Re: Deadly Fast Play Rules in Fighting Fantasy

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Nov 24, 2010; 4:54pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Deadly-Fast-Play-Rules-in-Fighting-Fantasy-tp5703538p5771099.html

Billiam Babble wrote

 Where do you get these pictures from?

The 'fighting dice' picture I think I found on a blog I was reading a while back, but I believe it was originally from an old rule book for a game that's name eludes me at the moment. It seemed appropriate for the discussion.

As for the Balrog Can-opener; that's a bit of Photoshop I did after your last post put the image of a flaming can-opener into my head. The original image was of a vintage can-opener made by a food company called 'Bully Beef', I assume it opened cans of corn-beef or something.

Billiam Babble wrote

 Yup your fumbles and criticals system makes total sense. But now I'm rooting for the dragon!   Squish that adventurer good!
  I was trying the simple version of the fast play rules last night in Citadel of Chaos - where, incidentally, there's a shocking lack of straight forward fights - and in fact there were times when the combat actually slowed.  Lots of 1 damages, from very close Attack Strengths which hadn't occurred to me.  Like you, I've been more worried about massive damage quotas.

I guess this is bound to happen in some fights, especially with 2 very evenly match opponents and the bell-curve effect of 2D6 (Using a D12 would lessen the likely hood of this happening, but as mentioned before that wouldn't be in-keep with FF). It's realistic that there will be some fights where both combatants are finding it difficult to land an effective blow and all they can do is slug it out until one of them get tired and makes a mistake. It can be frustrating but I don't see it as a problem. And if a player get bored of an even fight they can always try their LUCK to change the out come of a round.

Billiam Babble wrote

Ranged Combat:
Comparing attack strengths, but only the target takes damage is a very elegant solution. (Much like defender against a second opponent).  FF can be quite limited in it's use of opposition based maths.  It certainly remains true to the system and is easy to remember.

yes I find often the simplest solution is the best
Ranged combat is handled in a similar way in a lot of other rule systems that have a 'simultaneous fighting' mechanic for close combat. For instance in Warhammer and it's off-shoots; at range the Attackers BS is looked up on a single line chart which tells you how high you need to roll to hit and any modifiers are added, where as in Close Combat Attackers WS is cross-referenced with Defenders WS on a grid which tells you what you need to roll to hit.
In such a way I think of ranged combat as being like 'half a combat' - one combatant is attacking while the other defends, but there is no 'fighting back' because of the distance.
I feel I should point out that doesn't mean that if 2 combatants have ranged weapons they would both fight at Range at the same as if they were in Close Combat, the normal ranged rules should apply as (unlike with close combat weapons) you can't use one ranged weapon to block (or other wise) another ranged weapon.

Is ranged combat “un-heroic”?
I'd argue not, Bows, Arrows and Lightning-Bolt Spells are every bit as part of heroic legend as Swords and Shields. Bard (in The Hobbit) is no less a hero than Sir George for killing a dragon with an Arrow as opposed to a Sword. Many heroes are famed for being a good shot with a ranged weapon – William Tell and Robin Hood spring to mind immediately from our own world, but there are many more besides.
As for giving PC ranged weapons, I don't see why not. IMHO it won't (as I think you fear) unbalance the game – the classic dungeoneering line-up normally contains at least 1 character with a ranged weapon (see Dungeon Tactics 101).  In simple FF terms it balances out too, yea a PC may be able to kill off a Goblin from 30ft with a Crossbow just as easily as in close combat with a Sword, but once they start facing something a bit larger like a Pit Fiend they aren't going to be able to get enough shots in to kill it before it's right on top of them ... and then they've got to fumble around putting their Bow away and drawing their Sword. Or with a hoard of approaching Rat-Men, a Bow will take out the first 2 or 3 yea, but the rest will meet the PCs in close combat eventually and still have a good chance of over whelming them.  

On a related tangent, here's my rulings on dodging ranged weapons in RPGs

Incoming!: First of all, to dodge any projectile the PC needs to be aware it coming, which mean they need to be able to hear and or see it and know where it's coming from and be aware of what it is. If you don't know some thing's coming you can't dodge it! After that it's down to reaction times.

Distance: The further the projectile has to travel the more reaction time the PC has and thus has a higher chance of dodging. Likewise at extreme close range and point blank it is impossible to dodge a projectile

Bows and Crossbows: Arrows and Crossbow Bolts are relativity slow projectiles, so as long as it's over a fair range and you know it coming there's a good chance you could dodge them, still it should be by no means easy

Black Powder Weapons: Muskets, Flintlock Pistols and Cannons should be fairly hard to dodge, however early fire-arms are unreliable so it's likely they could miss their target or misfire anyway. A blunderbuss incidentally, should be impossible to dodge

Modern Fire Arms: Bullets travel something around about the speed of sound (feel free to correct me here “gun enthusiasts”) so as long you know the gunfire is coming you should have a (very) small chance of ducking out of the way behind something. I'm not talking about bullet-dodging as seen in The Matrix films (and every shitty film that ripped it off since), but about diving for cover and keeping your head down when you hear the shots

Lasers and Ray-guns energy weapons should be impossible to dodge, a laser beam travels at the speed of light, firing is almost simultaneous with hitting the target at any range (person to person – spaceship to spaceship would be a different matter). Other energy weapons can be assumed to behave in similar ways

Catapults and other Stone Throwers these sort of weapons are normally levelled at unmoving targets or huge blocks of troops, as an individual however they would be fairly easy to dodge and would smaller stones throw from a sling or by hand. I'd rule the same for other thrown objects, but throwing knifes and shurikens should probably be dealt with in the same way as  Arrows and Crossbow Bolts depending on the attackers skill with such weapons

Spells unless otherwise stated in the spell's description, it should be impossible to dodge a spell effect (resisting a spell effect is another matter)