Fastest Combat System for PbP?

[Another_Poet]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what you think game has the "best" ruleset/combat system for play-by-post. And by "best" I mean fastest. And by fastest I mean the one that gets a battle finished in the fewest total posts. That could be because combat is short or because a character can take a bunch of actions in one turn. I don't care - I'm looking for fast combat where one fight can be resolved in just a few posts per player, maybe over the course of 1 week by PbP, rather than a month or more.

I am already familiar with the methods of speeding up D&D combat for PbP such as not using initiative, allowing players to post "if-then" actions, having the DM force an action or skip a character if the player doesn't post in time, etc. I'm not looking to speed up D&D, I'm looking for a system that is fast and decisive when it comes to encounters.

Suggestions?

[Melamoto]

You could make enemies less resilient and higher damage. Alternatively, you could have everyone use Skype for battles. And I think there are also real-time interactive battle maps that can be used for battles, or similar such programs.

[grautry]

Check out Wushu. It's got an open license here so you should be able to get an idea for how it works.

It might or might not be to your taste. The system is designed for action movie style play and it works well for that but it's also extremely simplistic which might not be to your liking.

[Tengu_temp]

Mutants and Masterminds. The fastest system in PbP I played, and I played Risus.

[Oslecamo]

Mutants and Masterminds. The fastest system in PbP I played, and I played Risus.

Indeed, just one d20 roll per turn per player, can't get much faster than that.

[kc0bbq]

Indeed, just one d20 roll per turn per player, can't get much faster than that.

Amber DRPG requires zero die rolls per turn per character of any size. :)

[Oslecamo]

Amber DRPG requires zero die rolls per turn per character of any size. :)

You really can't call it an RPG when you remove all random elements

[kpenguin]

Freeform removes all dicerolling, so yeah.

[Oslecamo]

Freeform removes all dicerolling, so yeah.

Notice the "combat system" pre-requisite in the title.

[onthetown]

I don't know of any full systems, but I've noticed that rolling initiative at the first of the game and using it throughout the campaign manages to speed it along. As soon as the GM gives the signal to start the battle, everybody knows exactly when they can post as long as they're following along.

[Glimbur]

Wuthering Heights. Of course, combat shouldn't be common in this system unless you play like most of my players end up playing. Were they actual English nobility no-one would have survived the Victorian Era.

[Tehnar]

I dont have much with it experience but the Legend of the 5 rings is pretty fast in combat. People end up dead fast.

[infinitypanda]

Burning Wheel has rules for simplified combat where the entire battle is reduced to a single opposed roll.

[Tengu_temp]

I don't know of any full systems, but I've noticed that rolling initiative at the first of the game and using it throughout the campaign manages to speed it along. As soon as the GM gives the signal to start the battle, everybody knows exactly when they can post as long as they're following along.

Must suck to be the guy who rolled low. If you're going to do something like that it's better to just let people move in order of their initiative bonus if you ask me.

[Satyr]

Don't roll initiative. Just always used a fixed level, either the average or the highest possible value. Variable Initiative scores are by no means an obligatory RPG elements and many games can do without.
otherwise there are two very different options: You could either take a game like Wushu which has a very abstract approach to the game and little to no connection between the mechanical aspects and the plot of the game, which speeds things up through superficiality, or you can take one of the grittier games around, where every single combat round might take longer, but every single hit is significant and often the first hit in any battle is decisive. While the latter approach is usually the more satisfying in a real world game, the latter one might make sense in a PbP game, especially when the plot of the game is more important than the conflict resolution and an open-ended conclusion of the conflict is not intended. This might pretty much the best way to use a game like Wushu.

[Raum]

I'm wondering what you think game has the "best" ruleset/combat system for play-by-post. And by "best" I mean fastest. And by fastest I mean the one that gets a battle finished in the fewest total posts. That could be because combat is short or because a character can take a bunch of actions in one turn. I don't care - I'm looking for fast combat where one fight can be resolved in just a few posts per player, maybe over the course of 1 week by PbP, rather than a month or more.

Wushu is one possibility. If you prefer a more traditional style game, Over the Edge may work. And, if you want to be able to 'script' combat, you might look at Mouse Guard or Burning Wheel. Being an 'old fart', Over the Edge would probably be my choice.

[Innis Cabal]

You really can't call it an RPG when you remove all random elements

Wait what? Really? I thought you couldn't remove Role Playing from an RPG and call it an RPG.

[lesser_minion]

+1 for dropping randomised initiative.

It doesn't really add much, and it's just going to slow the game down if you're doing PbP.

[Another_Poet]

I am already familiar with the methods of speeding up D&D combat for PbP such as not using initiative... I'm not looking to speed up D&D, I'm looking for a system that is fast and decisive

I don't know of any full systems, but I've noticed that rolling initiative at the first of the game and using it throughout the campaign manages to speed it along.

*facepalm*

I am already familiar with the methods of speeding up D&D combat for PbP such as not using initiative... I'm not looking to speed up D&D, I'm looking for a system that is fast and decisive

Don't roll initiative.

