All We Do Is Fight

One of my biggest disappointments when I play Fantasy RPGs as a player is that it all comes down to combat. 

What? This again?!

It often starts out very promising; there's a story afoot, a chance for exploration, possible character interactions, and then...the fighting starts. The problem is, it never stops. It's followed by another encounter with hostiles, and then another, and before long everything you do ends in violence. 

Sure, Combat is a major element of TRPGs in general and let's be clear, I'm not a gaming pacifist who never wants to see some action of the physical conflict variety. It just feels as if in most of the Fantasy games [specifically] I've been in, that's all there is. 

At best, World-Building and Character Interaction feel a little on the light side. At worst, the game is just one boring fight bleeding into the next, none of them particularly distinctive or memorable. Fantasy, for all its tactical features, wide-range of weaponry and armor, and of course magical spells, features some really boring combat. 

I'm not sure what it is about Fantasy combat but I usually find it very bland and flat. It doesn't feel kinetic or dynamic as I've suggested incorporating in the past.  Part of the issue, in my experience and opinion, is that Fantasy combat is always so heavily regulated. The place where the crunch is loudest in these sorts of games is often in the encounter mechanics, making fights long, slow, and tedious.

There is also the typical Pass/Fail nature of the Attack Rolls in the majority of Fantasy games. As I've discussed elsewhere, this often results in a situation where if you didn't build your character 'correctly', you are likely to miss fairly often. A miss, followed by a round of other people's actions, followed by the high chance of missing again results in wondering why you're even there. In a small party of 3 players and their PCs this might not be so bad but imagine a [decently sized] group of 5 or more participants. It can be grueling for even the most patient of gamers.

So what can be done?

Don't play Fantasy Games. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. 

What? You want more? Fine. I've really spoiled you all...

I think some ways of improving the bog standard Fantasy fight are probably pretty obvious; changing up the terrain, actually making said terrain matter mechanically, using opponents placed above and/or below the battlefield, and use of evocative descriptions. Nothing you haven't heard of or thought of before.

That said, please bare in mind that 'mechanically mattering terrain' need not only hinder or impede the PCs. It should be something they can use as easily as it might be used against them. I've had PCs in snow covered Tundra slip on the icy ground or have their actions penalized because of the frigid cold but also let them throw snowballs at opponents and escape by sliding down the snow covered hills on their shields. 

Battle in the sky, underwater, while swinging across a jungle chasm on vines, or any other non-typical way of trading blows with adversaries!

I also think a Fantasy game that functions less like a 50+ year old wargame and more like...get this...a Fantasy game...might be really fun. I always find it hilarious that in a game of flying carpets, elves shooting fiery balls of death from their hands, and treasure chests that try to eat you, so much attention is paid to...teehee...tactical realism. Realism! Bwahahaha-ha-ha!

Fantasy? Yes.

Realistic? Muwa-Bwahahaha-ha-ha!

It's pretty clear to me that most Game Designers haven't been in any real fights. I'm not talking about serving in the military; that is a completely different experience that has very little to do with the kind of combat you see in most RPG campaigns. Complex strategy doesn't really apply when five or six people jump four others in a dark, dank tunnel or the your group of pals is suddenly accosted by a bear-sized chicken covered in scales with a snake-like tail.

Let's see some moves like finding that one weak spot in a Dragon's armored body or spraying an area with holy water or greek fire to watch a horde of undead burn. Sure, it's super exciting to have the power of...um..*read read read*...not getting a penalty in Mounted Combat. Cool. Wow. I am beside myself with how great that -yawn- is. 

Finally (for now...), give the players something else to do. What can happen in your world of mystery, magic, and monsters shouldn't be limited to just stabbing things or bonking them on the head. Yes Combat can be great for getting the blood pumping and the mind racing but if that is all there is it makes the game seem simplistic and unimaginative.

It's like looking out upon a grand vista of wonders and saying, "Can you believe all this is open to us? Let's go find an animal and hit it with a rock."

Really? That's the best Fantasy can do?

Humans. *Shakes head*

In a follow-up post I will discuss other things PCs could be doing other than fighting. I will also introduce an idea that I've talked about before but which appears to blow people's minds when I bring it up.

See you soon,

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Barking Alien

I Feel So Funky

This will be the last post on my Ghostbusters RPG fan project for the remainder of the year.

Heheh. OK, I was being a little cheeky there but seriously folks, I am going to take a short break from discussing this game to work on a few other things related to my ideas for next year. My last post of 2021, which will come out later today, will go into a bit more detail about my plans for 2022.

For now, here is the other half of Combat; the opponent's half. How Ghosts battle Ghostbusters and a few other odds and ends...

A good deal of this was already covered in the previous post entitled Spates Catalog. 

To Review:

The two Attributes of a ghost are Ectoplasm and PKE. Ectoplasm functions as Hit Points or Bumps [for the Player Characters]. PKE serves as both a Defense Roll and as booster Action Dice to heighten a ghost's Supernatural Abilities.

When a ghost is blasted by the Particle Stream from a Neutrona Wand, the Ghostbuster weakens the entity causing it damage with a Blast Stream or try to capture it with a Capture Stream.

