Combat and Magic questions

[Grimolde]

How many 'fights' do you have per session? I don't mean one pc vs one npc in a tavern, I mean all pcs involvement.

and

I'm working out which common, divine, and sorcery spells to assign to my Harn cults, how many should each have?

Thanks

 

[Simulacrum]

I'd always try and make sure there is one moment of mortal danger per session at least - and especially if it is a long session, frankly I find the players want at least one fight. I do make sure there are ways of getting trhough without one of they choose an alternative strategy, unless of course the scenario is specifically a raid, dungeon crawl or whatever.

 

[Jujitsudave]

I would say roughly 1 every other session.

 

[Jujitsudave]

I would say roughly 1 every other session.

 

[danskmacabre]

Assuming a sesion is about 3 hours.
About 2 fights per session, on the average.
This is assuming they're on an "adventure".

If they're in a town doing stuff "in beween" adventures, they might not fight at all in a sesssion.

 

[sdavies2720]

One per session, occasionally two if one is small. My players want something to beat on before the night is over.

Steve

 

[Redcrow]

I don't really structure individual gaming sessions to specifically include fighting. It really depends on where the PCs are in their quest. Some sessions my have a fight scene while others won't have any. Some sessions may even have multiple fight scenes if thats the path the PCs choose. I do try to include some type of tense conflict in each session, but it doesn't always need to be combat oriented.

Whenever I design a gaming session and even a larger campaign, I try to take my ques from the characters themselves as to what to include and how much. I look at the skills, talents, magic, etc. that each player has chosen to focus on for their character. If most of the characters have high combat skills, then I gear things with more combat in mind. If the characters appear focused on Social Skills, then I try to create scenarios with opportunities to use those.

It can be tricky creating scenarios that give each character equal time in the spotlight, but its fairly easy to figure out what areas a player wants his character to shine in. After that all you really need to do is connect a few dots between the scenario you have planned with what each player wants and the scenario almost writes itself. YMMV

 

[Grimolde]

That's interesting, I'm steeped in d&d (old school) and thought there'd be a lot more combats per session. Of course it all depends on the type of adventure I guess.

Thanks all

 

[Nez]

That's interesting, I'm steeped in d&d (old school) and thought there'd be a lot more combats per session. Of course it all depends on the type of adventure I guess.

Thanks all

Totally depends. Ive had sessions with no fights and ive had sessions involving the PCs in massive pitched battles where they do nothing but fight.

 

[Mankcam]

Typically I aim for 1 to 3 fights per session (about 4 hrs). It's often good to start with some light action, nothing too crunchy, but something that wakes the players up and also provides a plot twist. Usually unarmed combat works well here, or escaping villains, etc.

Then a small combat scene mid-session works well for my troupe, although it depends on the plot etc, but I usually tend to design the main combat scene later in the session, typically the climatic scene works best.

RQ combat can be deadly, so any more combat scenes then this could be big trouble for the characters. If the mid-session combat is pretty crunchy, then you often need to provide opportunities for healing, so I sometimes allow for a week or two to elapse. If the plot doesn't allow for this, then provide some opportunity for magical healing, otherwise the characters will have major issues entering a major combat scene at the end of the session.

The fact that combat is deadly for even experienced PCs is one of the best things about RQ, but an ex-D&D GM needs to be aware of this and not stack too many odds against the characters.

Have fun

 

[soltakss]

Sometimes 1, often (usually) none. Very, very rarely 2.

 

[Runefang]

When my friends and I started RQ waaaaaay back, it was almost comical to watch the progression of a diplomatic encounter degrade to a full blown combat with PCs escalting it after they had gotten what skill checks they could then pulling out weapon after weapon to get each a check as they succeed. That was the good old days. Though combat was deadly, you had to get in all the checks you could! I like it now you allocate improvement rolls. A improvement to stop such silly antics.

Now, having entered the mature thinking age, alot of us go for more subtle characters. Most play has gone to the thinking your way out of, rather than going headlong into a fight. One guy got alot out of an Issaries trader who rarely picked up a weapon ("Thats what I hire ya for lazy!"). My shaman's main source of combat was the spirit plane and clan issues, which could boil over at times. The two main combat guys, a Storm Bull and Aldrymi Rune Lord had alot at times, but that was when on a quest which we all got called together to fight the evil that was usually chaos.

We are starting a new Glothanthan game with the MRQII rules. I love the improvement on Shamans, so am working on several concepts based om location and possible races. We will start a bit tougher with the main PCs who will have to be pretty independent as email games in the past have had the PCs go off on some wild tangents away from others. Dragonewts could be an interesting change.