Noticing Surroundings in Combat

[Jeminai]

Often in my games a PC's will make an attack manuever in melee or fire their bow, and in the same turn another character will do something that changes the course of events (for better or worse).

The very next thing that occurs is the question "Do I notice (insert "course changing event" here)"

Some better role players will wait until it is their turn and ask in the past tence "Did I notice..., ok good, I want to RTFA!"

(RTFA = Run the F*** Away)

So my question is: How do you handle what a PC notices outside of the berzerker crazed, demon posessed, troll in front of them that is trying to rend them limb from limb?

[Icelander]

I use the excellent system that will be provided in GURPS Tactical Shooting.

Until then, use Per-checks.

;)

Fine, a bit more useful: Penalise to taste. Allow characters to substitute Per-based skill rolls if it makes sense to you, i.e. Observation, Tactics and Soldier.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

Often in my games a PC's will make an attack manuever in melee or fire their bow, and in the same turn another character will do something that changes the course of events (for better or worse).

The very next thing that occurs is the question "Do I notice (insert "course changing event" here)"

Some better role players will wait until it is their turn and ask in the past tence "Did I notice..., ok good, I want to RTFA!"

(RTFA = Run the F*** Away)

So my question is: How do you handle what a PC notices outside of the berzerker crazed, demon posessed, troll in front of them that is trying to rend them limb from limb?

You wait for Tactical Shooting, read the suggestions on situational awareness, and get all giddy that such cool rules have been created for you, so easily ported to other types of combat.

But that's just me. :-)

[Danukian]

Other than waiting for Tactical Shooting, you can use one of my oldest standard house rules:

At the beginning of a combat sequence, every player writes their proposed action on a scrap of paper; changing from that planned course will invoke a penalty of depending on the situation & system (but -2 is the standard).

It seems like a silly rule, and a lot of new players fight it at first, but you'd be surprised how quickly it leads to team-tactics building.

[macphersonrants]

The system in Tactical Shooting yields especially good results when applied to NPCs. It also puts a lot of underused combat related skills and advantages to good use. Hopefully, they'll get it to market soon, so everyone can put it to good use :-)

[Figleaf23]

Shouldn't something as integral to adventuring as noticing things when you're fighting be part of the basic rules?

I think it should.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

Shouldn't something as integral to adventuring as noticing things when you're fighting be part of the basic rules?

It is. See the section on Sense Rolls in campaigns. The rules in Tactical Shooting address the realistic effects of combat that aren't as much fun for some people.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

It is. See the section on Sense Rolls in campaigns. The rules in Tactical Shooting address the realistic effects of combat that aren't as much fun for some people.

Precisely. In GURPS, as in many, if not most, face to face RPGs, the players are aware of tons and tons of things their characters are not, or shouldn't be. (This does go in reverse as well).

Because many games are played on a battle map, the players (and the GM) instantly know where every enemy on the map is. They know who's in range, who's not in range, who's moving, who's trying to gank the wizard, and who's trying to sneak around the combat to steal the treasure...as long as the marker's on the map. Maybe if the GM's good he gives one or two of the players privileged info, but that's going to get hard to track after a very short while.

thus...usually players can instantly track all kinds of stuff that real people forget all the time (like how many bullets are left in your gun).

This is usually left alone, cause the kind of selective perception is HARD to do. Tactical Shooting attempts to propose some suggestions for what is usually implemented on computer games as a sort of Fog of War type thing, where you can only (say) track certain number of targets, or get tunnel vision when trying to not die at the hand of the big ol' ogre trying to turn you into Frederickburger.