Running Combat
The heart
and soul of any role-playing game is the ability for characters to do things
players would never dream of doing. In
the vast majority of role-playing games, this means combat. Shadowrunning is by default a very dangerous
occupation, and even the best thief has to dodge bullets and body slams
sometime. As a gamemaster it is your job
to make sure this exchange of blows is both smooth and vivid. This chapter is designed to give gamemasters
tools and strategies for making combat of all kinds fair and fun.
Making Things Run
Smoothly
The first
goal of running combat is to make it run smoothly and quickly. If a player has to wait 15 minutes between
his actions he will quickly become bored.
Halting to look up rules or making sure every applicable modifier is
used, will bog down the combat scenes and make them feel less like action, and
more like math homework. This is not to
say modifiers should be ignored, but that that steps should be taken to remove
slow downs do to looking up charts.
Pre-Generating
your Non Player Characters
Every GM
should have a stack of quick NPC sheets available to him. There is a sample NPC chart in the
"Charts and Sheets" section of this book. For quick NPC's like Security Guards or Thugs
a GM can simply write down their general stat line and simple equipment like
"Pistol 9m, Armor 3/3" and be done with it. They don't have to be exact, but keeping
track of several NPC's becomes much easier when they are all on one page.
Any time
a GM has more time available to him (like when planning the adventure) he
should spend additional time building his NPC's. They don't need to be fully fleshed out
characters with character sheets, just the usual NPC notes box. This time and effort will make the eventual
combat unfold much quicker.
Presented
in the "Thugs, Contacts and Security Guards" chapter are a series of
pre-generated statistics for commonly encountered NPC's, including sample
equipment "kits" and ways to scale them in power to the players. Taking time in advance of the game to
transfer these to an NPC sheet will make them more accessible, as well as help
a GM memorize some of the stats.
If the
players catch a GM by surprise with their actions, and he does not have the
appropriate NPC's readily available, he should take a moment to prepare a sheet
quickly. Transcribing one stat line and
making notes of each NPC's position will make the impending combat much easier
to co-ordinate.
If the GM
does not want to "slow the game down" to do this, he can have the
players make perception checks while he is writing things down, giving them
additional information such as "these guys look like their armor has seen
a few gunfights" or "the one on the left keeps glancing to the
right". This will give a GM time to
write things down while the players still feel they are being active. However, most players will not mind waiting a
minute or two while a GM prepares.
Initiative
It may
seem silly, but one of the things that slow games down the most is finding what
the initiative order is. Having each
player character on a PC combat sheet gives the GM an easy place to write notes
and keep track of the players’ initiative ranking. Remember that this number can drop as player
characters take wounds. As combat
progresses, the GM can turn to the player whose action it is and simply ask for
their action, rather than having to count down through the initiative phases
till someone says "that's me".
It also makes initiative ties much quicker to resolve.
One
technique employed by many GM's is to have every NPC with the same initiative
score act at the same time. This saves
time, but can also put NPC's at a severe disadvantage, as they cannot respond
as quickly to the failure of their companions.
As NPC's take wounds their initiatives will drop, this can cause an
NPC's to have different initiative ratings, so each NPC's initiative may need
to be tracked separately.
Modifiers
Made Easy
One
stumbling block for many GM's is deciding on modifiers for the combatants
actions. They will slow the game down
while they look at the modifiers chart and find the "correct"
difficulty level for each attack. This
slows the game down, and can take away from the "action oriented"
feel of combat.
To speed
this up, the GM should decide on one target number for the PC's and NPC's based
on range, lighting conditions, smartlink systems and other
"non-changing" factors. Then
as the PC takes damage, garners more uncompensated recoil or closes the distance,
the GM can quickly adjust the target number as required. This is another great use for the PC combat
sheet, as it gives easy access to the most common target modifiers.
It is
also important to note that the modifiers presented in SR3 are not set in
stone. GM's should feel free to modify
them as they see fit. This is especially
true of dodge modifiers. If a GM feels
that a shot is more difficult, he should adjust the difficulty accordingly. Exaggerated target numbers should be avoided
however, care should be taken to impose realistic (or cinematic) modifiers
rather than just arbitrarily making something "impossibly hard".
Holding
or Timed Actions
Eventually
the players will want to hold their action, or time things just perfectly. As long as you have paper nearby for notes (a
PC combat sheet for instance) then these actions will not pose any difficulty
for a GM. Timed grenades or actions
timed with other players should simply be noted on the sheet at what initiative
pass they will go off, giving the GM control over the flow rather than needing
to ask his players for additional information.
