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.
I guess when I ran into Aesop Rock, and got absolutely infatuated? I don't do a lot of rap, so his stuff hitting so damn hard was a surprise.
I remember a few of the other times. Mostly it has taken the right moment, the right mindset and the right artist. A dark autumn evening and a walk in a park for Dark Sanctuary, falling asleep to SunnO))) and waking up to it was a mindblowing experience.
Carpenter Bruts album Trilogy opened up electronic music for me, and Crypt of the Necrodancers soundtrack cemented it.