Facing: Cool or Lame?

[Krensky]

Facing in personal combat only works when the time scale is short enough. 1 or two seconds. Note that this isn't necessarily a turn length, some game with tick initiative system can work.

It's also important for anything fast or ungainly enough to have a turning radius or in combat involving ordered units regardless of the time scale.

 

[Ahnehnois]

More trouble than it's worth, generally.

 

[Henry]

I can take or leave it, but I haven't found yet a system that did facing in a smooth manner, making it more of a thing to drop than try to retain.

 

[Dedekind]

I could see interesting mechanics that result from the application of a facing rule in an RPG. Powers that depend on facing, conditional combat advantage, etc. However, that seems like it would be more for a highly tactical game, not necessarily your traditional RPG.

 

[Wormwood]

My 'ideal RPG' wouldn't use minis, so facing wouldn't apply.

But for D&D? Hell no.
Yet another fiddly detail that adds no appreciable benefit.

 

[BryonD]

Ideally, I'll take facing.
But, there are good ways to compensate for not having facing and RPGs are about a lot more than combat anyway.

So it is just an entirely optional bonus.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I answered "no facing," but it's kind of a weird situation. I think the "no facing" level of abstraction is almost always preferable in RPG combat, but there are exceptions.

Take, for instance, a Wild West game. In most situations, facing just won't matter that much. Even in shootouts ... the fact that you've grabbed some cover behind the hostler's trough is so much more important than facing that facing would just be noise in the signal.

But change the circumstances in the same game to a shoot-out at high noon, and the relative importance of facing becomes drastically higher. Am I facing into the sun? How much silhouette am I giving him? Is the bastard's buddy sneakin' up on my six while I'm focused on him?

I could easily see a system bifurcated between "most of the time, no facing," and "in these circumstances, facing."

 

[Lanefan]

My non-Euclidian answer is that I'd like guidelines rather than rules.

Facing has its place. When a lone combatant is surrounded by 4 or 5 foes she can't really use her shield in all directions at once; facing applies here.

Facing also makes the lost art of backstriking relevant again - you need a back to strike.

But it doesn't need to rear its ugly head in every situation. Hence, guidelines.

Lan-"you strike my back, I'll strike yours...no, wait..."-efan

 

[jdrakeh]

Facing? Only if handled with the bare minimum detail necessary. My favorite fantasy RPG system of all time (The Fantasy Trip) handles it well.

 

[S'mon]

I never had any problem with facing in 1e, while the lack of facing in 3e-4e does cause me difficulties, so I voted yes to facing.