Making Things Cinematic
Once
combat is running smoothly and efficiently, a GM should then try to make the
combat more interesting. Any action
movie will attempt to do this (some much better than others) and Shadowrun
fight scenes should be no different.
This isn't as difficult as it would seem, altering small details will
make combat change exponentially.
Making
Cookies without a Cutter
NPC's
come in many varieties, but they are easily divided into two categories, villains
and henchmen. Anyone categorized as
"thug" or "security guard" quickly becomes a henchmen. Once a henchmen starts to garner more details
(such as a special weapon, or skills) he start to become a villain. Not all villains last more than one game
session, the security rigger or corporate man would count as a villain, but are
very likely to die in the course of a single run.
Henchmen
are often referred to as "cookie cutter NPC’s" or "cannon
fodder". From bandits on the path
to Lord Tolker's kingdom, to a group of mutant zombies on a space station,
every role-playing game has thousands of nameless minions just waiting to wave
at a group of player characters. In
Shadowrun, however, the NPC's have lives, and it is very easy to reflect this in
any combat situation. The easiest is the
"Professionalism Rating" of an NPC.
By giving each NPC a slightly different level of professionalism, a
group of security guards stops being a mob shooting from around a corner, and
starts taking on a subtle realism level of rookies and pro's.
Another
way to break up the repetitive nature groups of NPC's tend to take on is to
vary their appearance or equipment.
While every member of a corporate security force is likely to have the
same weapons, they can vary drastically in appearance. Simple hair colors, height, body type,
ethnicity or metahuman types can mix up a group of identical NPC's and make
descriptions much easier. Gang's offer
an even larger variety of choices, as their weapons, armor or clothing can be
drastically different from one NPC to another.
Greg's
runners have rounded a corner only to find 3 Lonestar officers talking around a
parked patrol car across the street.
Knowing they have been spotted (thanks to an APB put out earlier), the
runners pull out pistols and prepare for a fight. Greg describes the situation, "As you
round the corner a young blonde Lonestar officer scans you up and down. A look of realization dawns on his face, as
he taps one of the older officers on the shoulder. The older Native American officer turns
towards you, and barks out an order for you to halt, as he puts his hand on his
side arm. The third officer, an Ork,
spins around at hearing this and goes for his gun as well." Greg secretly decides that the two older officers
have a lower professionalism rating than the rookie, as they are less willing
to suffer maiming or death, than the naive "invincible" rookie.
In the
above example, the Lonestar encounter quickly took on a more dynamic feel than
a simple "three cops" encounter.
Now players can announced their target by saying "I shoot the Ork"
rather than "I shoot the cop on the right". Caution should be taken, as to much
description will get lost. Keep things
to simple stereotypes that can be easily identified. Each NPC should have one "exceptional
quality" that is visually recognizable.
Instead of numbers on a character sheet, these qualities can be noted
down. Quick descriptors can like
"brunette", "brass knuckles" or "troll" are much
less likely to slow the game down than "Male, Day Glo mohawk, 3 foot
length of chain". This should make
the NPC's less uniform, not slow the game down with a descriptive monologue.
Location
Effects
This is
the most commonly overlooked way to spice up combat. While dodging behind doors or parked cars is
easy to visualize, weather and debrise can drastically change things. The key element here is negative
modifiers. By making shots fired more
difficult to hit, combats becomes prolonged, forcing players and NPC's to
become more creative with their actions.
Local weather patterns are an easy way to tack on a few modifiers, for
instance games based in
Don't
simply stop at weather modifiers however.
Setting a combat in a crowded bar or street can be another great way to
make things difficult until the crowd clears out (usually in a couple combat
turns). While the combatants may not
care about hitting bystanders, it still interferes with their shots. Shootouts in office buildings can activate
anti-fire foam sprinklers or deep red warning lights. With creativity any location can have an
intense effect on combat.
Greg's
players have just interrupted a very powerful summoning ritual, the magic built
up over the last few days now rush from the shrine creating a level 3
background count, and a high wind in the local area. Trash is kicked up around the combatants, and
dust blows through the air, obscuring everyone's vision. Greg decides that all ranged combat will have
minimum target number of 6, and that smartlink systems will have a tougher time
acquiring a target due to the amount of debris flying through the air, to use a
Smartlink the character must use a simple action to aim.
