Exploiting Hazards in Delta Green & D100 Games (Patreon)

"9:18 a.m. Officer James Eichel arrives in his vehicle as the suspects flee on foot down the narrow alley. One suspect continues to run southbound in the alley, while the other suspect stops and ambushes oncoming officers from a partially covered elevation drop. This allows the suspect to be in an advantageous position to fire upon approaching officers with little warning." —KOB4 News, 1 OCT 2021

"Your turn." 

"I attack again. Rolling...and a miss." 

"He attacks back. Hit. Four damage." 

"I'm still up. My turn again?" 

It is so easy for a combat scene to deteriorate into a mechanical exchange of dice-rolls record-keeping. Sometimes a fight lasts longer than you expect. Sometimes players don't have a clear enough sense of the scene.

Adding personality is always the best answer, for me. How are the panic and tunnel-vision of a deadly fight affecting your character? Why are you still attacking? What does it look and sound like? But even the most enthusiastic roleplayers have off days.

Adding physical detail is next best. How is your character using what's around them to get every possible edge?

I wrote the attached short rules option to encourage players and the GM to answer that last question. It allows a character with a good attack roll to wring some advantage out of adding interesting details to the environment. 

I wrote this with D100 games like Delta Green in mind but it would be easy to adapt. In D&D, make it +2 to hit or AC or +1 damage per die. 

Give it a shot and tell me what you think.