Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Simultaneous Combat Resolution

Thinking out loud.

Rather than take initiative down each Round, what if we were to imagine that each side moved, shot and swung at the same time?

In wargames, it is a fairly common practice for each side to write orders, submit them, and then make simultaneous action. Each action is completed. Even if a figure is killed, it still gets to make its attack against the other side. At the end of the Round when otherwise checking morale we will also check for death.

The tricky thing is for the referee, running the several monsters, to stay honest. Perhaps it makes more sense for him to adjudicate monster actions first? I don’t know.

So rather than taking down initiative round by round, the process would be:
Each side marks down the general action each figure will attempt (melee, missile, spell, full move, misc.) and then everyone reveals their card simultaneously.

That’s a lot of cards. It may get really clunky at the table. But it seems like a fascinating way to go.

Then each action is executed sequentially in real time but considered simultaneous in the characters’ realm.

Finally we will check for status effects such as morale, death, ensorcelment, poison, etc.

Too fiddly? Has anyone done it this way?

4 comments:

  1. If you want to see a super detailed version of this, check out the Fight! mechanic in Burning Wheel. Each combatant (granted typically 1v1) scripts their next three actions (parry, dodge, strike, advance, etc.) in advance and then both sides resolve these actions, in order, with each pair of actions occurring simultaneously. There are multiple tables to adjudicate how the various combinations interact (bonuses/penalties/action deemed invalid/etc.).

    Cool system, but way too heavy for it to feel like D&D for me.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Eden, thanks for the vine.

      Those are great resources. Thank you! I agree with it being too heavy to use as-is. But it's good to think about different ideas.

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