04-22-2021, 08:08 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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[AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
Up to now, all of the combat sessions I've run have been two dimensional. I was discussing my intent of running a mini-campaign set in an urban ruin to one of my players, and his first response was "Parkour!"
I've never had to consider the 3D aspect in combat. Apart from the obvious need for me to generate multi-level mapped combat environs (I'm thinking the internal void in a multi story mall/shopping centre), what other things should I consider as a GM prior to running a combat session?
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04-22-2021, 10:17 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
What state are the ruins in? I've seen enough parkour fail videos of people crashing through non-loadbearing structures to wonder just how Darwinian the sport is.
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04-22-2021, 10:28 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
Carefully read through Combat at Different Levels, p. 402. Also consider having already done the calculations if you have a sniper at the third floor and the PCs will be targets on the ground floor, see p. 407. Every complication slows combat down, so having pre-made calculations is always a good idea.
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04-22-2021, 02:05 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
On the other hand, since urban combat is frequently lethal to infantry in the open, creating "mouse holes" connecting interior spaces and using them for concealed movement is quite common. These can run vertically as well as horizontally.
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04-22-2021, 02:43 PM | #5 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
A suggestion you may or may not like: Run PK scenes "theatre of the mind"-style using Chases (GURPS Action 2: Exploits, pp. 31-35). This offers numerous advantages over painstaking mapping and turn-by-turn movement:
You won a round by the bonus from Urban Survival? You found a way around a flooded basement while your rival had to wade through. You got to Medium range? You used a Lucky Break to slide down a drainpipe and make yourself harder to shoot. You wiped out and got hurt? You stepped on a rotten floor and fell through. And so on. It doesn't matter whether the basement, drainpipe, and floor were mapped. They're there now because they tell a better story. Oh, and for the nerds who insist on determinism and hard details before the fact, this system explicitly allows being stopped and restarted for brief bouts of traditional, mapped, turn-by-turn combat, which can use small, easily improvised maps. If people get to Close range, you can just declare it's a fight in a little room or atop a roof until someone flees and the chase rules kick back in.
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04-22-2021, 10:42 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
Quote:
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04-23-2021, 03:28 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
That's true - I just didn't associate that with Parkour.
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04-23-2021, 05:28 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
Ta for the reminder. This will well suit transit through the ruins, as well as accommodating my player's request for parkouring opportunities.
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It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
04-23-2021, 05:43 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
Small areas of total devastation, surrounded by areas of unmaintained concrete towers sporting broken windows, water damage, etc. Some buildings are maintained at a rudimentary level, whilst others occasionally suffer structural failure and partially or totally collapse.
You've inspired me to use any critical fail roll during a vertical flight or chase, as an opportunity to turn a PC or NPC into a missile weapon.
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It's all very well to be told to act my age, but I've never been this old before... |
04-23-2021, 06:39 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [AtE] Postapoc parkour, and it's management
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