It is a routine thread on gaming boards. Combat in (insert any game under the sun here) is boring, slow, too long, etc. The one I bemoan is Champions so I get it. But not when it comes to the pile-on heap of shade thrown at B/X and OD&D. You know, the OSR, that OSR.
If your combat in OSR games is boring you to tears it is because you are boring. Do something interesting! We are all going to have our “sweet spot” for the amount of rules we like to have in combat. For me, these days, it is DC Heroes for my homebrew supers campaign. I want a quick resolution mechanic for combat which doesn’t have a ton of modifiers to calculate. And B/X D&D sure doesn’t have many modifiers.
Sometimes I wonder, why have a list of combat modifiers in the rules at all? Why can’t your number just be the number? Why delay orgasm? Without a long list of modifiers, it gives GM’s an PCs an opportunity to decide on a modifier quickly and roll for resolution. The only thing in the way of such loose application of combat modifiers is us. I can see the worry-beads knotting through tangled fingers as I say this. But, but what about blah, blah, blah. Beads furiously fondled. Even I can’t get that level of acceptance from my players, and I think I’ve done a very good job at earning trust with any group I’ve run since getting back into gaming.
If you describe your combat action by announcing your “to hit” result followed by a damage total and nothing else you are going to have a boring combat because, well, you are being boring. There is nothing stopping you from declaring “I run at the orc with sword tightly gripped in my blood-soaked hand, screaming my death chant, and at the last minute before our blades meet I’m going to make like I’m sliding into second base and cleave his feet from his legs” then now things have gotten interesting. Now the to-hit roll and damage total are indicators of success on the just described action. And detail breeds detail. This means a GM must describe the combat zone in enough detail to make it sticky, to give PCs something to play off.
The group initiative roll helps in this case. When it is the PCs initiative, they can act in coordination with each other, off each other or whatever. This is where an interesting combat environment helps. The more details one has the more creative things one can devise. Roleplay this shit! The PCs should be shouting at each other, encouraging each other in their own special way. All the things you see in any action movie is up for grabs. Swinging from chandeliers, desperately trying to refuse the flank, calling for more ammo, striking the match to the fuse and running away screaming “It’s going to blow!” while the orcs look at you puzzled.
Instead of saying you stab with your spear why not say I am going to skewer the monster’s sword arm to the tree with a savage, two-handed thrust? If you hit and do damage the GM now has something to describe; the scream of the beast as it struggles to pull the weapon free, blood flows like sap down the bark. Come on people, get invested in your game, your struggle, your PCs life!
A combat is only going to be as interesting as you are. Combat rules can either be a barrier or an aid in this regard. That is probably the hardest part of this whole exercise. Finding the level of combat “crunch” the game group is most satisfied with. Fortunately, we live in an age of abundance and there surely is a system for whatever genre you are playing which will accomplish this. For me it has been found in many early rpg games. DC Heroes for supers, BRP for black powder and the age of sail and modern man-on-the-street settings, USR Sword & Sorcery when I want to get my Conan on Classic Traveller for my sci-fi itch (though I have tamed FGU’s SO and wish to play it). Each gives me just enough rules or built-in flexibility to drop rules while being exceedingly suitable for the particular genre. If there is one common thread through these systems is they allow me and my players, maybe require it, the freedom to narrate action, success and failure in highly descriptive and fast moving ways.
If your combat in OSR games is boring you to tears it is because you are boring. Do something interesting! We are all going to have our “sweet spot” for the amount of rules we like to have in combat. For me, these days, it is DC Heroes for my homebrew supers campaign. I want a quick resolution mechanic for combat which doesn’t have a ton of modifiers to calculate. And B/X D&D sure doesn’t have many modifiers.
Sometimes I wonder, why have a list of combat modifiers in the rules at all? Why can’t your number just be the number? Why delay orgasm? Without a long list of modifiers, it gives GM’s an PCs an opportunity to decide on a modifier quickly and roll for resolution. The only thing in the way of such loose application of combat modifiers is us. I can see the worry-beads knotting through tangled fingers as I say this. But, but what about blah, blah, blah. Beads furiously fondled. Even I can’t get that level of acceptance from my players, and I think I’ve done a very good job at earning trust with any group I’ve run since getting back into gaming.
If you describe your combat action by announcing your “to hit” result followed by a damage total and nothing else you are going to have a boring combat because, well, you are being boring. There is nothing stopping you from declaring “I run at the orc with sword tightly gripped in my blood-soaked hand, screaming my death chant, and at the last minute before our blades meet I’m going to make like I’m sliding into second base and cleave his feet from his legs” then now things have gotten interesting. Now the to-hit roll and damage total are indicators of success on the just described action. And detail breeds detail. This means a GM must describe the combat zone in enough detail to make it sticky, to give PCs something to play off.
The group initiative roll helps in this case. When it is the PCs initiative, they can act in coordination with each other, off each other or whatever. This is where an interesting combat environment helps. The more details one has the more creative things one can devise. Roleplay this shit! The PCs should be shouting at each other, encouraging each other in their own special way. All the things you see in any action movie is up for grabs. Swinging from chandeliers, desperately trying to refuse the flank, calling for more ammo, striking the match to the fuse and running away screaming “It’s going to blow!” while the orcs look at you puzzled.
Instead of saying you stab with your spear why not say I am going to skewer the monster’s sword arm to the tree with a savage, two-handed thrust? If you hit and do damage the GM now has something to describe; the scream of the beast as it struggles to pull the weapon free, blood flows like sap down the bark. Come on people, get invested in your game, your struggle, your PCs life!
A combat is only going to be as interesting as you are. Combat rules can either be a barrier or an aid in this regard. That is probably the hardest part of this whole exercise. Finding the level of combat “crunch” the game group is most satisfied with. Fortunately, we live in an age of abundance and there surely is a system for whatever genre you are playing which will accomplish this. For me it has been found in many early rpg games. DC Heroes for supers, BRP for black powder and the age of sail and modern man-on-the-street settings, USR Sword & Sorcery when I want to get my Conan on Classic Traveller for my sci-fi itch (though I have tamed FGU’s SO and wish to play it). Each gives me just enough rules or built-in flexibility to drop rules while being exceedingly suitable for the particular genre. If there is one common thread through these systems is they allow me and my players, maybe require it, the freedom to narrate action, success and failure in highly descriptive and fast moving ways.
If you apply a ruling once haven't you just created a house rule to track. If it is used again now you have to go back to the ruling, if you remember it or wrote it down it to be fair. I could see the whole but last time I sundered it's helm and blinded it why not this time or now every time. So you are in effect creating a document of houserules. I don't disagree with your points, I think everyone should engage more with the imagination simulation.
ReplyDeleteDescribing a brutal hit is one thing, creating an on the fly ruling is the beginning of what could be a huge list of modifiers to be used.
If you open the door to the go for the eyes move, that may become the go to attack in effect making combat stale once again.
Being evocative is crucial, giving options key but maybe just let the ...nah fuck it. You are headed in the right direction.
I wish more people were more creative, including myself.
You are right. This can get away from you. It takes people playing "in good faith" and doing it when it adds to the situation rather than detract.
DeleteHeading in the right direction is about all I can expect with earnest effort. No guarantee it goes right either. But the, the, fuck it, I hope you know what I mean. Everyone is doing something which adds to the whole and everyone at the table is jazzed in the moment invested and not really thinking about the rules so much as thinking "What the hell do I do now?" I live for those moments.