The combat system is at the heart of classical D&D, which is something that is actually a bit annoying for me. The core content of adventuring never was violence for me, so the relentless focus on fighting strikes me as a bit dull and wrong-headed. Thinking back, this is the main reason for why I preferred systems like Runequest or MERP to D&D during the ’90s as well: while those systems as games are just as violence-focused, the basics of character depiction, which is the kind of surface feature a teenager will get obsessed about, strived for more of a balance in depicting the life of a fantasy adventurer.<\/p>\n
Regardless, combat needs resolving, and I want to resolve it in ways that both synch well with other means of conflict resolution and allows interesting combat-specific tactical options. I also want to move away from the unrealistic and dull initiative systems of old, which requires a system pretty different from D&D.<\/p>\n
I’ve been annoyed by modern D&D initiative for a long while. At first it was because it doesn’t really do much with low-level characters, while later on, when I took a hard look at the whole myth structure of modern nerd fantasy, I’ve been increasingly bothered by the dull lack of realism in it all: fighters go off like clockwork, each striking in turn, going for ages until one of them winds down. This has little resemblance with real fighting initiative and could stand to be upgraded.<\/p>\n
One option would be to go back to the initiative systems of earlier editions, which are pretty good for what they’re trying to do, but I want to be more ambitious, really; initiative should be the decisive factor in a fight, not a formality. It should allow for interrupts and feints, misinformation and pressing for advantage, in ways that ultimately disrupt the fighting capability of the enemy (OODA loops<\/a> are a definite inspiration here); this is a far cry from the current way combats in D&D tradition go, as pretty much the only way to disrupt opponents is with spell-casting.<\/p>\n A more general issue with D&D combat is the routine-like way they are conducted in regards to character safety. As the discerning reader probably already guesses, I want more danger and unpredictability at all levels, but also more player control at combat initiation. Combat should be preferred only as a last resort, and it should be undertaken only with accumulated advantages in terms of initiative and preparation.<\/p>\n When characters go into combat, they will roll an initiative check:<\/p>\n Wits + skill + d20 A surprised character goes with wits+skill only, while a prepared character goes with Wits + skill + 20. A surprise situation (really common in D&D, with the current version having a set of separate rules for conducting surprise rounds) is really just one side having a lot higher initiative score than the other. The initiative score represents mental preparedness, planning and immediate willingness to act upon the face of danger; a character with high initiative knows what he’s doing and probably also what he will do next, while a character at a low count is disoriented, overwhelmed or otherwise uncomposed.<\/p>\n The initiative score is then used to conduct combat maneuvers by the characters. Any character may declare a combat action, but any character with a higher current initiative may also declare to interrupt the stated intent. If nobody is outright willing to declare a maneuver (perhaps to avoid being interrupted), the players declare a pass in reverse initiative order and new initiatives are rolled. If nobody interrupts a maneuver it will happen, but another character might still block it, even if he has a lesser initiative.<\/p>\n The trick here is that declared maneuvers decrease initiative count as the character focuses on executing his task. A typical aggressive maneuver might cost ten points or so (with the average initiative of a non-combatant being around 20). Thus the character with the higher initiative will be able to act more, interrupt more and also block the other characters more efficiently, even if not all at the same time.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, an interrupted maneuver still costs full initiative points whether it is successfully interrupted or not, while blocking a maneuver is somewhat cheaper than executing it, although not necessarily successful; I’m trying to both create a sensible rules system for simple combat, as well as keep to a pretty realistic and sensible image of how fighting happens in reality.<\/p>\n Going forward, initiative 0 represents the moment when the character really should take a beat off from the fight to readjust his perception and catch his breath. I’m going by movie logic here: fighting rounds are when swords clash, but at some point the characters will pause enough to throw in an occasional witty phrase before attacking each other again. However, characters won’t necessarily get the opportunity to stop at zero initiative when other characters attack them and they need to react, so various penalties might accrue:<\/p>\nInitiating combat<\/h4>\n
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