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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
How to speed up combat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8218206" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>Done today, I would probably steal <a href="https://www.13thagesrd.com/combat-rules/#Escalation_Die" target="_blank">13th Age's escalation die</a>:</p><p></p><p>[Excerpt]The escalation die represents a bonus to attacks as the fight goes on.</p><p></p><p>At the start of the second round, the GM sets the escalation die at 1. Each PC gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to the current value on the escalation die. Each round, the escalation die advances by +1, to a maximum of +6.</p><p></p><p>Monsters and NPCs do not add the escalation die bonus to their attacks</p><p></p><p>If the GM judges that the characters are avoiding conflict rather than bringing the fight to the bad guys, the escalation die doesn’t advance. If combat virtually ceases, the escalation die resets to 0.[/excerpt]</p><p></p><p>You can easily modify it to apply to both sides, or simplify it to a fixed +2.</p><p></p><p>As for what we actually did, most of our changes we actually tried were social or structural. We introduced rules to speed up the game in roughly this order:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Roll attack and damage dice together</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">NPCs always dealt average damage</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One player tracks initiative instead of the DM</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One player tracks NPC damage instead of the DM</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All NPCs act simultaneously</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players had to be ready to act immediately on their turn or they got skipped</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players had 1 minute to resolve their turn</li> </ul><p>The other thing we considered but never attempted was fixing hp, attack bonus, defense bonus, and damage rolls to level 8 par or so, which is where things felt about right. That... may be a lot of work, however.</p><p></p><p>By the end, the combats were running quickly... but the game felt like a business meeting and was about as fun. We had successfully removed all the fun from the game. We did not play 4e much longer. The last combat we played involved 6 PCs and about 10 NPCs, all of which had auras and reactions.</p><p></p><p>I was kinda hoping for ideas that we didn't have, because I miss 4e sometimes.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm reminded of Arin Hanson's Sequelitis video about Ocarina of Time. "You should never, ever get to the point where you say, 'Eh, I'll check that room later,' in a game about checking rooms."</p><p></p><p>Combat is front and center in 4e. Combat is the Cadillac on the showroom turntable. If you're playing 4e over any other edition of the game, it's going to be because you like the combat rules. Simply put, there isn't anything else truly compelling about 4e.</p><p></p><p>You should never, ever be thinking, "Eh, I should run fewer combat encounters," in a game about running combat encounters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 8218206, member: 6777737"] Done today, I would probably steal [URL='https://www.13thagesrd.com/combat-rules/#Escalation_Die']13th Age's escalation die[/URL]: [Excerpt]The escalation die represents a bonus to attacks as the fight goes on. At the start of the second round, the GM sets the escalation die at 1. Each PC gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to the current value on the escalation die. Each round, the escalation die advances by +1, to a maximum of +6. Monsters and NPCs do not add the escalation die bonus to their attacks If the GM judges that the characters are avoiding conflict rather than bringing the fight to the bad guys, the escalation die doesn’t advance. If combat virtually ceases, the escalation die resets to 0.[/excerpt] You can easily modify it to apply to both sides, or simplify it to a fixed +2. As for what we actually did, most of our changes we actually tried were social or structural. We introduced rules to speed up the game in roughly this order: [LIST] [*]Roll attack and damage dice together [*]NPCs always dealt average damage [*]One player tracks initiative instead of the DM [*]One player tracks NPC damage instead of the DM [*]All NPCs act simultaneously [*]Players had to be ready to act immediately on their turn or they got skipped [*]Players had 1 minute to resolve their turn [/LIST] The other thing we considered but never attempted was fixing hp, attack bonus, defense bonus, and damage rolls to level 8 par or so, which is where things felt about right. That... may be a lot of work, however. By the end, the combats were running quickly... but the game felt like a business meeting and was about as fun. We had successfully removed all the fun from the game. We did not play 4e much longer. The last combat we played involved 6 PCs and about 10 NPCs, all of which had auras and reactions. I was kinda hoping for ideas that we didn't have, because I miss 4e sometimes. I'm reminded of Arin Hanson's Sequelitis video about Ocarina of Time. "You should never, ever get to the point where you say, 'Eh, I'll check that room later,' in a game about checking rooms." Combat is front and center in 4e. Combat is the Cadillac on the showroom turntable. If you're playing 4e over any other edition of the game, it's going to be because you like the combat rules. Simply put, there isn't anything else truly compelling about 4e. You should never, ever be thinking, "Eh, I should run fewer combat encounters," in a game about running combat encounters. [/QUOTE]
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