When a Ghostbuster uses a Blast Stream, roll your to hit with the appropriate Action Dice, adding one Die for a standard Proton Pack. The ghost rolls its PKE. If the Ghostbuster gets 1 more Success than the ghost you subtract 1 Ectoplasm from the ghost for that first Success. With additional Successes beyond the first, the PC can opt to cause more Ectoplasm Damage or PKE Damage.

A ghost with Zero Ectoplasm dissipates, its PKE scattered and its connection to our world temporarily severed. It has not been eliminated however. It can't be in a traditional sense. Instead, it will eventually reform and return to its previous activities in a matter of days, weeks, months, or even years (depending upon the nature of the ghost). The more powerful the entity, the longer it takes to manifest again as doing so requires the gathering of a greater amount of Psychokinetic Energy. With some deity-level beings it can also take specific conditions that can be helped along or hindered by actions taken by its followers or enemies in our world.

SPOILERS: See Gozer the Gozerian and what was needed to summon and drive it away in both Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

A ghost with Zero PKE can not boost its Supernatural Abilities but more importantly has no Defense Roll to resist damage or capture. When you fire a Capture Stream, you roll your Proton Pack attack against the ghost's PKE. If you get more Successes than the ghost in this case, you 'lasso' it and another PC can go for a Blast, another Capture, or even drop a Ghost Trap. PKE is the ghost's power and it must be lowered to make capture possible. As long as the entity has PKE it can be rolled to resist things such as a Capture Stream or a Ghost Trap.

To capture a ghost in a Ghost Trap, the Ghostbusters must get twice as many Successes as the ghost does. If a Class V Free-Roaming Mist rolls 3 Successes, the PCs need 6 - 3 to counter the ghost's 3 and then 3 more to bag that sucker. This is why multiple Ghostbusters with multiple Capture Streams are helpful. You keep lowering the ghost's PKE and getting more Successes than it does making things a lot easier. 

 

A ghost attacks by rolling its appropriate Supernatural Ability and getting more Successes than the target's Defense Successes (usually using Athletics or Technology as noted in the previous post). 

The ghost may spend PKE to add Action Dice to its roll. This lowers their total PKE however. At the start of the following round (Rounds explained -sort of- below) the ghost automatically gets 1 PKE back. Now here's the new bit...heheheh.

Along with their Action Dice, Player Characters roll Stress Dice if they have Stress on their character from getting spooked, almost being blasted off a roof, being on fire, etc. Action Dice are 6-Sided Dice where a '6' is a Success. Stress Dice are 6-Sided Dice where the '6' is a Success and a '1' is Panic. See Listen...Do You Smell Something? . I use Stress Dice where the 1 is a Ghostbusters logo / 'No Ghost' symbol.  

For Ghosts All Dice Are Stress Dice. That is, their version of Action Dice are the dice with the No Ghost symbol. Typically referred to as Ghost Dice, a 6 is a Success and a 1 gains them back 1 Die of PKE. 

Example: The Ghostbusters have been called in to deal with 'Slammer', a Class V Full Roaming Non-Terminal Repeating Phantasm haunting a state run correctional facility. Mainly the striped spook slams doors, rattles the bars of unoccupied cells, and makes the sounds of someone dragging a ball and chain around. Nowadays he's causing serious trouble by throwing cell doors open, hiding guards' keys, and slamming his fists down on fire and escape alarms at random. What's gotten into him?

Slammer has a PKE of 9 and a Ectoplasm of 3. His primary Supernatural Abilities are Psychokinetic Slam 7 (used to slam doors and gates shut at a distance) and Physical Slam 5 (used to physically hit things with his over-sized hands). As two Ghostbusters chase him down a hallway he uses his Psychokinetic Slam to quickly shut a gate behind him so the PCs will run into it - hard! The GM decides Slammer will put 3 of his PKE into the attack. This would mean he rolls 10 Ghost Dice and is now at PKE 6. 

The GM rolls: (I actually rolled): 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, No Ghost (1), and No Ghost (1).

Not a single Success! The PCs get to the gate before it slams and run full speed, shoulders first, throwing it back open with no damage to themselves. 

Slammer's consolation prize is that he rolled two 1s and gains back two of the three PKE he spent. When the Ghostbusters open fire with their Particle Throwers he can defend himself with 8 PKE.

Oh yeah, how could I forget? 

Sliming:

Any supernatural entity that is at least partially incorporeal - Generally Class III to VI and/or Intensity from Mist to Mass - can Slime an opponent. This usually occurs when the paranormal presence passes through the physical one, leaving behind Ectoplasmic Residue. Some ghosts also leave Ectoplasmic Residue on areas or objects effected by their Supernatural Abilities. 

When a PC is Slimed the GM rolls a number of Ghost Dice equal to the ghosts Ectoplasm. For each 6 the ghost gets, subtract -1 Attribute Die from the Slimed individual but this doesn't count as 'damage' and never causes any lose of Bump. Instead, the victim of a Sliming just 'feels so funky': dazed, confused, and rather disoriented.

