FASA Games, Inc.

A question for you players (and GMs) out there.

How much use does the Giving Ground combat option see in your games?

I'd probably use it if playing ED3, what with the reasonable movement rates and hex-based combat. But I've never seen it in play.

I never used it in Ed 1/2, but at that time I was not aware of how ED paralleled AD&D combat, and that Giving Ground was the first step in turning things into a chase/withdrawing from close combat (called "Fighting Retreat" in D&D because otherwise, your opponent gets a free attack roll in 1-minute round D&D). In the ED3 version I've used it much more efficiently (after going back and re-playing some D&D combat), but it may be worth looking at critically.

Once used by my players when they were running up the hill to escape from bog gobs. They prefer easier Defensive Stance. But if you mention that I will try to "force" them to use it on my next session and see what they gonna tell about it

I've never seen it used by any of the players in my gaming groups and I've never used it as a GM or a player myself. Having said that, there are probably a lot of Earthdawninsh things my group don't do. I've never seen or had any character that was multi-disciplined and I've been playing Earthdawn from 1st edition.

Never.

Never. If you're looking at saving some space, this would be the place to do it. I would say that nobody would notice, but, we all know how some gamers can be about the smallest of details.

As with most of the combat options (aside from the Aggressive/Defensive stances), my group remarked at how cool it was and then proceeded to never use it in play.

If you're addressing combat issues, though, any attempts to streamline the knockdown rules would be greatly appreciated!

Despite being aware of that option, to date none of my players have ever used it.

Never, the players know about it but just won't. Of course some of them would rather die than retreat so there is that....