Keeping Combat Interesting

[bluejay]

Ensure that you reward interesting options. One very simple thing I do is allocate bonus combat advantage dice for good ideas or taking advantage of the environment. Usually it requires some kind of task or trait usage.

[shipwreck]

A great way to keep combat interesting is to have less combat. Familiarity breeds contempt. Tolkien didn't put fights in every chapter.

Agreed!

Thanks, all. This is great. There are so many great RPG systems out there that it's silly not to beg/borrow/steal.

[Rich H]

A great way to keep combat interesting is to have less combat. Familiarity breeds contempt. Tolkien didn't put fights in every chapter.

Completely agree; it's why I said earlier make it narratively important - don't just run a combat for the sake of it! I think combat can be overused in many RPGs but it seems to be a particular pitfall for the fantasy genre.

[Terisonen]

You should have a fight every scenario of Conan RPG, not in TOR... However, some kind of opposition will do the job (Encounter, Journey...).

[Glorelendil]

You should have a fight every scenario of Conan RPG, not in TOR... However, some kind of opposition will do the job (Encounter, Journey...).

Glorfindel vs. Conan.

I'd buy tickets.

[Falenthal]

You should have a fight every scenario of Conan RPG, not in TOR... However, some kind of opposition will do the job (Encounter, Journey...).

Glorfindel vs. Conan.

I'd buy tickets.

Oh, no, no,... Middle-earth would send an unarmed Hobbit to the fight, of course. And it'd win.

[Indur Dawndeath]

Cool! Will post a couple of examples later tonight if I get time.

Hi Rich,
Very inspireing!
But how are you using the battlefield traits?
I was thinking to prepare a fight in the Gundabad pass, as the players return with the Hill-men children, in Nightmare of Angmar.
So they have the children to protect, the ice and the cold, and ofcourse jagged rocks and dangerous crevices to mind!
There should be a place where the children are better protected, some skill roll to get them there... And a place, higher ground, where the archer is protected and warriors have an advantage, but the children are exposed there.

Please guide me, so I can set this up

[Majestic]

I really like your ideas with this, Rich. I'm somewhat familiar with Fate, though I've never played it. I've run Marvel Heroic Roleplaying many times, though (Cortex Plus), which also uses many narrative concepts similar to Fate.

I'm looking forward to having you elaborate a bit more as well, as this whole idea seems like a quick and simple way of adding some variety and excitement to TOR skirmishes.

[Rich H]

But how are you using the battlefield traits?

Generally, they are simply there as an aide memoir to my initial description as in the heat of battle players can forget details. I let the players use them for their characters as they see fit:

1) This can be simply to add descriptive elements to when they are describing their actions

2) Using them to 'hang' bonus success dice off that they obtained from preliminary rolls or other such special circumstances

3) Exploiting them for strategic or mechanical advantage

4) Or just to understand the 'lay of the land' within a fight

Each Battle Map itself has different uses depending on the scene. In addition to the above it can:

5) Lay out the different locales within a battle as per the examples above and hightlight any specific restrictions/etc as to how characters move between them - eg, the sloping terrain on the Warg Ambush map above

6) Draw out any specific rules - eg, the Villagers 'pools' in each location of the settlement map were used as additional bonus dice for those locations when the players narrated the villagers supporting them. Also something like a round count is useful to play out in the open (eg, "we must hold this ground until dawn!") if its something the PCs would be aware of; it adds to the tension. These additional rules could also draw on how the locations within the map interact - eg, a crevise could create a bottle-neck allowing more PCs than is usual to adopt a Rearward Stance for the path beyond the crevise as long as it has a PCs in Defensive Stance holding the ground against opponents.

7) Importantly, I also try and include elements that draw out the narrative behind the combat. In the example of the settlement this isn't really needed as the narrative is pretty obvious (ie, defend the village) but for the Warg Ambush there were some elements that could be gleaned if the PCs directly protected the children (ie, they weren't the real target of the attack)

I'm sure there are other uses for it but mainly it's for providing support to help the players and bringing variety to such encounters.