When a ghost Slimes a PC for 3 Success, that's 3 Attribute Dice deducted from the victim. In the following Round the PC gets one Die back. Then they get another Die in the Round after that, etc., until back to normal. Alternatively the PC can spend a Point/Die of Cool to shake off the effect in the Round following getting Slimed. You spend one Round feeling funky, spend 1 Cool per 3 Dice lost, and snap back to normal.

That's basically it. As you know, this is designed to be Rules Lite so there aren't a lot of hard rules and regulations beyond these. As a matter of fact, before I forget...

Rounds:

I have always found Rounds to be silly. How long is a Round? As long as it takes for each person and all active NPCs including the opponents to go once. That's a Round. 

Initiative:

Who goes first? Simple, who started the fight? I feel like few Game Designers have been in real fights. Not Military Actions, that's totally different and not what most RPG fights are like anyway. When you are in the schoolyard talking smack, the person who throws the first punch went first. Sometimes it's you. Sometimes it's them. 

I tend to run fights this way in the first Round, organically based on who started it. In the second and subsequent Rounds, the fastest person there goes first. Who is that? Well...it depends. 

You could go with the person who has the highest Athletics or the supernatural entity with a lot of dice in a Supernatural Ability like Supernatural Speed or Quick Attacks. If 'Speedy' the ghost has Supernatural Speed at 6 Dice and the highest Athletics any of the Ghostbusters has is 4 [with not Signature or Additional Skill that helps], Speedy goes first. 

In our Home Office campaign David Nelson has an Athletics of 5 and Robert 'Robbie' Stadler has a 4 but the two players (Dave Concepcion and William Corpening respectively) agreed that 'Robbie' is faster and more agile than Dave. The former is a ex US Marine; a big, burly man who moves like a tank. The latter is a former champion professional Surfer; slim, wiry, and agile. The rest of the players also agreed it just made sense that Robbie goes first unless up against a very fast ghost. 

Who goes next? Taking a note for Marvel Heroic, we usually ask the last person who went who should go next. This allows the players to set up teamwork with each other. Sometimes I as GM will say, "before X goes, I want to check back in on Y who was trying to fix the buildings boiler and get the heat back on." After we make a roll or take an RP moment there we go to the next person - X - that was set up for an action. 

Don't forget to include the ghost or ghosts when deciding who should go next. While they could end up going last, you don't always want that. They'll be at full PKE having not needed to use it for anything but defense. 

Am I forgetting anything? Leaving anything out? 

I hope not. Let me know if you have questions. 

I must say - and it is very rare that I do this honestly - I am pretty proud of this series and the work I've done developing this iteration of my Ghostbusters fan kitbash RPG. Some of the last few posts have been a little disorganized compared to the earlier ones as I've been hurrying to get it down before year's end but I still think it all came out really good. I can't wait to run this, hopefully starting early next year. 

With that, Happy New Year everyone!

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Barking Alien

Nice Shooting Tex!

I've wanted to talk about Combat in my Ghostbuster kitbash RPG for some time now but I was concerned that it wouldn't make sense without first describing how characters and their opponents - largely ghosts and other paranormal entities - work in these game mechanics.

Now that we've covered those subjects, it's time to break down how Ghostbustin' works in the game mechanics.

Fan Art Poster

By Drew Rosier

Here are the basics:

Attacking:

As established, to cause damage to an opponent, roll a number of Action Dice related to the attack you're making and compare it against any defensive Action Dice the target might have. Basically, the attacker makes an Attack Roll and the defender makes a Defense Roll. The individual with the most Successes wins. 

For Player Character Ghostbusters, it looks like this:

To fire your Neutrona Wand: Make an Attack Roll by rolling your Technology Dice plus any appropriate Signature or Additional Skill Dice +1 Die from the equipment - a Proton Pack - and try to get a Success. One Success equals one hit and causes (usually) 1 point of Ectoplasm Damage. A Proton Pack generated Particle Stream does 1 Ectoplasm Damage against Ghosts. For each additional Success after the first, you may cause 1 additional point of Ectoplasm Damage or alternatively do 1 point of PKE Damage, reducing the ghost's PKE by 1.

If a Proton Blast hits normal matter or individuals (non-ghostly) it causes 3 base damage instead of 1. 

To punch someone: Here your Attack Roll would instead be one's Athletics Attribute plus appropriate Signature or Additional Skill Dice. The base damage of a punch against a normal person or object is equal to the PC's Athletics Dice + Skill Dice in things like Boxing, Martial Arts, or Bar Room Brawl cut in half (round up). Someone with Athletics 3 and Kung-Fu 2 would cause 3 Attribute Dice of damage. Ghosts that aren't corporeal take no damage from physical attacks. If the Supernatural Entity is corporeal they take one quarter of the total 'punch damage'. Half of the half essentially. 

Defending:

To defend: When attacked, PCs get a Defense Roll that consists of Athletics plus any appropriate Signature or Additional Skill such as Acrobatics, Bust-A-Move, Dodge, Martial Arts, etc. Another option is to use a device with a defense capacity such as Dr. Gabriel Zimmerman's (from our The Home Office campaign) Positron Field Generator, a Particle Thrower variant which creates a force field bubble that blocks people, objects, and especially ghosts. Zimmerman would roll his Technology Dice and, well, that's about it but it's something. Oh, he gets a +1 Die from the device itself. 

