Wednesday, March 23, 2011
War. War Never Changes. Or Could It?
As we've been brushing off the Vault dust of our new batch of heroes, I have been looking toward the day when we actually have combat with a foe that isn't stationary. I've assumed that we would need to do battle mats and grids and measure things out in 5' squares. Minis or tokens would be produced, and then we'd be faced with a decision I've waffled over in my head for a while--do we go with the rules-heavy but more flexible 3.x sort of combat or with the more computer-influenced sexy but ultimately more confining combat style of 4e? There are strong pros and cons either way, but I haven't been at all satisfied with either thought. Now, it's true that FONY is already a Frankensteined rule set, and I could simply develop a new combat system on the fly, using the base I've already laid out, but that is a tremendous amount of work I simply don't have the time to do.
However, I ran across another option in the project of an old friend. That project is called Final Fantasy Zero (FFZ), and it has a LOT of very cool ideas in it. However, for this post, the cool idea du jour concerns combat. In a nutshell, combat is very abstracted in FFZ. Your relative location is one of two choices, reflecting classic FF (and other CRPG) sensibilities. You are either in the "front row" or the "back row." These describe, not positioning, but overall tactics. If you are in the "front row," you are in the enemies' collective face, and you get a bonus to attack. If you are in the "back row," you are fighting from range, watching yourself, trying to not allow the enemy to get close, so you get a bonus to defense.
What this means is that specific positioning is unimportant, and so maps are not crucial to running combat (though still good so you know what's around). It would take a little adjustment on this side of the GM screen, but I think it would be very doable, and in keeping with the sort of flow I'd like to see in our game. However, it isn't all about me, of course! If battle maps and movement and the like seem attractive to everyone, I'm more than happy to do that.
As always, sound off in the comments, or make a post! :D
However, I ran across another option in the project of an old friend. That project is called Final Fantasy Zero (FFZ), and it has a LOT of very cool ideas in it. However, for this post, the cool idea du jour concerns combat. In a nutshell, combat is very abstracted in FFZ. Your relative location is one of two choices, reflecting classic FF (and other CRPG) sensibilities. You are either in the "front row" or the "back row." These describe, not positioning, but overall tactics. If you are in the "front row," you are in the enemies' collective face, and you get a bonus to attack. If you are in the "back row," you are fighting from range, watching yourself, trying to not allow the enemy to get close, so you get a bonus to defense.
What this means is that specific positioning is unimportant, and so maps are not crucial to running combat (though still good so you know what's around). It would take a little adjustment on this side of the GM screen, but I think it would be very doable, and in keeping with the sort of flow I'd like to see in our game. However, it isn't all about me, of course! If battle maps and movement and the like seem attractive to everyone, I'm more than happy to do that.
As always, sound off in the comments, or make a post! :D
Xaos_Bob, 2:25 PM
