04-29-2020, 07:49 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
It occurs to me that the "genre" of Conan involves lots of downtime between individual short stories. All Ezra has to do is calculate how much time it will take to heal after an adventure and start the next adventure some time after that. The next Conan story begins...
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04-29-2020, 08:02 AM | #12 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
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No matter what your genre or style, the rules make it difficult for one person to defeat, say, five . . . but trivial for an adventuring party of 10 to beat the same five. In warfare, there's a very strong correspondence between odds ratios and casualties. This is why – all other things being equal (troop quality, leadership, terrain, etc.) – GURPS Mass Combat gives my 5:1 odds for the NPC enemies about 2.5× the casualties for the PCs and 0.25× the casualties for the NPCs as it gives my 2:1 for the PCs. This is borne out in tactical combat, too. Five NPC foes, however lousy, can outflank a single PC and stab them in the back – and once a lone fighter goes down, there are no threats remaining to prevent a curb-stomping to make sure they stay down (it's difficult to explain why people who need 5:1 odds to feel sure of their attack wouldn't do that). Plus there's the effect of the weight of numbers on lucky critical successes which can render being worth lots of points with high defenses irrelevant. And then there's the fact that a PC with allies has infinitely better odds of having a pal with thick armor who can "tank," someone to watch their back, a healer, or all three. My feeling is that unless you interpret "play style" as "never getting in fights" – which isn't likely to work in, say, a Conan game – numbers have a heavy impact on PC injury. Yes, one could run a game where there are no physical conflicts, or where enemies are always shot from ambush or poisoned, but that's not compatible with very many play styles at all. It certainly limits the player who doesn't want to play a talker or an assassin, but a straight-up warrior. As for genre, I think the number of popular gaming genres that support "no fights," "no warriors," or "everybody's an assassin" is pretty tiny. So all told, I'm still convinced that single-player campaigns benefit from adding a team of NPCs to surround foes, protect the PC's back, tank hits, and heal the hero. If you have one of each (flanker, rearguard, tank, and healer), then in the case where an NPC foe takes a shot at the hero and their pals, you've already diluted the odds of a serious hit by a factor of five! The unlucky NPC can then rest and heal without slowing down the hero, who still has three other friends to dilute hits.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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04-29-2020, 08:08 AM | #13 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
Quote:
I suppose that's "play style" in a sense, though it's a result of there being a single PC, not a choice most GMs would likely make if there were several PCs, some with abilities that require a battle map to shine. Ultimately, it's still really about numbers, not style of play.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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04-29-2020, 08:29 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
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And because Macaulay is emulating heroic popular ballads, it works. At the end the wounded Horatius swims the Tiber in full armor—but none of the Etruscans swim after him. The other two guys on Horatius's left and right could be convenient NPCs. . . .
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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04-29-2020, 08:32 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Sep 2016
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
Conan also usually has a huge discrepancy in the abilities of Conan vs his opponents. It may be 10 to one odds, but those may be 50 point soldiers vs the 500 point Conan. He’s got weapon master for multiple parries, and HT 20 to keep him up and fighting long after others would have dies from the wounds that do get through. And there’s still superior tactics so it’s rarely a situation where they are able to surround him and attack from the back.
Where there is usually trouble it’s from Magic or monsters that can’t be killed until you target their weak spot. |
04-29-2020, 08:33 AM | #16 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
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Single PC's are much more difficult to balance encounters for, I agree, and fighting lots of enemies gets easier when you have a buddy or two to watch your back. So it terms of making it so that fights are more lopsided, adding NPC support helps a lot. You can also add more points to the character, though you end up with completely over-the-top competent and lucky guys that way. But if the GM is aiming for close fights, I don't know that PC's get injured that less often.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
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04-29-2020, 08:49 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
I did a bunch of test fights in the somewhat-recent past. Even with high-point-level PCs against barely-trained mooks, you can take one enemy easily, sometimes two, but once you get to three opponents, there's guaranteed to be one at your back that can All-Out.
"real-time" example for giggles
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The Art of D. Raymond Lunceford, The Daniverse: Core Group Annex The Daniverse Game Blog |
04-29-2020, 08:52 AM | #18 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
Anecdotally, while I've mostly GM'd multi-player campaigns – where "multi" was in the 6-13 range – I've run a lot of side-quests where one PC went off and did stuff on their own. Those were usually during times when the other players were unavailable to play. To prevent social awkwardness of the "Why didn't my character know/see/follow/join in/come to the rescue?" variety, I set things up so that the active PC was someplace the other players couldn't easily argue their characters could observe or go. Thus, the active PC was essentially playing in a temporary single-player campaign.
Because these were spinoffs from multi-player campaigns, there were two elephants in the room, both related to numbers:
The trick here is to suit the companions to the PC. Here are a few examples I used in actual play:
Take or leave those ideas as you wish!
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
04-29-2020, 08:53 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
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Which is why Book Conan, when he is fighting large numbers of opponents, makes sure to keep his back to the wall.
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I predicted GURPS:Dungeon Fantasy several hours before it came out and all I got was this lousy sig. |
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04-29-2020, 09:05 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Combat in Single-Player Campaigns
Since Conan is a cinematic character, I would not be surprised if he had DR 10 (Semi-Ablative, -20%; Tough Skin, -40%) [20]. He survives a lot of damage, but the damage does start telling on him after a while, so the above build would let him absorb 110 damage before his DR was completely negated. If you combine it with ST 20, HT 14, and Very Fit, you have a character that could take a lot of punishment.
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combat, gamemastering, solo play |
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