GMs, How do you handle combat?

[Alex Sandoval]

Comming back to GMing after a number of years and discovering the BRP system I am afraid that I will either make things too easy or do a total party wipe.

How do you handle combat in the BRP system? What rules do you use? What do you keep in mind when creating encounters or during combat? Any other advise for combat in the BRP system? What works for you and your group?

[Conrad]

Don't be afraid to keep things simple. As GM you have to do most of the hard work, so cut yourself some slack.

When creating adversaries for your players don't be afraid if they're underpowered at first. Better that the player characters survive combat and you can now gauge better how much punishment they can take.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Conrad

[rust]

My advice would be to be careful with the number of opponents and with missile

weapons. Outnumbered characters can more easily become dead characters than

in many other systems, and missile weapons are often more efficient than in ma-

ny other systems.

Apart from that, as Conrad wrote, keep it simple. You can always add more op-

tions later on, if you and the players really want them.

[GianniVacca]

I usually GM historical games so there's little combat. When combat does occur, I keep it simple, à la BRP quick start rules (http://www.basicrps.com/core/BRP_quick_start.pdf, page 24)

[Alex Sandoval]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll take it slow then when combat comes.

I eventually want to create a fantasy campaign that is a spin off of a D&D campaign I ran about a decade ago. Although it was D&D, it was the richest roleplaying and least combat oriented campaign I had ever ran. Hoping my group today will enjoy the flavor and mystery that this campaign can bring.

I picked up the Classic Fantasy monograph and it was a nice trip down memory lane but seems a bit too cheesy and overpowered for what I had in mind. Besides, I feel my group will get more out of the Alliegance and professions as opposed to the Classic Fantasy classes. Was a little reluctant to add more magics from other monographs like Basic Magic and BRP Witchcraft but with the characters reputaion and NPC reactions I feel I can show them what happens if they abuse the powers.

I did pick up The Search for Trollslayer for both my players and myself to get our feat wet. I figure after the adventure I can get a sense of what the players are looking for and what sets of rules that my players and I can agree on. After the nuts and bolts are out of the way I'll ease them into the idea for my campaign and tweak it to suit our group.

[ragr]

Hi Alex

I'm in a similar position to you as I'm in the middle of converting my Greyhawk campaign (25+ years) from 3e to BRP. It's early days and so far we're at the stage of re-jigging three characters of 8th-9th level so we've yet to run a session.

However, I have started to run my son through The Citadel By The Sea adventure (an old D&D classic start-up) using a new character at "normal" power level with a couple of sidekicks and I can certainly testify that the advice given above is accurate. The number of Orcs, as poorly armed and armoured as I made them, presented a huge challenge for a party of 3 and those few that had missile weapons were the most challenging of all. If I were to run the adventure again and didn't want a situation where the pc's had to flee and regroup I would probably halve the number of foes.

That said, the adventure so far has been a thrill a minute as there are no "sure things" like there would have been with d20, which has reassured me that my decision to abandon the old system was a good one for my gritty style of game.

Keep us posted on how things proceed for you, Alex, as I could do with all the help I can get when it comes to running the "higher level" characters.

[sdavies2720]

One of my challenges as a GM is my dice rolling is 'streaky' -- I'll go for most of the night with poor rolls, then have 15 minutes of blindingly great rolls. In RQ that combination is deadly, and almost impossible to plan for. What I've done is give players 'adventure points' for good roleplaying. There are a couple of things that they can do with them, so they want to keep them. But they mostly get used to absorb damage, one game point per point of damage.

I think of the adventure points as divine armor against my 15 minutes of great luck.

Steve

[ragr]

I'm considering using the Fate Points option for exactly that thing.

What is it with "streaky" dice?

[Agentorange]

It's better than trying to determine combat with streaky bacon though....

[Skunkape]

One thing I always stress to my players when starting a BRP campaign, combat is deadly, don't think that your character can wade through a bunch of Orcs like a high level character in DnD can. So far, the players have taken this fact in stride and seem to like the system.

Have to say the above advice is the best I've heard!

[Alex Sandoval]

Keep us posted on how things proceed for you, Alex, as I could do with all the help I can get when it comes to running the "higher level" characters.

Hoping my class schedule lightens up enough this semester to get something rolling and I'll be happy to help.

As for the "higher level" characters, my old game was in AD&D 2e and it was observed by all in my group that the challenge disappeared after 10th level. The gems that my group were, they would volunteer to retire their characters at 10th level and start play anew with the minions and followers their original characters attracted. This way a favored character could have a happy ending and intermitten cameos not to mention their new characters had an immediate connection to the campaign and realistic expectations of their superiors.

