Combat manoeuvres

[Philip_fry]

Hello,
combat manoeuvers are surely a nice way to spice up the fighting in Conan. Unfortunatly none was has ever been used in the sessions of our group, because we almost ever forget about them. I know their´re listed on the char sheet but still you have to remember or, if you have a short term memory like me, look them up to know what they do.

So, does anyone know if there a easy to use list with all, including the supplements, combat maneoeuvers, their requierements and their consequences?

Regards
Marcel

 

[Teutonic]

Hey, I made a Bull´s charge one time...

 

[Sutek]

My opinion? Before you start a game next time, start off first by opening the book to the maneuvers pages and saying "Let's talk about maneuvers for just a few minutes before we get started, because I think you guys are missing out." That's the nice way to do it.

The not so nice way is to start using them yourself as GM when running your villains. Make yourself a list, flash cards, whatever, and pull a Sundering Parry on one of you PCs, smashing his prized sword to splinters. Guaranteed to get you players wide-eyed and astonished as to why they haven't been looking more closely at maneuvers themselves.

Then again, making index flash cards with the maneuvers on them or simply writing them all down as "free feats" on the back of each character sheet is a good idea. There are a lot of requirements, many of which mean you have to be a relatively decent level to use them in the first place, so there should be just a few that your party members can manage early on. Those are the only ones they need to worry about.

Maybe as they gain the necessary feats and ability scores needed as pre-requisites, you just write the new maneuver on their character between games. That way they'll see it on there and say "Hey, what's Pantherish Twist? I didn't know I could do that!"

Be clever, but there's lots of ways to introduce maneuvers to your group.

 

[Bregales]

Keep an eye on the thread posted earlier on Compiled Lists: there were mentions of ready-made ones, and of lists being developed by other forum members with such info as you are looking for.

Immediately, however, I agree with Sutek's advice, posted immediately above this one.

 

[Sutek]

HEEYYYYYY....MACARENA!!!

lol

 

[Bregales]

HEEYYYYYY....MACARENA!!!

lol

lol
Yeah, I always hated that dance; love the artist who drew it. Therefore, that became me avatar. Shows a lot about my sense of humor :lol:

 

[Sutek]

Unfortunately...It shows a lot of mine too...lol

 

[urdinaran]

Another idea is to include their use as part of gained xp. I am going to not only give out xp for combat maneuvers, but also for the use of skills/feats/special abilities when used in some heroic way.

 

[Damien]

In my games (all games I run) we keep a separate sheet for each character detailing the different combat feats and abilities they have. So for my Conan games, we simply add combat maneuvers that 'fit' that character onto the sheet. That way it's always in mind.

 

[Bregales]

In my games (all games I run) we keep a separate sheet for each character detailing the different combat feats and abilities they have. So for my Conan games, we simply add combat maneuvers that 'fit' that character onto the sheet. That way it's always in mind.

Very good point, I do the same thing with my players, I believe each GM in the various games our group plays does this. it really does help, although if you're like me with papers, books and etc all piled behind your trusty GM screen, you shuffle the papers between one thing and the other.

Another tip that may help: I started doing this with the King Arthur Pendragon game, which I've GM'd in various factions the past 15 years: I put my campaigns, notes etc. in a 3-ring binder, with tabs separating my adventures, NPCs (those not written out in an adventure), other notes (like the Mongoose freebies or Sons of Cimmeria offerings , etc.), and my handy sheet like Damien mentioned above. I find this helps a lot!

 

[Philip_fry]

Keep an eye on the thread posted earlier on Compiled Lists: there were mentions of ready-made ones, and of lists being developed by other forum members with such info as you are looking for.

Immediately, however, I agree with Sutek's advice, posted immediately above this one.

Thank, I have to agree with both of you. To look upon the maneouvers as "free feats" should be the best and easiest way. I believe it will encourage the use of it far more than a compiled list of all moves. It just no fun to browse through a list before every attack.

I looked up the charsheet in the above mentioned threat. I have to admit that I regard it as rather unpractical. I prefer printer friendly sheets. It´s too much eye candy. But that´s just my two €-cents.

Regards Marcel

 

[Philip_fry]

Hey, I made a Bull´s charge one time...

Wasn´t it your superior your "bull charged"?

 

[Teutonic]

You should ask Cornelius

 

[SALette]

Thanks to the presence of combat maneovers, my players were literally trying to execute almost every single one in the book they can, out of curiousity.

 

[Altantean DM]

Maybe as they gain the necessary feats and ability scores needed as pre-requisites, you just write the new maneuver on their character between games. That way they'll see it on there and say "Hey, what's Pantherish Twist? I didn't know I could do that!"

Be clever, but there's lots of ways to introduce maneuvers to your group.

I learned that the combat maneuvers are open content, so I'm adding them to a splat book I made up. Including one or two of my own design:
i.e. Confusing Cloak and the ever popular Indecent Exposing Cuts.

I'm also adding the Kata from Way of the Samurai into the same splat book as combat maneuvers. I'm having a lot of fun with this one.

 

[LokiOne]

It seems that the requirements of most of the base listed Comabt Manouvres are quite high .... hence My Players have mostly disregarded them. I thought that they made the game a whole lot more flexible and interesting - but they're only available at 'meduim' levels and beyond.

It would ahve been nice to make most of them avaliable for starting fighters, even if they had remarkebly less chance of actually successfully executing them (pardon the pun).
Only master class heroes such as Conan could use them in every combat as a matter of course. Maybe there's some way to free them up from the prerequisite Feat(s) requirements (???), substituting some other form of qualifying factors (Levels, Stats, etc)

I used to run the 'old' West End Games STAR WARS RPG (Which I picked up at GenCon 1988 in Milwaulkie) .... and Players had a chance of doing most things, most of the time (Even if very small!)

Maybe a Fate Point could be used for a one-of usage of a distantly attainable Combat Manouvre ...

I like the idea of the laminated 'flip cards' ... I was thinking of doing this with the entire Feats listings (Divided into relevant Catagories, such as Combat, Sorcery, General, etc).

Constructive thoughts and feedback ???

 

[Bregales]

It seems that the requirements of most of the base listed Comabt Manouvres are quite high .... hence My Players have mostly disregarded them. I thought that they made the game a whole lot more flexible and interesting - but they're only available at 'meduim' levels and beyond. It would ahve been nice to make most of them avaliable for starting fighters, even if they had remarkebly less chance of actually successfully executing them (pardon the pun).
Only master class heroes such as Conan could use them in every combat as a matter of course. Maybe there's some way to free them up from the prerequisite Feat(s) requirements (???), substituting some other form of qualifying factors (Levels, Stats, etc)

Yeah, keeping track of the requirements, as well as trying to remember what the maneouvers do, is what makes remembering them so difficult. As for some way to free them up, as GM you can do whatever you want, so long as you're consistent and fair, or if you're a player you could recommend alterations to the GM or even develop them with/for the GM (if he agrees).

I used to run the 'old' West End Games STAR WARS RPG (Which I picked up at GenCon 1988 in Milwaulkie) .... and Players had a chance of doing most things, most of the time (Even if very small!)

Yeah, I got the game when it first came out and loved the heroic approach; in fact I referred to it when our group was discussing Combat Maneouvers in this game! I naturally prefer allowing anyone to attempt anything, so long as the odds/difficulty are scaled to the complexity being attempted. Geez, I miss that game.

Maybe a Fate Point could be used for a one-of usage of a distantly attainable Combat Manouvre ...

Not a bad idea.