Spellcasting tactics

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

Sorry, I know it's poor form to post just saying 'Hear, hear!', but "Hear, hear!".

I was spoiled. The first RPG based forum I joined was full of courteous, rational people who could disagree without it degenerating into slurs about each other family tree and sexual preferences. I thought that was the norm. Since that time I've seen quite a few places where disagree with someone is tantamount to accepting responsibility for 9/11. Here is realtively tame.






Well, Badcat's as bad as Andakitty [], but otherwise...

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

...

You must have had very large groups of followers; reserves were usually a non-starter in our experience because everyone present was _already_ in the middle of the fight, one way or another, and that usually included any of the few followers that might be present.
...

Idem for us. I never had the luxury to have even a single reserve.


Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

And as I said, I see no point in declaration other than to tell everyone else what you're doing when in fact, I see no reason why they'd know. If you're going to cast a spell then switch to your crossbow and fire, just how does anyone but you know about the latter at the start of the round?

As I said, it serves no valid purpose that I can see and over favors Dexterity, which hardly needs more benefits in RQ.

I agree it favors dexterity.

The advantages I see in the declaration phase are:
1 - Simplicity. This is when the GM notes his SR sheet that he has then to follow. The round is then easy to drive.

2 - Force the player to think fast. The resolution of the 1st strike ranks takes much more time than the timeframe they represent, and if you react along this time, you have too much time to think and to prepare. With the declaration phase, everybody has to think fast.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

...
Not really. I think it was how we did things. We didn't run into a lot out double and triple teams, since those would butcher anyone who wasn't Rune level. So if possible we would open up a fight in such a way as to get a numerical advantage. Things like mass disrupt on someone, etc.
...

In most of the fights I took part, we were outnumbered, and we didn't choose the fights. In those cases, your tactics don't apply.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[soltakss]

Originally Posted by Kloster

2 - Force the player to think fast. The resolution of the 1st strike ranks takes much more time than the timeframe they represent, and if you react along this time, you have too much time to think and to prepare. With the declaration phase, everybody has to think fast.

Think fast?

My lot couldn't think fast if their lives depended on it.

Even with Statements of Intent, when it comes to their SR, they:
1. Have to work out their attack chance again, even though it was the same as last round
2. Take 5 minutes to decide which combat tactic they are using (ignore armour, strike a location, disarm etc)
3. Rework their attack chance, depending on the tactic chosen
4. Spend 2 minutes finding their dice
5. Spend 2 minutes shaking the dice
6. Spend 2 minutes working out their special chance EVEN THOUGH THEY ROLLED 70
7. Spend 2 minutes finding damage dice and shaking the dice
8. Spend 2 minutes painstakingly adding up the damage


We get through, on average, one combat per session.

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Think fast?

My lot couldn't think fast if their lives depended on it.

Even with Statements of Intent, when it comes to their SR, they:
1. Have to work out their attack chance again, even though it was the same as last round
2. Take 5 minutes to decide which combat tactic they are using (ignore armour, strike a location, disarm etc)
3. Rework their attack chance, depending on the tactic chosen
4. Spend 2 minutes finding their dice
5. Spend 2 minutes shaking the dice
6. Spend 2 minutes working out their special chance EVEN THOUGH THEY ROLLED 70
7. Spend 2 minutes finding damage dice and shaking the dice
8. Spend 2 minutes painstakingly adding up the damage


We get through, on average, one combat per session.

For us, it was more:
GM: Declaration phase. What are you doing?
Player 1: Erh, Ehm,...
GM (10 sec later): OK, nothing. Player 2 please.
Player 2: But, ehm,...
GM (10 sec later): OK, nothing. This NPC does that. Player 3 please.
...

At the 3rd fight, everybody knew to be ready when asked to tell what his character was doing.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Think fast?

My lot couldn't think fast if their lives depended on it.

Even with Statements of Intent, when it comes to their SR, they:
1. Have to work out their attack chance again, even though it was the same as last round
2. Take 5 minutes to decide which combat tactic they are using (ignore armour, strike a location, disarm etc)
3. Rework their attack chance, depending on the tactic chosen
4. Spend 2 minutes finding their dice
5. Spend 2 minutes shaking the dice
6. Spend 2 minutes working out their special chance EVEN THOUGH THEY ROLLED 70
7. Spend 2 minutes finding damage dice and shaking the dice
8. Spend 2 minutes painstakingly adding up the damage


We get through, on average, one combat per session.

Of course, some player never change, and I've also lived that kind of problem.
But at least, they have to think fast when to declare (or they don't act).

And to limit this kind of trick, our GM ruled that if a player need more than 10 sec before starting to act when asked to, the action was cancelled. Pretty forced us to be careful to hear what HE was telling.
It is a bit dictatorial, but most players understood the point. After that, he relaxed, but at that point, everything was mostly flowing.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[Rurik]

Originally Posted by soltakss

Think fast?

My lot couldn't think fast if their lives depended on it.

Even with Statements of Intent, when it comes to their SR, they:
1. Have to work out their attack chance again, even though it was the same as last round
2. Take 5 minutes to decide which combat tactic they are using (ignore armour, strike a location, disarm etc)
3. Rework their attack chance, depending on the tactic chosen
4. Spend 2 minutes finding their dice
5. Spend 2 minutes shaking the dice
6. Spend 2 minutes working out their special chance EVEN THOUGH THEY ROLLED 70
7. Spend 2 minutes finding damage dice and shaking the dice
8. Spend 2 minutes painstakingly adding up the damage


We get through, on average, one combat per session.

Wow. I think my play by post game runs faster than that.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

I was spoiled. The first RPG based forum I joined was full of courteous, rational people who could disagree without it degenerating into slurs about each other family tree and sexual preferences. I thought that was the norm. Since that time I've seen quite a few places where disagree with someone is tantamount to accepting responsibility for 9/11. Here is realtively tame.

Well, it doesn't hurt that you don't have much of the cross-system partisanship that crops up on most gaming boards. And possibly the old-fart tendencies here don't hurt either.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Kloster

Idem for us. I never had the luxury to have even a single reserve.

Once in a while I'd see situations where the PCs outnumbered the opposition, but usually it was when fighting some sort of nonhuman monster, where most of the tactics discussed here work radically differently (for better or worse) anyway; you could well have six or eight PCs versus a collection of three wyverns that attacked them along their route to something else. But I'm not sure I remember a single case where the PCs outnumbered a set of humanoid opponents significantly (you might have gotten 8 to 7 kinds of things, but that wasn't going to be significant; and it was more likely to be the other way around).