How do you like your combat?

[Psionicist]

I'd like to know how you prefer your combat in RPG's, D&D in particular. Do you like epic battles between good and evil, where the party almost always has the advantage and can do cool moves? Do you prefer a grittier, gorier fight with lots of death? How about a realistic combat from a historical standpoint? Or a free-for-all kind where the DM and players can do pretty much everything? What about some kind of S&M-inspired combat with lots of humiliation D)? Or a standard D&D-combat, as in the documentaries? How about a super realistic approach with fatal injuries? Do you enjoy using lots of rules as support or do you see the rulesbooks as a menace to your creative mind? Do you like to use miniatures during combat, or perhaps whiteboards? Or your imagination alone? (I can go on for a while, but I think you know where this is heading).

Please describe your groups combat style (or your own preferred way, if they differ). Thanks!

 

[Crothian]

We use a mat and minis, though I'm not the biggest fan of them. I perfer gaming without minis especially with our set up (its not convient for me to draw the map, arrange minis along with the other things I'm doing as DM). I like a variety of battles so we will have big and small, a nice mix. I like to have a more detail as long as we use mini to give the players a chance to use the enviroment if they can. Or if tyhey don't I'll show them how by using it against them with the bad guys. I ldon't get to realistic with my combat since I'm not that familar with real combat, and I'm okay with that.

 

[Ace]

I like my combat fast with plenty of options and very little handling time

Unfortunately D&D doesn't really support this -- there are enough options but it isn't really fast

 

[Rabelais]

I like more open free-wheeling combat. If we can get through a combat round in less than 15 minutes, we're lucky though... at higher levels, there are just so many options, that it makes it difficult to execute a quick combat round.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't mind when combat slows to a crawl. Gives me time to think about cool or useful or exciting things to do when my turn rolls around.

I do mind when there's nothing interesting I can do when my turn rolls around.

 

[Schmoe]

I like pitched battles that are gritty, brutal, and cinematic. Equally skilled opponents creates tension, gritty reminds the players that everyone is mortal and keeps things from becoming too black-and-white or too much like a cartoon, brutal keeps the battles dramatic, and cinematic provides the cool window-dressing that helps everyone to imagine the scene.

We use minis and a battlemat, with wet-erase markers for laying out terrain. I personally like to have a lot of options when I'm a player, but there are some people who definitely need fewer options. Players should know what they're going to do by the time their turn rolls around.

 

[GlassJaw]

gritty, brutal, and cinematic

I couldn't have said it better myself. That's actually a great tagline for my Grim Tales ruleset.

I also like combat in which "any punk with a gun" is threat, regardless of the levels of the combatants.

 

[9800]

Unbelievably unfair on the target. Enough said.

 

[Lazybones]

I like my combat fast with plenty of options and very little handling time

Unfortunately D&D doesn't really support this -- there are enough options but it isn't really fast

This is why I run my two current campaigns in Neverwinter Nights (as opposed to a chat client like OpenRPG). I've gotten addicted to having an engine do all the math for me, and being able to run a combat in 2 minutes instead of 2 hours. Lets me focus on the RP (which is odd, I never would have expected a computer game to have more RP than a tabletop one, but that's how it's worked out for the last three years for me).

 

[Hussar]

I like pitched battles that are gritty, brutal, and cinematic. Equally skilled opponents creates tension, gritty reminds the players that everyone is mortal and keeps things from becoming too black-and-white or too much like a cartoon, brutal keeps the battles dramatic, and cinematic provides the cool window-dressing that helps everyone to imagine the scene.

We use minis and a battlemat, with wet-erase markers for laying out terrain. I personally like to have a lot of options when I'm a player, but there are some people who definitely need fewer options. Players should know what they're going to do by the time their turn rolls around.

Oh man is that ever true. I am so sick of players who dither for several minutes, and then finally come up with, "I hit him with my lumpy metal thing."

I've literally had Players who take more than 5 minutes to take a turn with a 3rd level fighter. Sorted this out in my game by installing a shot clock. If you can't state your action in 40 seconds, you get to sit out the round. Considering each player gets 40 seconds plus the time it takes me to do the bad guy's attacks, that's MORE than enough time.

Surprisingly, it worked and I now run combats extremely quickly. In todays game, with five PC's and a fiendish rat swarm, combat took less than 6 minutes. I was very impressed.