Taking Damage:

Each Player Character has 1 Bump for every die they have in their Athletics Attribute. When PCs take damage, they lose Action Dice from their Attributes. Once all the dice in a single Attribute are gone and the Attribute has Zero Dice, the PCs takes 1 Bump. Another way to receive a Bump is if a Ghostbuster is hit with 10 or more Action Dice of Attribute Damage in a single hit - Subtract all the Action Dice, subtract the Bumps with may cause, then take away one extra Bump. 

Functioning with reduced Attribute Dice means that rolls using the effected Attribute are lowered by the damage taken. Skills remain the same so a Signature Skill at +3 Dice is now the lowered Attribute Dice number + 3. For clarity: If you started with a Technology of 4 Dice and it's been decreased to 2 Dice by ghost attacks but you have the Signature Skill: Neutrona Wand at +3 Dice, you would roll 5 Action Dice to zap the ghost that got you with some particle stream payback. It ain't quite so easy to do when your fingers hurt and your bell's been rung however. The same character would normally roll 7 Dice if uninjured. 

Players, when divvying up damage among your Attributes, try to be honest and make it make sense. If you got hit in the head, lower Academics or Technology. Hit in the chest, arm, or leg and Athletics makes sense. Contact is tough and could honestly be left for last. As long as you can keep talking your Contact should be good, right? Venkman uses this to good effect in both Ghostbusters II and Afterlife. 

When a Ghostbuster (or any non-supernatural NPC) has Zero Bump left, they are Knocked Out; unconscious and essentially out of the fight. They can be woken up by another PC with First Aid or Medical Skill of some kind, getting up with 1 Bump. Attribute Dice are not returned. Alternatively they can be shaken or shouted awake but have no Bump, causing them to be delirious and only half-conscious. This person needs serious medical attention. 

If Knocked Out (with Zero Bump) and all four Attributes are at Zero as well, the character ends up in the hospital. Once there, an Athletics Roll can be made after the individual has received medical attention at their original starting Athletic Dice. If the PC gets 1 Success they remain in the hospital for a few days but will survive. Two or more Successes and it wasn't as bad as it looked. They'll be out in 24-48 hours. 

No Successes and the character is Dying. A Dying character can be saved in many ways, from staying at their bedside and reminding them of past good times together to using some ill-thought-out black magic ritual to help their friend (probably a bad idea). The GM and players should work together to create a reasonable scenario that fits with what was going on when the character was injured.

After the active PCs carry out their plans for saving their friend, the Dying character gets to make a last ditch Athletics Dice roll, again using their original pre-injury die count. However, they now add +1 Action Dice for each friend who helped out in the plot to save them. If they get a Success, 1 Success, they pull through. If not they have a choice; the PC dies and you make a new character or they live with a handicap. Maybe now they're color blind, walk with a limp, or are deaf in one ear. Maybe they're now afraid of the dark, have trouble doing math in their head, or completely forget that cats exist. 

The goal here isn't to kill the characters and although my take on Ghostbusters is less comical than the original movie, the setting is still largely about humor and death - real serious death - isn't particularly funny. At the same time, consequences are a thing and fighting ghosts should be more than a bit scary at times. 

Always keep in mind that if anything here doesn't work for your Ghostbusters game, feel free to change it. This is the system and mechanics that form the basis of mine but I alter and adjust things from time to time as well so it isn't the be all, end all. If you have a different approach, please share it! I would love to know how others handle any of the concepts laid out in this series. 

Up next, what it looks like from the Ghost's side of the fight.

Remember, if anyone asks you if you're a god you say YES!

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2021 - TACTIC and WEAPON

 

These two entries are connected in my mind so I will address them in a single post. 

When I think of all the amazing Weapons and impressive Tactics I've seen in genre fiction and RPGs over the years - from the Death Star's planet destroying turbo-laser to Wolverine and Colossus' Fastball Special - I realize there is one thing more dangerous, more powerful, and more versatile than all of them...The Human Mind.

After all, the brain is the near limitless source from which all Tactics and Weapons arise.  

I am very much a fan of RPGs that understand this.

I am less enamored with choosing the 'right' Tactics or Weapons at the 'right' time, I do not get particularly excited about the stats of a given Weapon or the usefulness of Facing or some other Tactical mechanic. 

As with Maps in my last post, I'll note that I don't run War Games or games with heavy Tactical elements. Combat is definitely a big part of many of my campaigns but it isn't [generally] the focus of them. The Phaser and the Lightsaber are definitely cool, as if the Proton Pack and Sting. None of these are what actually wins the battle.

With intelligence and creativity, you can take down an army with a pointy stick. At least, you should be able to. 

Entry 3 & 4 - Tactic and Weapon

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Barking Alien

Machine Shop

Last night I got to play a session of my friend Justin's Mecha Combat RPG Beamswords and Bazookas, which has been successfully backed on Kickstarter. Congratulations Justin!

You may notice that I describe it above as a Mecha Combat RPG. That's because that is what it is. That wasn't exactly what I was expecting and in truth, not exactly what I am looking for in a Giant Robot game.

