I thought you guys might get a kick out of this…

In our game we’ve been keeping the “Active Segments” concept, but then within any given Segment it is a free for all.  Instead of rolling a Reaction score check and going in order, I basically tell everyone “You have a few seconds to tell me what you’re going to do this second, or you’ll have to wait until you next Active Segment.”  Then everyone makes their decisions in a kind of vacuum of accurate information, and combat is more rough and tumble, and in my opinion that is more true to how things would really unfold in such a rapid combat.

I still give them plenty of time to calculate and execute the rolls… it’s just the actions that have to be announced.

Anyway, I like it and am sticking with it.

Keeps combat moving faster, and no is ever “waiting” for their turn.

/eh

Interesting approach! I find the reaction system quite cumbersome in general, and I’m looking for short cuts as well, but that’ll more likely be something like keeping reaction order for the entire session (I was slow today, I was feeling fast), using averages for monsters always etc.

Try it out…  keep the active segments, otherwise have everyone go on free for all.  It has several advantages:

1) it takes each player some time to figure out what they want to do; they could all be doing this simultaneously
2) it takes each player some time to figure out what dice to roll, and the appropriate mods, and then to roll them: again simultaneous is better
3) it is more chaotic, more realistic, and more fun (that fun bit is the important one for me)

I find that as a GM I can handle about 5 creatures in a single segment without feeling like I’m scrambling (that’s ~3-4 players and ~1-2 monsters).  Everyone once in a while I’m kind of scrambling to keep up, but that’s okay too.

Of course this works better if your party knows how to roll a basic attack without a lot of hand-holding.

Wielders typically require slightly more guidance.  But again, I’m just looking for them to _start_ their action… the actual execution I can help them with.

I even considered getting a chess clock, but found it wasn’t necessary.

I’m finding that on average a combat with 3-4 players and 1-4 monsters lasts about 10-15 minutes of real clock time (typically only ~4-5 Cycles).  This is much faster than D&D combat (sorry to keep comparing, it’s in my genes I think).  I attribute the increase in speed not to the AO system being more streamlined, but because I’ve scrapped the reaction order.

Anyway, try it out for a single rough and tumble combat (like maybe an Ambush) and see how it goes.

/eh

I’ll buy that! Especially your 1, 2 and 3. I’ll try it out next time

You’ve got it buddy. Anything that makes the game more fun for you and your group is always the right thing to do. Not sure if i’ll try this but glad your group is having fun. I’ve found that anything that speeds up combat or makes it run smoother always makes the group happier. Also makes the Gm’s job alot easier. =D.

Reported as spam.

staun - 09 December 2010 07:13 AM

Reported as spam.

And removed as such, thank you

Interestingly, I tried scrapping the “initiative order” in a D&D game on Wednesday, by basically saying that if 3-4 players went before any monsters they could all go at the same time.  It basically didn’t work.  Probably because 4E boils down to a miniatures game (in combat, anyway).  AO could also be played as a miniatures game, but I’ve been running combat much more as a narrative (no grid, no minis, sometimes a hand-drawn map just to give the players something concrete to wrap their heads around).

/eh

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