The Combat Round

[Trifletraxor]

This is a houserule for the combat round that I have been using with my Cthulhu Rising campaign. It's sort of a hybrid btw the CoC round and the RQ3 round, attempting to speed up combat without removing the RQ flavour. Comment and criticism is wanted!

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A Combat Turn (CT) is about 1 minute long, and consists of 5 Combat Rounds (CR).
The Combat Round is the default unit of time used to measure the passage of time in combat situations.

A Combat Round divided into 2 Strike Ranks (SR). A third and last strike rank come into play under certain conditions (see below).

Most humanoid characters can perform 2 Actions per combat round.

During a single strike rank, any one of the following action can be done (assuming a character have actions left to use):

• A missile weapon attack
• A melee weapon attack
• Activating a power
• A non-combat action

The order of Actions in a Strike Rank is as follows:

1. Missile weapons go first, in DEX order of the user (starting with the character with the highest DEX stat).
2. Melee weapons come next. Melee weapons are divided into long, medium and short range weapons. Long range weapons go first - in DEX order, medium range weapons go next - also in DEX order, while short range weapons go last - in DEX or SIZ order, whichever characteristic is the greatest.
3. Activation of Powers comes after the physical attacks, and occur in INT, DEX or POW order, depending on what power or magic system is used.
4. The last actions to occur during a strike rank are the non-combat actions (occuring in DEX order).

Dodge and Parry are actions that can be attempted at any time during the combat round, as long as a character have actions left to use.

A third strike rank comes into play under some conditions. It is a short strike rank, and only certain actions can be performed:

• If a character is using a missile weapon with a ROF of 3, and have used both his Actions to fire both in the first and the second strike rank of the round, a third shot can be fired on strike rank 3 for free.
• If a character have more than 100% in his skill with a melee weapon, he can chose to split his attack - using one Action to attack twice at half skill with his weapon. The attacks will then occur in strike rank 1 and strike rank 3. Attacks in strike rank 2 cannot be split.
• If a character takes extra time to aim carefully, either to gain some bonus to the attack or to aim at a certain location, the attack is delayed to strike rank 3. A character taking time to aim carefully can only use defensive actions (parry or dodge) earlier in the round.

Example:
Roman Batou, a half-mad zealot wearing light battle armor and wielding a vibrosword, has just been be confronted by two guards. Guard one has a laser pistol, while guard two is wielding a stun lance. Instead of following their orders to drop his weapon, Roman attacks.
Combat Round 1, Strike Rank 1: Guard one with the laser pistol (ROF 3 missile weapon), attacks first and hits, but fails to penetrate Romans armor. Guard two then attack with the stun lance (long range melee weapon), which Roman parries with his sword. Roman then attacks with his sword (medium range melee weapon). As his skill is above 100%, Roman deciedes to split the attack, attacking twice at half skill. He attacks guard one, who manages to dodge the attack. Strike Rank 2: Guard one used both his combat actions in strike rank 1, and have no actions left this round. Roman used both his Actions during strike rank 1, but have a split attack left at strike rank 3. Guard two have one action left, and attacks Roman with his stun lance again, but fails to hit. Strike Rank 3: Roman uses his second part of his split attack to strike at guard two. Guard two, having no actions left for dodge or parry takes the full force of the hit and goes down.
Combat Round 2, Strike Rank 1: Guard one goes first again, and hits with his laser pistol, penetrating Romans armor with 3 points, a minor wound. Roman attacks with his sword. The guard makes a successful dodge, but the sword attack is a critical success and kills the guard. At the far end of the room, Roman see a forth guard entering. Strike Rank 2: Both Roman (INT 15) and the new guard (INT 13) wants to attack using a psychic power (activating a power). Roman, having the highest INT attacks first, with a Mind Blast. The guard is not able to resist, and gets stunned for 3 combat rounds.
Combat Round 3, Strike Rank 1: Roman moves in for the kill... (non-combat action). Strike Rank 2: Chop-chop!

[Ebonstorm]

Clean and makes good sense to me. I will be plucking this for my GM screen....

[Puck]

Looks good to me. I always have to actually try these things a few times for real before I am really sure how they play out, but it looks simple and playable and yet allows for longer weapons splitting attacks and such.

Is movement considered a non-combat action? If so, it seems strange that movement falls after the combat actions. Maybe just because so many games have movement phases before combat.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Puck

Is movement considered a non-combat action? If so, it seems strange that movement falls after the combat actions.

Yes, it's considered a non-combat action. I felt it made more sense that combat attacks resolved faster than a move from a to b. I felt it would fit well game-mechanic wise also. Moving during combat didn't come up that much during playtesting though. Is there any problems you can see with this? What do you feel is strange with it?

SGL.

[sabre_mmc]

Although the combat rules seem quite straitforward. Each character having the traditional attack; parry/dodge type actions with a possible third action.

