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Untitled Document
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #53
8 Deadly Combat Tips
Contents:
This Week's Tips Summarized
8 Deadly Combat Tips
- Understand How Deadly Combat Can Help Your Game
- Avoid Modifying Rules
- Turn Combat Into A Game Within A Game
- Use The Players' Own Tactics Against Them
- Let Players Play The Bad Guys
- Purposefully Take Prisoners
- Have Multiple Foes Focus On The Weakest Characters Vs. Spreading
One Foe Out Per Character
- Have Foes Give Another, Final Hack To Finish Off
Return to Contents
A Brief Word From Johnn
Brief Game Master Survey
------------------------
I'm hosting a neat survey for Gary Gygax that questions GMs on what they think
are the most important elements that constitute a roleplaying game. It's quick
(19 multiple- choice questions) and anonymous.
If you have five minutes, perhaps you could drop by and fill it out? Thanks!
I recommend reading the survey, even if you don't want to fill it out, because
the questions will give you a nice list of the major aspects of roleplaying.
The survey is online here:
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/survey_from_gary_gygax.html
* * *
From: Jim Anuszczyk
Hi Johnn!
I have a favor to ask. Wizards of the Coast has stated that 4000 people must sign
a petition as proof of interest before they will port the new Master Tools program
to the Macintosh. Signing the petition (a web form) is very simple and the page
clearly states that the names and email addresses will not be shared with anyone
other than Wizards. Would you please consider mentioning this dilemma either in
the newsletter or in an email to your subscribers? I'm sure some of the subscribers,
like me, use Macs. Thank you.
http://www.extremesims.com/petition.htm
* * *
Have a great week!
Warm regards,
Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
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Return to Contents
8 Deadly Combat Tips
- Understand How Deadly Combat Can Help Your Game
The spirit of this week's tips is to have even more fun in your game by making
combat more deadly. Your goal should not be to knock off more PCs each session
(unless you're running Paranoia ;) or to flex your game master muscles to
show your players who's boss. Rather, using deadly combat as a technique in
your sessions can have any/all of the following benefits:
- Increased tension and excitement due to the added element of risk.
- Players avoid unnecessary combat more often.
- Players seek other solutions to conflicts than combat, and roleplay
more often.
- Players begin to use their heads during combat and perform more creative
actions rather than always going toe-to-toe or chop-till-you-drop.
- Players have more respect for your game world.
Deadly combat can also ruin your campaign. As the players adapt to deadlier
combat, so must you:
- Reduce the number of combat encounters, or at least the need for combat.
- Always provide players a choice of fighting or not, unless the players
make a poor decision which puts them in a combat-only situation.
And watch for players who start powergaming by min/maxing their skills and
statistics to become fighting machines. They may be doing this just to survive
the deadlier combat, in which case you should address the issue with your
players. Perhaps your game is too combat heavy or deadly...
Return to Contents
- Avoid Modifying Rules
In trying to make combat tougher, avoid modifying your game's rules or installing
new house rules. This is especially true if you make such changes in mid-campaign.
The new rule(s) may destroy game balance. It would be a bad blow to your group
if PCs died because of an unbalanced new rule--your players would justifiably
be upset and frustrated.
Chat with your players and get their opinions and approval on any new rules
you'd like to add.
Return to Contents
- Turn Combat Into A Game Within A Game
This is my favorite tip and, I believe, the best way for you to become one
of the best combat encounter game masters out there. This technique takes
time, planning and effort, but it's worth it in the long run!
Your goal is to turn combat into a game within a game for yourself. A self-challenge.
The rules are simple: defeat the PCs using the least amount of in-game resources
while playing foes to the maximum of their ability.
Doing the most with the least, in other words.
Any GM can bring down a party with super-tough monsters, who are min/maxed
to the hilt and armed with powerful artifacts and magic items. But, imagine
the pleasure (and reputation!) of taking down a party of skilled adventurers
with only a kobold armed with a sharpened stick and runny nose, in a dense
forest? Or having a lone stormtrooper, wounded and with no weapons, take-out
all the PCs and hi-jack their ship while travelling in deep space.
