TTRPGs with simultaneous instead of turn-based combat

[Thomas Shey]

I’d love to try a game that had simultaneous combat in the sense of Ace of Aces or Diplomacy. Not sure how that would work with movement, but if somebody pulled it off I think it could be cool.

With card based declaration and TotM you could probably do it.

 

[Bill Zebub]

With card based declaration and TotM you could probably do it.

Oh, cards would be interesting.

 

[pemerton]

Rolemaster Standard System has simultaneous written declarations as an option. That was my group's standard approach both in RM 2e and RMSS.

There was one conflict in our Torchbearer game yesterday. Because of simultaneous written declaration, I got burned by scripting Feint against an Attack.

 

[John R Davis]

Any game where the GM does not roll in combat makes it simultaneous.

So Talisman RPG being an excellent and new example.

Lots PBTA.

Duty and honour as it uses cards is also non turn based. Kinda.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Any game where the GM does not roll in combat makes it simultaneous.

Maybe if you twist language that’s true. But it misses the point of simultaneous combat.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Any game where the GM does not roll in combat makes it simultaneous.

I can see that with one-roll resolution, but if you still need to roll for Attack and Defense, and the GM still needs to declare specific attacks, that doesn't seem automatically simultaneous even if the players make all the rolls.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I can see that with one-roll resolution, but if you still need to roll for Attack and Defense, and the GM still needs to declare specific attacks, that doesn't seem automatically simultaneous even if the players make all the rolls.

One might, for instance, create a combat system in which the player rolls a dice pool, which can then result in the player damaging the target, the target(s) damaging the player, both, or neither.

But in my mind that needs a term other than "simultaneous".

 

[overgeeked]

You can make any turn-based game into a simultaneous one by having all the effects happen at the end of the round. You’d want to use the older style of phases, i.e. everyone shoots, everyone moves, everyone melees, etc.

Turn-based combat isn’t how it happens in the fiction. It’s a game interface because actually running simultaneous combat would be a nightmare.