Creating interesting battles

Your job as the GM is to keep the Challenge flowing. You track the Initiative count, lead discussions about rules, and make rule calls when players attempt different types of actions. And, importantly, you control the antagonists during the Challenge.

Here are some lessons learned during playtesting to help you create tactically difficult and rewarding Challenges.

Gang up on the players

Players have more cards in total than the GM. They will act more often. However, you have an advantage when it comes to the number of antagonists.

• With multiple enemies, each action you use can target the same number of adventurers. If five goblins use the Attack action, this will affect up to five different adventurers.

• Enemies can also focus fire, attacking the same adventurer. Use the rules for mobs on page 122 to good effect.

• The GM’s “side” can often absorb more Wounds than the players.

The gimmick is that players feel cool as they mow down hordes of zombies or bandits or whatever. At the same time, it’s a war of attrition—the GM can put pressure on the players as they face hordes of enemies.

Make minor actions as often as possible

You have much more freedom than players when it comes to card choice because you don’t have to worry about card suits. As such, take minor actions as often as possible.

Smart players will try to keep the monsters “stun-locked” with Roughhouse and various effects. Smart GMs will use Recover, which doesn’t have a requisite value—simply discard any lesser doom card as a minor action to keep your antagonists free and ready to act.

Fight dirty, fight fair

Don’t pull punches, but fight fair. Don’t change your monsters’ stats halfway through a battle. If the players come up with an amazing plan and shove your big bad guy off of a tower, let it happen. Of course, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If the players start shoving your Balrog off the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, you can pull their wizard off of it just as easily (if you have the appropriate card).

If the players are losing, they have a choice to make: stand and fight, run away, or talk their way out of it. The Disposition and Morale rules make sure that the players have ample opportunities to talk their way out of a fight at pretty much any stage.