How do you like your combat? Detailed and Tactical or Fast Paced and Exciting.


Advice


I know that the two aren't mutually exclusive, but in my recent DMing experiences I have tried to really generate excitement and that heat of the moment feeling with our combat, but in doing so feel like I am losing some of the tacitcal aspect.

I know for a fact that I have forgotten or missed several things while running it this way and my players have as well.

So I thought I would poll the masses to get your experiences and preferences.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

This is where being a rules-nut GM comes in handy: you can stay on top of the tactical aspect while still keeping things moving. :)


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This sounds really minor, but one of the most simple yet effective changes I made in my GM'ing of combat was to call out "on-deck" for the first couple of rounds...as in, "So-and-so, it's your turn, such-and-such, you're on-deck."

This has helped to get my various players more on track with where they are in the initiative order as well as get them thinking about their turn before it is actually their turn.

In my PFS GM'ing, where I often have new and/or inexperienced players at my tables, this has gone a long way to improving the speed of combat while also keeping players more locked in on what is going on, on the table.

Sovereign Court

Detailed and tactical all the way. I don't like cinematic combats. They are usually very boring and not what I'm there to do.

Now combats that take an hour because people aren't paying attention or something are really bad. >.>


@ Jiggy - I'm pretty good with the rules, but my players aren't which means I have to keep reminding them of what they can do.

@ Lamontius - I have worked quite a bit with my players to improve this and I do track on a big white board initiative order so they can see.

@ Morgen - I think I need to swing a bit more towards detailed and tactical as in the pursuit of cinematic style I lose track of things and vital information is sometimes not conveyed.

Thanks for the feedback all.


I like to find a balance as much as possible, and what I've found is the best way to do this is to use every tool I can to manage the detail/tactical aspects and keep the scene flowing. Part of this is preparation. The better I know the monsters/enemies and thier capabilities, the faster I can keep things moving. Also visual aids for tactical situations.

For instance, I've started using 3d terrain and clear plastic grided 'flight stands' for 3d movement. This allows me to have to think less about things like terrain, elevation, cover, and altitude. I can just see it, as I move things around in the encounter. That helps prevent questions like 'How high was that wall again? Or, 'Is that building between me and the dragon flying over there?'. Both myself and my players can take advantage of that sort of stuff to really keep things moving but still have dynamic and tactically interesting encounters.

I also have found that use of these tools makes people take advantage of features more often. I have found since the introduction of 3d terrain to my game terrain gets interacted with a lot more.

Dark Archive

I find that rules/tactical play don't bog down combat, unprepared players do.

I come from RPGA/4e background where its basically a miniatures game with vague roleplaying layered over top, and we could get through a big complicated combat quickly as long as players were engaged and didn't waffle when it got to their turn.

Unless the last player totally screwed your turn plan up you should know where you want to move and what you want to do and be able to roll dice and rock on.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

ClarkKent07 wrote:
@ Jiggy - I'm pretty good with the rules, but my players aren't which means I have to keep reminding them of what they can do.

Or maybe if you didn't remind them, they'd get better. ;)


To answer the OP I, like many others have said, think that striving for a balance between the two is the most fun.

In the interest of keeping track of who's up. I always like to point people to Kyle Olson's Combat Manager application. I use this handy dandy little device with a laptop at the table (he does have an iPad version also -- though that one isn't free) and a dual monitor. I throw the "initiative window" onto the second screen and it shows exactly who's up and who's on deck. It is a very handy tool, in many ways, not the least of which are: intuitive rules and spell reference tabs, ability to track player and monster hit points, ability to roll attacks, damage, saves, and skill checks for monsters with just a few clicks (including rolling for groups of monsters simultaneously). Insofar as I strive for balance between rules-centered tactics and cinematic combat, this tool is priceless (and did I mention it's free?).


Coming from a GURPS background, I like the crunch of tactical options. It can go too far, however; Phoenix Command was absurdly detailed, and even the old Hero System could take forever.

Some games suit a fast and simple system (the Prince Valiant comic-strip game was one), and others suit detailed tactical grind. Pathfinder is actually somewhere in the middle, although the number of added power and feat options are starting to make it a little unwieldy without really moving away from an abstracted combat system.


I like to have the combat move quickly. But it's not easy.

I'm GMing my third adventure ever. We're running Feast of Ravenmoor and the first game session was great. They walked around the town, talked to the townsfolk, went to a festival and played games there, etc. Lots of roleplaying. I was doing voices and they were more and more pulled into this strange, out-of-the-way village.

Session two was a problem. I'm new to this, so things slowed down a lot during combat. GMs have to roll Perception checks, run a surprise round, track Initiative, look up every spell anyone casts (and poisons! ugh), record damage, and fiddle with the miniatures. To make matters worse (better?), I have four players, only one of which has played RPGs in the past. I spend a lot of time flipping through the CRB trying to find the numbers I need.

It's daunting. And one of the hardest parts is finding all those numbers in a hurry. Even when I'm on the right page, sometimes I can't spot the CMB I'm looking without slowing way down.

I made a cheat sheet with the most vital numbers (AC, hp, attack, saves) blown up very large, like 24 point font. Hopefully, that helps with our final session of this adventure.


I like tactical battle when it has a place or a real purpose beyond itself and want fast the rest of the time. I feel that if im playing a war simulation ill go play warhammer 40K.

Silver Crusade

Evocative and emotional.


There's a part of me that receives the greatest satisfaction from the team pulling together and barely scraping through with our lives. We gave had combats where the big bad falls and we literally all leap into the air cheering. But... There is a time and place for that. I've experienced that overdone and it is wearisome to even think about. I like the cinematic escapes, the wipe the floor with the mooks fights, the wtf random encounters, the climb/swim/jump/fight physical challenges, the puzzle/trap/fight ordeals, and the gloryless run or dies too. I consider variety very important.


My group has a mixed bag of players, some like tactics, some don't care about them. When I am a player I tend to become the tactical leader of the party unless I am playing a character that is deliberately uninterested in tactics.

Our combats tend to be pretty fast paced when I GM. I use a few tricks to keep combat moving, such as the "you're on deck" reminder and a rule that if you aren't ready when your initiative comes up, you automatically are considered to be withholding your action until the end of the next player's turn.

The things that tend to hold up combat for us are simple things like counting damage dice, or remembering that some effect is in play that we overlooked as the player was choosing what to do. That happens more times than I care to admit.

But for the most part our combat is pretty smooth and we get through most fights in four or five rounds.

Some of our combats are more cinematic than others. We can get excited about the events unfolding. It's funny, when we finish gaming and I'm wrapping up, my wife will sometimes comment how much fun we seemed to be having and I won't even recall all the laughing and shouting until she reminds me.

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