Changing combat time to more than 1 second/turn

[hal]

Originally Posted by Terwin

From what I have seen, if you have miniatures and you are not attacking from ambush, then you will probably be using at least your free step every turn.
This might be moving to where it is easier to get to the next guy after this one goes down, or keeping him between you and some other guy trying to get at you.

On a complex battlefield(even with few obstacles) a single step can easily mean that at least one of your assailants next turn now needs to do a move or move and attack to stay in range.

If you want movement, you just need to have a battle mat out so that everyone can see the opportunities available if they take one or two steps.

And if your players are still not moving much, add in more terrain and have the bad-guys show them why standing still is a bad idea.

Adding terrain is definitely good. I will never forget the look on one player's face when he was playing in a GURPS ORCSLAYER campaign (yes, ORCSLAYER using the full GURPS rules). His horse (he was a mounted squire) charged towards the church steps - and when asked "are you sure you want to do this? No one can stop on a dime, least of all a charging horse". He figured his horse could jump the steps. Not surprisingly, the horse with rider attempting to jump to a height of 5 feet ended up stumbling and going down.

In the end, the use of terrain makes a BIG difference on combat. Using the old DRAGONQUEST map with its trees and bushes was fun for a few combats...