RQII and large groups

[Piperdog]

As I read the rules and get accustomed to the combat, I am finally getting ready to run something. While the whole tactical side of the combat has me excited, with the multiple CA's and manuevers and hit locations and so on, I have to ask how this plays with five or six players at the table. I remember back in my Rolemaster days, combats with two players and a GM was fun, but combat with six players was a nightmare. How does this play with a large group?

 

[Verderer]

Heheh I keep dogging at you heels.. anyways, I am just learning the ropes myself. Combat seems pretty complicated at first, there are a bunch of things to remember, all those maneuvres and actions, SR and and so on. What helped me was to use the combat cheat sheet which includes all the maneuvres (the link is someplace on this forum and Mongoose's website), and I didin't worry about fatigue to begin with.

Also, as we play Clockwork and Chivalry, the adventures have these handy summaries of the NPC with their stats and skills in neat tables with room for notes and wounds, and prerolled SRs etc. By doing some of the work in advance you save some hassle during the play. Then it's just a matter of asking the players to roll their SR, put them all in the correct order (actually markng the order and SR on paper) and go from there. Next I am starting keep book on fatigue, as this is pretty important.

And one important tip: try to keep tabs on hit die rolls from the beginning. Tell the players to leave the dice alone on the table after rolling them to hit etc. because that result is often compared to another roll byt the opponent, ie. opposed die rolls.

 

[sdavies2720]

In practice, I've found that the combats are similar in length to D&D, but there are a couple of differences in 'feel' to be aware of:

• * Individual melee rounds take longer to resolve. My D&D players were initially confused that they got another action on the same melee round. But they got the hang of it.
  * There was some initial frustration with parries "What do you mean, I didn't do any damage because he parried. I hit!". But people soon 'got' that too -- instead of a to-hit number that was the barrier to damage, they learned that they needed to be smart about Combat Actions and ganging up.
  * Typically when damage is done, the opponent is going down or surrendering. There isn't the D&D whittling-down phenomenon.
  * There is a lot more variability in combat, and players are still grappling with the implications -- they never feel safe going into combat, but my players really want to beat something up on Friday night, so there is a tension between what they know they should do (parley and pick their battles) and what gives them joy (running in with drawn steel).

Steve

 

[Jujitsudave]

5 players work fantastic, I've been doing it for a while now and although 1 is gone now, I am gaining a 5th again next session. Yes, 1 round takes forever and combat can actually end in only one. The key is DOCUMENT IT! Any time combat begins I get a scratch sheet of paper with a number of circles next to the name of the guy in combat. I put a line through each circle every time a CA is used to keep track and it works well. Combat in this game is fast-paced, furious and exciting. It plays out cinematically and is quite brutal, so do NOT overdo it. In fact, you may not want to do combat every session but more every other session. This is not the type of game where you send hordes of pee ons after the group.