This post is aimed directly at a newbie dm who may be DM’ing a set of newbie players through their first experiences with role-playing games…
You’ve got the books, you’ve played a few sessions, and you’re really digging it. Your players are getting more and more comfortable with the rules, your table management gets smoother every session, and everyone is having a good time. Great! The point is to have fun and socialize for a few hours.
But now you may have reached a stage where you want a little more, perhaps you guys are slowly easing your way up to more role playing, your finding different voices and getting looser with each session. But are your players? Role playing doesn’t come easy for everyone, and not all your players should be expected to be thespians at the table either, it’s an unrealistic expectation. One small way to creep them up to more RP’ing in an organic manner is during combat. Combat? Yes, the part of the game most called a board game or miniatures game by 4th edition critics can be one of the gateways towards more RP’ing from your group. In simple terms: keep them from ever mentioning their powers while telling you what they are doing. You’ll find that a simple change like that may open the door to more clever descriptions and characterizations.
In my opinion, power names are meant to be for reference and bookeeping purposes only. They serve no purpose at the table when dealing with an in-character discussion. Bob the Cleric doesn’t talk to other fellow clerics at the temple about the size of their respectives Lances of Faiths. Instead of Bob saying “I Lance of Faith his ass” when attacking the Kobold, encourage, or require a better description. “Divine Light radiates from my holy symbol, engulfing and searing the Kobold’s ass.” That sounds better. Over time this could lead to more in-character talk, interaction, descriptions, and ultimately, role playing nirvana.
I think the new power system in 4th edition grants players a greater palette from which to draw descriptions from. Back in the day, (and yes 3e lovers this includes you because I’ve been there) my dwarven fighter had a few options. 99% of these were to stand there and swing his axe on his turn. Oh yeah, then he got two attacks a round. “My turn? I swing my axe” “My turn again? Oh, I do a piroutte then swing my axe.” 4e powers grant more description opportunities for the players.
Cleave– “I smack the Kobold with my axe, laugh at him and then face the guy next to him and bury the business end of my weapon in his forehead.”
Reaping Strike-“The Goblin in front of me will look like diced ham after I’m done slicing and dicing him with my sword. I hit him! And I left countless open wounds in him.”
You get the point. Encourage more descriptions and less power names.
Remember, as a DM, you do not need to really know the name of the power they are using. Your concern should be what they rolled vs. your defenses. Well, unless your players are cheaters. Then having good knowledge of powers may come in handy. Let’s hope that’s not ever the case.
www. Newbie DM .com 
Wyatt
July 19, 2009
I wholeheartedly agree. Power names and their descriptions are just to have a frame of reference. To the rules, that is a Lance of Faith. To Bob the Cleric, it could be a chant, a song, or a stern invocation of his deity’s creed in the supernal tongue. I also think that encouraging players to come up with their own flavor really goes a long way to making their character their own, an extension of themselves, instead of just a bunch of numbers acting as a proxy to a board game.
Todd
July 19, 2009
If we’re talking strictly about helping newer players get a feel for the flavor of the game, I agree 100%. For more advanced players, perhaps a compromise? When I play my wizard, I usually phrase it like “I whip up a wave of force with Thunderlance and knock that a-hole off the dock into the ocean!” Working the actual name of the power in the somewhere is something I do for the sake of my DM, who usually knows exactly what defense I’m attacking just from the name of the power. But yeah, the fact that the players’ handbook even encourages people to rename their spells means this is a great way to better immerse newcomers in the world.
Kristian
July 19, 2009
“Cleave- ‘I smack the Kobold with my axe, laugh at him and then face the guy next to him and bury the business end of my weapon in his forehead.'”
This sounds like how my friends and I played 3e. I honestly don’t see how 4e makes this much better.
I have similar feelings about skill challenges. Everyone makes such a big deal about them, but it’s how 3e was written to play. Nothing ever prohibited the players from using various skill checks to alter the situation. In fact, I just assumed that’s how skills worked in 3e.
newbiedm
July 19, 2009
@Kristian: I don’t think it’s a matter of necessarily making it better, but it helps dispel this myth that 4th ed. cannot be played as anything other than a miniatures skirmish game, a silly assumption imho.
Although I still counter that powers make combat more interesting than any other previous edition of D&D, where my dwarf just swung one way, then swung the same way again and again and again…
But yes, you are right, good players should apply this regardless of the edition they play. That’s why the article is aimed at newbie players and DM’s starting out their role playing experience.
Swordgleam
July 19, 2009
As a player, I tend to swing between extremes. I’m either running up to the wall, vaulting over it, landing feet-first in the guy behind it then attacking his buddy with my greataxe, or I’m “21 to hit vs AC on the one in front of me.” When I have the opportunity for crazy stunts, I love it, but when I spend a few rounds standing in one spot and swinging, I’d rather get through combat quicker and get excited over high numbers than spice up “axe to the face” every time.
Something I tried once was getting through the minor encounters with Wushu rules and versions of the PCs. By the time we got to the big bad, they were so used to describing everything they did that they kept it up even with the 4e rules.
Neal Hebert
July 19, 2009
The way I do it is I’ve never outright said “Don’t use your power names.” My players really enjoy saying the power names, and have fun with it – so I don’t want to take that away from them.
But what I do as a DM is, before resolving any dice rolls, I ask them to tell me what that looks like/sounds like. Typically, I’ll say “Awesome – now what’s that look like?”
Then they’ll tell me, and everyone gets excited. Now, with At-wills I’m less of a stickler on this point – I’ll ask them the first time in a session, then let it slide because they’re throwing so many of them around that it would drag things out during our limited play-time.
But yeah, asking for narrative really opened the doorway to my players attempting to stunt in combat. Last game, I had a player jump on a dragon’s back, and slowly climb up it in mid-air until he smote it from the sky.
I can’t prove that the narrative thing is the cause of this, per se, but this sort of thing wasn’t happening before I asked them what they’re powers looked like every game and got them involved in the cinematics of combat. Maybe this is just a case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc – but my players say involving themselves in narration has made a difference.
ElijahKaine
July 19, 2009
@Neal, I’ve done things in a similar way since day one of trying 4e (First time with D&D). I think it help people get into character a lot. At first I asked “What does it look like?” then “What does it sound like?”
I even helped out a little first. Like “What color is the lance of faith?” Now the players will describe what their character say and there mood, and ect. Pretty fun times.
@NewbieDM I agree that I think 4e lends itself better to more fun RP-wise with the powers system. It just gives some more groundwork when trying to describe what your character does.
I think what your doing is a cool idea. I might have done it that way had the method above not occurred to me.
Geek Ken
July 19, 2009
It’s tough to enforce. You want to invoke this great descriptive narration by the players, but are stuck with using terms to describe game mechanics. Even with a wonderful description by a player, they will typically have to tag on at the end “… so I use my cleave power.” It is hard to get around.
But in spirit that is something that the DM can totally leave to the wayside. I think if the DM can use a lot of color in describing results, attacks from monsters, etc. it can add a lot of flavor to the game. It helps bring a little more imaginative zing and excitement to a bunch of people shuffling figures around and rolling dice.
So when that warrior that successfully used his cleave on 2 goblin minions, now through the DM’s narration becomes, “You bring down the haft of your axe, crushing the goblin’s skull and suddenly do a spinning swing to bury the axe’s blade into the chest of the other standing beside him.”
by_the_sword
December 1, 2009
Offer a small Role-playing xp bonus award to the entire party each time a player uses descriptive language instead of using just the name of a power.