Eon Thoughts on speeding up Eon IV combat

[Yahuna]

Hi all!

As much as I love the detail offered by Eon's IV combat, I find it slow. I specially feel it because I have a large group, 5-6 players.

One I thing it will speed up combat a tiny bit, is to get rid of the 1T10 body part roll, and made the units of the attack score be the number which determines the body part hit by the attack (this won't work with the extra level of detail presented in the Strid book.).

I would like to know if some of you have made changes to the way combat works to speed it up, and which are those changes.

One thing I would love is to do to speed up combat is to remove completely the damage roll. I really like games that weapons do a "flat" damage value and the extra (randomized value) damage comes from the attack roll itself, depending how good or how bad the attack vs defense roll has been. Sadly, I think that will imply core changes in Eon IV mechanics which I am not willing to do at the moment.

 

[Celledor]

I usually make the enemies go down quick and not bother if the rules say they still should be able to fight. If they get a serious damage they are out. But not the same for PCs or "bosses".

Also armor makes things take alot longer so I go easy on using it on enemies unless it is expected.

 

[Yahuna]

I usually make the enemies go down quick and not bother if the rules say they still should be able to fight. If they get a serious damage they are out. But not the same for PCs or "bosses".

Also armor makes things take alot longer so I go easy on using it on enemies unless it is expected.

This is a fine suggestion, but at the moment, I am a rather newcomer to Eon and I would prefer not to skip details such as serious damage, armour values and locations, turnaround tables etc. I feel this is what makes Eon especial over other rpgs I have try so far. It may be that in some years I am like you, and I will prefer to skip this bits as well

 

[Ivan NWG]

thought 1: make sure people are rolling dice efficiently. Hit location and damage can be rolled in one hand full for example.

thought 1.5: i dont remember if you wait until you know if the attack hit in 4e but id strongly encourage having attacker and defender roll simultaneously.

thought 2: dont run combat until the last man. Nobody wants to die and in a realistic setting, if the enemy is clearly losing they should run away, negotiate or outright offer bribes or random.

thought 3: be disciplined, make sure you have print outs or note cards with any info you need as a gm, if you have a slow player, recap their options when it is their turn or guide an indecisive one “Jim, you are up, do you want to attack the archer again?”

thought 4: ditch combats that arent plot significant, many rpgs have too much fighting and half of it can usually be thrown out for a much tighter paces and more exciting game

 

[Celledor]

thought 2: dont run combat until the last man. Nobody wants to die and in a realistic setting, if the enemy is clearly losing they should run away, negotiate or outright offer bribes or random.

thought 4: ditch combats that arent plot significant, many rpgs have too much fighting and half of it can usually be thrown out for a much tighter paces and more exciting game

These two I think are very important and feels natural and fitting to the Eon world.

Another one is that combat should have consequences, you can't just kill anybody at any time. It should be deadly and you might be hunted by villages, guards or worse. It should be a last resort and the PCs should fear for thier lives.

 

[Swedish Chef]

Another tip is to make the NPC rolls flat. At least non inportant ones. This removes a lot of dice rolls from the DM. Basicly an enemy with 4D6 always rolls 16 and so on.

This method speeds up attacks, chock/death rolls and defense.

 

[Celledor]

You can also make combat into a challenge (utmaning) and solve it that way. Even large battles can be resolved that way while still following the rules. Only three rolls needed.

 

[Zeedox]

I’ve thought a lot about this because I’ve found combat to take such a long time! For my own hack of Eon I have few ideas brewing:

1. Simple combat: Resolve combats like other things in the game: with a single roll or a Challenge. Depending on the severity of the combat, this might also cause damage: each Advantage over 10 for both opponents optionally cause rolls on the Trauma tables. The side with an equipment advantage gets +1D6.
2. Heavy hits: Regular combat rules, except every hit you cause a Trauma, even on weak hits. Or maybe just for Strong attacks?
3. Escalating intensity: Regular combat rules, but every second round against the same opponent you get +1D6 to their roll, since they get tired and show more openings and the drama of the fight escalates.
4. Aiuchi: Also allow the defender to counterattack.

None of these have been tested yet, but I hope to do so this soon in a convention one-shot. And yeah, armor makes things go so much slower in many ways…

 

[Yahuna]

thought 1: make sure people are rolling dice efficiently. Hit location and damage can be rolled in one hand full for example.

thought 1.5: i dont remember if you wait until you know if the attack hit in 4e but id strongly encourage having attacker and defender roll simultaneously.

thought 2: dont run combat until the last man. Nobody wants to die and in a realistic setting, if the enemy is clearly losing they should run away, negotiate or outright offer bribes or random.

thought 3: be disciplined, make sure you have print outs or note cards with any info you need as a gm, if you have a slow player, recap their options when it is their turn or guide an indecisive one “Jim, you are up, do you want to attack the archer again?”

thought 4: ditch combats that arent plot significant, many rpgs have too much fighting and half of it can usually be thrown out for a much tighter paces and more exciting game

These are all very good points. As an old GM, I already use most of them since a long time. I would have loved back in the day, that someone would have told me this before, specially when I was playing AD&D...

 

[Yahuna]

You can also make combat into a challenge (utmaning) and solve it that way. Even large battles can be resolved that way while still following the rules. Only three rolls needed.

This is of course an option, challenges and conflicts are such a nice mechanic!

Notice though that I like the level of detail of Eon IV combat. I do not really want to skip the combats rules. The detailed and quite realistic combat of Eon is one of the things that draw me to the game, and me and my players like it.