The
effect of the combat itself should also be taken into effect. Grenades create smoke, and kick up dust. Bullets can break fragile objects, burst
pipes or even knock large pieces of art over.
These are just effects from typical attacks, weapons designed to create
environment effects (such as flash or smoke grenades) can create even large
effects. But combat can also become more
dangerous, not just more difficult. Two
martial artists fighting on a slanted wet roof, or within a few feet of a cliff
or electric fence, is much more dynamic than simply trading blows in the middle
of a hallway.
The chart
on page XX of SR3 gives some excellent examples of environment effects that can
create target modifiers, but each can vary in degrees, so feel free to scale
them up or down as is appropriate to the situation. As long as environment effects apply equally
to all combatants the players will not feel slighted (although weapons like
flash grenades can affect one specific group).
There is a much larger sense of accomplishment to dealing a single
moderate wound in the middle of a rainy street at
Hatori
a Physical Adept, has tracked another Physical Adept, Sahim of the Desert, to
the home of a retired Yakuza boss.
Hatori finds Sahim praying in a bamboo garden and leaps to the soft
grass below his rooftop perch. Sahim
stands and draws his scimitars, as Hatori pulls his Katana from its
scabbard. The two circle each other a
moment before initiative is rolled. Greg
thinks that the tall bamboo is encroaching on their movement, limiting reach
modifiers. The combatants may only use
reach to lower their own target numbers, and are limited to one point of reach
apiece. Strikes have a chance to cut bamboo
down, creating very sharp spears jutting up from the ground... a further hazard
as the fight continues. In addition
Sahim is blind, seeing only through his magical ultrasonic sense, so Greg
secretly rules that if Hatori moves more than a few feet away, Sahim will lose
track of him, giving Hatori a distinct advantage against a much stronger foe.
Summing
up Actions and Rounds
This is a
fairly simple tool for making combat more fluid, precise and dynamic. Every action should have a descriptor rather than
a simple mechanical effect. A player
should never shoot an Ork for a moderate wound; rather the bullet should
"tear through the Orks knee, nearly taking off his lower leg". At the end of every combat action a GM should
take a moment to describe what happened.
This does not need to be overly descriptive, but it is a great way to
explain target modifiers in a more "realistic" manner. The "wound samples" table gives
examples of what each type of wound could be.
Describing the effects of player actions also keeps all the players on
the same page with the progress they are making during combat.
Wounds
taken in this way can also be used to alter player characters. A mage who loses an eye may be forced to
purchase cyber-eyes, thus lowering his magic attribute. A Decker could take a scrape from a pair of
brass knuckles to his datajack, badly bruising his skull and forcing him to get
some new tech. This is also a great way
to create environmental effects for just one player. A player with a light wound to his shoulder
could be given no target modifiers, but instead suffer double the recoil
modifiers. Being creative with target
modifiers can make wounds more realistic, especially if they are described
properly at the end of each action.
Greg's
runners are pinned down behind an overturned oak desk. The thick wood is blocking bullets, but they
need to make it to an exit a few feet away.
Seven the Samurai decides to make a run for it, while unloading his
pistols as suppression fire. Greg
decides that Ian (Seven's Player) must make an athletics test to leap through
the doorway, every success will lower the target number for the subsequent
bursts. Ian rolls Sevens athletics dice,
succeeding in the test, and then gains 1 success on his pistols test for one of
the bursts. The guard he is firing at
fails to dodge, and Greg describes the action, "Seven takes a few running
steps from behind the desk, and leaps for the open doorway, firing a burst from
each gun while in mid air. The blonde
guard is spun around and thrown to the ground by the force of a bullet striking
his arm."
At the
end of each combat round (before initiative is rolled again) a GM should sum up
the previous rounds combat, letting the players know where they stand. While descriptions of combat should be one or
two sentence affairs, post round summation should be slightly more detailed,
letting the players know important information.
This can also be a great time to stress what the players don't know, by
mentioning key uncertainties in the dialogue.
Certain weather effects can also be changed, such as smoke is
dissipating, or rain abating.
With
Seven now safely in the hallway, the combat round has ended and Greg gives the
players a quick overview of where they stand now. "Seven is crouching at the doorway to
the large office, as Slider and Hatori duck behind the bullet riddled oak
desk. The young blonde security guard
lies moaning on the floor, as the Ork kneels behind a filing cabinet. A light smoke has filled the room, most
likely from the flickering lights above that have been hit by stray
bullets. It's unknown if the guards
called for backup, but with this many guns firing without silencers, they may
not have needed too... time is running short, help could be here any
minute."
