Combat can be heroic and exciting, dangerous and desperate, or (my favourite) CREEPY!
There’s an old adage about Musical Theatre that goes something like this: the plot needs to advance during the songs. If you fall into a rhythm of plot-song-plot-song-plot-song, your audience will become frustrated with the music, feeling like it’s a delay in the story rather than an essential part. The same is true of Martial Arts films; if the fights aren’t moving the story forward, they’re getting in the way.
Extend this logic to your TTRPG games. If combat is the mechanical meat of the system you’re playing (see 5e, Pathfinder, Shadowdark, most OSR games), you need to ask yourself: is combat the story, or is it getting in the way?
Creepy Combat Quips
Add an extra step to your monster’s Action Economy: Action, Move, and Talk! A little mid-combat chatter can really elevate things, take encounters in new directions, and make memorable otherwise mundane monsters. We’ve put this to use in our work before, (check out Claviceps Purpurea’s combat commentary in Moon Elves’ Masquerade) but I wanted to put some more general tables out for use with our stuff.
And what’s more general than fear! All monsters could stand to be a little creepy, but these combat quips pair extra well with the undead, the possessed, and the cursed.
This Monster…
- Begs for the release of death. Thanks the heroes for killing it
- Speaks as if it is the last person the adventurers killed. In the first rounds, the dead soul is confused: how did it get here? It becomes increasingly irate, vengeful, and insulting as the combat rolls on.
- Lists the names of your friends and intimates in a dull, lifeless voice as it tries to murder you.
- Insists you hold still. It is only trying to help. You will feel so much better soon.
- Speaks in the voice of the last PC it damaged. It will insist that it is the real creature, and that the adventurer in question is an imposter or that the monster has somehow swapped their bodies.
- Compliments your physical appearance and great length, and in uncomfortable detail. As the combat goes, it will begin musing aloud about possible ways of preserving you after your death.
- Claims to be an avatar of the cleric’s god, but evinces an overtly evil, almost totally inverted theology.
- Keeps muttering “No friends, no… stay. Stay forever.”
- Moans in pleasure when it takes damage.
- Apologizes to you for the sins that you’ve committed. How does it know?
- Describes the tortures it will inflict on the last adventurer alive.
- Calls the heroes ‘master’. Insists it is only trying to help. Just let it help.
Like this? We’ve got plenty more! Check out our LotFP-spec’d Sumo Wrestling Rikishi class, our article on the Treefolk Justice System, or these twelve tips to improve your DMing. And if you’ve already enjoyed our free offerings, think about leaving us a few bucks: could I talk you into trying Tomb of Transformation, perhaps our creepiest 5e module?