How gory do you usualy describe your combat scenes?

how gory do you usualy describe your combat scenes?

>stuff being blown to pieces fallout-style

I try to be detailed about the enemy's reaction with minimal "oof the edge."

If you cut someone's stomach, going "They cry out in agony and collapse as their entrails and blood splatter across the ground" is a bit excessive. I'd prefer "They step back in pain, clutching their stomach. With a furious gaze, they take a few heavy breaths, and fall."

I'd say Diablo 2-ish? Generally bloody, but quick. Unless the victim is someone dramatic or important, or I feel the killer earned it with a clever move or powerful effect.

desu I prefer the first one. Let's not romanticize what would actually happen.

Both are good, just depends on the enemy. First is good for mooks and underlings. The second one might sound better if we play it as a proud and tough leader who isn’t ready to die.

Maybe you're right. I guess I'm just a more poetic storyteller.

Usually i try too meet my players description, it makes me more aware for those times when they simply want the combat to end and meet the amount of details they want.
Also it makes them aware when i want them to tone something down when i hold back, instead of directly telling them.

I go full Carebears.

I used to DM and let my players detail their own "kill scenes." It was alright for a time, until one guy took it too far.
>Doing Phandelver
>Get to cultists
>Guy gets final kill
>Give him the stage
>He starts out tame enough
>okay
>Starts going into detail
>ohno.jpg
>He finishes with a scene that would make Tarantino cringe
>Talk to him the following week about it, ask him to tone it down
>Everything works out fine
It's good when your players listen, but it shouldn't need to get to that point, anyways. I prefer my players interacting with the setting, too, so stuff like that gets them more involved imo.

I played in a group DM'd by a paramedic once. it was tough to be a cleric dealing with flail segments and degloving

Everyone's covered in blood. Always.

Quick but satisfying. Some cleaved off heads, some guts spilling here and there, falling off cliffs and they just smash the back of their heads.

If it's a big fight or big baddie, i give my players the stage if they want, or i just rip off executions from For Honor

I think from now on I'm just gonna steal descriptions from the Iliad. Homer/the translator I'm reading did a great job of describing things very brutally but keeping it concise like the account of a hardened warrior people should be.

"He struck at the projecting part of his helmet and drove the spear into his brow; the point of bronze pierced the bone, and darkness veiled his eyes; headlong as a tower he fell amid the press of the fight"

"Ulysses, infuriated by the death of his comrade, hit him with his spear on one temple, and the bronze point came through on the other side of his forehead. Thereon darkness veiled his eyes, and his armour rang rattling round him as he fell heavily to the ground."

Avoids insufficient or excessive attention to the violence but reminds you of what the fuck you just did to a guy's face.

You gotta give more detail than that. What did he say that was over the top?

this, what exactly is going too far, where is the line drawn

Anime bullshit and melodrama. I go for dynamic, high octane action, but it always comes out as super edgy anime bullshit with too much flowery language.

I don't mind that much, really.

why not making the player feel bad about the random mooks he kills?
"the enemy stumbles backward, your blade cleaving through his innards. He falls on his knees, grasping his now torn apart guts as blood gushes from his wounds. In his last breath, an apology. In his last thoughts, her face, which he now abandons, forevermore."
sorry if it's corny, still learning both english and GMing

Like Marvel movies with some gory bits added rarely. Guts, their contents and other anatomical details stay off the scene, in general.

...

>fallout-style
Not like that, i actually try to be good

Sword and sorcery (Moorcock style) for the more stylish situations.
This, and also descriptions Herodotus style for anything else.