Chirico Cuvie, Armored Trooper VOTOMS

I want to make it clear first and foremost, this is a good game. A Really Good Game! You should definitely get it if you want a medium to low crunch, tactical, tabletop Mecha miniatures game with RPG elements. It's like, if Battletech actually wanted it's robots to be cool robots and not just boring tanks with legs that are less effective than conventional military hardware.

There are a good number of options for Characters and Mechs alike, with skills, weapons and special abilities - called Traits - that can give your PC and robot combat advantages in various situations. Combat is generally fast and the mathematical calculations are kept small and not at all cumbersome. There are some particulars to the rules regarding hit and defense that are good to memorize and the game has a bit of resource management when it comes to PC Stress and Mecha Energy but it's all pretty easy to handle. 

Now, the big question...would I play it again? Sure. It would be fun to revisit for another one-shot here and there.

Would I want to play or run a campaign of it? No. I am afraid not. 

Scopedog with Ground Troops

Armored Trooper VOTOMS

Beamswords & Bazookas is fun but it is not the kind of game I am looking for. It isn't an Anime game. There aren't any elements in it that really speak to the genre of Japanese Anime and Manga Mecha stories except that it features some of the same trappings, most notably Mecha. 

B&B is a War Game with RPG elements as opposed to Mekton which is a Role Playing Game with a Mecha Construction and Combat System. As it is, I feel that each edition of Mekton got more and more complex, and tactical-simulation orients and further away from the fun of it's earlier incarnations. 

Personally I am looking for something a little less tactical, combat focused. Something more genre and story driven. If you could switch the percentages on this game, the Tactical Combat to RPG ratio as it were, it would probably be more my style. 

I am still 100% pleased with the game, with the session we had, and with the fact that I backed it. I am certain that most gamers will get a lot of fun out it. There are RPG elements in it. I did have a Player Character I kind of liked. I just don't think the overall purpose and focus of the game clicked with my sensibilities. Nothing wrong with that. 

In conclusion, you should definitely give it a look. It is definitely a game worth your time and money. 

I remain in something of a Mecha mood...Hmmm.

Dougram

Fang of the Sun

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Barking Alien

RPGaDay Challenge 2016 - Day 22

Ah! Damage Magnets.

Are you all familiar with this phenomenon? Damage Magnets build up in characters run by people who are otherwise very lucky. Have a friend who the dice just seem to love? Rarely fails to hit, or make a difficult skill check? Well, those people are in danger of developing Damage Magnets based on my research.

Let's take my pal Pete H. All of Pete's characters are struck in the left leg. By this I mean, if you roll randomly on a hit location chart, Pete's character will get 'left leg' in nine out of ten rolls. On the tenth roll, he is most likely to get 'right leg'.

Let's say there is no hit location chart per se, and you are just curious, so you roll a D6 and assign it as follows: 1-right arm, 2-left arm, 3-chest, 4-right leg, 5-left leg, 6-head.

It's going to be a 5 on a Pete character more often than not.

My friend Nelson suffers from this phenomenon as well. His is especially lucky, performing incredibly difficult feats with his characters by rolling exactly what he needs even if the difficulty modifiers have been jacked up the wing-wang. It's incredible, but it comes back to bite him in the form of a Damage Magnet in the right shoulder of all his characters.

Let's say there is a group of PCs on the receiving end of some attack that hits with an area of effect condition, or a villain simply fires into the group randomly. Who got hit? You roll to see who the victim is and it's always one of the characters who suffers from Damage Magnets.

Damage Magnets work by compensating for positive probability with equal amounts of negative probability. While the player's PCs may hit their own targets and make their saves all the time, the negative luck builds up to make up the difference, attracting damage points towards their characters.

I have studied this bizarre condition for over thirty years, and seen it in at least a dozen individuals (though some have it worse than others). Find out who they are, and place your PC next to theirs. If a grenade goes off, your PC will likely be fine.Pete's left leg, and Nelson's right shoulder will absorb the damage.

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Barking Alien

Round One - FIGHT!

Hello internet, and welcome to Barking Alien for July, 2016!

A Happy Canada Day (July 1st) to my viewers up North, and a Happy Independence Day (July 4th) to those of you in the United States of America!

For July I'm lifting my self-imposed ban on discussing Sci-Fi, and Supers, opening the floodgates for talking about pretty much anything. Also, going to try for more, shorter posts this month. No guarantees, or promises, but that's the goal.

This post for example is about Combat.

I don't really have a definitive point to make, or even an objective with this post beyond, 'Here's how I feel about Combat in RPGs. Let's talk about it.'

Let's begin by pointing out the 800 pound gorilla in the room...

Minus all that power armor of course.

...Most RPGs have a heavy focus on combat.

No groundbreaking observation there, but it deserves to be mentioned at the start of this for the sole purpose of setting the tone for the rest of the post. This is a truism, a point of fact. Like science, and unlike belief, it can not be unproven, argued with, or denied.

Is it the focus of all RPGs? No.

Is it the focus of every campaign in RPGs where combat is normally a major factor? No.

Must it be the focus of our hobby by the very nature of both RPGs and combat? Ooh...now we be getting all philosophical up in here.

Now, what exactly do I mean by that last statement? Well, let's break it down shall we?

