Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Recommendations for TTRPGs with a focus on strategic combat?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="GrahamWills" data-source="post: 8602052" data-attributes="member: 75787"><p>Hmmm. I think you might need to explain this a little more. D&D 4E is an obvious high-tactical game, and yet often has "lots of hit points". I think you might mean to exclude games where you have lots of hit points, but few ways to change how you protect or destroy them. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Again, true if they are unchanging passive defenses. If you make tactical decisions to improve or reduce passive defenses, then I don't think that requiring two rolls makes any strong difference over one dice roll.</p><p></p><p>Rather than focus on mechanics that we associate with tactical games, maybe instead we could list a set of tactics that we'd expect to find actually useful in a game. For example:</p><p></p><p>I would expect that the following might be a tactic I could use in a game. Not all characters could do it, but they should be a feature of most combats:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The ability to trade between defensive ability and offensive ability</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ganging up makes a big difference</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ability to move opposition around the battlefield</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Terrain effects are important</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ability to apply status effects such as ongoing damage, attack or defense penalties, action losses, movement restrictions </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Status effects that one player applies that another player takes advantage of</li> </ul><p>Basically on one player's turn a tactical game should allow them to consider different courses of action, and the more that are reasonable, the more that system is tactical. For a truly great tactical system, I might have the following options on my turn:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Engage a couple of enemies and boost my defenses to lock them down and allow others to go all out on attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Throw a hindrance on the ranged attackers, making it hard or impossible for them to use ranged attacks</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Attempt to stun two enemies and deprive them of their next turns and maybe more</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Delay until one of my comrades gives me a flank so I can attempt a big damage attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Move several of the opposition closer to each other so our mage can make a burst attack on all of them</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Get to the very far end of the room and activate a terrain feature (e.g drop a chandelier or bridge over the lava pit)</li> </ul><p>The weakest system I've played for this is probably AD&D. A fighter there really cannot do any of these. In D&D 4E I've played a paladin/rogue who might even have had all the above options for a single turn. Fate would also allow many of these, but requires a fair amount of GM adjudication.</p><p></p><p>But overall, the more a game turn requires you to consider options, and particularly options that require multi-character interactions, the more it feels tactical to me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GrahamWills, post: 8602052, member: 75787"] Hmmm. I think you might need to explain this a little more. D&D 4E is an obvious high-tactical game, and yet often has "lots of hit points". I think you might mean to exclude games where you have lots of hit points, but few ways to change how you protect or destroy them. Again, true if they are unchanging passive defenses. If you make tactical decisions to improve or reduce passive defenses, then I don't think that requiring two rolls makes any strong difference over one dice roll. Rather than focus on mechanics that we associate with tactical games, maybe instead we could list a set of tactics that we'd expect to find actually useful in a game. For example: I would expect that the following might be a tactic I could use in a game. Not all characters could do it, but they should be a feature of most combats: [LIST] [*]The ability to trade between defensive ability and offensive ability [*]Ganging up makes a big difference [*]Ability to move opposition around the battlefield [*]Terrain effects are important [*]Ability to apply status effects such as ongoing damage, attack or defense penalties, action losses, movement restrictions [*]Status effects that one player applies that another player takes advantage of [/LIST] Basically on one player's turn a tactical game should allow them to consider different courses of action, and the more that are reasonable, the more that system is tactical. For a truly great tactical system, I might have the following options on my turn: [LIST] [*]Engage a couple of enemies and boost my defenses to lock them down and allow others to go all out on attack [*]Throw a hindrance on the ranged attackers, making it hard or impossible for them to use ranged attacks [*]Attempt to stun two enemies and deprive them of their next turns and maybe more [*]Delay until one of my comrades gives me a flank so I can attempt a big damage attack [*]Move several of the opposition closer to each other so our mage can make a burst attack on all of them [*]Get to the very far end of the room and activate a terrain feature (e.g drop a chandelier or bridge over the lava pit) [/LIST] The weakest system I've played for this is probably AD&D. A fighter there really cannot do any of these. In D&D 4E I've played a paladin/rogue who might even have had all the above options for a single turn. Fate would also allow many of these, but requires a fair amount of GM adjudication. But overall, the more a game turn requires you to consider options, and particularly options that require multi-character interactions, the more it feels tactical to me. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Recommendations for TTRPGs with a focus on strategic combat?
Top