10 Ways to Quicker Combats?

[Michael Lewis]

I was wondering what are some ways to speed up combat without losing some of the fun of the tactical rules?

One thing that I learned from the experience of our last session was that the more foes you throw at the PC's, the longer the battles. This is too bad because I enjoy large realistic battles.

My questions are
1: Is there a way to simulate large battles with the PC's?

2: What are some ways to speed up combat without losing some of the components of the advanced rules that you have learned from experience?


Thanks in advance.

[PK]

If the PCs are elite warriors battle ranks of average soldiers, then use the Mook rules, by all means. If at least one point of damage gets through DR, drop the foe or at least have them fall back -- honestly, a 2-3 HP wound is enough that any of us would be going to the hospital; more than that, and we'd be going in an ambulance.

Even if the foes are not pure mooks, any major wound (greater than 1/2 their HP) should end the fight. Don't bother rolling for knockdown -- just drop them. Again, no one fights to the death except zombies, and they should have Fragile (Unnatural) anyways.

Feel free to eyeball modifiers instead of looking them up. Learn the important ones (Deceptive Attack, DWA, Rapid Strike) for sure, though -- you should definitely have those three rules memorized.

Morale Checks. If one or more PCs pull off an amazing combat stunt or decimate an enemy in one blow, immediately make a Will roll. For most groups, the amount they fail by is how many of them hesitate to attack next turn. Let the PCs realize that (perhaps with a Tactics or Per roll) and give them a chance to use Intimidation to end the fight early.

Opponents should usually not be combat-maximized. It's unrealistic. If the PCs are 200 point chars and you want them facing "a horde of 75 point normals", those normals should only have about 1/3 of their points spent directly on combat useful things -- 1/2 for career soldiers. They can make up for low scores by using Aim and Evaluate. Both of these maneuvers are great for NPCs for two reasons: It gives the PCs a chance to hit them before they can attack, but it means that the low-grade fighters actually have a chance to succeed when/if they do attack.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, don't send the PCs up against hordes of trained fighters unless you want the combat to last forever. Send them up against hordes of mooks or send them up against a few elite fighters -- twice the PCs' point values but only half as many of them. Either scenario will give you faster fights.

[Hakubak]

I use computers. Sometimes spreadsheets - sometimes home-grown combat management code. I'm a geek. It's what we do.

Done wrong, computers can slow things down as well.

I like sending in swarms of bad guys. It works very well when there is a big difference between the players' character "levels". A really touch character might take on 5 guys at once while a new character slugs it out with one.

Preparation helps. Make small, disposable cards for each enemy, and kill markers. Match the cards to figures using either numbers on both, or pictures of the figure on the card. (The latter is my typical overkill) When they die, replace the figure with a marker, and remove the card from you deck of bad guys.

I made a combat manager for the original Battletech using a Commodore 64. It made combat so simple that we were able to extend our house rules in fun ways. For example, the software came up with random locations for every miss from a 20-pack missile launcher. Those things had to go somewhere, right?

[kure]

Originally Posted by Michael Lewis

I was wondering what are some ways to speed up combat without losing some of the fun of the tactical rules?

One thing that I learned from the experience of our last session was that the more foes you throw at the PC's, the longer the battles. This is too bad because I enjoy large realistic battles.

My questions are
1: Is there a way to simulate large battles with the PC's?

2: What are some ways to speed up combat without losing some of the components of the advanced rules that you have learned from experience?


Thanks in advance.

We use this trick:
GM just rule what foes do.
And we (players) rolls the dices and make the math, only reporting damage/uncousisiones/knockout e.t.c. to him.
This save up a lotof time becouse gm is free to organise battle in time we calculating rolls.

and knowledge of rules common modifiers speeds up game.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Rev_Pee_Kitty

some insightful stuff on speeding up combat

+1 Insightful. Awsome advice and it inspires me for my own campeign. Many thanks.

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Hakubak

For example, the software came up with random locations for every miss from a 20-pack missile launcher. Those things had to go somewhere, right?

Oh my God! This was my dream back in the days when I would refuse to leave the table without downing at least one widow and retreating to safe space...

Cheers...

[Michael Lewis]

Originally Posted by kure

We use this trick:
GM just rule what foes do.
And we (players) rolls the dices and make the math, only reporting damage/uncousisiones/knockout e.t.c. to him.
This save up a lotof time becouse gm is free to organise battle in time we calculating rolls.

