Hot take: As a Game Master you should be setting a target number for every roll of the dice.
No action should be so generic that your game system can tell you exactly what you need to roll. Be specific, even in individual attacks. Go ahead and reach for the called shot. This is a roleplaying game where you're supposed to be able to try anything. Take a risk!
If your system can tell you exactly what you need to roll - your actions must be pretty boring. If it can be resolved with "d20 + ability bonus + proficiency bonus vs armor class, please roll <insert target number> to succeed with your generic, flavorless attack" - well... you see the problem? I am sick of hearing "I take a swing" or "I shoot my bow" or "I use my action to <generic action> and then my 30 feet of movement to go 6 squares here and then my bonus action to <neat extra action I can do> blah blah yawn...".
Be specific. What weapon are you using? How are you attacking? Who and what are you aiming for? What are you trying to do? Chip away at a big bag of hit points? Barf. How about:
"I feint and bring down my long sword to cleave the hobgoblin's sword-arm from his shoulder!"
"I draw an arrow and step out from the pillar, loosing it at the beholder's eye to disable the anti-magic cone!"
"I telekinetically seize the flagstones beneath the giant's feet, pulling with all my magical strength to topple him backward into the chasm!"
"I rotate the ballista and aim, timing my shot at the weak spot on Smaug's underbelly as he passes over! Thrum goes the bolt!"
If you start playing this way - oh boy do things get exciting. Any player on any turn could change the entire game. Every player will start looking for the big move. They may get competitive - who gets the kill? This is some real Legolas vs Gimli shit.
Sure, the odds of any individual attempt should be poor - to do these great deeds you'll need an excellent die roll. But when you have a whole table of players scrambling to take these shots and be the hero? Someone is bound to succeed. Then they'll get clever. How can I set up my teammate to improve their chances? What can I do to allow her to only need roll a 15 instead of an 18? Now we're playing.
If your system can tell you exactly what to roll - you almost don't need a Game Master. The brilliance of RPGs is the capability of an impartial 3rd party to not just present a unique situation - videogames or choose your own adventure books can do that - but to weigh a unique situation and make a fair ruling on anything you might try within the agreed realm of possibility
You can try anything. You should. Take a risk and roll the die.
This reminds me a lot of how Fung Shui talks about combat. The rule book starts the chapter on combat by saying, "These types of maneuvers are called Stunts and then goes on to say, "'Saying I try to shoot the guy' is not a stunt and not very interesting, instead say 'I aim for the barrel of his gun so the bullet runs up and blows it up' is more interesting."
ReplyDeleteIt then goes on to explain how new and interesting improvements increase the likelihood of success, where doing the same thing over and over again will not - the opponents get wise.