I already don’t like this because this person gives me the vibe of someone who plans a lot - a recipe for disaster in TTRPGs - but what sticks out the most to me is…why have it be a roll? Why not just do the thing that is the most interesting for the situation at hand?

The options listed on the post are

1. The Snogre’s fist smashes through the bridge and it begins to collapse! In D4 ROUNDS, everyone still on the bridge will fall into the chasm below

2. A pile of snow on the bridge has been covering a long length of rope. It still has strength to it.

3. A third Snogre appears, wondering what’s going on. He’s bigger, meaner, and carrying a huge, jagged sword meant for a giant.

4. A ring of keys falls off the Snogre’s belt and lands between the party and the Snogres. Everyone freezes, eyeing each other. Who is going to make the first move?

Which are all fair and interesting ‘spices’, but why leave it to luck? If the combat is already a slog, adding one more enemy will make it worse. So the third option would be a clear negative to the whole situation, yet you have 25% of chance of it happening.

This all feels wild to me because “Spice things up” is just something that I believe is expected from GMs in the first place, not just in combat. Players are lost without direction? Something blows up or a person calls for help. A conversation is starting to become boring and fruitless? You hear an unusual sound or feel the consequences of a previous action. Combat is taking too long? Do the options above.

Reinventing the wheel on something that’s so basic - again, IMO - feels more like a red flag for the article than good advice.

I just read Nights Black Agents, and they have a similar idea presented in the book, but no rolls.

They give examples of environmental features for different locations, that could be used to up the ante and encourage interactions.

A fight on the streets? Someone gets slammed to a fruit stall and starts chucking melons.

A chase scene on a highway? Two trucks come in between the cars, so you can run on them to reach the other vehicle.

A fight on an icy lake? Cracks form, or maybe the sleeping leviathan sticks its maw out every now and then.

Don’t add more hp pools to dwindle, make the dwindling more interesting and maybe make the environment speed up the combat. You don’t need to kill all the ruffians if you push them into a river, cutting the time of the encounter into half.

Telegraphing options is good too, since playees might need some encouraing examples. Want a swashbuckling scene? Make the bandits swing on on tapestries and chandeliers to give players ideas and feed their imaginations.

Combat getting boring? Make it interesting instead!

Genius.