I feel calling these actions strike ranks a little confusing, as I recall RundQuest the most detailed combat system of the BRP line used this basic format. However each character had his own personal SR (Strike Rank) based on his Dex & Siz with a modifier for the weapon.

With each combat round counting through the SRs (12 - 1) until each combatant had completed his/her actions.

Has this model been abandoned in favour of the one explained in your post.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by sabre_mmc

I feel calling these actions strike ranks a little confusing, as I recall RundQuest the most detailed combat system of the BRP line used this basic format. However each character had his own personal SR (Strike Rank) based on his Dex & Siz with a modifier for the weapon.

With each combat round counting through the SRs (12 - 1) until each combatant had completed his/her actions.

Has this model been abandoned in favour of the one explained in your post.

This is just a houserule I use, to allow for the RuneQuest type of melee combat options, without the slowing down of the traditional strike rank system. I use the strike rank terminology because the rules are heavily inspired by RuneQuest. The strike ranks are not Actions though, they are just a way to subdivide the combat round. A character cannot attack more than once during a single strike rank.

I liked the speed of the Cthulhu round, but didn't felt it handled melee combat as well. With these houserules you can do all what you could do in RQ3.

The order of attacks are first modified by the weapon, and then the DEX of the user (or SIZ with very short weapons or no weapons).

The houserule is an alternative to the RuneQuest and Cthulhu round, trying to take the best from both. It's only been playtested once (last weekend) but ran very smoothly (quicker than the RQ round, but with more options than the CoC round). Still, more playtesting needs to be done to see if not some hdden problems comes up.

SGL.

[Dredj]

Sorry to get a little off subject, but I always wondered about the use of combat rounds. I always thought that people in a real life and death battle would strike more and faster in the time period of a single round. I've had this explained to me that it's because the opponents are circling each other and looking for an opening. Or it's to only make note of the hits that actually do real damage. ANd I do understand the bookkeeping aspect of it. But every fight I've ever witnessed in real life, the opponents rush right in and throw a successive flurry of hits and hit each other very often. But all the actual fights I've ever seen were fist fights with the purpose of wearing down the opponent to submission--or beyond. I admit, I've never seen true melee combat outside of a martial arts tournament.

I'm not trying to pick on anyone's combat round procedures, but just raising a question that's been bothering me for years. Trif, your combat round homerules look very workable.

Are there any rules in the new BRP book about non-round combat rounds?

[Triff]

Originally Posted by Dredj

Sorry to get a little off subject, but I always wondered about the use of combat rounds. I always thought that people in a real life and death battle would strike more and faster in the time period of a single round. I've had this explained to me that it's because the opponents are circling each other and looking for an opening. Or it's to only make note of the hits that actually do real damage. ANd I do understand the bookkeeping aspect of it. But every fight I've ever witnessed in real life, the opponents rush right in and throw a successive flurry of hits and hit each other very often. But all the actual fights I've ever seen were fist fights with the purpose of wearing down the opponent to submission--or beyond.

Well, you've heard the common explanations - for brawls the fact that many of the "hits" do not give any damage comes into play. Fistfights is an odd ball in the combat system though - with most fights leading to death and not unconsciousness.

I admit, I've never seen true melee combat outside of a martial arts tournament.

The rules work better with weapons. I participated in two stickfighting matches in switzerland a couple of years ago, where we used very little protection, and the potential for fractures where a real danger. In those fights more time where used for circling, looking for openings and feinting than real commited attacks. RPG combat will never be realistic though, we have to settle with the balance of "realistic feel" and playability we're comfortable with. Which is why combat is the most houseruled chapter of most RPG books. Everyonoe have their own opinion of where the balance of realism and playability should be.

I'm not trying to pick on anyone's combat round procedures, but just raising a question that's been bothering me for years.

Have you made any houserules for it? (one very easy way would be to say that the combat round is shorter than what's stated default - like 3-4 seconds instead of 12s, but I'm not sure if that's a big improvement either.

Trif, your combat round homerules look very workable.

Thanks!

Are there any rules in the new BRP book about non-round combat rounds?

Nope! BUT, if you have any, please do share!

SGL.

[Dredj]

Thank you Triff for the explanations. I'm glad to hear from somebody who actually knows how to use a melee weapon and has fought with it using little protection. All the tournaments I've gone to were for people to show off their moves to their parents and friends.

It never helped that the people I played with never saw a real melee combat, either. So, we never had any real life experience to back up why the combat rounds were the way they were.

I always thought that a 2 second combat round would work to my tastes, as that looks like the kind of round that would work in a Hong Kong style action movie. But most of what you see in the modern-style Hong Kong movies (like of lot of Jackie Chan's) are the "rush in and pummel" kind of combat--even where weapons are used.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Dredj

I always thought that a 2 second combat round would work to my tastes, as that looks like the kind of round that would work in a Hong Kong style action movie.

Then that's what you should go with. RPG combat is not meant to be realistic, only feel realistic.

SGL.