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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Red Priest" data-source="post: 4153828" data-attributes="member: 43486">Cobblestone,Have you considered using a different combat system?  I find that in 3.5, players do limit themselves as per your #3 "--A general feeling on the part of the players that their actions are limited to what's in the rule-book, either because a certain action isn't allowed in a round, or because by-the-book, the action is too difficult to make it worthwhile to try."I even see this behavior bleeding over into other games.  Lately, I seem to be constantly reminding my players to "play the situation, not the rules."  I want them to come up with stuff that their characters should do, not what they can do.  I hope you know what I mean here.I find with a rules-lite game like older editions of D&D or Chaosium's/Avalon Hill's Runequest, that combat is a fairly free-wheeling deal, because there are not a lot of conditions placed upon character actions.  There are games besides these that are pretty good, too.  For instance, substituting Arms Law for the combat system in any RPG can yield spectacular criticals and fumbles while eliminating a lot of the feats and skills that can straitjacket a player into having a one trick pony character.Also, previous suggestions in this thread are good, such as rolling damage dice along with to hit and having each player track a different aspect of combat, such as initiative, durations, etc.  This last bit is an old wargaming technique where everyone chipped in to keep things moving quickly and smoothly.EDIT:  ADDENDUM:  4e combat goes much, much faster than 3.5, so you may want to consider that.  I was able to play in a demo a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at how fast combat went.  4e in general wasn't my cup of tea, but combat was fast.</blockquote>

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