I guess my real question is whether it is possible to compact or reduce the number of rolls and or steps involved in the resolution of an attack.
1.- Attacker and defender roll (this is simultaneous).
2.- If hit, then calculate advantages by subtracting the twos scores.
3.-Roll to hit for the body location
4.- Choose advantages
5.-Roll damage.
6.- If inflict fatigue, opponent rolls a Shock test
7.-If damage is high enough, roll in the serious injury table

I suggested that step 3 could be removed by using the units score of the attack roll without losing too much randomization.

Also, attack and damage rolls, while a lot of fun for the player rolling the dice, they are as well time consuming due to the exploding 6 mechanic and summation of the score afterwards. Here is where I want to do some maths to see if I can remove the damage roll for a flat number plus the attack roll result or similar, like many games due nowadays.

Anyways, bottom line, I really like Eon, I really like its combat, just if, if I can speed it without losing the level of detail... it would be a dream.

 

[Mundo]

Hi there!

I was talking about these specific things with my fellow game creators and decided to create a "quick-system" for Eon's combat. It was brought up because one player talked about DMing a campaign in Jargia where they were portraying a band of gladiators, but he felt overwhelmed with doing 5 on 5+ combat scenes on the regular. To underline here, this is not official content, just what I designed in discussion with other writers/players.

This system works best when fighting mooks or other unnamed enemies.

1: The NPCs no longer rolls attack and defense. Instead you take the average of the dice roll that they'd get from rolling and use their attack value and their defense value. For the easiest math, consider every D6 being worth 4. So a soldier with 3D6+2 in Sword has (4+4+4+2) 14 in Attack. An attack that deals 4T6+3 damage actually deals 19 damage.
By removing the storyteller's rolls completely you instantly more or less half the amount of rolls needed for combat.

2: One of the player's dice when attacking or defending is of a different colour. For example an attack with 4D6 sword rolls 3 white and 1 blue dice. The blue dice is then used to determine where the attack lands, using this formula.
1 = leg (attacker chooses which)
2 = arm (attacker chooses which)
3-4 = torso
5 = head
6 = the die has exploded and is thus rolled again.

Do note that this is also used when the player is defending.

3: Damage is quickened up significantly by removing the critical injury roll. Instead you simply read on this table to see what critical injury is dealt.

Damage - Result
0-6 = Base effect
7-8 = 1
9-10 = 2
11-12 = 3
13-14 = 4
15-16 = 5
17-18 = 6
19-20 = 7
21-22 = 8
23-24 = 9
25-26 = 10 (starts being deadly in hits to the head)
27-28 = 11
29-30 = 12 (starts being deadly in hits to the torso)
31-32 = 13
33-34 = 14
35-36 = 15
37-38 = 16
39-40 = 17
41-42 = 18
43-44 = 19
45+ = 20

Any shock- and death-rolls, amputation, etc aren't rolled, but rather you simply compare the difficulty with the target's relevant stats (for example vitality).

If you use this system, you've reduced the amount of rolls in a normal attack-situation from nine to three without removing basically any of the tactical depth of the system.

 

[Rickard]

Either you

a) Preroll 20 results and roll 1d20 for the opponent's score. You will need to roll for each set of dice, though. I've made a generator to make that easy, because I had the same issue when I played Feng Shui.

Dice Roller 1.5

erebaltor.se

b) Use a dice generator on your phone to roll your dice. I have a generator for that too, but it doesn't support OB rolls.

 

[Ivan NWG]

As an aside, the Japanese Sword World has options to either roll for monsters or use the average score, and that works pretty well. The idea there is that you usually roll for the important enemies or dramatic fights but use the static score for the goons.

 

[Yahuna]

Hi there!

I was talking about these specific things with my fellow game creators and decided to create a "quick-system" for Eon's combat. It was brought up because one player talked about DMing a campaign in Jargia where they were portraying a band of gladiators, but he felt overwhelmed with doing 5 on 5+ combat scenes on the regular. To underline here, this is not official content, just what I designed in discussion with other writers/players.

This system works best when fighting mooks or other unnamed enemies.

1: The NPCs no longer rolls attack and defense. Instead you take the average of the dice roll that they'd get from rolling and use their attack value and their defense value. For the easiest math, consider every D6 being worth 4. So a soldier with 3D6+2 in Sword has (4+4+4+2) 14 in Attack. An attack that deals 4T6+3 damage actually deals 19 damage.
By removing the storyteller's rolls completely you instantly more or less half the amount of rolls needed for combat.

2: One of the player's dice when attacking or defending is of a different colour. For example an attack with 4D6 sword rolls 3 white and 1 blue dice. The blue dice is then used to determine where the attack lands, using this formula.
1 = leg (attacker chooses which)
2 = arm (attacker chooses which)
3-4 = torso
5 = head
6 = the die has exploded and is thus rolled again.

Do note that this is also used when the player is defending.

3: Damage is quickened up significantly by removing the critical injury roll. Instead you simply read on this table to see what critical injury is dealt.

Damage - Result
0-6 = Base effect
7-8 = 1
9-10 = 2
11-12 = 3
13-14 = 4
15-16 = 5
17-18 = 6
19-20 = 7
21-22 = 8
23-24 = 9
25-26 = 10 (starts being deadly in hits to the head)
27-28 = 11
29-30 = 12 (starts being deadly in hits to the torso)
31-32 = 13
33-34 = 14
35-36 = 15
37-38 = 16
39-40 = 17
41-42 = 18
43-44 = 19
45+ = 20

Any shock- and death-rolls, amputation, etc aren't rolled, but rather you simply compare the difficulty with the target's relevant stats (for example vitality).

If you use this system, you've reduced the amount of rolls in a normal attack-situation from nine to three without removing basically any of the tactical depth of the system.

Now we are talking!
This is great, thanks for sharing. I will look into it with more time and see what I steal from it.