Possible Solutions for General Multi-Person Combat Situations (GMPCS)?

Problems with GMPCS

>>All at once and no order

>>Things go by too fast for some people

>>Conversations going on at the moment the attempts are entered (Out of Character conversations included)

Jakejaliji's Duel Request Combat System (JDRCS)

Advantages

>>Orderly

>>Player vs. Player Compatible

>>More Evident on Any Combat-Related Plots

Disadvantages

>>Lack of Creativity

>>Takes Longer Than GMPCS

>>Cause Damages to Equipments

Instruction

1. Create two parties so the players know who is the Boss and who is the Hero.

2. Decide who will be first to last and rearrange the line up in both the party and the positions (similar to this below) either by the Initiative Rule explained in Dungeons and Dragons, the Whatever the Party Window Said So Rule or by mutual agreement.



3. When it is the person's turn, that person will make a request for a duel before making the attempt.

4. When the attempt is done, cancel the duel immediately because the turn is over.

5. When the round is over, both parties can decide to either restart the initiative or repeat the turn setup.

JDRCS Standard Rules

>>>>Parties and Initiation<<<<

>>Only two parties, Hero Party and Boss Party

>>Boss/Leader/Hero does not necessarily mean the leader of the party.

>>Hero Party always start out first unless their Hero was unable or the party was ambushed.

>>Boss Party always start out second unless they ambushed the Hero Party.

>>Hero Party can ambush as well and if that happened, the Boss Party lose a turn for the round.

>>If there is an extra or more parties, they are automatically called, the Renegade/Reinforcement Party.

>>Renegade/Reinforcement Parties are unable to ambush at all unless Plot-Wise exceptions are agreed upon.

>>Renegade/Reinforcement Parties are always last, regardless of exceptions.

>>Renegade = Against both dominating parties.

>>Reinforcement = Favoring one of the dominating parties.

>>Assassination is possible, but the target must have consented and both are outside of combat.

>>>>Damages<<<<

>>Boss/Leader/Hero Against Minion/Henchman/Companion = 75%

>>Minion/Henchman/Companion Against Boss/Leader/Hero = 25%

>>Minion/Henchman/Companion Against Companion/Henchman/Minion = 50%

>>Attempting Assassination = 100%

Well... one problem tho, we have NO Hero. Everyone in the RP is considered the hero. Also, turned based will make it like pokemon, litterally impossible for speed to be usefull.

Also I think duels are the best way, sometimes it is not because it may be a new character, but...you can flip a coin or something.

I do have a solution to the hitting. Instead of giving a full description to the attack, give a slight one ex. *attacks with a purple tipped dagger* instead of saying *attack with a poison dagger* That way the attacked doesn't know what he is falling. Of course make NO attack to remove body parts. or OHKO or a super poison.

I'm not really a fan of this second idea.

In terms of speed though, since we are already restricting action types, give actions a time value
(i.e firebolt=15, dagger attack=5)
Then someone(probably me, I'm already working on one)writes a program to determines order according to points used

Uhm lets not go that far, aka 3.5 DnD written by accountants........

I like Keep It Simple Sheesh

As with all Games the burden falls on the GM ... BUT ... players need to follow some ground rules at the table, so to say.
That means no OOC chatter (keep that in Guild chat)

GM is the Judge ..... do not interrupt the GM or the GMwill be annoyed and use you as bait.

.............

My personal opinion here...

Open free form RP during normal interactive phases of the story should be fine for most scenes.

COMBAT - must be done differently.
I prefer a looser setup but structure is needed or the GM will kill a player eventually (note: player, not character)
At the start of each scene the Judge will decide action order based on the party list by listing the player #'s in the order they go.
- Each person puts their action number in front of their post so everyone knows who went and if they are next in line
- This lessens the headaches for the judge
Actions are one round or multiple rounds
- a few are zero cost but can only be done once per round - say something, pass gas, blush all while decapitating a Goblin (full round action)
Multi-round actions
- greater spells, complicated actions like making something or disabling a trap

Examples would be

1 - Draw my sword and charge at the knave while screaming the lyrics to edelweiss (free action and full round move - judge may say if close enough to end with an attack)
2 - Draw my bow and fire at a mage while slowly moving forward through cover
3 - Draw my bow under full power, aiming for the mage casting the fireball (this is a full round action - no movement)
4 - Grab 5 arrows as I draw my bow and move forward (OK this one is harder but next round there will be the volley of 5)
5 - Start Casting my fireball (will still be casting next round and the one after that)
6 - Cast and loose a single icebolt at the mage (Judge will decide if mage's casting is messed up or not)
7 - Fully charge up firbolt (cast next round)
8 - Sheild rush the Mage and say Hi, I'm Mike from Canmor (bump into him and say hi - minimal damage but might mess up the casting - also annoy the rest of the party since you are now at ground zero for the ranged attacks)

and so on

Another way to settle this, a more boring way and more luck based. Use diced. It can be done to way.

1) Roll 1 or 2 dices and the higher number wins.

or...the best one.

