[BNW] Combat tips?

["Patrick O'Duffy" <redfern@thehub.com.au>]

Howdy.
    Just finished our second BNW session.  (Yes, the first was a month ago,
damnit.  Two players were tied up with rehearsals; the other two have been
jaunting about to Sydney and Melbourne.)
    It was okay, on the whole.  Got to get in some foreshadowing; introduced the
man who _used_ to be Superior (and will do anything to regain his power),
dropped some hints about the role of the supernatural in my version of the
setting.
    But there was one problem; combat.  It's just not working smoothly for me.

    One problem, I've realized, is that BNW has a different style of combat than
I thought.  I had visualized a John Woo style, running battle sort of feel;
fights rolling through rooms in a cascade of bullets and broken glass, acrobatic
moves and rapid fire stunts.  But that's not the style that BNW's rules and
lethality seem to fit.  Instead, our combats have ended up as quick, gritty
affairs, with more realism than I thought.  Fight scenes don't move about, they
stay in one place; people hide behind cover and trade shots; fistfights are less
Jet Li and more Dolph Lundgren.

    This isn't a bad thing, but I have to recalibrate my images and ideas to
fight; make the combats more focused, more simple.  To help, I'm looking for
tips from more experiences GMs/players - what works, what doesn't, what speeds
things up, what tone works best with the system.

    I'm also looking at the movement/scale system and wondering.  I never use
miniatures and maps, because I don't like them; I like the freedom to change
things to fit the flow of the scene, and I find the 'wargaming' feel of
miniatures irritating or boring.  But now I'm wondering if perhaps I need to use
such things for the game.  The way combat is structured, order of action is
important - who goes first, who goes second, what they can do at that exact
point in the round - and so is location/position, exact ranges, movement and so
on.
    How do those who use maps/figures keep it fast and simple?  How do those who
_don't_ keep things structured and organized?

    If you've got advice or tips, I'd love to hear them.

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

I want to eat a swan.  Is that wrong of me?  I can't anyone who'll sell
me a swanburger.

 - Spider Jerusalem, TRANSMETROPOLITAN: I HATE IT HERE