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Illustrations (wikified) of the different combat types, via Fred Hicks.[1]
To make my point with sound effects (assume each + mark is a case of a die roll -- or pair, if there's another party involved):
Exchange-based Combat + *bangbangbang!* *b-bang-d-bang-bang!* *runrunrun* *pant* *bang!* *thud!" "I'm hit!" Scene-based Combat + *bangbangbangbang* *b-bang-d-bang-bang!* *runrunrun* *pant* *bangity-bang!* *CRASH!* *bangitybangitybangitybangity!* *VROOOOOOM!* *SKREEETCH!* *buddabuddabuddabudda* *bang!* *clatter!* "Grenade!" *leap!* *struggle!* *BOOOOOM!* "We've won the day!" More commentary (wikified) by Fred Hicks.[2] That's intentional and present in my notion, at least, of Exchange-based Combat because I wanted a system that gave me the satisfaction of making combat involve enough contests (declarations of goals/actions, die rolls to achieve them) to feel meaty and real, but wanted the combat to run fast -- and to have enough "stuff" going on in it -- that it felt like a good, important scene straight out of a movie. What I didn't want was for a few sword-strokes to take orders of magnitude longer than it took to describe the scene...
You can still get there with Turn-based Combat, but it's harder. And you can definitely get there with Scene-based Combat, but since there's just a single roll per participant there, I think it ends up feeling too light and insignificant. So exchange-based -- at least as I've conceived of it and run it -- ends up feeling like the "sweet spot".
Hm, maybe the three modes break down into these correspondances:
* Turn : Actions, like "I attack X" or "I move across the room" * Exchange : Goals, like "I want to wound X' or 'I want to find a better position" * Scene : Results, like "I want to get past the guards and into the armory." Combat Rules |