RPGs are largely improvisational storytelling with rules, geared toward action/adventure themes. RPGs about getting a job as an assistant copyright lawyer for a small, text book publishing house, however exciting you may feel that is, have just never caught on.

RPGs are descended from war games. They are about warriors, soldiers, mercenaries, and other fighting types going to battle against others of their kind, or other combat oriented opponents such as monsters, aliens, robots, or whathaveyou. Even when playing a thief, or a wizard, majors concerns are given to combat effectiveness in the form of special 'sneak attack' abilities, or damage causing spells.

With these conceits established, and for the purposes of this post (at the very least) accepted, I can finally get into the arena of opinion.

If combat is a central (if not essential) element of RPGs, why the heck is it so damn complex, and boring most of the time?

Oh no you didn't.

  

That's right, I said it. You heard me. Boring.

The majority of RPG systems out there make combat far too mechanical. What do I mean? I mean that it is reliant on rules, and the roles of dice, and not on any real input from the player, or even the GM in many cases.

Did you come up with a truly creative tactic, a 'smart move' as we're want to say? Does it matter? Isn't it just a plus one here, or an additional die added to your pool there? What influence does your creativity really have on combat?

After coming up with a brilliant battle plan, you get a +1 or +2 from some feat or other, and you still fail the roll, meaning all that planning was meaningless. Sure, that random element of rolling the dice can be part of the excitement, but I've often ended up feeling (and seeing players who feel) like they were just brilliant for nothing. The creativity of the player/PC is not nearly as effective in a fight as having the best stats, or the 'right build' (*puke*).

Even more importantly, what does it feel like?

One of the things that turned me off to Margret Weis Productions Marvel Heroic game over time was the feeling that a bunch of dice were being rolled against a bunch of other dice, with no real thought, or emotion invested in what it all meant in game. It was just a collection of numbers being assembled against other numbers. Was that a roundhouse punch, or an energy blast? Is there a difference? Combat in that game (and in many others), which is a huge part of each session because of the genre (Superheroes) feels so abstract it might as well not include saying anything. Just roll, compare, and note stress damage, or who won.

What can we do about this?

Well, I've discussed before how the GM can jazz up the in-game descriptions, and even conditions to some extent, but I don't know if that's enough. Does that fundamentally make the activity of getting to, and partaking in combat sequences more exciting?

The fundamental issue for me really does come down to mechanics for the most part. The most exciting, memorable battles I'm been in as a player, and ran as a GM were largely despite the mechanics, not because of them. It was the GM, not the game, that injected some amazing description, or made a rule on the fly to explain how the participants of the conflict, and the objects, and terrain around them were effected.

That's how it should be right? Sure...but then why do we have so many pages of rules in so many games dedicated to combat when the best part of it is coming from the players, and GMs. All a thousand combat options seems to do is slow down combat.

What's the alternative? Am I advocating we all just wing it? Should combat be purely narrative? Well, no...I don't think it works to have it be all narrative. What's to stop the PCs, or the GM from just doing whatever they want all the time. There has to be some rules, right?

I discussed this subject with a friend today and although we didn't get to address it at length, it was interesting to note that his first words when I said, "Do you sometimes feel like combat in RPGs is..."

"Dull?" he replied.

Yeah. Dull and sometimes tedious.

If combat is going to be such a big part of what we do, how do we make it continually interesting, without resorting to a purely narrative approach?

Any ideas?

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Barking Alien

Removing The Kid Gloves

This is a very special installment of my popular (relative to this blog) series, 'What Other GMs Do Wrong'. For this entry, I take a look, not at other GMs, but at my self. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, and semi-amphibious, unisex, budding polyp entities from the Pinwheel Galaxy (You thought I forgot about you, didn't you? Never. We should do brunch. It's been ages), this time I want to address...

What This GM Does Wrong: Lethality and Player Character Mortality

EDITED and UPDATED, Monday, July 21st, 2014.

Comment, critique, and enjoy.

***

 

We just completed the 21st session of our monthly (more or less), classic Traveller campaign, TRAVELLER: Operation Paladin.

It was a great session. Not to mention a rough one.

Although perhaps not rough enough. Not tough enough maybe. Maybe I was not tough enough to back up my intentions. Please read on.

It was rough in that I have decided it's long past time I took off the training wheels for my group and ditched the kid gloves.

The kid gloves are off.

 

In the process of running this campaign, it has become very clear to me that I am way too easy on my players. The truth is, I have been for several years.

I don't think it started with my current group, but rather some previous incarnation of it. On the whole, my group/groups over the past few years have consisted of some variation of the same guys, with some people leaving, and others coming in, on a semi-annual basis.

In contrast to previous NJ and NY groups of my Junior High, High School and College years (and for sometime before and after as well), the group dynamic I've encountered from 2010-2014 is one with fewer experienced players, who are not only less familiar with RPGs, but also not as familiar with each other, or with me (Nor I with them).

After suffering for a time with no regular group, I initially took on a few people who hadn't played in a long while. To beef up the groups numbers, I added some really cool guys I met who were much newer to the hobby than the rest of the band, and certainly myself.

That was when I made a miscalculated judgment that will slowly, and subtly, create a major problem for me in the long wrong. I decided to go easy on my players.

