[RPG] Fighting boredom in combat as a player

combatsystem-agnostic

Sometimes (as a player) I get bored during combat. At times I feel like all my turns are the same (especially when playing lower level characters) and when that is combined with no combat progress (adventurers are just whiffing round after round) things can get dull. What can as a player do to "shake things up" and fight my boredom?

Best Answer

  1. Sometimes combat is just long and boring. Try a more exciting game system, or house-rule the more long and annoying parts. Some game systems are tuned towards long combat rounds and grind. There's some system specific tips out there for speeding combats, see How can I speed up D&D 3.5e combat? for 3.5 as an example. Time limits etc., not going to list them all here as there's other more narrow q&a's that do so.

  2. Try stunts or other more exciting maneuvers, to the degree which either the game supports them or the GM tolerates them. See Encouraging out-of-the-box thinking in combat encounters for inspiration. I remember when Feng Shui opened up my play group's eyes to the possibilities and then we started reaching out more in our other more traditional RPGs.

  3. Roleplay during combat. Adding flavor makes it better. This is for the players and for the GM. Most film combats sound lame if you describe them as "Aragorn rolled to hit, hit and did 8 points of damage." Narrate and describe away, whether you're the GM or the player - leading by example you'll probably see others take it up as well because it's cool.

  4. Use smaller groups. Some people have a tendency to have 7, 8, even 10 person RPG play groups. That sucks horribly for a number of reasons and combat slowness and balance are chief among them. I have a large group of players here but I don't take more than 6 for a given campaign ever.