[4e] Initial thoughts on combat

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by unipus

It sounds like you have created an entirely new combat system, swaghauler! Which is cool, I'd be happy to read about it. Although as I've said, I think that FL's system provides more believable results than most I've seen if you look at things from the perspective of "what do most people do in real situations" rather than "what does an ideal person do in an ideal situation," which is how most games seem to approach things for some reason.

I am very curious what they will do with the supposedly-coming urban combat rules. The rules in general are fine but do lack granularity when it comes to room clearing and other situations where 10 seconds is actually quite a lot of time where quite a lot of people could act all at once.

Sadly, it may go no farther than the "whiteboard exercise" it is right now. My players have read 4e and come to the conclusion they do NOT like it for Twilight2000/MERC because it is too simple and coarse for the kind of gritty fights and adventures they thrive on. This is ironic because they desperately want to try FORBIDDEN LANDS over D&D 5e... and I agree with them.

And for the record, my group has THREE Millenials and Two Gen Xers in it.

Oh, I DO look at rules from the perspective of "what do most people do in real situations." Both MYSELF and THREE of my players are COMBAT VETERANS and two of us have 20+ years in security and law enforcement. I personally have two shootouts under my belt (1 military, 1 LE) and more than 150 DOCUMENTED fights. I am willing to bet REAL MONEY, that my gaming table has more combat experience than Free League's entire design team. That's why I strive for more realism. My players will call Bullshit on any mechanics with are not realistic.