My character isn’t a fighter – how can I contribute to a combat?

Question for the GM: When I’m playing a character that doesn’t fight well, I either end up ineffectually flailing at enemies, or doing nothing and waiting until the combat is resolved. How can I contribute to a combat?

This is a common problem that requires GM flexibility to fix, so you might want to point him to this post. One way that games have avoided this problem is by making every character effective in combat (D&D 4e, Werewolf). While this solves the problem, it can limit dramatic situations that can arise and make everyone quick to resort to combat to overcome problems. At the other extreme, some GMs brag that they run games where combat is rare or non-existent, as if a game without combat is somehow intrinsically better than a game with combat. This has the same problems. The core issue is when a combat system becomes a mini-game that everyone has to stop and play in the midst of a story. When combat is not limited to simply violent physical interaction with enemies, a lot of options open up for characters who can’t or won’t fight.

A New Look at Combat (Part 13): Scaling Up to Mass Combat

A good combat system should be able to scale effortlessly from individual combat, to leading a small unit, all the way up to commanding an army. With this system, keeping the focus on the perspective of the character is what allows it to scale with ease. It’s even possible for characters to participate in different scopes of conflict in the same battle at the same time.

A New Look at Combat (Example 4)

This example will look at another part of the combat set up in Example 3, so be sure to read and be familiar with that, as this will assume familiarity for the sake of brevity (chart of bonuses – remember that they are doubled because this system uses a 20-sided die, and the Disengaged bonus is -4 Off / +4 Def). This example will show how one group fighting another might play out, following Durga’s companions fighting the villain’s henchmen. The companions include Arjuna (archer), Tipu (brash warrior who favors a large two-handed sword), and Shah (more cautious warrior who prefers a shield and short sword). They take on four henchmen armed with scimitars.

A New Look at Combat (Part 12): Multiple Opponents

The discussion and examples in my New Look at Combat posts have focused on one-on-one combat, for the purpose of allowing the reader to understand the basic ideas. The rules for a duel between two enemies can also be applied to one against many or to one group fighting another (the typical situation in role-playing games) with only one more consideration – how many opponents can effectively be fought by a character at once.

A New Look at Combat (Example 3)

For my third example, I’m going to use the more detailed tactics in a heroic fantasy game. The system resolves tests with the roll of a d20 (which means bonuses and penalties in the linked chart will be doubled), and defensive values are static. High roll controls range, with a tie meaning that the range doesn’t change. The combat begins with our heroic swordswoman Durga charging up a set of stairs to fight the villain Bubalis on the balcony above while Durga’s companions are delayed by the villain’s henchmen.

A New Look at Combat (Example 2)

For my second example, I’m going to use the more detailed tactics in a gritty game. The system resolves tests with dice pools, with the result of one roll determining both the offensive and defensive success for the opponent. Ties resolve in favor of offense (both combatants get hit). With ranged weapons, both the distance to the target and cover that the target has subtract from offense. The combat begins with Nick in the hallway of an apartment where he’s making a buy. The dealer suspects Nick of being an undercover cop (which he is), and so has his henchman greet Nick in the hallway. The henchman says he wants to show Nick this beautiful new pistol he got, and pulls it out to test his reaction. Nick senses the henchman’s bad intent, gets nervous, and goes for his own gun.

A New Look at Combat (Example 1)

Now that the explanation of the core ideas and mechanics behind my new look at combat is out there, a few examples of play are in order. Since the ideas themselves can adapt to any system or style of game, I’m going to set each example combat in a different system and style. Additionally, I’ll give examples of both simplified and detailed tactics, along with a variety of combatants so that you can see how their personalities and styles color the fight.

Quick Tip: Index cards for turn based combat

Combat can be an overwhelming experience when I’m running a game.  It’s hard to  remember all the bad guys and what they can do from fight to fight, and remembering the player characters as well can make my combats slow and halting instead of flowing at a reasonable pace.

A trick that works for me in turn based combat systems (4th Edition D&D) is using index cards to keep important enemy and player character information on and putting them in order of initiative.  Since usually run modules, I don’t bother to write the bad guys out.  Just print an extra copy of the enemy page, cut out the description and tape it to the card.  Mark the damage right on the index card, and dramatically toss out the card when the evil doers inevitably die.  This saves a lot of time flipping through pages to figure out dice pools and special abilities, and has the added bonus of not writing down a changing initiative order.

A New Look at Combat (Part 11): Simplified Tactical Methods

For some people, the tactics presented in previous posts (Defining a System for Tactical Methods and Interaction of Tactical Methods) may be too detailed, or they may want a simpler way to transition into thinking about tactics from the character’s point-of-view, or understanding how they work. With that in mind, I decided it would be a good idea to post a simplification – it pares nine tactics down into five easy-to-understand categories and alleviates the need to cross-reference a table for bonuses.

A New Look at Combat (Part 10): Interaction of Tactical Methods

The tactics discussed in the preceding post (Defining a System for Tactical Methods) are the basics which give up some measure of offense or defense in order to gain the other. Previous posts (see Specialized Tactics, and More Specialized Tactics) introduced some tactics that are employed specifically to exploit others. These have no system effect on their own; instead, they give an unbalanced bonus (or penalty) only when employed against the correct (or incorrect) tactical method. This allows a smart combatant to take advantage of one who is less savvy.