When a party member scores a critical and the enemy will die...

When a party member scores a critical and the enemy will die, do you let him apply an elaborated finishing move for fun points?

I also play a narrator's clip from the Darkest Dungeon.
>A SINGULAR STRIKE!

Every time a new spell is cast or a new weapon is swung
And def for crits I'll ask how it looks we do combat every three or four sessions so it's rare enough

I'll usually give a more gratuitous description if it's in keeping and the last enemy in the fight, yeah.

We do that even when it's not a critical.

But then again I just love blood. In descriptions, on the battlemat, in fighting sports, in pixels, it's all just so great to see blood in the context of intense violence.

"You swing and, seemingly meeting no resistance, assume you've missed your target. After regaining your footing, you realize that not only have you struck the goblin, but further cleaved him in twain. Standing awkwardly, the goblin's legs briefly hold up its abdomen as it spews forth a fountain of blood. You kick the grotesque figure to the ground, but not before it has thoroughly drenched your party in crimson gore"

>When a party member scores a critical and the enemy will die, do you let him apply an elaborated finishing move for fun points?
Hell yeah

But sometimes a certain player might prefer if the GM narrates the gorn.

>gorn

ERROGENOUS ZONE

Ontopic: yeah I do and so does my DM. If we feel like it we narrate normal hits as well, depending on if there's anything interesting going on in combat or if it's just wailing on each other from close range.

Much better when the GM narrates the gorn. As in

We do that for boss monsters. Little different though; it's just outright whoever scores the last hit gets to describe exactly how they ended it, regardless of how Mortal Kombat Fatality-esque it gets. Example: fighting demon lord, my buddy got the last hit in and described launching himself off the demon's knee, slashing his sword upward across his throat, and being showered in demon blood. It adds a lot of incentive to being active in combat when you get to talk about how badass you looked at the end.

I don't get it. My players want me to narrate their successes and failures all the time instead of taking that joy for themselves.

You are the god of the story. It would feel a bit strange for someone else to take over the reins of your role in part as opposed to the whole. Describing the results of the choices they take feels like playing a role they're not meant to.

I really enjoy narrating the fights as the DM, and my players usually like it when I do.

When appropriate like with minions and henchmen

I love players adding their own direction and choreography to their combat maneuvers. I had a monk in my party whos player was a professional kickboxer irl, and the flavor he could add to fights was fantastic.

I don't run the whole fatality routine on every nobody mook, it'd slow down the game way too much. But crits and notable enemies, definitely.

I once zandatsu'd an enemy. It actually made sense given the mechanics at play.

>GM says "you killed them with the sword, *quickly* describe to me what it was like and how your character slashed them."
>Players describe it
>GM gives them a thumbs up and says "that's how it happened"

Seems fine to me.

>not fleshing your actions out before you roll
> rolling "to hit", not rolling "to split the ghoul from brain to taint"

I bet you let multiple players roll for a singular skill check too.

>let multiple players roll
>let

My party starts doing this shit on their own, and it's more than a little bit annoying. I've repeatedly told them not to make skill checks unless I ask them to, or if they ask me first.

I have one player roll perception, and then everyone and their mother starts rolling the dice. I didn't ask all of you, I asked one player.

[spoilers]HOW DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS?[/spoilers]

>You are the god of the story.
I couldn't disagree more with this sentiment. DM's who think they're "god" are usually amateurs. Reminds me of playing AD&D at 10 years old with the kid who lived down the street and my little brother. It's fine, I mean.. you've got to start somewhere... but the god mentality is limiting and one you want to outgrow as you develop as a DM.

The real necessity of the DM is as a referee. You're there to adjudicate rules (and usually be the rules guru), keep things moving forward, and make sure scenes resolve smoothly. But the story belongs to everybody, that's the whole point. All the best groups I've been part of are those where the DM facilitates a truly collaborative experience, where everyone at the table takes on part of the burden of narrative, character development, and worldbuilding (and a deep investment in the campaign).

Don't try to control your players; try to empower them. Letting them narrate something like critical hits is a good place to start.

>not giving a general overview of your attempted action before rolling, then fleshing the result out based on the dice roll

Maybe user meant it in the way that the DM is the narrator. Not quite a god, but he is removed and inside the story at the same time.

I have both types. Most of my players I describe their attacks and whatnot, but one guy in my group describes his own. I really enjoy when players describe their own desu, lets me know they're actually invested in the game and the character, and its normally cool without being over the top. Less work for me too is always a plus.

Goddamn it feels good to be brutal.

Roll to see how much damage it does, if it's a kill DM usually just says "how do you wanna do it" and a player details how they did the attack.

>Digging in his feet and twisting back I take both my swords and slash out, untwistinf my body as I go, spinning and slicing the orc into 5 clean up section

Whenever a player deals the final blow on a boss-type monster I ask them "How do you defeat the ______?" Anything they say (within reason) becomes what happens. I award a Hero Point to any player that describes doing so in a particularly awesome way. One time a player described killing a giant evil treant so well that his axe became plant-bane as a result.

Unfortunately my players are not terribly good at describing their in-game actions so I usually just come up with something myself. Mostly unfortunate for them because I secretly apply penalties to any action that is "I swing my sword at that one" or "I cast _____ at the big guy."

>I secretly apply penalties
That DM detected.