d20 Adamant Entertainment Narrative Combat.pdf

Written By: Shannon Kalvar

Art by: Rudolf Montemayor and Butch Mapa

(courtesy of LPJDesign, Inc.).

Other images courtesy of Jupiter Media Inc.

Cover: Illustration by Rudolf Montemayor

Digital Color and Design by G.M. Skarka

Introduction

The second chapter, The Narrative Round , presents a new

combat system for d20. The combats follow the familiar round

structure but characters declare a stance rather than individual

actions. Each stance exerts an effect on the combat situation and

requires the character to succeed at one or more checks. These

effects may include damage, damage mitigation, movement

towards or away from a goal, or alteration of an encounter’s

stated agenda.

Welcome to Narrative Combat , a book in Adamant

Entertainment’s d20 MasterKit line. These products expand

standard d20 rules to cover exciting new adventure opportunities

ranging from chases to the fury of the open sea.

Why, then, did Adamant release Narrative Combat ? D20 is,

effectively, a tactical combat simulation with a thick gloss of

other things thrown over the top. Combat hardly represents an

“exciting new adventure opportunity” for the average player.

In fact, it features fairly regularly in even the least violent

campaigns. Characters in violent campaigns play out more

combat in an afternoon that most real world soldiers see in a

lifetime of service.

The third chapter, The Templates of Narrative Combat ,

provides the tools needed to design and manage encounters.

It begins with a discussion of the idea of templates and the

components used in them. The chapter then goes on to suggest

common values corresponding roughly with the d20 CR system.

It concludes with a discussion of template design methodology

and suggestions for avoiding common pitfalls.

However, for all its focus on tactical combat, the d20 rules

provide us with few ways to run combat involving goals more

complex than “beat down the other guy”. This gets fairly old

after the ﬁrst few times the characters beat someone up and take

their stuff. So Game Masters invent their own rules in an attempt

to spice things up.

The fourth chapter, Example Encounter Templates , outlines

ten common templates ranging from tavern brawls and courtly

duels to holding the line against overwhelming forces and

the fox and rabbit ambush. Each template provides a map,

almost like a game board, the Game Master can use to run the

encounter. The entries provides both a template and narrative

descriptions showing how to customize the template without

changing the template structure. These descriptions also show

how description, interaction, and game elements work together to

create a more interesting encounter.

Regardless of whether these rules work or not the players and

Game Master still wrestle with the detailed tactical combat

system cluttering d20 books. Concerns about scene pacing and

dramatic rhythm take a back seat to calculating exact damage

numbers and accounting for all of the tactical possibilities.

The ﬁfth and sixth chapters translate standard d20 feats and

special abilities into the narrative combat system. The ﬁfth

chapter provides a one to one translation of all d20 feats from d20

Modern. The sixth chapter provides the translation rules used

by the designer, so a Game Master can translate feats from any

existing d20 game.

This kind of play makes for a fun game when used in moderation.

However we also need a way to run all of the other kinds of

combat we would like to include in our games.

Thus was born Narrative Combat . Inside these pages you will

ﬁnd a combat system designed to help spark narration rather than

record-keeping. It assumes character intent and skill matters

more than their position on the ﬁeld of battle. It uses standard

d20 character information, but does so without getting bogged

down into intricate calculations. Most importantly it provides

a uniﬁed method for discussing and running everything from

simple brawls to tense combats on burning bridges or keep

sieges.

The book concludes with appendices containing charts, a grid

template you may print out for your own use, and a FAQ.

The Power of Narrative Combat

In ﬁction combat serves to highlight and resolve conﬂict. The

scene shows us something important about the world, the

characters, and their relationships with one another. Combat also

acts as a symbol for danger, sharpening the tension in a scene by

giving us a visceral sense the characters might “die”.

Book Structure

Narrative Combat contains ﬁve chapters. Each chapter covers

a separate part of the narrative combat concept, starting with the

core ideas and working back into d20 rules and numbers. By

applying the chapters successively the Game Master can modify

his game a as he sees ﬁt.

