Michael J. Feldhusen wrote:
> At 11:41 AM 2/27/2003, MJ Harnish wrote:
>
>
>>My biggest headache are combat sequences (which are fairly rare)
>>which can really bog down the game and just don't *feel* right. I
>>have yet to find a method that simulates the fast pace and
>>uncertainty of combat while still working within the mechanics of
>>PBeM.
> My solution to that one, skip them. That is, skip doing the fights
> interactively. Have the players post a strategy for the fight, make
> several die rolls (what ever dice you want) and then write something based
> on that information. If the dies rolls are bad, they don't do well, if
> they are good, they clean up easily. Of course, the key is that the
> players may not *know* what would be good or bad when they roll, so they
> are kept in suspense until you post the outcome.
>
> This works best with free-form systems, for things like D&D, you may want
> to sit down with someone else and play out the combat (taking notes along
> the way) and your players have to be comfortable with this as well.
I don't run fights very often, but when I do I don't let them bog
down. For fights I *do* run turns with fixed deadlines, short
deadlines.
When a fight is getting ready to start I stop the game for a
moment and post a "heads up!" that we are going into turn mode.
I've had players post right then telling me, "I can't keep up
right now, here's what I want my PC to do." and for them I NPC
their PC using their instructions as a guideline.
Then after having given a warning to "gear up"...I post a
snapshot of the opening mini-scene of the fight with a
"drop-deadline" of no more than 24 hours. I expect to see a post
of what each PC wants to *attempt* to do (with alternatives) in
my mailbox within 24 hours...I wait no longer. If a player
doesn't get in a post I lightly NPC their PC, usually nothing or
defensive actions. If a player posts a general summary of their
intentions, then I also NPC their PC using their instructions as
guidelines. If the player posts specific instructions without
alternatives then I have their PC follow those instructions,
unless events make the instructions *really* stupid, then I do a
check against some stat of that PC to see if they continue to be
stupid or do something else. I consolidate the posts, add in what
the NPC's attempted to do, determine what really happened using
rolls *and* judgment, and post an "end of turn" summary in
narrative form. The end of turn post summarizes of what really
happened during the preceding mini-scene and sets up the next
mini-scene of the fight, complete with deadline. And we iterate
until the fight is over.
It's really all very free-form with me doing all of the rolling
and using judgment as I go through the "what really happened"
portion of the exercise. I have done it this way with Fudge,
Traveller and D&D PBEMS, and, although messy, it seems to work.
Eris
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