You mean your players keeps account of all the foes stats and conditions? Like how many h.p. the foe that is attacking them has, and if they are stunned or shocked and for how much?

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

GURPS Martial Arts will have a few, but these are the ones I use:

For the players:
- if you can't remember the rules for it, you can't do it. Read it between sessions and try it next fight.

- You've got the whole time I run the NPCs and everyone else goes to decide what to do. So you should not start to figure out to do when it's your turn, you should be ready to go.

- Encourage people to use set tactics when they're not sure. A pre-decided routine of attacks with specific locations and pre-calculated Deceptive Attack modifiers you can use when you're not sure speeds up the game a lot.

- Luck is once per fight, Extraordinary Luck is twice per fight, Ridiculous Luck is 6 times per fight - IOW all fights are one hour of real time, regardless of actual time. This discourages delaying tactics to get one more use of Luck in for big fights.

For the GM:

- Figure out common tactics for NPCs ahead of time. If the Skill 16 elite troopers routinely do a random location shot with Deceptive Attack -1 for a net 14, you can buzz through lots of them quickly.

- While the players are going, start thinking about what the NPCs will do on their turns.

- Don't have everything fight to the death. This speeds things up but also makes "to the death" opponents noticeable and worrisome.


That's seven, but they're the seven I use. My fights are still long, but they're big fights, and the PCs are TBAM, WM, stacked with magical weapons, enhanced by spells, etc. and involve 7 PCs, an attack dog, and usually swarms of NPCs or equally complex powerful NPCs. But they help.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

GURPS Martial Arts will have a few, but these are the ones I use:

For the players:
- if you can't remember the rules for it, you can't do it. Read it between sessions and try it next fight.

- You've got the whole time I run the NPCs and everyone else goes to decide what to do. So you should not start to figure out to do when it's your turn, you should be ready to go.

- Encourage people to use set tactics when they're not sure. A pre-decided routine of attacks with specific locations and pre-calculated Deceptive Attack modifiers you can use when you're not sure speeds up the game a lot.

- Luck is once per fight, Extraordinary Luck is twice per fight, Ridiculous Luck is 6 times per fight - IOW all fights are one hour of real time, regardless of actual time. This discourages delaying tactics to get one more use of Luck in for big fights.

For the GM:

- Figure out common tactics for NPCs ahead of time. If the Skill 16 elite troopers routinely do a random location shot with Deceptive Attack -1 for a net 14, you can buzz through lots of them quickly.

- While the players are going, start thinking about what the NPCs will do on their turns.

- Don't have everything fight to the death. This speeds things up but also makes "to the death" opponents noticeable and worrisome.


That's seven, but they're the seven I use. My fights are still long, but they're big fights, and the PCs are TBAM, WM, stacked with magical weapons, enhanced by spells, etc. and involve 7 PCs, an attack dog, and usually swarms of NPCs or equally complex powerful NPCs. But they help.

___________________________________
Don't have everything fight to the death. This speeds things up but also makes "to the death" opponents noticeable and worrisome.
----------------------------------


To the death is also very rare. It usually comes when the to-the-deathers hold to a strange code of honor, or have their familys within a days march, or know they will be tortured if they surrender or whatever extreme reason you can think of. Usually 1/4 or so casualties is quite enough to put a unit out of play for several months at least.

[Kromm]

In my campaign recently, chopping the head off the enemy leader without even touching his 14 droogs was enough. One Intimidation roll later, the fight was over. I totally support that kind of tactic in combat. Use of noncombat abilities to cow enemies, defuse conflicts, etc., is a wonderful way for those who aren't fighters to contribute in general. A PC in my game uses Rapier Wit to great effect this way.

I totally back the idea of having the PCs use set attacks, too. In my game, the players have learned that if they establish a pattern they wish to use as their SOP, the GM gets much less frustrated and is consequently more generous when they want to try the crazy, mad, cinematic nonstandard stuff!

When you do toss in hordes of mindless things that fight to the death, remember to use one or more of "high HP, low HT" (so they seem tough, take lots of hits, but fall if whacked with a telling blow), Fragile (Unnatural) (so they go down all of the sudden at -HP), and Berserk (so they never defend and are thus easy to hack to bits). Berserk, unnatural monsters that can take two or three heavy hits are plenty scary, even if they are just one big glass jaw waiting to get hit. Think of any zombie movie, really.