*headdesk*

I am already familiar with the methods of speeding up D&D combat for PbP such as not using initiative... I'm not looking to speed up D&D, I'm looking for a system that is fast and decisive

+1 for dropping randomised initiative.

*hangs desk from 10th floor window with rope, walks outside front door, stands directly under desk, looks up and shoots rope*

The above is meant mostly humorously. Not trying be a jerk... much...

Wuthering Heights. Of course, combat shouldn't be common in this system unless you play like most of my players end up playing. Were they actual English nobility no-one would have survived the Victorian Era.

OMG THERE IS A WUTHERING HEIGHTS RPG??? My life has meaning. This is the best news I've gotten all week, maybe all year.

[elonin]

It's weird that nobody here or in any game I've played in has suggested this idea. When the combat starts everyone posts general actions and their general stats. For example a rogue might post Skevlar will typically try to keep in flanking trying to take down as many mooks as possible. Hitpoints x babx ac x + x vs etc. And then present rolls for saves or to hit and damage.

The dm would then extrapolate what happens each round and it's up the players to keep up (for example if the BBEG suddenly appears). It gives up something but speeds combat up by a decent clip.

[Another_Poet]

It's weird that nobody here or in any game I've played in has suggested this idea. When the combat starts everyone posts general actions and their general stats. For example a rogue might post Skevlar will typically try to keep in flanking trying to take down as many mooks as possible. Hitpoints x babx ac x + x vs etc. And then present rolls for saves or to hit and damage.

The dm would then extrapolate what happens each round and it's up the players to keep up (for example if the BBEG suddenly appears). It gives up something but speeds combat up by a decent clip.

I suspect people don't do it because the DM would be overloaded with work to do then. It's kind of a pain to make that many rolls for players. Some people might also be worried that players wouldn't feel they have enough control. That said I bet it would make things faster if the DM could keep up with it.

[Zeta Kai]

+1 for Initiative bonus = Initiative order.

Also, you could house-rule that damage is always maximized. It eliminated a roll for every hit, & it whittles down HP faster, speeding things up further.

[JaronK]

Shadowrun tends to have VERY fast combat. Lots of one hit TKOs, and it's far more about planning the combat in advance and then executing the plan then running up and seeing what happens.

JaronK

[Cespenar]

Wuthering Heights. Of course, combat shouldn't be common in this system unless you play like most of my players end up playing. Were they actual English nobility no-one would have survived the Victorian Era.

That's... the most hilarious system I've ever seen.

[DragoonWraith]

Shadowrun tends to have VERY fast combat. Lots of one hit TKOs, and it's far more about planning the combat in advance and then executing the plan then running up and seeing what happens.

JaronK

Planning combats can sometimes take as long in PbP as the actual combat, though...

[Zeta Kai]

That's... the most hilarious system I've ever seen.

Hilarious in which way? Hilarious bad? Hilarious good? Or just hilarious weird?

[Glimbur]

That's... the most hilarious system I've ever seen.

It's... abusable. Almost every time I run a game with this system, no matter the setting, we end in a bloodbath. Although once there was a big trial to see if one of the PC's was the true heir, and once we had simultaneous Catholic and Anglican funerals, and besides that all bloodbaths all the time.

[Temotei]

Hilarious in which way? Hilarious bad? Hilarious good? Or just hilarious weird?

Hilarious funny?

[lesser_minion]

*hangs desk from 10th floor window with rope, walks outside front door, stands directly under desk, looks up and shoots rope*

*Does same to self*. That was a pretty catastrophic mistake.

Call of Cthulhu can be pretty quick for PbP as long as you stay out of melee.

It's even faster if you're not particularly nice to your players, obviously.

World of Darkness might have a shot, since a lot of combat actions are resolved faster. You roll a dice pool, and every success is a point of damage. No successes means a miss.

3rd edition WFRP would be the slowest system for PbP, because it requires six dice rolls per action. I guess you could use Opera notes for the code and memorise the tables, but yeah...

[Grynning]

I don't know about for PbP, but I can give a +1 to Mutants and Masterminds. At our table more time was spent describing our actions and the effects than on resolving any rolls, which was fun. M&M is also easily adaptable to almost any game type or setting. It's little brother True20 was designed to expand on that, not sure how its combat is different.

The fastest RPG combat system I can recall was for an obscure little kitchen sink punk sci-fi game called WasteWorld (no longer in print, as far as I know). It's older than M&M but uses a similar system with opposed d20 rolls. I really liked how it calculated damage - it's just the difference between the attacker's hit roll and the defender's dodge or parry roll, with a multiplier/bonus for the weapon, minus defender's armor. Also notable for having good autofire rules for guns (a rarity in modern RPG's) and a cinematic ammo system (running out of bullets was a critical failure result, otherwise you had movie-style bottomless mags).

Edit: Old website that explains the basics of the system: http://kuoi.com/~kamikaze/WasteWorld....com/howto.htm

White Wolf's combat can be fast if everyone is familiar with the system and if the ST isn't too big on calculating all the situational bonuses and penalties the rules suggest, it also uses combined rolls for hits and damage.