You need to abide by your game's own rules and don't cheat by giving foes
non-standard abilities just to tip the scales in your favour. The odds should
be stacked against you (even if it's just because there are more players'
brains vs. just yours). And that's what makes it fun.
Who cares if the kobold dies? You can create a billion more. But each combat
you play, you'll be learning. You'll be thinking about tactics and strategies.
You'll be putting yourself in the stormtrooper's shoes and asking yourself,
"what would I do?" You'll be tracking what works and what doesn't and building
on a growing library of GM knowledge.
It's the mindset that counts here. You pretend you're the foes and make the
most of it against the characters (which is different than playing GM vs.
players--something you should avoid).
It's a game within a game. And your combat will become much more lethal in
the long-run if you play it as such.
Return to Contents
- Use The Players' Own Tactics Against Them
Learn from what your players do. Collectively, they have much more brainpower
than you. And they have all those moments between turns to visualize and think
about what's going on.
Watch what the players do, notice what works and let your NPCs and monsters
employ the same tactics and strategies.
Also, let your players set all the precedents in terms of rules interpretations
and actions. If your foes succeed because of a judgement call over an ambiguous
rule or a situation which is not covered by the rules, then your players may
object or feel you're being unfair.
But, if you allow your players the first success, then thanks to that favourable
judgement call, you are now free to use that same strategy against them in
the future. The precedent has been set.
Return to Contents
- Let Players Play The Bad Guys
As discussed in previous Tips issues, you can make combat much deadlier by
letting bored or uninvolved players play the bad guys.
Just step back and watch the fur fly!
Return to Contents
- Purposefully Take Prisoners
Often, the tip is "take no prisoners". But, I think if more PCs became the
playthings of their foes, then the shame, embarrassment and lack of closure
(i.e. death) makes combat much more threatening to the players.
D&D 3E, for example, has very good subdual rules, which foes can use to take
characters prisoner more often.
Prisoners can be ransomed back to the party's mentor/boss (oh the shame!),
used as hostages, eaten, used as bait, etc.
The survivors, of course, will try to rescue the prisoners. Just remember
Tips #3 & #4 above to make on-going rescue attempts tougher and tougher. Someday,
the PCs may just decide to pay the darn ransom rather than attempt a rescue,
because it's safer!
Return to Contents
- Have Multiple Foes Focus On The Weakest Characters Vs.
Spreading One Foe Out Per Character
Last week I nearly managed to kill the toughest PC in the party with some
big fat rats just by focusing the rats' attacks on that single character.
Rather than having the rats attack on masse and spreading them out around
the party, I chose to have them leap from hidden places above onto the warrior
in pairs, over and over again.
This tactic was pretty effective. But, next session, I'm going to have the
rats focus on the weakest characters and then we'll see some bloodshed!
Return to Contents
- Have Foes Give Another, Final Hack To Finish Off
When a character goes down, instead of moving the foe onto a new PC, have
him deliver a final couple of chops to the downed character to finish the
job.
Also, if there's time, have the foe loot the PC too. That tactic alone will
drive your players into a frenzy and their fear of falling in battle will
increase dramatically!
Return to Contents
One final word--a repeated word of caution. All of these tips should serve to
increase the enjoyment of your games. Deadlier combat often results in more roleplaying
and/or more careful thinking by the players. And your goal should be to challenge
your players more, not kill more of their characters off every session.
And, if the death rate in your campaign starts to rise, be quick to measure how
your players react. If they aren't liking it, then switch back to your previous
style of play, or reduce the amount of combat in your stories (many groups never
have any combats at all, or they resolve them with one or two dice rolls and move
on).
====
Do you have any deadly combat tips for other GMs to use, that you could share?
Send your tips to: johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Return to Contents
READER'S TIPS OF THE WEEK:
- Use Secret Notes To Encourage Roleplaying
From: Omnipotent Dark Overlord
I have found that making each player wary of what the others are up to forms
a better caution/inquisitive/aggressive rivalry and makes players compete
to be better.
I have two friends that constantly disagree with each other while gaming.
Totally fed up with this, I finally started giving them small, handwritten
notes that said, in bright red letters, "TOP SECRET; FOR YOUR EYES ONLY...
