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Re descriptive attacks
Thu, 2006-12-28 12:04 — tboneRight, bonuses for rich description is a good tool in the GM arsenal. Assuming that 'the bad guys' aren't getting the same bonuses for the GM's own descriptive attacks, it's a method that falls squarely under the 'gamist' style of play: "the heroes are special because they're the heroes". If that's the game style, then it sounds good to me – anything that spurs more imagination and involvement in the storytelling is great!
The connection to my article's topic (which is certainly more of a topic for the 'simulationist', not 'gamist' crowd) is, as you say, the possibility for awarding bonuses for player actions that exploit the game's combat pacing less effectively, but make for better drama. Some mechanics, like GURPS' Evaluate, already formalize that a little. I can see the GM rewarding such actions even more, though: maybe a bonus beyond that conferred by Evaluate, for a player who gives up even more attacks in order to dramatically circle, soliloquize, etc. I think that's what you're suggesting.
Getting back to gamist vs simulationist, I expect that a gaming group that heavily modifies characters' successes for richness of description is a group that wouldn't have much interest in my nerdy topic of combat timing! I admit that my musings in this article are more of interest for, say, gladiator-style battles emphasizing tactics and simulation, than player interaction-focused storytelling.
Alas... while I like rules-light storytelling games as much as the next gamer, I always end up writing about the crunchy simulation stuff. : )