This is a list of things that you can say in place of “I miss” or “they miss” when describing a failed roll in combat. As always, not only am I writing this for all of you, but for myself as well. I want to get into the habit of making descriptions during combat more interesting and dynamic sounding and less lock-step mechanical. Some of these are especially good for systems where failure, or partial success, introduces complications.
Ok, list time.*
1. Your weapon turns sideways off of their armor, leaving only scratches.
2. There’s a splintering crack as their shield takes the blow.
3. Sparks fly as they block the blow with their own weapon.
4. They catch the tip of your blade with the crossguard and turn the blow aside.
5. Your arrow sticks into the monster’s thick hide. They take no notice.
6. They lean over to reload their weapon an instant before you pull the trigger.
7. They throw their weapon up at the last moment, taking the blow with a jarring clang that numbs both your grips and causes you to back away from each other while feeling returns to your fingers.
8. They turn sideways and lean back, your blade slices the air with a whoosh and a button spins upwards from their jacket.
9. You feel the connection between your fist and their face as more of a resistance than an impact as they lean backwards from the hit.
10. The tip of your rapier neatly penetrates under their guard and leaves a hole through the loose fabric of their gaudy trousers. Your eyes narrow at each other as you recover your stance.
11. The rock makes a dull thud off of their club as they bat it aside.
12. The powder in the pan sizzles slowly and there’s a slow smoky burn and a soft pop. The musket ball tumbles harmlessly to a stop several yards short of the intended target.
13. Your opponent loses their footing as you swing, sending them tumbling into you inside of your arc. You both nearly tumble to the ground before you shove them back fiercely.
14. Your axes catch together and there’s a heart stopping moment as you pull at each other’s weapons trying to yank them from your grasps.
15. Their guard is open, you step in for the final blow, only to be blinded by a handful of dirt. You blink your vision clear to see them lift their weapon and prepare to continue the fight.
16. A cry of pain from a teammate causes you to flinch as you pull the trigger, your bullet sends water spraying from the exit hole in the enemy’s canteen.
17. Your arrow arcs through the air, true in its flight, only diverted at the last moment by a gust of magical wind.
18. A thick cloud of smoke from the burning grass obscures your vision as you swing, you connect with something weakly, but don’t bring them down.
19. They jump back as you swing, letting your knife carve the air in front of them. They breathe a quick sigh of relief as they pat their chest feeling for a wound and not finding one.
20.They roll their shoulder up and your punch might leave a bruise, but it’s not the knock out blow you were looking for.
21. Your quarrel thunks into their shield, the point coming through uncomfortably close to their arm.
22. They push you outwards and turn their body to the side, forcing you to back away instead of taking them down with a tackle.
23. Your spear tip, pushes deep into their stomach, but when you pull it back their chainmail has held fast. Not a single link separated form another. They utter an oath of thanks to their gods.
24. They turn your blade aside, letting your momentum turn you sideways to them. They ready themselves for a swing into your unarmored back.
25. You catch each other’s kicks, both hopping around on one foot comically.**
26. They drop backwards and push upwards with their foot, sending you rolling over them, you both rise to a crouch and spin to face each other. they nod.
27. They dive forward as you swing, rolling past you as your blade whistles through the air.
28. They catch the haft of your axe just before you can put your full weight behind the swing. They let go and step back as you shift your grip and try to lever them to the ground.
29. They duck under your blow, hand touching the earth below them. They rise up swinging upward.
30. You both trade a flurry of thrusts, parries, and ripostes until you clash together the ends of your crossguards making indents in each other’s cheeks.
31. The tip of your blade leaves a thin trickle of blood dripping down their cheek as the clashing sound of your weapons still rings in the air.
32. The tips of your smallswords skitter around in circles as you press forward and they give ground. You break off the press when they circle to your right and threatening to flank you.
33. Your knee connects softly against their forearms instead of smartly against their face.
34. The earsplitting crack of an explosion shakes your aim.
35. Weakness from blood loss saps the power of your blow.
OK. Let’s stop there. That’s a nice long list of examples.
So what we have hear break down into a number of categories that you can use to create interesting results for a missed die roll. These break down like this:
The character missed because of some environmental factor like a distraction, or obscured vision, bad footing, or even equipment failure.
The character’s opponent made some kind of defensive move, they parried, or blocked, dodged, rolled with it, or even just avoided the blow by sheer luck.
The hit went home, but it didn’t cause damage. Armor did its job, or the opponent was too tough to be hurt, or the blow was too weak for some reason.
Lastly, the character did miss. They misjudged the distance, didn’t judge the windage right, or overbalanced themselves somehow.
Think about the results of the miss as well. Did it change the opponents’ positioning? Is there a new factor at play in the combat? is there a way to take advantage of that distraction to their own favor. Did some sort of social exchange happen just now that gets some banter flowing?
The point here is to come up with something more exciting to say than they just missed. Missing a dragon with your badass magic sword is a bit of a dull setback. Heaving yourself into a mighty blow only to have that arcane weapon harmlessly bounce off of its thick scaly hide is a demoralizing piece of drama that moves your butt ever closer to the seat edge. And what if the dragon turns and says “Oh, come now. Do try harder.” thus revealing that they not only speak, but are arrogant and sarcastic? Now there’s something more going on than just “I attack the dragon.” “You miss. It’s the dragon’s turn now.”
Get descriptive, be extra, but more than that, give the combatants a sense of the drama, of their position, and of the action as it unfolds. An almost miss can be just as intimidating as a heavy hit, and a bad miss can convey that they’re in for a harder fight than imagined. Descriptions like these make combat into much more than an interlocking set of numbers, it makes it a story, instead of a story problem.***
But, above all, have fun.
*If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really like lists.
**This kind of slapstick comedy happens in real fights far more often than most people think.
***Which are awful. All those trains and apples. Ugh.
Pens, Paper, Polyhedrals 