Workshopping More Impressive Boss Fights

     GURPS is fickle when it comes to bosses. Yes, you could have an unkillable warrior who is dedicated to ripping apart anyone who stands in their way, but that would mean the players are completely unable to fight against them. In this short article, I will describe how I've created a scheme to provide cinematic boss fights in my games, without outright dominating the battlefield.

    The first step, is one often repeated. USE HENCHMEN. No battle is complete without grunts on the battlefield. There are two interesting ways to do it. One is to have a few warriors that are well armored but provide protection to the boss preventing them from being damaged. The other has respawning grunts that keep coming to attack the party but are weak and just distractions.

    Two is to not have the boss have tricks up their sleeves. One I have experimented with recently after a Battle Brothers fight gone wrong against some barbarians is to utilize "Heroic Feats of ####". In this specific scenario, the barbarian boss would activate both HF:BS and HF:ST to overwhelm a cocky player, but it will only last for three or so seconds. Use this time to let the boss refresh themselves and ward off the player, but give them hints about this newfound power. It is bad practice to suddenly whip out changes halfway through the fight without warning or informing the players.

    Finally, make the boss use the environment to their advantage. Large red barrels, hidden traps, weak columns, turrets, or healing shrines. The environment is an important part of the fight, but make sure you let the players use it too. It is completely fair for a player to use their intuition to shoot the red barrel next to the boss if they have been using the barrels to blow up areas the entire fight. I hope that today's post helps you guys make more fun and interesting boss fights. If it doesn't, thank you for reading on regardless!