My current design for a campaign is based off of the old characters that advanced to mayors, warlords, kings, tyrants as well as their gangs, socities, cults, dominions, armies, and the Cold Wars and secret alliances that had surfaced.

Sorry, I get a little excited when I think about the campaign.

[vagabond]

If you want a more heroic feel (and a little more survivability), use SIZ + CON for PC and major villain HP instead of the average of the two. Keep "mooks" and other NPCs the standard (SIZ + CON)/2. Also, use the Fate Point/Hero Point mechanic.

For simplicity, use general HP and Major Wounds instead of Hit Locations. Normal blows will just tick off general HP, but memorable ones will be associated with a particular location on the Major Wounds table. In other words, you can still lose an arm, but it will be a memorable occasion Even though this also means you use the random armor damage reduction, in all reality, you can still use a set value. Of course, this makes plate armor really really effective.

Use DEX ranks, maybe modified by weapon speeds/reach. Add a d4 or d6 randomizer if you want a little more variety in your initiative, but still want to favor higher DEX and/or better reach.

Ian

[ragr]

It's better than trying to determine combat with streaky bacon though....

Yes, becomes a little ham-fisted.

Sorry.

[Agentorange]

Yes, becomes a little ham-fisted.

Sorry.

ouch !

[sdavies2720]

"Streaky dice" means that in a typical gaming session, I roll poorly for most of the 4-hour session. For example, last night I was rolling up a new character for a game--4D6, take the best three, generate 7 sets of numbers, take the best 6--and the GM said the character had to be at least average (sum of 6 rolls had to be at least 63). It took me three tries to get a character that met the 63 average. BUT, for about 15 minutes during most game sessions, I roll really really well. For example last night there was a battle in which I didn't roll below a 17 (d20 system) for about 12 rolls in quick succession. Last time I GMed, after several hours of poor rolling (opponents with a 75% skill failing 9 times out of 10), in 5 successive %ile rolls, I rolled 01 twice and under 05 two other times.

That's what I mean by "streaky dice." The syndrome has become so recognized in my gaming group that my characters tend to hang back, but when I make a good roll the cry suddenly goes up, "It's Steve's moment. Make room, send him in." Of course, the luck runs out when I've waded into the midst of the bad guys and gotten their attention, but so it goes.

But as a GM, all that makes the encounters really uneven and hard to plan.

Steve

[Chaot]

I generally play with starting characters having at least one combat skill beginning above 100%. I use Dex Ranks for initiative including bonuses for holding action and penalties for acting before your Dex Rank. I use Major Wounds, not Hit Locations. Generally I peg skill levels thusly, with some softness in the numbers:

30% - competent

60% - professional

90% - exceptional

120% - master

At a certain point, your bad guys aren't there to actually do damage to the PCs. They are there to wear the PC's defenses down in a round. Each time the PC defends against them the PC are adds a -30% to their skill roll, giving the Big Bad a chance to land a blow. If the mooks are actually lucky enough to land something, that's gravy. The PCs should always be thinking about a way of controlling the number of nasties coming at them. The Big Bad should be thinking of ways to distract the PC, use up the resources of the PC or overwhelm the PC. This can be done on a meta level too by controlling the location of the fight, introducing external factors like bystanders and such, misdirection, etc. Bad Guys should not be afraid to fall back and fortify their position.

The nice thing about this whole approach is that by pegging your standard mook at 30% you can capture a nice swords and sorcery feel, with the PCs cutting swaths through the mob while still allowing the mob to pose as a potentially dangerous element to the PCs. You can allow the PCs to swashbuckle their way through a scene knocking heads until you want to make a dramatic shift in the scene by introducing more dangerous elements.

You also may want to take a look at Minion Rules. They're available free in the Gods of Law document on this site and published in the Dragon Lines book. There are some real benefits to using Minion rules and I've adopted them for my heroic play. One thing they do is streamline an already quick combat system while offering an outcome that is very similar to what you would get if you played through with standard combat rules as writ. Minion rules speed large portions of combat and allow you to keep the game running at a very fast pace. Another thing they do is cue your Players in to the power level dynamics on the field, giving them more information and allowing them to decide how they want to focus their efforts.

Most importantly though, my advice is to just sit down by yourself and run some quick mock battles. It will at the least give you a basic base to go from. I find BRP to be a simple and straight forward system but I am constantly and happily surprised by how some aspects of it combine in play. It's a solid but sensitive system and which options you allow in play will greatly color your results.