I was thinking to prepare a fight in the Gundabad pass, as the players return with the Hill-men children, in Nightmare of Angmar. So they have the children to protect, the ice and the cold, and ofcourse jagged rocks and dangerous crevices to mind! There should be a place where the children are better protected, some skill roll to get them there... And a place, higher ground, where the archer is protected and warriors have an advantage, but the children are exposed there.

Please guide me, so I can set this up

Sounds like you have the basics right there. I don't have my books to hand so can't reference the adventure in Ruins of the North but if I was creating a 'battle map' for the above:

1) Pick out a nice piece of art that represented either the location of some narrative element of the scene

2) Over the illustration draw out the locations, arranging them in a logical order as to their relation to each other

3) Identify/list out any rules as to how PCs can move between each location. Even though this feels like LM-specific information I add it to my maps so that (a) I don't forget and (b) I think that PCs would have a good idea of how difficult something can be to negotiate. Obviously you may disagree and leave such information off of your maps, or maybe just some of it - ie, keep the obvious but don't disclose everything

4) For each location, add a number of descriptive traits to it. These can simply be evocative so that players can draw on them for colour when describing their actions or they can servce more of a mechanical purpose - eg, something like "high ground" could be used by an archer to attack opponents with a mechanical advantage of -2 to their target's TN. So when creating them, try and think how a player could use them and go with a mix of traits - eg, one or two that you just think or evocative and then one or two more to hang mechanical advantages off. No need to play hard and fast with that though - it can be just as much fun to go with traits that you just believe are evocative and fire your imagination and then get totally surprised by how your players use them!

5) Add any other specific rules you want to use within the scene and don't mind sharing with the players - eg, other NPCs that need protecting within a specific locale, a combat round count, etc.

These are all just ideas, no hard and fast rules. If you use this, don't feel like you have to all the time or in the same way. I create these to support my players and our enjoyment of the game - if it isn't doing that for you, then stop!

Hope that all helps.

[jamesrbrown]

I was thinking to prepare a fight in the Gundabad pass, as the players return with the Hill-men children, in Nightmare of Angmar.

So they have the children to protect, the ice and the cold, and of course jagged rocks and dangerous crevices to mind!

There should be a place where the children are better protected, some skill roll to get them there... And a place, higher ground, where the archer is protected and warriors have an advantage, but the children are exposed there.

Please guide me, so I can set this up

I was thinking about your situation this morning and I wanted to throw out an idea. As long as the company is not being ambushed, you will likely allow the players to make a Preliminary roll to determine Combat advantages. In place of making ranged volleys, willing heroes could use their bonus dice to help find hiding places for the children. You could write up 3-4 possible hiding locations to quickly describe. Do not give the players details (make them choose the action first), but assign a skill, difficulty, and related details for their choice. If the player-heroes are making a task proposal, they will choose the skill and all you need to do is determine difficulty and conditions (maybe the quality of success is important for example).

For example, here are some possible choices assuming the enemies are mainly coming from the north.

1. Grove of trees to the east. Run to the trees without being spotted. Requires Stealth TN 16.

2. Drop-off ledge to the south. Run quickly, slide down the hill to the south, and drop onto an out of sight ledge. Requires Athletics TN 16 to go fast enough, slide and keep from getting hurt when tumbling over the edge.

3. Higher ground to the west. Search quickly to spot a way up onto a rocky platform defended by boulders and snow-filled trees. Requires Search TN 14.

4. Cave to the northwest. Search quickly for a cave or hollow in the mountain to the northwest. Requires Search TN 14, but this is a trap! If the player-heroes succeed, they run into the den of more enemies. The number of enemies can be tailored to fit the scenario or I recommend 1-2 enemies. That way, if only one player-hero is with the children, he can still engage them to defend the children.

Success in the first three cases means the player-heroes get the children to a hiding spot safely. They can then stay with them to defend if necessary or join battle and come back for them afterwards. They will remain safely hidden until then.

Failure requires at least 1 player-hero to take a Rearward stance to defend the children. If this is not possible, there is a very good chance they will be recaptured. Perhaps they are taken if the companions are outnumbered and 3 Eyes have been rolled during combat (no matter which side rolled them).