How to win/lose a fight
New GM's
often have problems creating balance during combat scenes. Typically the opponents need to be slightly
more powerful, or slightly less powerful than the player group. Based on the players combat skills, GM's
combat skills and the realistic abilities.
Many new GM's attempt to balance encounters on paper, rather than on the
fly. Comparing skill numbers, weapons,
armor and number of opponents is something most GM's know how to do, however
the ability to adjust the difficulty of an encounter without changing the NPC's
statistics is a little more complex.
Probability
Any
discussion of combat needs to touch upon how to estimate the outcome of dice
rolls. It is a fairly simple matter of
calculating the chance to succeed for one dice, and multiplying it by the
number of dice. While this may seem
difficult at first, it quickly becomes second nature with a little bit of
practice.
While it
is possible to estimate the number of successes a character will roll, teaching
the math behind it would be impractical for games such as Shadowrun. The "rule of 6" and the "rule
of 1", combined with the randomness of dice in general, make accurate
gauging of dice rolls futile. Larger
target numbers are obviously harder to achieve, and thus more dice are
required. This very basic view of
probability must suffice for the time being.
Combat
Pool for Defense
To sway
the outcome of any fight a GM must understand the options he has to keep his
villains alive. One of these tools is
the combat pool. Combat pool and its
many uses are described from page xx to xx in SR3. The defensive options for a GM are dodging
damage, and resisting damage. To decide
which one is right for a given situation, a GM must analyze a few
variables.
Depending
on the armor rating of the character and the dodge modifiers these can be very
different, or nearly identical.
Typically the choice with the lower target number is the better
selection. However this can be altered
quite a bit by other circumstances. The
main things to worry about are the number of successes scored by the attacker,
and the damage code of his weapon. If
only one success is scored, dodging will be easy, but if his damage code is
high, staging it down will be much more difficult. If the opponent scored a lot of successes,
even a Light damage weapon can be deadly, and overcoming his successes can be
nearly impossible.
Seven,
a street samurai is firing his Ares Predator at a Yakuza bodyguard. He rolls
his 6 dice, plus 3 dice from his combat pool. His target has partial cover, and
Seven has a Smartlink. He fires his weapon against a target number of 6, and
rolls a 1,2,2,3,4,5,5,6 and a 6. That is 2 successes to hit the Yakuza. Knowing
that Seven has a 9M damage code with his predator, and that he can fire a second
time this round the Thug uses 3 dice from his combat pool to dodge, rolling a
2, 3 and a 4. This gives Seven 1 success, while the thug is still hit, he gets
a good shot at reducing the damage down from 9M. The thug is wearing 5/3 worth
of armor, and rolls his 6 (4 body + 2 dermal plating) against a target number
of 4 to resist the damage. He scores 1,2,4,5,5 and 6, for a total of 4
successes, combined with his dodge success that gives him 3 net successes after
Seven's 2 successes are removed from the thug's total. He stages the damage
down from Moderate to Light. If he had used 4 combat pool dice to dodge, he
would have had a good chance at completely dodging the incoming attack.
So while
the yakuza could have used up 6 combat pool dice to have a very good chance at
dodging the attack completely, he was able to rely more heavily on his body
dice. There are two reasons for this. Reason 1) Body dice are rolled every time
a player attacks, regardless of a dodge or not, so they are never "used up",
and Reason 2) The more dice you use, the more likely you are to roll
"average". If the Thug had
gotten lucky and rolled 3 4's on his dodge dice, he wouldn't have had to worry
about rolling body at all.
Combat
Pool for Offense
While
dodging can cause an NPC to take less damage, proper use of the combat pool can
cause the player characters to take more damage. The process of adding dice from the combat
pool to dice rolls is fairly simple, and more dice typically equal more
successes. Choosing when to add dice is
the mark of a good GM.
If you
want the players to take more damage then your NPC's should be putting
themselves in a position to have lower target numbers. By lowering the target number, the NPC can
gain more successes from combat pool dice than by adding dice to a "long
shot". Squandering Combat pool dice
will only get your NPC's killed quickly, because they do not have the pool left
over to defend with. While taking a long
shot with a pistol isn't necessarily a bad thing, adding combat dice into it is
often unadvisable. The only time this is
not the case is during the last attack of the round, as combat pool will
refresh immediately after the action.
