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I'm still mulling over what happened at CPA Saturday. Running those traffic stop scenarios was an eye-opener not just in realizing how much stress a beat officer deals with, but on just how fast things can get out of hand. I literally went from ordering "let me see your hands" to "Gun!" to "shooting" someone in the head twice in less than five seconds. I never even saw the passenger's simulated firearm. I just registered her movement and reacted.
Which made me think about, among other things, combat in role-playing games. Since the earliest days of the hobby, much of the game centers around poking things with pointy sticks and other implements of destruction. Which led to a still unresolved battle between accuracy and playability. Let's look at that.
It comes down to the granularity of the system. A very coarse system sacrifices detail for playing speed. Damage is disconnected from real injuries. Systems that use raw hit points are a good example of this. Your fighter with 112 hit points is fine until his points drop to zero, and which point he falls over. Which works as long as you don't think too hard about it. That fighter is ten times harder to kill than he was when he started out. It seems silly to think that a person can absorb a dozen blows from a giant's maul simply because he's experienced.
I've seen house rules that state that only the hit points gained in the first few levels, usually three, could as "body" hit points. Everything above that are "Hollywood hit points." That fighter is brilliantly parrying, dodging and weaving as the fight goes on, but soon enough he tires and the demon's claws start finding flesh. It's a good system, and most have penalties to performance as body hits accumulate. This adds some basic attempt at making combat deadlier at the cost of a little bookkeeping.
Other systems pull damage directly from the character's statistics. Traveller was where I first encountered this. Each hit lowered a characteristic, and when one hit zero, you were out of the fight. HERO and GURPS also use this system to great effect. I like it because even Gragnr the Mighty is going to be severely hurt by a longsword to the belly. Add in guns, and things get crazy fast.
Possibly my favorite combat system ever was found in Harnmaster. It was elegant, played quickly with some practice, and gave very real-world results. Swing a mace into a lightly armored shoulder didn't cost you hit points, it likely broke your collarbone. I've copied the tables below. Combat is a simple opposed roll. In Harnmaster, any d100 result ending in a 0 or 5 is a critical success or failure. If I have a 49% chance of success and roll a 45, critical success. If I roll a 50, critical failure.
So I'm coming after you with my mace. I make a Melee Attack. I roll a Moderate Success. You chose to Dodge, and roll a Moderate Failure. I've already declared I'm swinging for the head. Some Harn players roll two distinct sets of d100s at once to handle hit location. The result is A*1, and I've hit you on the right cheek. Luckily, you're wearing a leather helm with check flaps. A*1 means I do the weapon's rating (3) + 1d6. I roll a 5. Compared to your armor's rating for Blunt trauma, which is 1, I pass a wound rating of 7 to your face.
Checking the chart, I see that this is a "Fracture/Serious Bruise" result. I've probably knocked some teeth out, maybe broken your upper jaw, and you now have to make a role to avoid going into shock. It all sounds complex, but it really works well in practice. I love Harnmaster and wish I could find a group willing to play it.
But back to my simulated traffic stop. Notice the one thing I lacked. Time. When things got started I had to move like I was born to the task. There was no time to think or plan. That's what's missing in so many RPG combat systems. That element of time. I understand that when playing in our heads you have to ask "Now, where was the evil priestess in relation to the Cursed Dagger of the Black Lepus?" But game masters need to make sure combat does not drag out. If a player needs to constantly refer to the rulebook, or can't decide what do to do, they get skipped. It's harsh, but if you want combat in your game, make the players sweat a little. Force their hands.
When I co-wrote At Close Quarters for BITS, that was one of my goals. To make a game that forced the players to think before moving, to always be aware, and be ready to act on instinct. It worked pretty well, from all the reports I've received over the years. Maybe it's time for At Close Quarters 2nd edition. The Wrath of the Penguins!
Which made me think about, among other things, combat in role-playing games. Since the earliest days of the hobby, much of the game centers around poking things with pointy sticks and other implements of destruction. Which led to a still unresolved battle between accuracy and playability. Let's look at that.
It comes down to the granularity of the system. A very coarse system sacrifices detail for playing speed. Damage is disconnected from real injuries. Systems that use raw hit points are a good example of this. Your fighter with 112 hit points is fine until his points drop to zero, and which point he falls over. Which works as long as you don't think too hard about it. That fighter is ten times harder to kill than he was when he started out. It seems silly to think that a person can absorb a dozen blows from a giant's maul simply because he's experienced.
I've seen house rules that state that only the hit points gained in the first few levels, usually three, could as "body" hit points. Everything above that are "Hollywood hit points." That fighter is brilliantly parrying, dodging and weaving as the fight goes on, but soon enough he tires and the demon's claws start finding flesh. It's a good system, and most have penalties to performance as body hits accumulate. This adds some basic attempt at making combat deadlier at the cost of a little bookkeeping.
Other systems pull damage directly from the character's statistics. Traveller was where I first encountered this. Each hit lowered a characteristic, and when one hit zero, you were out of the fight. HERO and GURPS also use this system to great effect. I like it because even Gragnr the Mighty is going to be severely hurt by a longsword to the belly. Add in guns, and things get crazy fast.
Possibly my favorite combat system ever was found in Harnmaster. It was elegant, played quickly with some practice, and gave very real-world results. Swing a mace into a lightly armored shoulder didn't cost you hit points, it likely broke your collarbone. I've copied the tables below. Combat is a simple opposed roll. In Harnmaster, any d100 result ending in a 0 or 5 is a critical success or failure. If I have a 49% chance of success and roll a 45, critical success. If I roll a 50, critical failure.
So I'm coming after you with my mace. I make a Melee Attack. I roll a Moderate Success. You chose to Dodge, and roll a Moderate Failure. I've already declared I'm swinging for the head. Some Harn players roll two distinct sets of d100s at once to handle hit location. The result is A*1, and I've hit you on the right cheek. Luckily, you're wearing a leather helm with check flaps. A*1 means I do the weapon's rating (3) + 1d6. I roll a 5. Compared to your armor's rating for Blunt trauma, which is 1, I pass a wound rating of 7 to your face.
Checking the chart, I see that this is a "Fracture/Serious Bruise" result. I've probably knocked some teeth out, maybe broken your upper jaw, and you now have to make a role to avoid going into shock. It all sounds complex, but it really works well in practice. I love Harnmaster and wish I could find a group willing to play it.
But back to my simulated traffic stop. Notice the one thing I lacked. Time. When things got started I had to move like I was born to the task. There was no time to think or plan. That's what's missing in so many RPG combat systems. That element of time. I understand that when playing in our heads you have to ask "Now, where was the evil priestess in relation to the Cursed Dagger of the Black Lepus?" But game masters need to make sure combat does not drag out. If a player needs to constantly refer to the rulebook, or can't decide what do to do, they get skipped. It's harsh, but if you want combat in your game, make the players sweat a little. Force their hands.
When I co-wrote At Close Quarters for BITS, that was one of my goals. To make a game that forced the players to think before moving, to always be aware, and be ready to act on instinct. It worked pretty well, from all the reports I've received over the years. Maybe it's time for At Close Quarters 2nd edition. The Wrath of the Penguins!
