Realistic Combat that's Simple(ish)

[Micah Sweet]

How much though? We are kind of weirdly glass hammer, we hit and we break; one thing is that in a lot of war, esp ww1 and 2 the average frontline soldier lasted only a year or two. "Old hands" were in their early twenties. Kind of belies a crucial point one often overlooks in history, all those wars and revolutions are done by teenagers.

Well, I like specific Injuries being possible, and long-lasting.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Interesting. How does that translate over to games? That you want "likely" things to happen?

In games, I prefer things to happen to a degree of likelihood that is consistent with setting logic. In many cases, that is approximate with reality, while allowing for all the supernatural or science fiction exceptions my games enjoy. I am willing to push this approximation to allow for a degree of "action movie physics", but generally if something can happen in the real world I want the likelihood of it happening in my game to be similar.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not if your goal is realism!

"Yes, you defeated the dragon, but you also picked up dragonplague, and anyway that 1 point of damage got infected and antibiotics haven't been invented yet. Also you have trenchfoot and lice."

"...you also got a letter from your girl back home. You notice that she keeps mentioning her 'friend' the recruiting seargent..."

Sounds like fun to me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Think a lot of gamers would not play a "realistic' system or replay it, there seems to be attachment issues to characters. You want quick and easy that favors the characters over the bad guys.

These are not actually entirely mutually exclusive. You can have the core system be relatively realistic, but provide a metacurrency that allows PCs and selective NPCs to put their thumbs on the scale. That's essentially the tact that Savage Worlds and a few others do.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Not if your goal is realism!

I don't think that follows.

Soldiers have often gotten better medical treatment and other elements that make them less likely to catch most diseases than probably the population as a whole, at least outside of wound infection (where that's been a problem until the relatively modern period). It isn't universal given certain circumstances, but when talking about small mercenary groups, their likelihood of avoiding disease is probably higher than the population as a whole.

And, of course, this still ignores the impact of high tech and paranormal medicine, which PCs can often afford better than most people.

I think you're using a pretty narrow definition of "realism" here that doesn't look at what's actually being simulated.

 

[Campbell]

Whether I want long lasting injuries or not depends on the aesthetics of the particular game. In L5R or Warhammer Fantasy absolutely. In other contexts, not so much.

 

[Mannahnin]

Not if your goal is realism!

"Yes, you defeated the dragon, but you also picked up dragonplague, and anyway that 1 point of damage got infected and antibiotics haven't been invented yet. Also you have trenchfoot and lice."

"...you also got a letter from your girl back home. You notice that she keeps mentioning her 'friend' the recruiting seargent..."

Sounds like fun to me.

A fun article on disease in OD&D vs. AD&D.

Damn You, Gygax! Part 1

Math, history, and design of old-school D&D.

deltasdnd.blogspot.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

Whether I want long lasting injuries or not depends on the aesthetics of the particular game. In L5R or Warhammer Fantasy absolutely. In other contexts, not so much.

I don't play games where I wouldn't want them, except supers. And even there, I can see a case for it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't play games where I wouldn't want them, except supers. And even there, I can see a case for it.

I gather you don't do pulp adventure? Because except for very selective cases, it'd be kind of weird there, too.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I gather you don't do pulp adventure? Because except for very selective cases, it'd be kind of weird there, too.

Not sure what you mean by pulp adventure. What games focus on that?