Duels

[Victim]

Nope. I generally think of RPGs in terms of team activities, so splitting into a 1v1 is like a step backwards. Especially since a lot of interesting mechanics are dependent on the interactions between multiple combatants - if you want to make a dual more mechanically varied, you generally have to make up a bunch of extra mechanics for that situation. And since those mechanics would probably be used less often, they're most likely going to feel somewhat awkward.

Plus I can't help but feel that if something is important enough to be worth killing someone over, then it's worth killing someone unfairly.

 

[Polydamas]

The memorable rpg duels I've been party to have been jedi/sith lightsaber fights (always cinematic, and our campaign's jedi would always fight alone against sith because their code demanded it), a duel between wizards that were brothers that finally decided to settle their affairs once and for all, our fighter challenging a barbarian's tribe leader to allow passage through their territory and my starfighter pilot finally closing with a long time enemy in a duel in an asteroid belt where neither party could escape easily.

I think the previous posters are correct, and generally you can get duels set up by cultural norms or specific circumstances.

Culture: a warrior code, recognized way of settling disputes, advancing the ranks

I would introduce this aspect early on so your players know that duels are part of your world and carry certain pressures with them. Something else to introduce is that perhaps not all duels are to the death, some might allow for yielding.

Situational: Isolation, surrounded, only one character has a weapon that can affect the other party (or knows the right style to defeat the other person), only one person can enter the environment and survive, only one character has the right skills for the environment (in a sci-fi setting, the pilot will the be one to fight another pilot in vehicle combat)

Think of your favorite movie duel, it probably has:
emotional reason for the duel and/or a more practical reason to fight (invading the fortress/saving the princess/activating the device and the other party stands in the way)

cool terrain/environment for the battle

new things happening/complications intruding during the fight/environment changes

I'd suggest using minimal changes to the rules so your players can focus on the fight.

Using 3.5 as an example, I might start a duel in the middle of storming a castle, when the pc sees his long term nemesis and they close to fight while the rest of the party is spread out and swept away to different parts of the castle by the tides of battle. Said environment would be filled with neat stuff, like gates to drop and tables to leap on, doors to hide behind etc.

To make sure that fight moves around, I might add the rule that the person who did more damage (or had more successful strikes, to not penalize disarms and the like) that round gets to move the fight ten feet in whatever direction they chose (including adjusting their relative positions) and in a "tie" round they would randomly move. I'd also throw in a complication every 3 or 4 rounds, like a barrel rolls past calling for reflex saves, two random npcs run up, etc. This would make for a pretty memorable fight, I think.

 

[tyrlaan]

Why not set up the duel as a skill challenge (honestly, you can use this concept in any game system)? The PC picks up failures in the challenge if his buddies interfere.

 

[KidSnide]

In general, most games already had rules for two people trying to kill each other. They're typically in the big chapter labeled Combat.

In my experience, the problem with duels isn't the absense of rules to deal with them. The problem is that combat in most RPGs is only interesting at a squad level. When you get to a duel, the rules produce a really boring scene because there are so few meaningful choices.

I've considered trying to manage that by stock-piling the map with tons of terrain pre-designed for advantageous stunts, but I haven't yet had a chance to try it, as all the duels in my games have been foregone conclusions. (The challenge was in trying to convince the allied NPC to back down rather than duel the significantly superior PC.)

-KS

 

[Krensky]

In my experience, the problem with duels isn't the absense of rules to deal with them. The problem is that combat in most RPGs is only interesting at a squad level. When you get to a duel, the rules produce a really boring scene because there are so few meaningful choices.

I've considered trying to manage that by stock-piling the map with tons of terrain pre-designed for advantageous stunts, but I haven't yet had a chance to try it, as all the duels in my games have been foregone conclusions. (The challenge was in trying to convince the allied NPC to back down rather than duel the significantly superior PC.)

-KS

Well, this is really system dependent. Not all games do everything equally well, to repeat an old chestnut. Some are particularly poorly suited to some things. Running a good duel benefits from a more cinematic combat system that isn't focused on squad level tactics. In 4e, a good, entertaining, one on one fight is probably (I freely admit to not playing 4e and that I might be wrong) somewhat hard to arrange solely within the context of the rules. Good roleplay and improv would likely go far beyond nifty maps, but it's very group dependent.

Setting a good duel up is also somewhat dependent on the setup of the game and the players. If you can't get (for whatever reason) the players to care enough in the big fight for one of them to say "He's mine!" and the rest to just go and deal with the mooks, you're not going to get good duels. Also, you need NPCs that are good single combat challenges, often meaning they need to be more powerful. Last thing, is that it helps (in your case) if the setting has limitations to make it a bad idea for the PC duelist to slaughter every challenger. Murder charges, dueling charges, social scorn, etc.

Now, the game I've been playing recently is setup to make both team based and individual combat fun and to provide option to let a player build a duelist or a squad based soldier or a Homeric lone warrior which is a big help. In 3e, you probably need to turn to third party supplements, because the combat system doesn't really support dramatic combat that well. In 4e, you'd probably need to rely heavily, if not exclusively, on page 42 (if I remember right).

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

To be honest, much like the real thing, most of the tension is before the duel. Duels need a good set up I feel.

I agree with this. A duel without a cool in-game plot reason that builds up to it is kind of *meh* imho. The biggest problem I've had (as a player; I've never run a duel) is that the non-dueling PCs are left out-- even if they're off doing something else. And frankly, the couple I've witnessed (a mage duel and a courtly challenge) were simply boring-- though that probably had more to do with the chemistry of the DM & player in question.

Anyway, my thoughts on running a duel basically mirror most everyone else's:

** Ways enforce a duel between two rather than normal combat:
- a code or moral alignment (eg, a devil vs a paladin, each is lawful and each keeps his word)
- physical isolation (the duelists are alone on a pinnacle, in a cage-fight or arena, etc)
-supernatural reason (when the agreement is made, the duelists are whisked away to an arena guarded by inevitables; Something Bad (TM) will happen if anyone interferes, a prophecy is undone, an Artifact self-destructs, etc).


** Making it interesting to watch, for those not fighting:
- cool terrain (moving platforms, set pieces, hazards)
- unusual constraints (special weapons ["Bring out the lirpa!] or armor- or none, blindfolds, duelists chained together, etc)
- cultural considerations (special weaponry or armor "Bring out the lirpas!", sacred location, draw no blood/use no magic or risk offense)


** Involving other PCs, and/or keeping them from interfering:
- they're busy elsewhere (*meh*)
- they're keeping area clear for duelists (eg, in a greater battle, they're fighting at the fringe, preventing BBEG's minions from helping him)
- they're "judging", "witnessing" or otherwise honorbound (lest Something Bad (TM) happen to them).
- each one is caught in his own duel (eg, with their counterparts in a rival party (Elan vs Nale), aleaxes, etc)

 

[Jhaelen]

The WotC adventure module for Eberron 'Ashen Crown' includes an encounter where the party has to make duels against an npc party. What makes the encounter interesting are two things:
- The series of duels is actually modelled like a skill challenge
- Every duel includes a pseudo mini skill challenge:
Every turn you can use one of your skills as a free action to influence the combat, like taunting your enemy, try some dirty trick, etc.

The one thing they did badly was that they added a rule that one way to win a duel was pushing the enemy out of the combat area. This is something that's simply to easy to do in 4e.