How do you make combat more "dynamic"? Do you add gimmics? Throw in a hostage or two...

How do you make combat more "dynamic"? Do you add gimmics? Throw in a hostage or two? Make a variety of enemies within a single hostage, or maybe have the environment serve some important purpose?

What are some ways that you mix up combat, Veeky Forums? I run a modern-day horror/fantasy game and I'm trying to think of a way to spice up an encounter outside of a mall.

For starters, be unexpected, but not every time (after all, if every single combat is a twist, people just learn to expect the twist).

Maybe what the party thought was a straight fight turns into a hostage negotiation. Or they show up to a hostage rescue only to find the hostage walking out the front door, calmly wiping blood off a blade, with a couple dozen guards lying dead in view.

Everything you said works, too. The key is to be different every now and then - and again, not every time. Sometimes the party's enemies are what they appear to be. Most times, even. But never so often that the party forgets to expect the unexpected, and never so little that the twist becomes routine.

Gimmicks can be a good way to add something new, especially if the players are fatiguing of a series of same-y battles. Naturally, environmental challenges and variety of foes also keeps things fresh and interesting. As says, the key is not to do the same thing over and over again.

And that isn't to say every battle needs a gimmick. Even half-asleep players are pretty good at figuring out the best way to work with a new gimmick and you shouldn't let combat turn into a mere factor of finding out how to most efficiently work with the GM's special rule of the week.

One thing that I find helps is forcing players to commit to actions very quickly. Not giving them much time to think or talk about it. There's no time to think in a fight. Besides, it keeps everyone engaged and trying to think fast, rather than waiting and being bored.

Well, what I do is what I call Skillcheck Time Events.
Sometimes instead of a standard turn, one player gets that. For example, I turn to the tank guy and say that the horizontal swing made by the ogre seems a bit slower than usually. Do you
>stop It with a shield (str roll)
>roll under (acrobatics or dex)
>other (specify)
>standard avoid damage
The standard avoid gives him nothing but the attack has Its accuracy lowered. On succesful rolls with other options, he creates opportunities. Rolling under would give hime a chance to cut unprotected tendons and thus lower the ogres relevant stat. Stopping the attack with his shield would create an attack opportunity for another player.

Different players get different options, I try to play with their strengths and make most of their skills. Even knowledge shit can be used to find an opportunity.
I also try to present options in a way where one is more risky than the other.

On fail, depending on the choice, the player can simply lose their turn or suffer some minor damage. It all depends on the situation

If I realize that mooks never had a chance and are simply wasting my time now, I make the all spectacularly die after such events

I like this. I'll probably start adopting it.

Reactive environment is great.

Fire spells set shit on fire, missed shots damage things that could be used as cover, stuff like that.

This.

Once my players' wizard started noticing that fireball stunt he had kept causing "On Fire!" scene aspects, he got a lot more choosy about when to use it or not.

It's not so much to discourage use of such things as it is to discourage thoughtless use of them. Battles take place in the setting and the setting should react to it, both in an immediate tactical sense (don't light the battleground on fire if your allies are present too) and in a longer term narrative sense (if you're fighting assassins in the emperor's court, try not to burn the building down, even in self-defense).

It keeps people engaged in the game and in the setting and gets them to make smart choices about where and how to act.

I do it exactly the same - I force the players to think quickly. They have to come up immediately with an action, otherwise I count to three (about 2 sec), and if I still have no feedback from the character, the character will do nothing for the round.

Also, to keep combat more hectic, I stand up, start to speak faster and louder and often I walk around the table to disorient the players - I want them to feel a certain level of stress and panic during action scenes.

totally stealing this dude. its great.
also
>enviromental options as in barrels on the top of stair, chandeliers to swing on, plato's to throw people off/into that kinda stuff is quite nice.

>plato's to throw
>Plato's to throw some mad hoops nigga.

What are your favourite features an rpg system has had that helps to make combats more dynamic?

keep it short and brutal. no matter how many neat mechanics you add, combat still revolves around waiting for your turn to do math.

DID SOMEONE SAY BARRELS??!

so run-of-the-mill tang era chan master?

Diogenes was shitposting in forums (or agora) before it was cool

Sleeping in a giant barrel/urn is tops, my paladin in 5e does it and the group loves it for keeping in character. Begging for alms and doing Lay On Hands for people is great.

Mendicant Knights, best knights to be honest familia

as a system or as a scenario? Good martial arts and action films have always set themselves apart by their prop work. Things to bump into and hop over, makeshift weapons, things to break, etc... Spacial awareness is key. One of my favorite gimmicks, although my current group has probably grown sick of it, is that I love to stage fights in narrow halls, alleys, and trains or buses. In particular I like having the jerking stops and swinging turns of transit throw off fighters.

I'v been working on a variant of shadowrun4 with a reworked combat system. I'v yet to test it so it might fall apart but here are some of the features.
>Characters have an action pool that starts at 2 points and can be increased with cyberware, spells, powers, and drugs. These enhancements usually increase the pool by 1. Each point is equivalent to a simple action. On their turn a character can use any number of points.
>Most tests use a dicepool of Attribute+Skill, when made on a characters turn. Tests in reaction to something done on another characters turn (defence, usually) only use Attribute to determine dicepool.
>Normally defence is an action that can be taken for free. They can also spend an action point to increase the roll to Att+Skill
>Another use for the free Att only reaction is stealth. If a character is attempting to not be seen in combat his stealth is treated as a defensive action.

>A character can also spend an action point to make a counterattack or similar action (at Att only) as a reaction to an attack or movement in line of sight.
>They can also spend a point to follow a target or back away from a moving target, maintaining their original distance. they may have to spend an addition action point if their target upgrades their movement to a sprint and them may have to make an Att only athletics check if their target is actively trying to close in on or escape them.

>When initiative is rolled but before actions are taken characters can declare whether they will be acting aggressively or cautiously
>An aggressive character losses all free defence and reactions but gains a 50% increase to his action pool. He can still spend an action point to gain an Att only defence(or defence like) roll or 2 action points for a counter or follow.
>A cautious character cuts his action pool in half but can roll his total Skill+Att on all reactions.

>This system would use the damage and armour system from Franktrollman's Alt.War

The core idea is that this would give more of a unified archetype for combat to work on. Something simple enough that new moves could be worked into it without much trouble.

With reactions working the way they do my hope would be it gives players even more of a reason to pay attention to what everyone else is doing in combat, particularly when it comes to movement.

In addition to what's up there the 'Delay Action' rule would be replaced with 'Delay Pass'

Melee Attacks would use a 1Action Point/Simple Action, same as guns. Not very realistic but more fitting for Mohawk game KillBill sword fights and super kung-fu.

Subdual combat works similar to it's normal rules. Net hits also decrease armour coverage for the purpose of called shots by the grappler. The grappler disables one of his target's hands for each hand he has free (if the grappler has gun in one hand he may still subdue his target, pinning the targets main hand but leaving his off-hand free for attacks)
For an additional AP the grappler may also use walls, tables and other nearby physical objects to deal physical damage by slaming his target into them gaining a damage bonus depending on the object. He may double this damage bonus by letting go of the target at the end of the attack, representing a slam or suplex, or he may throw the target on meter for ever point of strength he has over the target's body, with the same effect.
>Not as sure about the grappling rules but I think they could be a lot of fun