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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Puddles" data-source="post: 8088188" data-attributes="member: 7026093">[USER=85555]@Bedrockgames[/USER] it seems like you have a good grasp on what you enjoy <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> (shorter combats), and I’m sure if you play D&D you probably design your combat encounters to meet that goal.My mind is conjuring up a few thoughts on making a combat encounter both short and tactical, that you might find useful:In video games (and many other games), positive feedback loops can be incorporated into the mechanics to help a scenario reach a quick conclusion. For example, in games like Call of Duty you often get rewarded with a bonus for a “kill streak”, this might be something small like summoning a drone to scout the area, revealing the map, all the way to bringing down an attack helicopter to unleash a hail of bullets upon the enemy. The point is, it creates a death spiral for the other team that is in this case desirable because it allows one side to reach a decisive victory quickly.So one idea could be to include something like this in your combats. It could be literally be the kill streak mechanic where you have a list of “Heroic Actions” the players can take. Each time an enemy is slain, the players gain 1 point and each Heroic Action has a requisite number of points to spend on it. The more powerful the ability, the more points it requires.Where this adds tactics is if each ability has it’s own niche, and players need to debate and decide where and when to spend their points.If a system like this is too gamey and breaks immersion, another idea is to adopt a simple morale system.For example, you could give each encounter a morale score, the lower the number the more ill-disciplined the enemies. Then, you could give the players ways to tally points against this score each round. If, in a single round, the moral score is exceeded by the points tallied, the enemy routs and the combat is over. This would encourage players to use shock and awe tactics to try and overcome the enemy in a single round of combat if possible and could be both tactical, short and immersive.I would keep the moral score of the encounter hidden, but the ways in which points can be accrued, public. Examples include; the players could gain 1 point for surprising the enemy, 1 for each enemy slain, an additional point for each leader or spellcaster slain, 1 for each crit rolled, 1 each time the enemy suffers damage they are vulnerable to, 1 for a successful intimidation, etc etc.Anyway, I hope these ideas are of any use. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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