Author Topic: Fantasy Combat Training  (Read 3889 times)

Flawless P

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Fantasy Combat Training
« on: June 09, 2011, 01:10:20 AM »
A friend of mine dies all the time, he always seems to make poor decisions that end in his characters death, whether it comes from not retreating when at low HP or not taking tactically sound actions like cover.

Our usual game master runs combat more organically, you have to think outside the box to be effective and trading blows with whatever happens to be around is usually not a very good idea. He rewards innovative uses for spells, and tactics are a must.

So I am planning some scenarios that force him to think about what is around him and take into account more than just his hp and the opponents AC.

So far I have  one where he is equipped with 2 necklaces of fireball and the opponent is a Sorcerer. It will be his initiative. If he doesn't take the opportunity to ditch the necklaces there the Sorc is going to fireball him and set off all the beads. 

Any ideas for some good lessons in tactics that would force him to pay attention to all the options? He wants to play more tactfully and I hope between all of you and my own ideas we can train him up good.
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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Fantasy Combat Training
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2011, 11:37:55 AM »
Simple tactical exercises would probably work well.

Present simple situtations where the best situations isn't presented as one of the obvious options. Make survival the clear goal rather than the death of the enemy.

I went through one kind of like this:

"Your in a room with a wooden door to the north and a wooden door to the south. You can hear, through the small gap at the base of the door, something large moving in the room to north. You do not hear anything to the south. The room you are in is lit by an oil lamp. There is a hand mirror by the lamp. Two cabinets are against the east wall. One contains a collection of weapons: a long sword, a shield, a spear, a mace, a strung short bown, a quiver of arrows, a dagger, and a great sword. The other contains common clothing items for men and women. The west wall is lined with the remains of furniture."

The goal is to survive so a smart person will try to figure out what's outside of the room. Using the hand mirror you can check under the doors to get an idea of what's beyond.

Basically everything else is described in an effort to dislead the person though because if you leave out of the south door, you get safety to town. That's the win condition. Choosing to retreat from obvious danger is the less, using any of the other props is a matter of degrees.

Shallazar

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Re: Fantasy Combat Training
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2011, 03:54:01 PM »
Tad, that just makes think that Flawless P should make this untactical dood play Zork.

Find it here --> http://pot.home.xs4all.nl/infocom/
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Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Fantasy Combat Training
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2011, 04:15:59 PM »
Well sure, if you've got a copy of Zork just laying around on the internet than hell yeah, do that.