Faster Combat

[Sangeet]

Hi,

do you have any tipps, how to speed up combat ?

I have given every player, a combat option print out, a step table. Everyone has Dice on their own. But still, a fight vs 5 creatures with no special powers, takes about 2h with 5 people + 5 NPC. Rolled Initative in 2 groups for the NPC´s already. Used some attack to knockdown , blind side , movement rules, nothing special, some hindered terrain. There were a few moments when i thought, i should get the player to decide faster, but only 2 i could remember.

I also gave the player an obvious way to avoid the combat, but they still charged in. I think its also part of the game, and usally we only have 1 fight per session, but it consumes from the 8h session 25% which i think is much. Probably too much.

When i remember for 1st ED, we did most fighting only within the theater of the mind, and avoided the battlemap, i remember that the fights were shorter, but nevertheless, we played longer on each session. (Weekly basis up to 12-16h per session.)

I really want to keep the battlemap, as its fun to move this minis around. What is your average fight time ? And Discipline average circle ?

[slayride]

Depends on a lot of factors. I've had combats last two rounds with them taking down 180 HP of two zombies and 6 mook bandits (20 HP/10 WT x 6=120 HP) in two rounds in the last two sessions with mostly plot. The combat lasted 15 minutes tops. Then again I have about 4h session time. Next session I suspect the entire 4 hour session might just be the combat, but they are walking into a war between two For Dei and Tiet Dei with a lot of fun stuff like mass battle rules and units. My group is Fifth Circle average by the way. Like I said, fight time depends on a lot of factors, usually an average of 1-2 hours though, a whole 4 hour session for big combats.

First of all, one thing that helps us is cards for initiative. Use the Initiative = Step rule for your monsters. Your cadaver man has a 4 Initiative? Slap down a 4 of clubs. Allow the players to do the same (If their Initiative is 5, take a 5, if they are all beating a cadaver's initiative so be it). Then everyone puts the cards on the table. When you act, flip the card down (flip it back up next turn and keep reusing it for the monsters unless they have penalties to adjust for. If one monster is Harried, they all take a -2 penalty, makes things easier than that individual going at 2 and the rest at 4). If you reserve action and hold, take the card 90 degrees to show this and move down the Initiative list that way. If a character doubles a monster's Initiative with Air Dance, they get a Joker (attack at end of the round). A person with a joker also can expend it as a reactive attack if a foe attempts to move away from them (at a +2 Difficulty Number) but they lose the end of the round attack.

Second of all, use lower HP for enemies. For example, minion 1 HP (cannot take actions that use Strain), HP is 1+ their armor, they get armor-defeated, they are done. But like 4 minions per PC can Harry them and be annoying. Mobile terrain basically.
Mook 1: HP = Wound Threshold, good for initiate/Novice. 1 Wound or that amount of damage can take them down. Strain is really painful to them, so they do less reactive actions.
Mook 2: HP = Wound Threshold x 2/ can take 2 Wounds before dropping. They can take a bit more punishment, appropriate at Journeyman. Mook 3, for Warden, Mook 4 for Master. Use these guys at a 2-3 per PC rate. The lower HP makes less important combats last less time.
The minion or mook character isn't necessarily dead or ko, he is rendered unable to fight, morale broken and they run, etc.
Save the actual Death/KO listed for your important characters, major adepts, henchmen, main villains, dragons, Horrors, etc. One rule I have is that mooks do not have names, if they gain a name, they immediately become a full character. Even asking a captured mook his name and he responds his name is Han, gives him full death/ko. Mooks are the nameless waves of enemies.

Third of all, NPCs. You can deal with this in 2 ways. One is the Savage Worlds method, allies are played by player characters in combat. They want the help, they have to control them in combat.

Then there is my way. NPCs use their steps for actions to see if they succeed. If they cannot succeed normally, they roll in that case.
For example, Gensai, Second Circle Scout has a Missile Weapons Step of 11 and a Damage Step of 11. The bog gob he fires on has a Physical Defense of 6 and a Physical Armor of 7. Gensai hits (11 versus 6 is good result), deals 4 damage (11-7 armor = 4). So on his turn, have him deal 4 damage to an enemy for the cost of a bolt, flip his card down, move to the next character. If his opponent had a Physical Defense of 12, roll for attack. If the opponent also has a 12 physical armor, roll for damage, that way the NPC has a chance to help (or gleefully declare the bolt misses or hits but does no damage). The NPCs are side characters, so this keeps them out of the limelight. This works relatively well honestly since you have both sheets in front of you and can eyeball the damage dealt then get to the PCs turns quickly.

