I have revised basic combat rules (article)

[Bloodlust]

Part 1 of 3


Hello everyone!

I recently invented a very interesting new take on GURPS basic combat system, which I can’t wait to share with the community. It actually solves a lot of problems, which I have encountered during my games, so perhaps some of you may find it interesting to see how basic combat can be improved (at least I perceive the result to be actual improvement in my games and work). I have no idea if anyone ever came up with such homerules before, but even if they have, I’m still gonna post this article. Pardon my Engrish, I haven’t practiced writing in it for quite a while.

I’ve enjoyed GURPS for quite a while now, and besides actually playing, I’m also a beginner novel writer and use GURPS rules to randomize social interactions, combat and other stuff between characters in my novels. It’s more fun that way, rather than simply telling a story, where every event is hardwired into the narrative.

This article describes an alternative way to use GURPS combat system for a faster, more consistent and convenient play. Let’s go!


DRAWBACKS OF BASIC COMBAT SYSTEM, WHICH I OFTEN ENCOUNTERED IN MY GAMES

The basic combat system in GURPS is fairly simple. Characters go one after another in the following sequence: access the situation – declare an action – make necessary calculations – roll 3d6 – execute action. While being quite elementary, there are certain nuances, which I struggled to resolve during my games.

1 – PLAYING BASIC COMBAT SYSTEM IS SLOW.

GURPS is considered to be “rules heavy”, but it’s not the rules or the rolls, that slow action down the most. Instead it’s the sequence of the turn itself, which must be followed every time by every player on the table, as well as GM.

Imagine the party of 8 characters, fighting against 8 orcs (controlled by GM). Every player follows the standard turn sequence of access-declare-roll-execute. Every single one of them has to do this, and it’s unavoidable.

I have discovered that such method consumes the most time for accessing the situation. After every player or NPC acts, tactical situation changes, sometimes only a little bit, sometimes drastically. And every player who has to act next has to reconsider the situation again, regardless of what he was planning to do at the start of the turn or the battle. By the time player-8 gets to act, disposition on the table has changed seven times, so whatever plans for his turn he had, are now irrelevant and he has to access the situation yet again, and only then choose his move, and that literally eats up more time at the table, than actual dice rolls!

I’ve noticed that in larger groups players too often get distracted while waiting for their turn. They have to wait longer, and don’t even bother paying attention, knowing that there’s no point in that as situation on the table will be completely different by the time their turn comes up.

2 – EXCESSIVE SITUATIONAL AWARNESS AND MINIMAL ANXIETY

Players always know the exact situation on the table, perfectly aware whether successfully or not other characters acted. Combat gets too predictable when any player can tell himself “Aha! This guy has hit the orc with his spear, and now the orc is dead and I can do my thing!”

Not only such awarness has significant impact on the combat itself, but also reduces the thrill of the battle to a minimum. This gets to be a real killjoy, when only one of eight orcs is still alive, when your turn finally comes up.

And this is important! We’re rolling dices because they make the game unpredictable and thus exciting. The dangers of battle should make player’s hearts beat faster with adrenaline, when their much loved characters are threatened with an untimely demise. The more situational awareness players have, the less is the thrill, and the less is the excitement and fun! When this thrill is minimal or absent, playing RPG becomes little more than moving pieces on the board, mumbling over the calculator, rustling of the character sheets and rolling some dices…

3 – POOR CINEMATIC IMAGING AND UNREALISTIC GAMEPLAY

By this I mean that all player’s turns are made consecutively, and have this unrealistic “feel” of characters acting one after another, which makes it difficult sometimes for players to visualize the process. And a couple of times I literally had to explain to novice players that after all eight characters have acted only one second of combat have passed and not eight! Basic combat system does not convey this principle enough, because it is cursed with this “consecutive turn” felling, making the fight seem unrealistic. And this is rightfully so, because “consecutive turn” also has a huge impact on combat mechanics with actions happening literally one after another and not simultaneously at all – every player makes has moves based on the actions of other players, who acted before him.

HOW DO WE FIX THIS?

The idea just struck me one day, and it turned out to be incredibly simple and effective! I call it “the simultaneous turn method” – it’s the simple tweak for the basic system, which replaces all of described disadvantages with actual advantages! A real magic no doubt! This might require a little bit extra bookkeeping though. But hey! We’re playing GURPS! We aren’t afraid of a few extra lines of text, right?

The base mechanic of this “simultaneous turn method” divides the entire one second turn into two stages – declaring actions stage, and execution stage. Sometimes I add the third “fun” stage.

DECLARING ACTIONS STAGE

Here every player announces their intended actions for their characters, and GM does the same for NPCs.

Players announce their actions strictly in established turn order. That is a player, which character goes first, declares his character’s action first. This is the same as in basic combat system, so the principle of the combat system remains unchanged and won’t be broken – we’re only slightly changing how actions are executed, while leaving the core mechanics intact.

No calculations are done in this stage – they are irrelevant! Players place their bids blindly, not knowing whether or not their buddy’s actions will succeed or fail, and thus most of preliminary calculations will be useless. The GM should outright forbid using preliminary calculations! This will save a lot of time and effectively defeat the arch-enemy of every GM – the Calculator-man! Indeed, this is already a subtle advantage of this new method. I sometimes saw players get frustrated, when GM tries to limit the time an aspiring munchkin or minimaxer spends calculating which of several possible actions of his character have the best odds for success. This is no longer the case! In “simultaneous turn method” there can be too many variables to take into account, so most often preliminary calculations are pointless. In our 8 heroes vs 8 orcs example there would be sixteen variables, and no way to precisely calculate the outcome of the turn, only roughly predict it.

Aaaaand once the intended action is declared it cannot be reconsidered. GM writes them down in any way he pleases just to remember who does what and when. Yup, that’s the little extra bookkeeping I mentioned. It doesn’t have to be too detailed though – this is basically “player X does Y to player Z” in lines. I personally prefer writing in Word, where lines can be easily edited or copy pasted. And if GM has a good memory and he’s sure he won’t forget stuff, he can keep this in his head and don’t bother writing at all.

When all combatants declared their intents, the game proceeds to the stage number two – execution!

EXECUTION STAGE

This is where all the calculations and rolls start taking place. GM and the players pick up their rulebooks and character sheets, pick up calculator and start calculating target numbers and roll dices. Characters act one after another (similar to the basic system) according to their turn order, they move and change positions, attack and inflict damage. The declared action is always executed if possible. If for some reason the action is no longer viable, it is still taken as long as it logically possible. If, for example, you intended to shoot the target with the rifle, and the target was destroyed by a player whose action resolves first – you still make your shots and spend your ammo. If somehow you’re been made unable to act (for example you have suffered knockdown, or the said rifle was kicked out of your hands) before you intended action comes up for resolution, then your turn is wasted.

Once all intended actions have been resolved, the turn is concluded – one second of combat has passed and the bid begins for the next second.

“FUN” STAGE

This is optional stage created purely for cinematic purposes. To use this GM and the players shouldn’t touch the pieces on the board! They simply roll up every intended action in the execution stage. Once this is complete, GM looks over the result and starts moving pieces while narrating every action in the most dramatic tone appropriate – “After deflecting your sword with his shield the orc swings his own sword at thee! You tried to step back to avoid this lethal blow, yet this wasn’t fast enough – the tip of the orc’s sword still manages to tear through leather armor and leave a nasty cut across your chest!”

Trust me, inventing this entire method of play was worth this “fun” part – this is the best and most thrilling cinematic narrative you can have!