under used part of RPing combat

A= Terrain as the Enimy

15 Desert crossing

16 Mountian climbing

17 Arctic expisition

18 White water rafting

19 Jungle crossing

20 Death World everything is out to kill you , even the rocks, do it TRUELY artfully without Fauna

21 As above but Death Plane (fantasy or supers)

B= ACTIVE TERRAIN

(The 4E D&D DMG 1 and 2 have VERY nice, but short sections of these, here's a few eamples)

22 Spots on game board are places where you can stand that make every hit critical

23 Spots on game board shoot off mini fireballs

24 Spots on game board have difficult to breathe gases

25 spots of hard vacuum

26 spots of heavy magnitism

27 spots of heavy gravity

28 spots of low gravity

29 giant carnivoirus plants aboud

C= EXOTIC TERRAIN

30 Top of pyrimid of advanced magical culture. Lots of point to point teleports and 'moving' side walks' may or may not be invisable

31 Inside moving gears of giant clock or machine.Of use as a stand alone 'trap' or cool place for combat

32 swamp of huge bouncy lilly pads

33 Huge sea covered in floating , sticky egs,talk about your bad footing.