Then I would list a task for them, such as "Keep this information secret for
this game and you'll receive..."
While the first message was being read, the other guy kept saying "What's
it say? When do I get a note?" Then, when they get their note, they get a
feel for what the other players are up to. I've sometimes only given out one
note, with a "...do it or your buddies will get all the good stuff!"
Given the varieties of this ploy, game masters must take great heed to be
fair and not play favorites or blatantly lead the adventurers into a sudden
demise. Only bad feelings will occur and you've missed the point of the exercise.
- A Player's Perspective On Roleplaying vs. Combat
From: Sarah Heacock
There is nothing more frustrating than spending three years rounding your
character out, buying things with XP that are in-character--even if they have
little to NO effect on the game, developing friendships, and all the other
sorts of things that one would consider roleplaying, only to start feeling
that your RPing is being used against you.
ie. all of those you have befriended are slaughtered without warning, for
one plot or another.
And that those who have created combat-oriented characters are having more
successes/better odds of success than simply roleplaying through things. (And
having the Story Teller breeze through moments when "all" you are trying to
do is develop a relationship for a person, in favor of the tests needed to
create a new magical toy or set up the allies for the next big fight.) A character
WILL be scarred if they start feeling that their friendship is costing their
friends their lives.
It is extremely easy to reward a combat-oriented character (even one that
gets that way because they know how to play the rules to make a "weak" physical
character effectively strong in combat anyway) for the choices they make in
spending XP. From my point of view, it is a lot harder to include backgrounds
of characters and what they care about WITHOUT doing it by taking away those
things. ie. using it as an impetus to make the character care about where
you want their attention focused.
..And a player can start to sense when they are being targeted because they
have put care into a character. At which point, there are two options:
- You stop RPing the character in order to play "catch up" and try to
play the same game the Story Teller is rewarding,
- you stop having fun and eventually realize that playing a game you aren't
having fun at, well... what's the point of play without fun?
[Johnn: Sarah has a good point here about penalizing characters with background
elements and characters that are developed well during play. What point is
making new friends and having a family if they are just going to be used as
future leverage against the PC? Perhaps some balance could be achieved by
giving characters as many benefits from these relationships as they receive
"penalties"? i.e. a birthday gift, a juicy piece of information, some timely
help, some freebies...]
- Helping Players Develop Their Characters
From: Indigo Shift
Good issue, as usual...thought I'd throw in my two cents:
Personally, my favorite way of getting my players involved in developing their
characters is to sit them down after about their fourth session of playing
their new character. This gives them enough time to figure out the basics
of their characters' personalities.
Right before the game, I give each of them a blank sheet of paper and have
them write down what they think are their characters' personal short and long-term
goals. I stress to them that these don't have to be very well thought-out
or even "written in stone"; just some basic ideas they can jot down in ten
minutes or so. I'm always amazed at how detailed and introspective these goals
turn out once I say that. :)
Once they're done, I take the sheets and file them away. I wait for about
four more sessions to pass, then show these goals to the players again, so
they can make any changes they feel necessary. By then, the average player
has thought these things through pretty well. I make a copy for them, and
keep a copy for myself.
Then I start planning adventures around these goals. You'd be surprised how
many of them overlap, or relate to each other. In this way, everyone gets
a chance at the spotlight, and (more often than not) everyone gets very involved.
Works like a charm, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
And now for something completely silly.
One of the other ways I get players involved in roleplaying other than "hack
and slash" is to award "Brownie Points". I've been doing this for five or
six years, and to this day I have no idea what the points are redeemable towards.
But that doesn't stop the players from trying to earn them! Go figure.
I do silly things like award 500 Brownie Points to the player who tried their
hardest to keep everyone else on task, or 250 Brownie Points to the player
who went out to their car to fetch the "mood CD" of the night. I award 1500+
to the player who played in character, even if it meant disaster. Note that
I also award regular XP for such things. I think they like it when I say,
"Wow! That was great! Give yourself XXXX Brownie Points..."
At this point, I think they realize that I have no clue what these points
can be used for, or even if they're usable at all. They just collect them
for fun.
Believe it or not; this really works(!)
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