In a RPG combat occurs so often it blends into the background.

The scene tells us little about the characters or the world. Instead

it serves as a way to work with numbers and explore various

tactical options. We play a game of combat in which random

chance, character building choices, and tactical savvy stand

dominant over “narrative concerns”.

The ﬁrst chapter, Overview of Narrative Combat , deﬁnes terms

and outlines the concept of goal oriented combats. It suggests not

all combats need to begin with a surprise round and end when the

opponents fall to the ﬂoor bereft of hit points. Indeed, opponents

might not even have the same attributes as characters, acting

as part of the overall game environment rather than individual

creatures. It also suggests some alternative goals.

With the narrative combat system we try to combine narrative

ﬂow and the game elements of RPG combat. The players make

meaningful choices and face obstacles worthy of heroes in the

pursuit of goals that mean something. Meanwhile, the game

elements provide both play options and the dramatic tension

associated with the possibility of failure.

Chapter I– Overview of Narrative Combat

B aldric the Bold braced his blazing blade behind a black

buckler. Below behemoths bound by blasphemous

oaths tore into the wall’s foundations. Blood-red ﬁre

fell from above, tossed down by ﬂying creatures with

bat wings and cruel faces. The ﬂames caught on stone and skin,

illuminating both the wall’s defenders and the waves of orcs

amassing for a ﬁnal assault.

“Damn” muttered Kevin. “How many of those things are there,

anyway?”

“It looks like forty demons of various sorts, plus another 1000

orcs.” The Game Master gazed glumly at the large map.

“Keeping track of the ﬂyers is going to hurt. Good thing I got

these ﬂying minis.”

David, Baldric’s player, shook his head.

“This is going to take all night!”

-----

The purple prose above suggests a situation many groups would

like to play out in the course of a game: the desperate defense of a

stronghold against overwhelming odds. Unfortunately the highly

tuned small group tactical combat game included with standard

d20 tends to bog down when running something involving that

many separate moving objects.

In fact, the rules as written do little to help us play though many

kinds of combats. They work decently for duels and very well

for detailed small group ﬁghts in relatively conﬁned spaces.

However, they break down when events occur within the combat

space or when the parameters of the scene call for some game

elements outside of affecting the opposing targets.

writing. Everything from advanced classes to entire games

revolves around subtle alterations to its complex rules.

Supplements that close down options gain the moniker

“simpliﬁed” while those expanding options become “additions”.

Addressing this limitation requires us to ﬁrst assess the existing

combat system to understand its strengths and weaknesses. We

can then, using the same methods, sketch the outlines of a system

that would better serve some (but not all) needs.

In reality all of these supplements embrace the standard d20

combat model. Character intent takes a back seat to player

action. Players who know and can manipulate the rules well do

better than those who understand what must be done in a story

sense. This tactical focus forces the Game Master to resolve

most or all combats in the same fashion, never varying the level

of attention or detail given to a particular scene.

Standard Combat vs. Narrative Combat

On several occasions above we reference “standard” and

“narrative” combat. What do these terms mean and what does

that deﬁnition tell us about the games we play?

Standard Combat

What we refer to as “standard” combat in d20 involves the

initiation, assessment, and resolution of discrete actions. Each

character moves, performs actions, and assesses impacts within a

set time frame. This combat evolved from war games and does

an excellent job of challenging the players’ tactical skills. It also

pits the players against the Game Master in a battle of wits; if the

players win the scenario advances and if the Game Master wins

the game ends.

In this game the primary actor is the character and his primary

output is a discrete action targeting another character. This

action theoretically represents (in a narrative sense) a sequence of

actions. However, the structure of the game makes it difﬁcult to

bring this conception to play. Each action either must overcome

a threshold (AC/DV) or establishes a threshold (Save or Skill

check DC) for the target’s reaction.

The game actors relate to one another in both distance and time.

In order to manage distance the game relies on a map structure.

The standard combat game takes up a huge portion of d20

This map may or may not be interactive; that is it may or may not

contain obstacles, objects to manipulate, or timed events. Each

character has one opportunity to declare his action and must do so

in a sequence. This sequencing serves to ensure each character

gets to act and gives advantages to acting both before and after

others.

