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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 2468797" data-attributes="member: 6533">I'm not dissapointed, I thought this post was really interesting.I haven't messed around with the magic yet, so that could surprise me, but from all I've seen this aspect of the game has been profoundly simplified.  There are numerous resources but a limited number of effects.  I've yet to see a bonus described as anything other than a bonus, which by IH's own mechanics seems to imply that they all stack.  At a high level you might still be adding a lot from options, but that's gonna be a player task most of the time and I honestly picture it going pretty smoothly.  Again, could very well be naive.This actually seems pretty close to the level of complexity in IH.  There's certainly nothing in the core game about astrological bonuses.  There are no pools that counter other pools.  You can get both defense and attack bonuses and there are some abilities that can inflict a disadvantage.  None of these seem to be in any way onerous to track since there's no bidding or counter-bidding you just mark them on the sheet and since most of them are one round or one roll you probably don't even need to do the marking.  As far as I can tell the only level of GM fiat that will really have an impact on your capabilities is whether or not the GM decides to run any combat that session.  Should the GM decide to run no combat whatsoever then I cannot recommend IH to their group.  Not that IH can't handle non-combat, but that you really aren't using IH to its best potential by not having frequent combats.The Player's Guide to the Middle Ages has phenomenal non-combat rules and I may even import them should I try to do a high combat/high intrigue game such as Game of Thrones.  They would add a lot of breadth to IH's already phenomenal social rules.When you are scanning this complaint keep in mind that most people making it are being very YMMV in their analysis.  If you were comparing IH to Castles and Crusaders I wouldn't be here at all.  I've heard from guys who run C&C combat with 12 PCs and half that number of higher level NPCs in 15 minutes from start to finish.  Yes, there is no way Iron Heroes is going to be geared or regeared toward that style of play.  If I were comparing DnD and C&C then I could have that conversation since you could probably come pretty close to that time by really dumbing down DnD.  Now the guy I was discussing this with really loved kung fu and action, but he was more in love with the quick gameplay and really anything that introduced any level of complexity was anathema to him even things he might otherwise love.Since you are comparing it to Grim Tales I can come in and pretty confidently say that the realm of probability is slightly less time for IH, no more time for IH, or slightly more time for IH.I tend to run a pretty Feng Shui, the High Flying game of Hong Kong Action, game even in DnD.  Almost all of my combat time is taken up by player and DM description of action.   There is no way IH is going to take longer and it is almost certainly going to be shorter since IH rules provide a much clearer schemata for action than either DnD or Feng Shui, though I will always love Feng Shui for its crazy dice mechanic and transformed animals.  If you run GT without any player or DM description of combat, no adjustable combat options, and timed decisions, which is how this guy was running C&C, then, again, I cannot recommend IH for you and, honestly, I'd probably recommend C&C since you're wasting GT's features.One feature I can guarantee IH giving you out of this comparison, at least with regard to vanilla DnD, is that it is much much easier to set up these combats in your mind and prep them than it is in DnD.  Having more options means that you know more about what can happen and knowing that means you can use your prep time more effectively.  Again YMMV cause if you are already spending the max amount of prep time then you may just be prepping more effectively rather than reducing.From what I can tell via your description and comparison here IH's solution is going to be simpler and faster than either of the alternatives you have just listed.  The GT & IH mechanics are going to be very close, but based on your description it has essentially the same mechanic as GT save with one less step in that there's no armor conversion.  In IH reserve functions as a means of bringing NL style quick healing to Lethal damage automatically.  There are options for speeding up the process via feats, skills, and magic, but these do seem to only exist as options for players who want to be cool by virtue of them.  They don't change the fundamental character of damage in the same way that, say, DnD healing does.Hmm, my counter to this is that not all die rolls are equal.  Armor DR resolves very quickly and generally doesn't disrupt the flow of combat.To illustrate: an average conversion rate isn't going to save you that much time.-A ghoul attacks and hits.  DM rolls for damage and informs.  DM moves on to next action.  Player keeps one number in head that of damage.  Player rolls armor.  Player references die roll and subtracts from number in head.  Damage is recorded.-A ghoul attacks and hits.  DM rolls for damage and informs.  DM moves on to next action.  Player keeps damage number in head.  Player either finds average number on sheet or has to recall it in addition to remembering damage from DM.  Player performs subtraction operation.  Damage is recorded.There's about the same number of steps in each process.  The first involves less mental work, which, IME, takes up more time than dice rolling, but it's gonna be close either way.Now, if the DM and player are smart you aren't making nine seperate rolls either.  Your making nine seperate to hit rolls, one ghoul damage roll, and one armor subtraction roll.  If you've got the right number of dice you can do it in three rolls, with two being the maximum number performed by one person.Outside of the theoretical, this combat is going to take a lot of time out of the game since facing a large group of ghouls who hit the party with every single attack is going to clearly indicate to the players that they are facing an orchestrated TPK and they are going to be righteously pissed off.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" /> To cap off, I don't know that I or anyone else is going to break down your resistance to IH and I don't really care.  I'm not concerned about you, you seem like a good player who runs good games and I don't think you're going to stop doing that because you don't adopt IH, but I really appreciate this conversation since it's certainly making my IH game better.  Thank-you.</blockquote>

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