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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8826656" data-attributes="member: 71235">I find tactical combat the least interesting part of roleplaying, yet it still seems to suck up at least two thirds of the real time spent playing in more traditional systems, often in back-and-forth rolling where a goodly portion of those rolls are whiffs that change nothing in the tactical situation, much less the overall story, since most combats I see are either mere obstacles to pass (and failing to pass them can simply end the adventure). I also find simple attrition systems (hit points) to be dull. I far prefer systems that encourage and enable quick decision-making and as few rolls as possible to resolve actions that have consequences in the tactical state, whichever way the dice fall.As for specific systems I like:Blades in the Dark has one system for everything, which you can use in multiple ways for combat, zooming in or out as you like depending on how salient you find the particular conflict to be. You can do a single roll to resolve an entire combat with multiple combatants (although this may be multiple individual rolls for individual participants & cohorts) using one global Position/Effect. You can do a single roll per engaged group of combatants, each group with its own Position/Effect. You can set up clocks for NPC foes, which represent layers of defense, obstacles, or just sheer toughness, and which players must fill before they get to deal the final blow.I've seen only one fight in Blades in the Dark that I felt got overly bogged down. Every action and every roll is consequential—rarely is the result of an action roll a mere change in a number, even when clocks are involved. Levels of Harm represent damage but also impact your effectiveness—but you have a limited buffer of Stress and particular game mechanics that you can use to mitigate Harm. Blades in the Dark has quickly become my favorite system, and I'm curious to try it in other settings.I barely got to play it, but Over the Edge was a super stripped-down/improvised system that you could scale from a single opposed roll for a fight right down to the usual back-and-forth, blow-by-blow, whiff-by-whiff.It's been a while since I played the One Roll Engine but that has the virtue of, well, one roll to resolve any action, with success/failure, degree of success, and complications all handled at the same time.Side mentions:Torchbearer/Burning Whell have already been mentioned. I didn't particularly enjoy the detailed combat system but at least it's more interesting than back-and-forth attrition whiffing.Did anybody here ever play Tunnels & Trolls? I've only read it, but as I recall, each side just grabs a bunch of dice and throws 'em all together, the side with the high total wins the fight!</blockquote>

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