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Baphomet wrote:So, I recently changed the way we do combat in our Rifts game. My players like the new way and one has gone so far as to say it is a vast improvement.

The change is simple, but makes the combat flow better and more realistically. It also solves the problem with less combat oriented characters sitting around not doing anything at the end of every combat round.

Here we go. A combat round starts the same way, with an initiative check. Then the round is split into four turns. I quartered it because most characters seem to start with four or five attacks and four is a nice round number.

If your character has four attacks per round than things remain roughly the same. Each of the four turns you get one attack action and one non-attack action like running, piloting, or yelling.

If your character has more than four attacks per round you begin to be able to take multiple attack actions and possibly non-attack actions starting with your first turn. So if you have five attacks your turns would go 2 attacks, 1 attack, 1 attack, 1attack. If you had seven attacks your turns would go 2, 2, 2, 1.

If your character is one ove those rare characters with less than four attacks, IE one with no HTH skill, you would be able to take a non-attack action on each of your turns and be able to choose on which turns to take your attack actions.

With my method, characters with less attacks get to act all the way through a combat, the speed a character can move is not slowed down per action due to having more actions than his slower opponent; like it is in the basic system, and faster characters (with more attacks) are able to strike opponents several times before taking return fire which is realistic.

My players like combat better with these adjustments, what do you think? Would you consider trying this in your games? Do you have an alternate way of house ruleing combat?

Baphomet wrote:Jaymz, I had considered 3 turns each but thought it would be too few. I never tested it though, how do you find it? I do like the fact thet each of the three turns represents 5 seconds.

Voodooclaw, I hadn't thought of that. Making the speed of characters so easy to calculate is appealing.

Voodoolaw wrote:We have been doing this for a while too. I use 5 phases of 3 seconds. I went with this because it makes speed conversion easier. Each phase a character can move their speed in yards.

Justthis Guy wrote:

Voodoolaw wrote:We have been doing this for a while too. I use 5 phases of 3 seconds. I went with this because it makes speed conversion easier. Each phase a character can move their speed in yards.

I use a battle map of 1" squares for combat. Wet erase pens draw the terrain and features, and use minis or other tokens (wire nuts, coins, etc.) for combatants. Each square is 10' by 10'. there can be multiple tokens in a square, say up to 4 smaller creatures. This method also helps for AOE spells, determining line of sight, and so on. I use the back of a plastic calendar that is 30" by 24", and drew the permanent grid in black sharpie. The wet erase pens come in 8 colors.
My general rule is a character can move speed in number of squares, so speed of 16 160 feet in 15 seconds, reasonable considering the combat situation, but if you are moving the full amount that eats up your actions except for one attack.


I really like the method of breaking up the combat in phases like this. It will make future combat easier to manage! Thanks!

MaxxSterling wrote:I play by the rules in the book. I do not like altering them.

MaxxSterling wrote:Characters do not move during combat. They either shoot at each other, or engage in hand to hand until someone is dead.

That being said however, I do not disagree that this game system has serious issues. Have you ever tried to jump in this game?

MaxxSterling wrote:Characters do not move during combat. They either shoot at each other, or engage in hand to hand until someone is dead.

That being said however, I do not disagree that this game system has serious issues. Have you ever tried to jump in this game?

Shimasaki wrote:I used the new combat system (breaking the turn down into 4's) in my game this week and it worked really well. The players who were familiar with the system said they had never seem combat so streamlined. I will be using this from now on. I used color index cards to represent how many attacks each player had so someone with 5 got 2 white cards, 1 blue card, 1 green card, and one red card. The would put the card out in front of them when they used their attack.

I was also thinking about limiting the times a player can roll or parry to avoid overuse. Any thoughts on this?

Semi-Retired Gamer wrote:A simple change but one that should be much better in play. Consider it borrowed. Great job!

St. Evil wrote:I will talk to my players after the holidays and see if they would try this it looks good.