Systems Where You Dread Running Combat

[Thomas Shey]

I can't stand D&D hit point attrition style combat. I find the monotony of it extremely tedious and boring.

I think you have to take a pretty broad brush to lump everything in that group together. OD&D combat and D&D4e combat were both "hit point attrition" but they were pretty vastly different in how you did things and the benefit thereof.

 

[John R Davis]

Like the OP I despise " wahoo look I finally managed to hit!". "Oh apparently I didn't hit", games as well

 

[S'mon]

For me, some of these systems include Warhammer Fantasy 4e and Savage Worlds.
Both systems include pretty easy task resolution systems outside of combat...

I'm the same with Savage Worlds - loved it when not in combat; hated the combat system. So I tend to use Mini Six (D6 System variant) for that kind of game.

4e D&D I never liked Skill Challenges, but I played 4e online with a new GM on Tuesday and he made them painless at least, quite fun at best.

 

[Cadence]

We never got beyond (partially?) making characters for it, but Phoenix Command seemed intimidating iirc.

 

[Feepdake]

Forbidden Lands. It works best when it's played like an OSR game where there are weaknesses to exploit and combat ends in a jiffy. Otherwise it becomes a huge dice-chuck fest that seems to go on forever.

 

[GreyLord]

I like the Warhammer FRPG.

I don't care for Rolemaster's (also MERPs) combat in many instances though, you want a more drawn out style...that's it.

I like the original Star Frontier's type of combat.

Zebulon's Guide introduced a version I don't, so I use things like the races and lore but do combat the old fashioned way instead.

 

[jdrakeh]

The only two systems where I grew to actually dread running combat were D&D 3x and Pathfinder 1. They were fine at lower levels, but once PCs hit 10th level or so, both systems got ridiculous. I don't touch either now.

As a player, I disliked a lot of things about Savage Worlds, but combat was one of those things. If you didn't have a high Spirit score and got hit in combat, you were pretty well done for, as one of our party members was reminded of regularly.

 

[turnip_farmer]

Like the OP I despise " wahoo look I finally managed to hit!". "Oh apparently I didn't hit", games as well

I think this a partly a matter of how you think about things. I played lots of Warhammer (as in, the wargame), long before I ever played any rpgs, so the distinction between rolling to see whether you hit and rolling to see whether your hit does any damage seems very natural to me. My main Warhammer army were elves (high accuracy, low strength), so watching all my arrows find their targets and then bounce harmlessly off adamantium armour doesn't seem strange at all!

It took me a while to adjust to the DnD abstraction where hitting and wounding are all rolled in to one and, while I definitely see the appeal of the simplicity, I still find these systems less satisfying.

To answer OP, I don't dread combat in WFRP at all (2e, never played 4e). I find it's easier to build interesting combats since there's sufficient built in complexity. I don't need to add bells and whistles to make it exciting like in DnD 5e.

One system I have never tried because the combat rules intimidate me is Hackmaster. In a way it looks like it could be really fun, but the complexity is just overwhelming.

 

[John R Davis]

Crikey Turnip. In WHFRP 2e it's even worse for whiffy dice rolls. The opening intro paragraph has a tale of a pc making lots rolls under 35% or something. Not gonna happen.
The setting should be grimdark, not the system

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think this a partly a matter of how you think about things. I played lots of Warhammer (as in, the wargame), long before I ever played any rpgs, so the distinction between rolling to see whether you hit and rolling to see whether your hit does any damage seems very natural to me. My main Warhammer army were elves (high accuracy, low strength), so watching all my arrows find their targets and then bounce harmlessly off adamantium armour doesn't seem strange at all!

Yeah, I pretty much grew up on the Hero System and RuneQuest as a gamer, so the idea that "if I hit I do damage" seems very D&D to me (and that's not really a compliment from where I sit).