What roleplaying game would you say has fairly difficult combat?
I mean, legitimately difficult combat; not just unfavorable dice probabilities.
I'm also not looking for needlessly complicated or obfuscatory rules, especially not ones that use complexity to mask a lack of actual decision-making; I'm not looking for a poorly edited series of random tables.
I mean, what roleplaying game features deep combat with broad decision branching and meaningful consequences?
>>48247004
From another time, another land
>>48247004
GURPS
>>48247213
So the fundamental challenge of GURPS combat is risk vs. reward.
You take penalties to attacks (increasing your risk of missing) in order to deal more damage or disable your target.
And you have to risk turning your back on enemies in order to go after more desirable targets.
>>48247004
RuneQuest 6
Combat is deadly, but you have a supply of luck points to turn the tide in the party's favor - and the breadth of combat styles, special effects, weaponry, and magic means battles are extremely tactical.
As a bonus the mass combat rules are solid, using a different set of skills and working on different tactical rules to work with. There's also a spirit combat where (essentially) your soul can fight off spirits trying to attack it.
>>48250298
Interesting! Would you care to break it down for us a little more?
>>48247004
Tactical, and deadly?
The only two that come to mind I've actually played are fixed HP-equivalent systems like Savage Worlds and Ironclaw. The former assuming the GM isn't throwing normal mooks, and the latter assuming the GM gives the NPCs the same as the PC's.
Most non-fantasy systems like Twilight 2000 / Twilight 2013 should fit the bill as well.
>>48247004
Not having a shitty DM would probably be the best.
>>48247004
That is The Burning Wheel's shit.
>>48247004
Just to represent the gamist approach, Strike! with overpowered encounters can be quite deadly.
>>48250077
There are also All Out Attacks that display this, you trade your ability to defend at all for a turn to get a stronger attack (or two regular ones) in.
You can also fight very defensively, by holding a position, using all out defenses (or defensive attacks with MA rules), and retreating as necessary. But then you get swarmed, or bad guys run off with the macguffin, or the evil wizard has time to level a big bad spell at you.
>>48247004
Phoenix Command
>>48254952
/thread
>>48247004
The problem with modern gamers is they expect the rules to make the game fun or deep, and not the DM's creativity.
>>48252181
Each player has an Action Point value derived from their base attributes and will not (with few exceptions) change during the character's career. 2 AP is normal, 3 is great and 4 is overpowered munchkin.
Combat is played using d100 roll under, with levels of success.
Here is a breakdown of a single combat turn:
>Roll Initiative (strike rank + 1d10)
>Attacker spends an AP to make an attack, situational modifiers etc. Has to roll under his combat skill.
>Defender decides if he wants to spend an AP to defend. You can evade, parry, counter spell or interrupt.
>If you parry and succeed you reduce the incoming damage.
Damage Reduction: Equal or greater sized weapon or shield stops all damage. One size less stops half the damage two or more sizes less doesn't stop any damage.
>You may choose to parry even if the attacking roll fails, to gain defensive effects. Shields and weapons can be declared to passively block body parts which protects you if the attacker rolls those hit locations. A counter for this is the Choose Location offensive combat effect to bypass warded areas.
>Attacker rolls for damage, hit location and chooses a special effect.
>Apply special effects, resolve opposed skill checks if necessary. For example, Bleed requires you to roll below your own Endurance score but score higher than the original attack roll.
>Go to the next character in the initiative list. Keep going until all characters have run out of AP, then begin the next round.
>New round, Check fatigue (fatigue imposes penalties and accumulates each round.)
To win, you have to spend your AP wisely so you aren't caught with your pants down. Parrying vs failed attack rolls, attack enemies with less or no AP, use special effects like trip, disarm, take weapon, entangle, stun location, compel surrender, grip... there are many ways to defeat an enemy without killing and often a battle is won in less than three rounds.
>>48252181
>>48261280
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0J20AZXw-hDLXRnUWl1bFgzWms/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0J20AZXw-hDaWJrYWgzSnhnVHc/view
Here is an overview of the special effects you can choose from.
>>48247127
I wish I had an appropriate pepe....
