Re: [DL] Re: deadlands-digest.20021219-1

[Brett Dixon <balance@tubas.net>]

On Friday, December 20, 2002, at 02:43  AM, Patrick Jungbluth wrote:
>> Gathering from other posts, & your responses, it sounds like the 
>> biggest
>> problem to your group is the players do not understand combat play 
>> well
>> enough to play.  When we first started, combat would easily take an 
>> hour.
>> Now, we usually knock it out in ten to fifteen minutes.  This is with 
>> a
> lot
>> of folks shooting.
>
> I dont think that is that big of a problem maybe would speed things up 
> a bit
> if they know the rules inside out but it still takes an awesome amount 
> of
> time to just go trou all those rolls and calculations when I roll for 
> the
> npcs. "Ok that critter that is attacing you. <rolling hadfull of dices
> sorting them> and misses you. the other critter attacks you <again 
> rolling
> the same dice staring a couple of seconds at them> hits you and does
> <another hand of die is rolled and sortet out> 12 pts of damage that 
> is 2
> wounds in <rolling die> the left arm. Any chips? Fine then you loose 
> also
> <agian rolling die> 5 wind too. ok the first 2 of the 7 critters are 
> done.
> nest one ... and so on"
> thats why i would like to have a more simplified combat system not 
> only for
> assigning damage to the mooks but also do deal damage out for the PCs.

First, try to equip mooks the same whenever possible. A lot of 
Deadlands weapons fall into similar damage brackets and are 
differentiated by other details, so you can keep a pile of 3d6s out. I 
also don't worry too much about missing a modifier or two... The mooks 
generally don't do anything complex like head shots, so I generally 
just look at their hits as 'high' or 'low' and figure as needed. They 
don't move hits around, so I don't need to worry about raises except 
int he case of automatic weapons.

Also, as a minor thing I roll location before damage, to keep things 
moving. Every little bit helps, and my posse only gets slowed down when 
it comes to, say, big fights with multiple Arcane Background types on 
both sides.

BTW, I've tried both and prefer the HP mook system. Runs quicker for 
me, at least.