What Makes a Battle Epic?

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The GM plots and plans her grand scene only for the characters to walk away with half of their hit points and only taking a mild consequence - and that by choice. But, people are pretty happy, and that’s what matters, right? And GMs are in the business of keeping folks happy (whether they realize it, like it, or not)... but that’s not always Good Story Material. 

So what makes a battle Epic, then? 

Mostly, it’s the length of the battle and how close the players came to death. Hate to squash it like that, but those are the two factors which will define an epic battle in the players’ minds. Time in battles equates to lots of dice rolls, which stems from lots of actions - and hopefully a little cleverness on the PC’s side. And battles are inherent risk taking, so it becomes thrilling as the players ride it down to the wire, gambling whether to press on when it would be wiser to concede. 

In the last Epic Battle I ran, the players were really plagued by ugly dice and lack of teamwork - which was very much in character as well as game system experience. Up until this point, they would often come across something and - for the most part - beat it down with little intentional or planned assistance: no one was looking for the opportunity to set up invokes for each other, no real Fate level High Power Teamwork via Stacking and Passing Invokes! This means that what should have been really damaging shots were missing the additional two, four, or more shifts that good stacking can provide. This caused the bad guy to get a few more shots in that hurt the players, causing them to use their Fate Points and individual invokes defensively, and turning the whole thing into a gritty slug-fest.

At a crucial point, the players finally did get a Big Break just as the baddie used his Hide In Plain Sight (one time per session). Had he gone Stealth, someone would have dropped. However, one of the PCs pulled out a Really Bright Light at just the right moment (Create Advantage) and dispelled the Stealth.

The dice, which had been putting its own digs into the players suddenly came to life in their favor, just enough; they also started playing a little bit smarter (using more Create Advantage actions because the enemy's Fight skill was high enough to give them a hard time).

At the end of battle? The last standing player had a Mild and Moderate consequence, but the bad guy had a Serious and Moderate, so he conceded.

Conclusion

Every battle cannot, by definition, be epic. But a hard fought win is a pretty close second. The GM really does have all the tools in his hands. Players lining up for that kill shot way too early? Have the bad guy clap his hands - and all the lights in the strata go down. Or at least the locality, but the strata adds a little future intrigue. In either case, unless they can see in the dark, they’re going to have to readjust and take an action to fix that. And if it’s magical/resistant darkness, well, things just REALLY got interesting. That one action can turn an Orc into a Nightmare.

Use the players’ troubles or other aspects they give you an opportunity to use (it costs you a fate point, but gives them one on the back end). Have another critter of distraction level enter the scene. Give the bad guy another stunt or useful aspect. It’s the Fate Golden Rule: “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.”

Happy Hunting!