While a
GM does not typically wish to outright kill a PC, the PC's do not always have
the same issue with NPC's. Holding back
dice to dodge with is important, but so is adding modifiers to attackers’
attempts to shoot the NPC's. By dealing
even a light or moderate wound, the attackers chances to deal damage drop
drastically, giving weight to the old adage "the best defense is a good
offense". PC's will typically know
this themselves, and many times throw all their combat pool dice into one big
opening attack, in hopes of killing, or sufficiently damaging, a threat to the
point of neutralizing it's offensive capabilities, this makes going first a
very large advantage, as the first attacker can set the pace of a combat scene
by forcing the other side to use more combat pool for defense, and eventually
overcoming them.
Modifiers
The last
tool for a GM to sway a fight is with modifiers. Environmental effects have been touched upon
earlier, and should not be ignored when attempting to sway a combat scene in
the direction of a GM's choosing. NPC's
with a way to circumvent target modifiers for environmental effects can find
themselves at an advantage, or vice versa.
If the players are fighting a superior foe, lower or removing his
ability to handle environmental effects can give the players a fighting chance.
Adding
small numbers to dodge tests can make the difference between a dead combatant
and a live one. By adjusting the dodge
modifiers down slightly early on (from 4 to 3 for example) both sides of a
fight will take less damage, as the fight goes on, these numbers can escalate
as is appropriate to end the fight.
These lower target numbers can also be a great way to allow an escape,
ore move the fight to a chase scene as the NPC's dodge their way to a vehicle.
In the
end, more dice overcome higher target numbers.
By adjusting those target numbers, the set number of dice available to
both parties become much more valuable based on when they are used. Using modifiers to adjust the worth of Combat
Pool and Skill dice is a great way to influence a combat scene.
Chase Scenes
Eventually
every group of runners will find themselves in a car with someone in pursuit
after them. A good GM can make these
chase scenes just as exciting as a shootout or fist fight. If the running group has a Rigger it is very
important to include the occasional chase scene, so that the Rigger can really
earn his keep. If a group has no rigger,
a chase can still make for a great scene, as long as it is done properly.
Distance
and Acceleration
One of
the problems many GM's make when running a chase scene is trying to view the
action from a top down approach, as the combatants move through a large
space. By instead worrying only about
the relative distance between objects, the pursuit can become much more
manageable. Acceleration simply
increases or decreases the distance between combatants. Calculate the difference in the opposing
speeds, and at the start or end of every combat round, adjust the relative
distances accordingly.
The lead
vehicle is at a disadvantage, as it must weave through traffic and dodge
obstacles. As obstacles come at the
combatants a GM would start by making the lead car avoid it, and then the cars
behind it based on their distance from the lead car. In the end, all actions can be described by
their relation to the lead car (usually the players). Getting away from pursuers is handled in one
of two ways. Crash/Destroy the pursuers
or drive fast enough to make an escape.
Stunts
Anything
from high speed turns to jumping a ramp can be classified as a
"stunt". Just as character
actions in a shoot-out or fist fight need well placed descriptors to keep
everyone on the same page, handling stunts in a chase needs to be done with
care. Avoiding obstacles is typically a
stunt, and the most commonly seen.
Stuns are
the chase scene equivalent of environment modifiers. Rain, stopped cars, pedestrians and anything
else that can be tossed into a vehicles way forces a reaction, and typically a
stunt. Examples of possible environment
effects can be found in numerous movies (especially of the buddy cop
genre). With a little imagination great
stunts can pepper a games chase.
Involving
Non-Riggers
During
chases non-rigging players often find themselves waiting for something to
do. An easy way to remedy this is with fire
points. Every vehicle should have enough
fire points so that the players riding along can fire guns at other
vehicles. While pistols don't typical do
a lot of damage, pistol fire can inflict negatives to the other drivers, making
an escape easier. In addition called
shots to tires, or terrain, can create a variety of adverse effects for other
drivers.
If your
group has no Rigger, any character with a Datajack can drive a vehicle with a
-1 modifier. While this isn't the same a
VCR system, it is certainly something for the rigger to do during chase scenes. Multiple vehicles, such as a motorcycle or a
second car, can also lead to more complex situations, giving more players the
ability to participate. Melding combat
styles is another way to involve multiple players. While the mage fights off an air elemental,
the rigger drives and the Street Samurai fire rifles out the windows... all
while the physical adept attempts to leap onto the hood of the car next to
them. This blending of combat styles
allows the rigger to excel, but gives the entire group something to do.