How do You handle this?

[jcanup42]

I realize that some of you run a more "Narrative" game. This question isn't for you.

This question is for those of you who use a battle-mat, miniatures and try to run realistic combats. Also, as a GM, I do not use a GM screen to hide my rolls. My players like it that way and they except the dice, as they fall. We've been playing games this way for decades and we have a lot of fun this way. I am an experienced GM, but I am actually new to GURPS.

Situation
I was GMing a game last Saturday and the 5 PCs were fighting several foes in the final Boss fight (an Ogre Chieftain and his lesser Minions). Over the course of the battle, the different combatants (PCs and NPCs) took damage, became Stunned, Knocked Down, Prone, Crouching, took Major Wounds, Knocked Out, fell Below 1/3 HP, Died, etc.

There was a lot of different condition that each combatant had at different times, and each condition has its own modifiers that come with it. I went through several pieces of paper scribbling various notes and I am sure that I messed up a time or two.

Question
What are your specific GURPS suggestions to help be better prepared for the next combat and to make orchestrating the combat easier?

Thanks - Jim

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by jcanup42

I realize that some of you run a more "Narrative" game. This question isn't for you.

This question is for those of you who use a battle-mat, miniatures and try to run realistic combats. Also, as a GM, I do not use a GM screen to hide my rolls. My players like it that way and they except the dice, as they fall. We've been playing games this way for decades and we have a lot of fun this way. I am an experienced GM, but I am actually new to GURPS.

Situation
I was GMing a game last Saturday and the 5 PCs were fighting several foes in the final Boss fight (an Ogre Chieftain and his lesser Minions). Over the course of the battle, the different combatants (PCs and NPCs) took damage, became Stunned, Knocked Down, Prone, Crouching, took Major Wounds, Knocked Out, fell Below 1/3 HP, Died, etc.

There was a lot of different condition that each combatant had at different times, and each condition has its own modifiers that come with it. I went through several pieces of paper scribbling various notes and I am sure that I messed up a time or two.

Question
What are your specific GURPS suggestions to help be better prepared for the next combat and to make orchestrating the combat easier?

Thanks - Jim

Status tokens either next to the figure or in front of the player. If the latter, little cheat cards with the modifiers on them are better. I also use tokens for mana and ammo, and I'm thinking about using tokens or a dial for hit points.

Using physical props makes this kind of information easier to track for me and my players by breaking it out of the scratch paper space

[A Ladder]

In my games I expect the players to take care of any "player facing" information: HP, FP, Ammo, what their Move and Dodge is at certain HP/FP thresholds, how long their stun lasts for, etc. I expect them to also know what penalties come from low HP/FP and stun.

For different postures a lot of those penalties I have memorized (you can make a nice little cheat sheet on a GM Screen from the table on p. B551) and let players know at the start of their turn. They then take that info and apply it to whatever modifiers are cumulative with the above "player facing" info.

For the enemies that I am controlling I throw down little different colored dice next to their minis if I need to remember seconds of stun or something. If a baddy goes prone I just tip their mini over. (Dead enemies I remove from the map. I guess this makes me lazy).

[ericthered]

I use one of two methods:


The first is a table of NPCs and PCs, a pencil, and a strong eraser. Don't write down in ink things that change a lot. Don't skimp on the eraser. Get a nice big one you're already broken in and use a pencil you're familiar with. I will admit this works better if you write with a light touch.

The second is a spread sheet. The computer can be distracting for some, but I game online, so I'm there anyways. stick a character on each line, and make stats into columns. Be sure to give your empty columns for notes.

[evileeyore]

I have a big ole dry erase board. It's great for this.

Been thinking about getting one of them new fangled magnetic dry erase boards, used one once in a Supers game for the battlemat and it made tracking things with magnetic condition markers very easy.

[Bruno]

I play online, on Maptools. I heavily use Maptool's built-in capability to store numbers (such as HP and FP) on each mini, along with flagging the mini with various "status" icons (I don't have to use a set library of pre-specified icons, I can provide my own).
Maptools also allows you to put short notes on tokens that are visible when you mouse over, and longer notes that are visible when you click on the mini or edit it. It has a separate version of both types of notes that are visible to the GM only. I've found all of these useful when handling an on-the-fly situation; "dropped its club", "blind in the left eye", "carrying the idol", "has a totally fancy staff", "flying at 10 yards altitude"

[Boge]

As a player, I keep pretty up on rules. I'm always questioning exactly how things are supposed to work. The problem is, sometimes I know something didn't play by the rules and I'll mention it and the other players and GM will say things like,"I don't like that. We're doing it my way." When it's the GM, I say,"Okay...just saying what the book rules say is all."

I think you should encourage your players to know the rules and to help you with them. Because you're the GM you do have final say, but you should also be okay knowing you won't always know everything and listen to someone that might be more confident in their knowledge than you are in yours.

Secondly, if nobody knows the rules, just write down the situation and wing it for now. Take a players vote on how you want it ruled for the time being. But stopping play for 15 minutes to look up a rule is never fun for anyone. You'll always bump into something you aren't sure of, even after decades of playing. There are a lot of rules and it's difficult to keep them all at the front of your mind. As long as the players understand nothing will always be played perfectly, you can all just sit back and enjoy the fun.

[weby]

In my games players keep track of their character specific info like that.

I then use a spreadsheet to track all the opponents. It is hardly a spreadsheet really just once craeture/row with first column being the creature identifier/name, next the hitpoints, third a simple formula calculating % of hitpoints they have lost for death rolls slowing and such, fourth fatiguepoints(usually not used, but spellusers and such need to track these) and the rest of the columns with the other status info/notes.

[pestigor]

You could look into printing the combat cards and handing them to players to keep in front of them for each condition (though they don't have cards for being prone or kneeling etc)
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG37-0202

They're free!

[Anaraxes]

Yet another case of players tracking their own status. (A GM can usually just remember, which is sufficient to provide a high detection rate for errors or cheating, if you're worried about that.)

Originally Posted by A Ladder

Dead enemies I remove from the map.

We'd usually remove the figure, but mark the body on the map for terrain penalties or future reference.

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I have a big ole dry erase board.

You could also get one of those magnetic status whiteboards usually sold for office use, set up vertically to the side of the map. (We have old-school wet erase maps with printed hex and square grids left over from other decades of play.) Different colored markers, or even rectangles with words for status. We've used one of those for initiative order in various systems.

Another nice initiative order system was small character portraits with stats, folded into a triangle, so the GM can just shuffle them for initiative and have a handy reference on the back. Also works if you just hang the folder paper on top of the GM screen (should you use one).

Originally Posted by Bruno

I play online, on Maptools

My group's also often used Maptools (or Fantasy Grounds) for face-to-face games, and just thrown the map up on a TV or projector. (Also good for showing images and other visual information during play, not just combat maps.)

Another Maptool trick is to use token rotation for status -- assuming you don't need it for facing (which usually means not GURPS). But it also has built-in colored borders and such.