For a good stretch of time, I made a concentrated effort to make the challenges challenging, but not too difficult. Enemies were dangerous, and could hurt you, but they weren't too deadly. I wanted this group of people to get into it and still around. I didn't want to frustrate them, or scare them off. The problem is, once you do this, once you establish this approach, and it works, it's very hard to undo it.

Before long, you've grown soft.

My friend Dave noticed, and he would often make me aware of it in conversations we'd have on the subject. He felt, and rightly so, that without the threat of PC mortality, RPGs lose a good deal of their appeal for many (Toon, TFOS and other comedy games not withstanding). Without the threat of ultimate loss, there is no sense of ultimate victory. If I can not die, why work so hard at living?

 My games were (and are) still fun of course. The stories, characters and challenges remained entertaining. So crazy fun apparently, that my players not only keep coming back, we expanded the number of times a month we meet to game, and they keep asking if their friends can join in. "I told my pal So-and-so all about our campaign, and he's really jazzed to play in it. Got room for one more?"

Problem is, I sat in front of my computer one day last week, and thought to myself, 'Of course people want to join in. Adam's giving away free candy.'

Now that's an exaggeration. I do not make it anywhere near that easy. At the same time, the sentiment is valid. I needed to get more serious, tougher, less worried about whether or not they were going to bail on the campaign, or the group, if their characters died.

So this past session I let them know. No more Mister Nice Guy. No more hand holding.

What do you think happened?

One fellow got very close to dead at least twice. The first time, he bitched and moaned, searched through every bit of equipment he had, and any loophole in the rules for combat to avoid death. One of the other players said, "I'm confused, why is this taking so long?" (My combats usually move very smoothly and quickly).

"Because his character could die. This is one of the reasons I've been easy on you guys. I was afraid that, if I wasn't, I'd get this."

In the end, he did find that one of his hi-tech items reduced the damage of the attack considerably. Thinking quickly, he managed to paralyze his opponent with a hardening foam grenade. He then ran like heck, and received assistance from one of the other players whose PC had hacked into the computer system controlling the maintenance tunnels the first PC was in. Thanks to the PC hacker, the first guy avoided the second potentially life threatening situation (explosive decompression).

I have to wonder, did I still go easy on the bitching and moaning guy. At least one of my players thinks so. In an email to me after reading this blog entry he said,

"When one of the assailants tried to shoot [the PC] in the arm, and afterward the other assailant attempted to throw a bomb into the room, both times [The Player in question] got out of his chair, and started loudly complaining until he made you [Me-Adam] retcon a battle situation you'd already established.  It felt like he pulled a fast one."

In retrospect, that is essentially what happened. I can not deny it. He further when on to say,

"You created a lot of great stuff in that session, but I think the retcons undermined the stakes you wanted to raise. More than ever it feels to me like [That Player and his PC] cannot lose."

Bottom line is this; Just as going easy on them for a long while made it hard not to do that after a while, it will take some time before we (my players and I) get used to my return to a more lethal style.

However, I need to keep up my end of the bargain. I have to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk.

My old groups were OK with it because they were accustomed to it. However, when I met them, nearly all of the players in all of those groups, were raised on games far more dangerous.

The Old School games didn't assume you were creating a deep, in-depth story, and so they didn't figure the death of your character would be a big deal. Since I tend to run games in genres where the death of the lead characters is fairly uncommon (Star Trek, Star Wars, Superheroes, etc.), the players knew to enjoy the heck out of their time, and be very smart about their actions since, although they weren't supposed to die, they knew they could.

By going easy on my more recent groups, I fear I have created a situation where they needn't be too attentive or too clever. After all, Adam's going to give us a way out of this mess. Simultaneously, none were too bold either, a strange dynamic I've noticed with my current group that I can't yet fathom. My older groups knew they could die, but rushed bravely into danger. This group is less afraid of meeting their makers, but less likely to enter a potentially life threatening situation.

Curious. Annoying, but curious.

In the end I have to do what's best for the group and the campaign we're all trying to enjoy together. That can mean making tough decisions. Decisions I've rarely, if ever, had to make in previous games over the last 37 years. It may mean kicking a player out, or myself in the arse, or both.

Well, that's that. I have not been tough enough, and now I will be.

Suck it up you pansies.

But your still my buds, so I say that with love. Yes. Suck it up with love.

Um...yeah.

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Barking Alien

Spectre of The Gun

I can think of very few RPGs or RPG settings where a starting player character has, as his standard method of attack, a weapon that can instantaneously remove his opponent from the face of existence. I would further note that few games and/or settings see starting player characters facing off against relatively commonly encountered opponents with the same capacity.

Star Trek is one such RPG setting.



Each player character in a Star Trek RPG, unless otherwise instructed or prohibited not to, carries as their common sidearm a cell phone sized energy emitter that causes targets, once hit, to vanish. It is a 'go away' gun. Someone is hit, they 'go away' permanently.

This is, in no uncertain terms, really, really powerful. I know the various officially licensed and even some of the less than official Star Trek systems give detailed charts to determine the damage of a Phaser on different settings but really it all boils down to 4 'Conditions...

Stun Setting - You are hit, you are unconscious.
Heat Setting - Used to heat up rocks or weld or burn through doors.
Kill - You are hit, you are dead.
Disintegrate - You are hit, you glow briefly, you go away.

Now this isn't just the good guys we're talking about. This is the basic firearm of the setting. The Klingons, the Romulans, the Gorn, all of them have weapons that turn you into vapor in seconds.

This presents players and their characters with a very different combat dynamic than they are used to in most other games. It may take one or two sword swings to fell an Orc, a couple of rounds to take out a spy and a superhero will blast his opponent with heat vision and lay down a few 10 ton punches before the fellow is merely knocked out.

That is not what is going on here. This is one successful hit, one enemy gone. This is like real life combat where one bullet can kill a person.




So what is Adam getting at with this post? Simple. Armed combat in the Star Trek universe is quite unusual from what you may have encountered in other games. There are numerous ways to handle it but, in my opinion, only one overarching way that keeps the feel of Star Trek.

Perhaps the most common and easiest way to handle the power of a Phaser, Disruptor or similar weapon is to depower it. Assume, as often they seem to do in post-TOS Star Trek, that the default setting on the weapon is similar to a Blaster, simply a beam of light that hurts and nothing more. This is done without much fuss or muss by altering the amount of damage caused on the aforementioned charts most Star Trek RPGs love to give us. This will ensure longer firefights and a kind of action movie approach to Phaser combat.

Another way to handle it is to limit the charges on the weapon. The idea is that the Stun setting draws much less power from a Phaser or Disruptor's power cell but a Disintegrate setting draws quite a lot. There is some precedent for this in the show, although it's never clearly stated how many shots will drain a Phaser.

My last suggestion is both the most Star Trek-like and yet perhaps the hardest to convey to most gamers. This final idea is one of theme. Star Trek is essentially 'Wagon Train to the Stars' and the firing of a Phaser is like a Cowboy drawing his gun or even, a Samurai in a Kurosawa film drawing forth his katana. You do not draw your weapon unless you are prepared to fire it and you do not fire it unless you are prepared to kill somebody.

This respect for the weapon and what it can do often leads my players to set for Stun much more often than Kill or Disintegrate. Enemies need not die if you don't have to kill them in a Star Trek setting. Not every opponent need be vaporized. Disintegrated opponents don't reveal their plans or tell you how to deactivate the world-destroying alien satellite. No renegade starship captain or mad scientist was rehabilitated or stood trial for their crimes in the form of vapor.

At the same time, it always Starfleet officers to walk around with a bit of a swagger. Much like the old west, these are individuals who may not want to wipe you off the face of Gamma Arcturus V but they will if they have to. A Starfleet officer has to do what a Starfleet officer has to do...

More on combat in the Star Trek universe and what it means to gaming there coming up in...

The Arena.

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Barking Alien

Hard Hitting Supers

One thing interesting about running a Champions game is that combat is pretty brutal. I mean really brutal. Like, almost not quite like a comic book brutal unless your preferred reading of choice is Marvel's Ultimates or Image's Invincible.

I ran the first session for my new Champions campaign and it was both incredibly fun and not exactly what I was hoping for.

The Good

I realize that as much as I don't love the math needed to make characters, Champions makes awesome characters. You can play exactly the kind of hero you want, with exactly the type of powers you want to have and even get rewarded for complicating your character's life with exactly the disadvantages and limitations you want. I am spoiled by this concept I realize. I think it was Champions that killed my interest in rolling random stats, abilities and such. I play to enjoy myself. If I roll up a dumb fighter type and want to play a wise cleric or intelligent magic user why shouldn't I. It's my free time, I paid money for this game and I want to play what I want to play. Champions is all about that.

Once you've made up characters, my players and I were surprised at how fast and easy everything else in the game is. All your info for your abilities, powers, to hit (OCV), defense (DCV), etc. is on your sheet. No real need to look up anything, except the occasional damage adjustment if you throw a car or get knocked back through a wall. Luckily I have the Champions 4th Ed. screen which is full of cool records sheets and quick reference charts should they be required.

The Bad (Sorta)

The adventure itself went a bit...off...what I was hoping for. Not by much and not in a way that we didn't enjoy it but one of my players took his character in a direction that leaned a little toward villainy. I think he was just blowing off the steam of a tough week but I'd be lying if I said it didn't irk me a bit. I've decided not to be so stiff on what constitutes a hero though (for this game at least) and I'm eager to see where this story goes.

The Ugly

As I mentioned in the opening of this post, Champions combat is very dangerous. Is it me or is Champions combat remarkably brutal for a Supers game? Damn but my boy J got hurt. You may be able to throw lightning bolts and absorb flame but if a punk with a gun shoots you with a 4D6 Killing Attack you could die son. It was like crazy deadly out there for these two heroes. Not to mention the damage they inflicted on the crooks doing nothing more elaborate then some martial arts moves and a few well placed sonic attacks. Wowzers.

Anyway...all this Superhero gaming talk has put me in the mood for more Superhero gaming talk. I'm going to recap an old game, some old characters and some new art coming up. Be here in thirty! 'Nuff Said!

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Barking Alien