RPG question

[solidshadow]

When you play a tabletop RPG do you prefer detailed combat with individual attacks Etc. or do you prefer a more simple system with one roll representing the resolution of a flurry of attacks and defenses in one round?

Comments

[afterimages]

I prefer the individual attacks, because sometimes you can make a critical that would break armor or something along those lines.

[solidshadow]

Cool yeah I'll probably keep it that way. just looking for ways to speed things up.

[jedi_ninja]

I like individual attacks, but that said I think too many personal actions tend to bog down combat a little. The best I think is a balance between the two, making the characters feel that each action is represented fairly while keeping the turn fast paced. Moving from player to player quickly is important too. It's not too fun waiting for 10 minuets for your friend to take 6-8 actions in a row only to have half your ideas scrapped due to the results of the turn before you.

D&D 3.5 has this problem since characters at higher levels can have upwards of 10 attacks with the right builds. Added to that any of the myriad of minor actions for movement and such you can be waiting a while and one simple fight can take hours to resolve. I feel that this is the major flaw of that system and I would say so did the designers at Wizards since they moved to a 1-2 action system with 4th edition.

[solidshadow]

Elysia was initially designed to be a 1-2 action system and that’s the way it will probably go again. Fighting one on one is quick and easy enough, the problems arise with multiple opponents bogging down the rolls.

The latest version of Elysia will deal with this by counting multiple enemies against a single target as a swarm. Each swarm will only get one attack per round but will have their hit rolls augmented by +1 per attacker within the swarm with a probable maximum of +5. This makes multiple opponents more dangerous against individuals and has the potential of augmenting the swarm’s damage. At the same time the math is kept to one attack roll which should speed things up considerably.

That's the idea so far anyway.

[jedi_ninja]

That's a cool idea, and you get rid of the chance for a powerful character to wipe out 30 goblins on his own, or at least make it a serious fight with a questionable outcome.