Opend20: Combat

Combat

One of the major goals for the OpenD20 project is to create a much more streamlined combat system. Slow combat is one of the major deterents from gaming, because it minimises the amount of time that can be spent on social interaction. It is also important to design combat in such a way that players are (almost) always engaged - there is no point having an initiative system that leaves gaps in time where players feel 'useless' because they can only attack half as often (and thus, only 'play' for half as long) as other players.

OpenD20 proposes to 'combat' (sorry, couldn't resist) this problem by defining the key issue as 'combat duty'. Here, the term 'combat duty' refers to the delegation of responsibility over action during play. In the standard OGL d20 system, almost all of the 'combat duty' lies in the hands of the GM. It is the GM's job to add up all the numbers given to them by the players, and the GM's job to calculate the initiative order - as well as playing the part of all the enemies!

It is intrinsic to the GM's part to play the enemies, so the most important changes in OpenD20's combat system must be to:

• The initiative system.

• The total amount of dice rolling that takes place

Initiative

All players declare intended actions at the start of each combat round. Each round is broken down into ten ticks, representing ten seconds passing in the game world. During combat, the GM calls each tick out from ten to one, and then the process begins again. It is the player's responsibility to determine how many ticks will pass before they can act. Variations on this system can be found in the RuneQuest and Hero systems, for those interested in exploring further.

On each tick, players can move one hex (two if charging). This movement does not count when determining which tick a player may act/attack on, but running or dodging (moving two hexes per tick) will delay the character for as many rounds as they continue the additional movement.

Use the following variables to determine how long it takes a character to complete their action:

• Size - small -1(disadvantage), medium 0, large +1, huge +2...

• Reflex - +1 for each synergy point in reflex

• Weapon Modifier: in OpenD20, you have to construct and pay character points for weapons. Each weapon will have different initiative modifiers
  • Short Range
  • Prime Range
  • Far Range

The maximum weapon bonus is +4. The maximum score is +8 (which a huge character with specialised reflexes and a fast weapon could have at 1st level, but they would be spending 40+ points to pull it off). With a score of 8, you would be able to attack on the 8th tick, and if you wanted to you could attack at each 2 tick interval, for a total of five attacks per round! However, you would have to split your combat score up amoung those attacks, so it would not always be practical.