[Sangeet]

I think, i will add in the Minion´s Rule (1HP Monsters). Also the Step used for Attack may be an option. This are valid tipps. I think i will also
do a better combat sheet for my players.

When we use "static" initiative, some talents wouldn´t be that effective ? I have a windmaster with airdance in my group, when i go for static initative, he could not use it as effectivly ? I think, the combat gets more dynamic, when the initative getes rerolled every round, but it also slows the game overall, because, then someone, always has to remember when to act. Probably its because i track it behind the gm screen.

I also found that its a bit seldom to use the "declare action phase" , and then later when the action is executed, the players will execute it as announced, telling the same from the declare action phase. Or suffer a -2 penality when they change actions. The players does not actually like
to repeat themselfs twice a round. I think this should be reworked in the rulebook.

[Kasbak]

If you've got enough dice and you know there's a specific action that will be used a lot (Melee weapons, Spellcasting, etc), get dice just for that action and set them aside so you're not picking through the pile. This works for both you and players.

For initiative, I always have players roll each round. For NPC's and baddies, if there's a lot, it might be beneficial to just have them roll once at the beginning of combat and use that through out. If you wanted to put some diversity in for NPC's to flesh them out a bit, you could just use their step, especially if they have talents to alter it. I always called off initiative starting with thirty or better, down by fives to twenty (or 15 if they're low circle), then called off individually. The players do have to remember their result, but it's only one number that they only need to remember until it's their turn, and saves the trouble of writing it down each round.

If I had all experienced players in my group when I was running, I would move ahead and get actions declared for the next action while dice were being finished for the last action. For example, at 15 initiative, the Nethermancer might cast an Astral Spear. He rolls his Spellcasting, succeeds, and then starts rolling his damage. Meanwhile, I call off down to 12 when the Thief moves, and have him determine what action he's going to take. When the Nethermancer finishes rolling and totaling his dice, he gives me a wave and lets me know the number, and I do the appropriate math. If the next player's action will be dependent on the previous one, then we wait as normal. It may only save a little bit of time, but not having to wait just for math to be done all the time keeps the pertinent action flowing, and it does add up over multiple rounds. It does make a big difference when players get more dice to roll, or if they get multiple roll ups.

I also used the step as the result method for less important actions for NPC's in combat. I would also use this during normal play for the players on actions that were not highly important and didn't have time constraints. I referred to it as 'taking your step', after the 'taking 10' method for D&D.

[Sangeet]

Thats also cool options, i will recommend also the multiple dice for attack & damage to my players. I will also try to give them the initative to remember, sounds reasonable. I rewrite currently also a cheat sheet for my players, this minimizes the rule lookup aswell.

[slayride]

I usually have them roll Air Dance, since it gets them a free attack, or Cobra Strike since it disallows enemy evade, or if they have Karma (like a Horror for me). And my players usually roll their Initiative anyway, even though I give them the option to take the step with their normal Initiative or Tiger Spring.

Eh, declare options is just not a necessity really. Of course, the problem is the way combat options are used. Since its round to round instead of turn to turn. You need to declare at the beginning of the round for it to last the whole of the round, but then you get people going aggressive on 1, and taking punishment the whole round without the benefit. Like in Savage Worlds, a character that takes the wild attack option suffers a -2 parry until they next act in the next round. If aggressive attack worked similar, same for defensive stance, and other combat options, the declare phase wouldn't be so important. The fact is that it slows the game down in order to give the players +2 difficulty number penalties for no real reason for changing their minds but also for setting up the combat options. Its fine for them to get that penalty if they hold or reserve actions, but not a necessity for deciding exactly how to act on your turn.

[Kasbak]

[Sangeet]

I had an additional Idea, but its untested right now: give each player a initative dice, in different colors, for each player one color. At the beginning of the round, you roll Initiative for all at once with a shaker, then you sort the initative rolls from top to down, lay it near the middle of the battlemap, untill its resolved, then you use the shaker again. (GM adds also two different colors for NPC initative, so you move your NPC´s not all at once)

[Anunnaki]

[Sangeet]

What is the difference, when you substract -2 (static, not lowering step) from the Dice instead of putting +2 to the target number ?

Additional Question:

Movement: Currently, when engaged in melee, i could move around a enemy to a blind side position,
without any problem, because i don't leave melee distance, or do I misunderstand it ? There is no such
concept as shifting (as used in DnD4e)