Tracking Damage in Large Combats

Justin Bacon · Apr 14, 2003

How do you folks keep track of damage when you're running large combats? What tricks do you use to remember which of the twenty orcs on the table has suffered 5 hp of damage and which has suffered 25?

Justin Bacon
triad3204@aol.com

Charwoman Gene · Apr 14, 2003

Argh!!!

I usually just have the players wipe out orcs and such instead of keeping track!! Too hard.

Anyone got great ideas? It isn't so bad when I use individually identifiable minis, but I don't want to resort to the Sean K. Reynolds "Purple-Shirted-Orc" method of ensuring that...

Ankh-Morpork Guard · Apr 14, 2003

I just number each opponent and then track thier damage on a piece of paper. Works fine if you can remember which is Orc #4, but you get the hang of it eventually.

Henry · Apr 14, 2003

The Greatest Artist of the Face of the Planet, otherwise known as Claudio Pozas, drew the Fiery Dragon Productions Counter collection. This marvelous collection has a small white box on each coutner, to number each one 1 through 20 (or whatever), allowing both players and GM the ability to track opponents easily.

In my notes, I put "Orc #1 = 10 hit points"; "Orc #2 = 9 hit points", etc. and when an attack is scored, the player tells me about the fierce cut he gave Orc #17 for 12 points of damage, and I tell him the result of his handiwork.

How I gamed before this point, I do not recall.

How well does it work, you may ask? I recently ran a d20 modern combat involving 15 regenerating zombies in an apartment complex, and a bunch of REALLY frustrated PC's. "Dammit, the things WON'T DIE!" I would not have attempted it the way I did without my counter collection. It worked beautifully.

Christian Walker · Apr 14, 2003

Hiya Justin,

I use MS Publisher to create 1" counters for each of the bad guys, labelling them Bandit 1, Bandit 2, and so on. After I print out the counters, I apply scotch tape to give them a durable, laminated feel.

On a separate sheet of paper I list the bad guys with their hit points.

I've tried it a few times and it works very well. The players have even begun pestering me to make counters for them, sending me pictures and what not.

Rashak Mani · Apr 14, 2003

Well since I dont have exactly the same orc or skeleton miniatures we usually write next to the damage boxes the general description of the miniature: Orc with Axe... Orc with Bow... Hobgoblin mini... etc...

Extremely large combats we use counters with numbers from Dragon Magazine.

orbitalfreak · Apr 14, 2003

I also recommend the Firey Dragon Counters. Great resource, they really help out in combat, especially since I don't have a lot of minis.

In a pinch, the counters from a cardboard Bingo game will do, or even 1" squares of paper with "Orc #47" written on it. In any case, an ordered system of identification (numbers work well), with a separate piece of scratch paper to track other information on (HP, spell list, special attacks, etc.) will satisfy just about anyone.

maddman75 · Apr 14, 2003

If you don't have the counters and are using a horde of small hit point critters like regular ol' orcs, here's a trick.

Use d6s for the orcs, and let the die indicate how many HP they have left. This assumes that your bad guys have 6hp or less and that you don't care if the PCs know how tough they are.

I suppose you could use other dice as well.

Drawmack · Apr 14, 2003

There are two arts and one fact that I learned early in my GMing chareer which apply to every game I have ever run under any system.

FACT: It is an abstract system and as such stringent HP counting is not necessary, but is preferred so be as close as you can.

ART 1: Fight an interesting combat without the NPC moving a whole lot when using large numbers of bad guys in a fight. Have excitement come from elsewhere. Maybe the volcano is about to blow. With all that ground rumbling whose got time to worry about the orcs not moving.

ART 2: Guesing hp. If it's the third time my wizard's fireball is hitting this orc, he's probably dead. Had a game this sunday with the sorcerer's fireball up on the roof whipping out archers while they were inside. I rolled a ref save every round and three failed saves ment 1 dead archer falling past the windows.