He and the players also use all of the information provided to

describe the action taking place, creating a “narrative” event.

This system gives the Game Master other advantages. Rather

than individually manipulating each opponent he can simply

establish appropriate thresholds of damage, defense, and skill use

to simulate the encounter difﬁculty he desires. This ﬂexibility

also allows him to establish objectives for the encounter beyond

the simple tactical goals ordinarily associated with standard d20

combat. Time thresholds, common since the ﬁrst days of RPGs,

represent the simplest of these innovations. Layered skill races,

complex control and manipulations tasks, and even more become

possible with just a little more work.

The focus on individual actions and their effects gives each

character’s activity considerable impact. Players must make

highly tactical decisions about target selection, action sequence,

and action type. They work together to produce an effective

detailed plan of action on a round by round basis. Since actions

exert their effect immediately upon action completion the

situation “in combat” changes fairly rapidly.

Narrative Combat Structure

The game elements of narrative combat fall into two components.

The ﬁrst, the narrative round, governs how the characters take

stances and the effects each stance produces. The second, the

encounter template, dictates what the characters must accomplish

and the time frame they have to accomplish it in.

All of this creates an interesting and intricate game. However,

it also forces all combats to run with the same, deliberate pace.

Being character focused, it also tends to shift the focus of

combats away from potential complicating environmental factors.

The character/action focus also places a considerable burden on

the Game Master. Each player runs one (or a small cluster) of

characters with a limited and well known set of options. The

Game Master runs multiple unique characters, often with unique

abilities and associated tactics. Since each character requires its

own, sometimes quite detailed, record keeping additional burdens

fall on those who run more than one character.

The narrative round is structured much like a standard d20

combat round. Characters roll initiative to determine declaration

order, with the highest going ﬁrst and the rest following in

sequence. Each player declares his character’s stance and

the associated variables. Players can and should resolve their

variables, then wait for the Game Master to request the results. If

they succeeded in all objectives then the conﬂict ends; if not then

the next round begins.

Narrative Combat

What we refer to as “narrative” combat involves the declaration

of intent to achieve speciﬁc goals. The characters then resolve

their progress towards these goals by making appropriate

checks. The progress of all characters declaring a similar

intention amasses against pre-established thresholds within the

game environment. Triggered or timed events and the game

environment’s structure further modify this progress.

The encounter template establishes the characters’ objectives

for the conﬂict. A simple template might declare a threshold of

“deal 20 dice of damage” with an event “deal 5d6 damage to the

characters” occurring each round. This simple template would,

in fact, describe almost all d20 combats. An only slightly more

complex template might declare a two variable threshold “deal 20

dice of damage and each character must succeed at 4 Jump skill

checks (DC 20)”. This template might describe a combat against

a group of archers peppering the characters with arrows from

across a 10-feet wide chasm.

Characters declare their intention by selecting one of ﬁve

“stances” selected from a list of offensive, defensive, active,

supportive, and passive. When the character assumes a stance

he also speciﬁes one or more variables that alter the stance’s

effect. The combination of the stance, the variables selection,

and the character’s own modiﬁers from feats and special abilities

becomes the narrative description of the character’s actions.

A template provides a generic description of an encounter just

as the stances outline the characters intentions in the scene. The

Game Master and players use both to describe the scene, creating

both game and narration at the same time.

The output of each stance contributes towards one or more

thresholds established in the game environment. The offensive

stance generates damage which deducts from opponent hit point

totals or amasses towards a damage threshold. The defensive

stance absorbs damage, slowing down the reduction in the

characters hit points or the accumulation of damage towards a

threshold. The active stance contributes skill successes to meet

thresholds keyed to skill use. The supportive stance provides

bonuses to the character actions or penalties to opposing

character actions. The passive stance allows the character to

build his strength, amassing bonuses for his next stance change.

At the end of the round the Game Master uses the stance outputs

to resolve success vs. failure towards the encounter’s goals.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: