D&D 5E Roshambo-Style Theatre of the Mind Combat

robus said:

[MENTION=69817]volanin[/MENTION] - I was just rereading the latest version (1.4) and something confused me.

This:



Seems to be in direct conflict with this:



What am I missing? Why does one break engagements and the other not?

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I think in the first case it's part of your movement, meaning that you can also attack once you've engaged, and in the second case it uses your Action.

Elfcrusher said:

I think in the first case it's part of your movement, meaning that you can also attack once you've engaged, and in the second case it uses your Action.

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OK - I'm rereading it again and I see what you mean, but I do think that the wording could be improved as it's too similar right now for readers not to go "wuh?" I was just told I couldn't engage a second creature!

I would reword this

If you're already Engaged, attempting to become Engaged with another creature will break your current engagements. You also break your current engagements when you Dash, or by simply stating that you move away (retreat).

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as:

If you're already Engaged, and have no remaning actions, attempting to Engage with another creature will break your current engagements. You also break your current engagements when you Dash, or by simply stating that you move away (retreat).

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But really I think that the "Rules of Engagement" section should probably be reworked into the main Roshambo section as it's introducing terms that have yet to be defined. For example the option of "Engaging" by simply moving (if you're not engaged) is not described in the ENGAGE (Action) text.

Edit: But that's probably because it's not an action in that case.... OK understanding is slowly dawning!

But I guess I'm still wondering why the option to Engage without using an action is still available to Engaged creatures? It seems like a needless complication?

robus said:

But I guess I'm still wondering why the option to Engage without using an action is still available to Engaged creatures? It seems like a needless complication?

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Here's one example:

The Fighter is Engaged with two goblins. A wounded ogre trudges over to Attack the Cleric. It is now the Fighter's turn. The Rogue shouts at the Fighter to go protect the Cleric, and that she will take care of the goblins. Thinking he may be able to kill the ogre if he attacks, the Fighter doesn't want to use his Action up to Engage him. Instead, the Fighter moves away from the goblins, provoking opportunity attacks that both miss, thanks to his high AC, and the Fighter Engages the ogre, attacks twice with his Action, and kills the beast.

Does that help to make sense?

So we're attempting to adopt this approach and of course we immediately run into a situation that I'm not sure how to handle. We muddled through but I thought it would be interesting to discuss.

The situation was a chase. The party was trying to cross some terrain occupied by some Fomorians (underdark giants) and were stealthing through. Unfortunately one of the party failed their stealth check and the chase was on.

Fortunately none of the players tried any fancy maneuvers and once the Evil Eye attack succeeded on a couple of players the chase ended and the combat was on.

But I'm curious as to how others (especially [MENTION=69817]volanin[/MENTION]) would handle a chase (in other words a "combat-on-the-run") in the roshambo world?