2) One player does an attack, while the other either counters,dodges, attack , and ect. You role a dice the higher number wins. BUT at the same time the difference from the dice means more damage. Ex. Roll1:2, Roll2: 5. Attack power: 3.

That ways seems better, BUT even if you hit... it CAN NOT kill a character (unless the player allows it.) It can not remove any body parts. If your attack is that strong and it hits, the other player needs find a way to take damage but at the same time keep his body parts/live.

...-_- just a question :what the hell is this?-_-

I think we're a bit diverted from a very common problem of multi-person combat while we focused on the combat system; multiple chat going on all at once, not including the out of character chatters in and not in guild chat. In an eight person party role-play, it is expected that up to more than 7 different things going on. Jakejaliji suspected that much activity may force the GM and some of the players to fill up most of their average screens with the chat log, even without the out of character chatters of the guild chat. Because of the fact that a lot of us are more focused on visuals, we tend to keep the chat log to the standard minimal size, contributing to the complaints from some of the players about their actions being ignored by the GM until those players alerted the GM. By insight, without taking turns, at least 2-3 players may issued a counter action as soon as the GM issued an action against one of the players. That problem either may forced the GM to ignore all except one of the counter actions or take longer to record all of the counter actions issued. If the first option was done, some of the inexperienced or the clueless players whose counter action were ignored may complain to the GM. How can we fix that so the GM may have less of a headache from semi-constant flow of chat entries.

ok so...what the hell is this?

dweramond wrote:ok so...what the hell is this?

We're coming up with a combat system to solve some issues that both the GMs and the Players may have problems with. Like...

1. Multiple players attempting the same counter measure against an action issued by the GM (mainly because the notion of taking turns are not set up at the beginning of nearly every role-play sessions).

2. Some actions being ignored because the GM couldn't keep up with the semi-constant flow of chat entries (cuing the complaints from those who are either want to annoy the GM, those who are inexperienced and those who are in the dark about their action's results).

3. Multiple out of character chats going on, even in Guild Chat (normal for all of us and unavoidable for those who are not aware of how to silence the guild chat with chat options).

I believe this is in response to an RP session where everyone ended up surrounded by penguins.

Translation: Yes it really went that far South.

Hmmm turned based seems to be the only way but it takes to long...

I honestly prefer doing it freestyle

Before I say anything - LOL Cloud.

Now then... (just for the record, this is a draft of an idea I came up with in about 10 seconds, so I might be editing it later. ^^; )

I do like this style, but the problem is with a game like this, it's a little too tedious and time-consuming. Ways I prefer doing combat on Mabi are either simple duels, PVP, or turn-based texting. Just using what the system supplies. In cases of 1v1, it's very easy to do.

Of course, could always improvise too. I think there were certain circumstances that had to be met for people to use PVE, right? Like DK vs Paladin/Giant vs Elf, but never anything aside from that unless a challenge was issued? In cases where it was just alliance vs alliance, it could easily just be a free-for-all; but in cases where personal character alliances were made (i.e. giant and elf allies/friends), it might be a little more tricky to do.

Easy solutions I thought about toward this aside from TB texting were to set up one-on-one duels, but with that option to cancel engagement and switch out if things aren't going well on either side (player would need to be clear enough to be able to back out so they don't get attacked while canceling. Pretty much like falling back in a real combat situation.). Naturally, a KO would mean switching out anyways, and battle ends when one group can't fight anymore. I've seen this work nicely once before between me, J, and Akitan (I think Cathail too, but I don't remember if Xenny fought or ran for it). It was J's dark knight VS us, and things pretty much went like this...aside from the fact that he actually did beat us down rather than canceling to switch out.

As far as handicap options go, that would just have to be set by the players before entering combat (at least in duels).

So Pros I see for this:

Easier to freestyle/"wing it"
Flexible order
Sticks to Mabi's combat system relatively easy
Quick and painless (for the player, probably not their character )

Cons:

Limited creativity
Not too organized
Relies on Mabinogi's alignments

And that's pretty much the basic idea. I'll probably be back after class break to fix it up to make a little more sense.

You Might have something there if things go to full out combat with live(?) actors.
For a few minutes of freestyle stream of thought it looks like a good start to work from.
Maybe a little more in depth analysis and some play testing might be in order before formalizing this methode.

I think my approach is more appropriate for the virtual enemies and situations where combat and roleplay actions are intertwined.
It also needs a bit of testing and work to make it user freindly.

Maybe a little of both with a "Depending on the situation" decision by the GM (storyteller) as opposed to the GM (Ban-hammer-wielder)

o-k so...i think i understand a lttle -_- but still...i think its okay the way it is XD

'Bomb maker'?
Is that a reference to trapsetting Eugeal?

The way I see it, Eugeal can be considered somewhat sub-par out in the field, but in the library, she has rights to a certain level of Godmoding(especially if she's been expecting the foe to arrive)

Aside from that, you do make very good points. In the end, it boils down to the GM to regulate the fight. If a bomb-maker always takes the initiative, find a way to negate the bomb.