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View Full Version : Pathfinder Mapless rules - is this an OK solution?



Sparx MacGyver
2017-02-20, 07:15 PM
Greetings! OK, so I'm running a PbP game, and I'm not using maps. Frankly, they annoy me for such type. Mostly cause I'm lazy, and I really don't wanna go through all the process of moving stuff about. Yeah, I know there's ditzie, and it's great for that use, but I still wanna go mapless. I've done this for other systems, and it worked fine. Star Wars Saga Edition I just changed things to 'range bands' using that games ranged weapon..ranges. I tacked on an additional band though - melee. Basically, it was a move action to go between bands, with one move action jut to disengage from the enemy and another would be required to then move to short range (range bands were: melee>short>medium>long). It still allowed for plenty of freedom and the players were able to do what they needed/wanted, within reason.

so now I'm setting up a Pathfinder game, and I figured I could do the same thing. Except, there is no "ranges" per se. Ranged weapons have a certain distance tehy can shoot with no penalty, and then it's a -2 for each amount after that (so a bow with 100 ft would shoot at -6 shooting out to 300ft).

So my idea is to do something similar to my other style. I can either add some "range bands" which would be entirely meaningless outside of movement in combat, and even then means that each weapon will have it's own set of ranges. This could be averted by simply changing weapon proficiency's to something else (pistol, rifle, heavy, simple, etc), though this is probably more work than it's worth.

Another way I thought of is to have basically 3 sets of ranges: engaged>melee>ranged
Engaged is just that, you are engaged in melee combat with the opponent. Melee means you can reasonably get to the opponent with a move action or a check. While ranged is as it sounds, you are at a distance and not in melee.

So, this seems adequate to get the job done. I want it to be relatively simple, but still cover enough without bogging things down. Part of the game will be more descriptive, but I do like having some rules in place allowing the players a format/structure.

RocksInMyDryer
2017-02-20, 10:01 PM
Fantasy Flight's Star Wars games basically uses this. Engaged, Short, Medium, Long and Extreme ranges are what they use. My only thought is with the range bands you mentioned, Engaged and Melee can basically be the same thing, with a move action required to get from Short to Melee so that you can attack. If anything, you'd want to save Engaged as a term for the few times that a character occupies the same square as another, such as when grappling.

Sparx MacGyver
2017-02-20, 10:33 PM
Ah, I see what your saying. So Changing it to something like Melee>Ranged? I could see that. And then just teh players know "you'll be taking -6 for that shot because ".


As for FFG, yeah that's how myself and acouple others came up with the idea for SWSE mapless. I like FFG, it's decent. But ti's not a system I [I]actually want to use, so I'd rather borrow some ideas and go over to Saga.