[HOUSE RULE] COMBAT DRIFT

[geewaagh]

[HOUSE RULE] COMBAT DRIFT
We recently did a large combat where a ship the PCs were on was boarded viking –like raiders from two long ships. Sailors, Raiders, and Players clashing in one giant melee. I described the deck as chaos as the PCs came from below deck and into the fight. One of the players said he envisioned an Errol Flynn’ish style movie. Great!

However, the combat on the map (which was very pretty, because I love photoshop!) just did not playout like the chaos you would want. I forced round one to be a combat free “rush” round. Raiders, Sailors, and PCs all moved into position in initiative order to “set the stage” of the initial clash of steel. That worked well and made for a nice dispersed map that would not have happen otherwise.

Then, for almost the entire battle, all figures stayed in the same square until their opponents where put down. As I watched from turn one to turn nine, I started thinking how every miniature battle is the same way. All the terrain and obstacles are ignored after round one. Players and monsters move into base-to-base and there they sit until it’s over.
So, I started thinking…..

What is the “combat groups” had a chance to shift or move at the end of the round. Movie combat shifts all over the scene, why can’t we do this at the table?

COMBAT DRIFT
At the end of the round, roll for drift for each melee group (defined as all zone of control of other figs)

1-4 Groups stays where they are
5-6 Groups rotate clockwise 90 degrees
7 Group shifts 5ft North
8 Group shifts 5ft South
9 Group shifts 5ft East
10 Group shifts 5ft West
11-12 Actions or terrain causes the group to separate, move everyone out of zone of control, all are considered disengaged at start of round.

I can see groups being pushed into each other, split by terrain, pushed to a cliff edge (test or saves to prevent going over?) etc.

Comments?

 

[mamol]

You're perfectly right with this observation. Especially in 4E (although characters and monsters have a lot of movement abilities) it often gets stuck pretty fast and everybody stays where he is.

The Combat Drift mechanism sounds as if it would solve the problem. Maybe I'll give it a try in my next session. The downside of Combat Drift might be that neither the PCs nor their enemies can plan (if they do so) to achieve better positions or use the terrain to get advantage over their opponents.

 

[GMMichael]

Why do characters stay put?
Does the environment change?
Are there interesting options in the environment?
Is movie combat realistic, or what you'd like to see in your game?

D&D combat is turn- and rule-based. Movie choreographers consider interest and action first, realism second. And they might or might not be working within the confines of a camera angle. So without some intercession, you're going to have two different types of battles.

Your combat drift system would work great for shaking things up. I would take a different approach though, considering the "whys" of the situation, and implement rules from there. On the boat example, some listing of the ship could work wonders for motivating the characters to move around.