Introduction: This forum post is essentially going to be a guide to a whole lot of ideas I have come up with or came across and adapted. I will inform you reader right now that I don't like having items and abilities having the same function, and thus I aim to keep them separate but (almost) equal, which often hangs in the role that the items play in a game.
Combat Scene Speed: (limit non-attack/ability rolls and skip over inactive players)
In combat, there's often many factors that play into how long combat takes. Sometimes it will take only twenty minutes and sometimes it will take over six hours, and the two factors that cause it to lengthen is absence of players and having to make to many dice rolls. The first issue can mostly be dealt with with fair amount of ease, however the second one is trickier because some game masters want to make rolls for everything. However the best things to do is limit the amount of rolls a character needs to make in their turn. A few ways to do this are listed below:
- Have a flat initiative value for each character (this can be simply going down the character list or having some calculated initiative value preset for them).
- Having no defense roll and a static and or a multiplier* defense value (this makes it so the players don't have to respond while it's not their turn and thus allowing smoother play).
*Multiplier on the defense would be like halving all incoming damage (which can be very powerful or very weak, will explain later)
Another easy way to keep combat moving at a decent rate is making sure people respond in less than a minute (give them at least half a minute) to respond if they aren't known to be AFK.
Status Effects Status effects are frequently used in fabletop, and that's simply because they can be both simple (sometimes) and effective ways of making something feel unique. common examples include burn damage, freezing, disarming, entanglement and stunning. While most status effects change how they work game to game, there are some basic overall things in them. They all will have a set amount of rounds they last, some as short as one round and others reaching till the end of combat. As far as keeping track of them, I've found it best to have a 1 to 3 letter representation in a miniature's notes with numbers on on or the other side to represent how many turns and or how much of that status effect is stacked or one on each side for stacks with a time limit (so 3 poison damage over 4 turns might look like 3p4).
An important note: It has been noticed that stun (prevent enemy from doing anything) typically way over powered (turning boss monsters into target practice), so unless it has some sort of limitation or benefit to the target it's advised to not use stun.
Examples of ways to make it less over powered:
- only stunning if the attack deals damage equal to or greater than 25% of the target's total health.
- turning the stun into a stasis like effect where they can't be effected by anything at the same time.
- having the stun break upon the target being attacked (daze?).
- turning it more into a freezing effect that inhibits the enemy but still allows them to attack (like halving their attack power and or defense).
This forum post is essentially going to be a guide to a whole lot of ideas I have come up with or came across and adapted. I will inform you reader right now that I don't like having items and abilities having the same function, and thus I aim to keep them separate but (almost) equal, which often hangs in the role that the items play in a game.
Combat Scene Speed:
(limit non-attack/ability rolls and skip over inactive players)
In combat, there's often many factors that play into how long combat takes. Sometimes it will take only twenty minutes and sometimes it will take over six hours, and the two factors that cause it to lengthen is absence of players and having to make to many dice rolls. The first issue can mostly be dealt with with fair amount of ease, however the second one is trickier because some game masters want to make rolls for everything. However the best things to do is limit the amount of rolls a character needs to make in their turn. A few ways to do this are listed below:
- Have a flat initiative value for each character (this can be simply going down the character list or having some calculated initiative value preset for them).
- Having no defense roll and a static and or a multiplier* defense value (this makes it so the players don't have to respond while it's not their turn and thus allowing smoother play).
*Multiplier on the defense would be like halving all incoming damage (which can be very powerful or very weak, will explain later)
Another easy way to keep combat moving at a decent rate is making sure people respond in less than a minute (give them at least half a minute) to respond if they aren't known to be AFK.
Status Effects
Status effects are frequently used in fabletop, and that's simply because they can be both simple (sometimes) and effective ways of making something feel unique. common examples include burn damage, freezing, disarming, entanglement and stunning. While most status effects change how they work game to game, there are some basic overall things in them. They all will have a set amount of rounds they last, some as short as one round and others reaching till the end of combat. As far as keeping track of them, I've found it best to have a 1 to 3 letter representation in a miniature's notes with numbers on on or the other side to represent how many turns and or how much of that status effect is stacked or one on each side for stacks with a time limit (so 3 poison damage over 4 turns might look like 3p4).
An important note: It has been noticed that stun (prevent enemy from doing anything) typically way over powered (turning boss monsters into target practice), so unless it has some sort of limitation or benefit to the target it's advised to not use stun.
Examples of ways to make it less over powered:
- only stunning if the attack deals damage equal to or greater than 25% of the target's total health.
- turning the stun into a stasis like effect where they can't be effected by anything at the same time.
- having the stun break upon the target being attacked (daze?).
- turning it more into a freezing effect that inhibits the enemy but still allows them to attack (like halving their attack power and or defense).
Weapons and Gear