Now that you know that the way that I track HPs for large encounters will make sense.

Only use this if your NPCs are two to one on the party or they will notice the fudging.

on a piece of paper number the NPCs starting at 12:00 and moving clock-wise around the table. jot down their hp

if the NPCs trade places switch their numbers except in extreme remaining hp variance.

when they take damage write it under their hp as a -

The Important Part
Learn how to say things like "Of course the wizard took 500 hp or damage he's wearing a cursed DR 10/+4 robe of protection that steals 1 con point per day worn that it is not soaked in human blood while on your body."

mmadsen · Apr 15, 2003

How do you folks keep track of damage when you're running large combats?

For really large combats, I recommend not tracking hit points for non-name characters. Replace hit-point tracking with "Monte Carlo" damage: an attack that does one Nth of your total hit points in damage (on average) has a one-in-N chance of disabling you.

This little chart converts that to a d20 roll (attacker's average damage across the top, defender's total hit points along the left side):

Code:

[Color=Silver]
   01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
02 11 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
03 14 08 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
04 16 11 06 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
05 17 13 09 05 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
06 18 14 11 08 04 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
07 18 15 12 10 07 04 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
08 19 16 14 11 09 06 04 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
09 19 17 14 12 10 08 05 03 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
10 19 17 15 13 11 09 07 05 03 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
11 19 17 16 14 12 10 08 06 05 03 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
12 19 18 16 14 13 11 09 08 06 04 03 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
13 19 18 16 15 13 12 10 09 07 06 04 03 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
14 20 18 17 15 14 12 11 10 08 07 05 04 02 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
15 20 18 17 16 14 13 12 10 09 08 06 05 04 02 01 01 01 01 01 01
16 20 19 17 16 15 14 12 11 10 09 07 06 05 04 02 01 01 01 01 01
17 20 19 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 09 08 07 06 05 03 02 01 01 01 01
18 20 19 18 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 05 04 03 02 01 01 01
19 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 01
20 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
22 20 19 18 17 16 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 06 05 04 03
23 20 19 18 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 04
24 20 19 19 18 17 16 15 14 14 13 12 11 10 09 09 08 07 06 05 04
25 20 19 19 18 17 16 15 15 14 13 12 11 11 10 09 08 07 07 06 05
26 20 19 19 18 17 16 16 15 14 13 13 12 11 10 09 09 08 07 06 06
27 20 20 19 18 17 17 16 15 14 14 13 12 11 11 10 09 08 08 07 06
28 20 20 19 18 17 17 16 15 15 14 13 12 12 11 10 10 09 08 07 07
29 20 20 19 18 18 17 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 11 11 10 09 09 08 07
30 20 20 19 18 18 17 16 16 15 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 10 09 08 08
31 20 20 19 18 18 17 16 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 11 11 10 09 09 08
32 20 20 19 19 18 17 17 16 15 15 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 10 09 09
33 20 20 19 19 18 17 17 16 16 15 14 14 13 13 12 11 11 10 09 09
34 20 20 19 19 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 10 09
35 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 16 16 15 15 14 14 13 12 12 11 11 10 10
36 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11 10 10
37 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 12 11 11 10
38 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11 10
39 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11 11
40 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 14 13 13 12 12 11
[/Color]

For instance, a typical human spearman does 1d8 damage, or four points on average. (I prefer to round down.) Against an 11-hp Lizard Man, once he hits, he needs a 14 or higher on his d20 damage roll to disable him. If rolls 13 or lower, oh well, better luck next time -- and I don't have to keep track of which Lizard Man that was.

Tracking Damage in Large Combats

Justin Bacon

Banned

Charwoman Gene

Adventurer

Ankh-Morpork Guard

First Post

Henry

Autoexreginated

Christian Walker

First Post

Rashak Mani

First Post

orbitalfreak

Explorer

maddman75

First Post

Drawmack

First Post

mmadsen

First Post

Similar Threads