This blog post is the first in a planned series covering tactical gameplay in Rivers of Sartar. Unlike freefrom gameplay and ongoing contests, it draws mostly from Runequest rather than Questworlds and its predecessors, which have always treated combat as just another form of contest. While some people like that for its elegance, others find it too simple to allow interesting tactical decisions. And sometimes the best story is the one you tell after the fact, to try explain what everyone did.

It should be used when you want to have a detailed scene involving all players, during which they get to make tactical choices that influence the outcome. Commonly this will be combat, with the choices being which spells to cast, who to engage, and so on. This approach also works for combat-like activities; sports or perhaps certain forms of ritual magic. It should be avoided where these factors don't apply; many successful campaigns will never use these rules. A reasonable middle ground may see them being used once every few sessions.

Note that, with multiple combatants acting simultaneously, nothing happening for a round can be tactically significant. Consider one PC holding off a superior opponent. They may have little chance of winning, but if they can stall things for long enough, their allies may come to their aid after defeating their own opponents. Successful tactical gameplay requires such decisions are to be meaningful and engaging to the players making them.

So tactical gameplay has some key rules difference to other modes of play. One is that, rather than using symmetrical opposed contest, each combatant makes one or more attack rolls with a weapon skill, opposed by a defense skill. A successful attack has a reasonable chance of disabling an opponent. So all things equal, it is much better to attack then defend. As in Runequest, strike ranks decide who gets that benefit..

Using the framework of the RQ:G rules has the consequence that by default, character death is not merely possible but, in the long rung, likely. This is not to all tastes, ans so options are presented for limiting and controlling that risk.

The above diagram shows the structure of the simplified version of the RQ:G rules used here. Unlike RQ:G, players take complete turns in order, rather than switching between PCs to resolve individual actions as they happen in sequence. Hence the topics to be covered are:

• Engagement: who is fighting who?
• Strike ranks: how much can you do in a given combat round, and can you do it to them before they do it to you? How can magic affect this?
• Attacking: what are the differences between weapon skills such as 1H spear and javelin? 
• Defending: what are the difference between defensive skill such dodge, parry and grapple?
• Incapacitation: when does damage to a hit location cause this, and can healing stop it? 
• Continuation: is the fight over, or should it continue for another round?
• Consequences: who lives or dies, and what magical resources are spent healing the wounded?

Each topic base on a recap of the relevant RQ:G rules, and then suggested interpretations, simplifications, cleanups and changes. Each may be individually useful to any RQ:G GM