Encounter-a-Day

Hey guys, sorry today’s post is so late, had jury duty yesterday and that kinda screwed everything up.

So today I’m just going to brainstorm different things you can do to make the requisite barroom brawls a bit more interesting. Probably not a whole lot originality here, but this is as much to explore a new kind of post for me as anything else, and who knows, it might spark some ideas. So without further ado…

Barrels: Filled with ales, lagers and wines, meats and cheeses, or even empty, barrels are a great addition to any fight and are perfectly at home in any tavern. Kick ‘em down a stairway to stymie pursuers, hide behind ‘em for cover, tip ‘em over and introduce some flame to make a big wall of fire. Perhaps best of all, have large stacks of barrels laid on their sides and held in place by rope; one quick cut and you’ve got a cascade of containers barreling down on your foes, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Flour: Flour? What the hell could flour possibly be used for in a fight? Toss it around to blind people or uncover invisible assailants– even if you miss, their footprints will still be outlined if they go in the covered areas. Better yet, flour suspended in air is extremely explosive– be careful that you’re not throwing that sack at an invisible fire elemental!

Booze: If there’s one thing a tavern’s got, it’s booze. Heavy bottles can make excellent and nonlethal weapons, and can be broken if the situation calls for a bit less discretion. Booze also has the wonderful property in that it’s both flammable and inflammable at the same time. I’m starting to notice a pattern here, actually… Moral of the story: If you go to the bar, either bring your own fire or bring some potions of fire resistance.

Furniture: A bar’s a pretty crowded place– it can be damned hard to move effectively in combat. It might just be easier to maneuver by standing on tables, not to mention that gives you the advantage of high ground. Depending on the design of the table, it might be as steady as the ground below it or it might be very difficult to stand on without tipping. In any case, there’s lot of opportunities here for jump checks and balance checks and even strength checks to overturn a heavy table and use it as cover, or pick one up to bullrush a group of enemies. Oh, and lest I drop the whole “torch the place” motif, let’s not forget about candelabra, sconces and torches along the wall. Speaking of lighting sources…

Chandeliers: What tavern brawl would be complete without someone swinging from a chandelier, someone dropping a chandelier on their enemies, or someone dropping a chandelier on their enemies while another enemy swings from it over a huge puddle of booze just waiting to be set ablaze by said same* chandelier?

Patrons & Staff: If there’s one thing a bar’s got more of than the hooch, it’s people. Potential enemies, allies, bystanders to be evacuated, hostages to be rescued, and idiots to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, blocking your shots at the most inopportune time. And, um, they might have matches or something on them, I guess. *cough*

Is “said same” an actual phrase? It sounds correct to me, and I swear I’ve heard it used before, but a quick search on Google just brings up coincidences where the word said just happens to precede the word same… It’s generic enough a search term that’s not quite enough to convince me I’m crazy, but… I worry too much about shit like this.