The Old School D&D Combat System
In most of the
forums in which I participate the most common complaint I hear is
that the old school combat system is unrealistic and therefore
broken.
First of all,nd edition is very abstract. It was
designed that way to keep the game flowing and not get bogged down in
minutia. When you have 6 players and it takes ten minutes for each
player to complete a combat round it becomes tedious and boring for
everyone but the most hard core war gamer.
we're talking about a fantasy role playing game that, by its nature
is unrealistic. The combat system, from original edition through
pre-options books 2Scale
1 round of
combat is equal to 1 minute of game time. A character or monster
occupies a battle space of 10' x 10', that's 100 square feet! When
melee takes place there is a lot going on over the course of 1
minute. Participants are rushing forward to attack, dodging,
parrying, etc. When the to-hit die is rolled it doesn't represent a
single attack but the chance of causing some damage to the enemy
during that one minute of furious maneuvering. It could be from a
single great blow or a series of lightning quick, but minor strikes.
This provides a framework in which an imaginative DM can describe the
action.
Armor Class
Ascending vs.
Descending armor class is another area where I here a lot of words
like “broken” tossed around. Why descending armor class at all?
To understand this we'd have to go back in time and talk to Gary
himself, though I suspect there may be others around to ask. One
reason, I believe could be the answer, is demonstrated in Kevin
Crawford's1
combat system used in his various RPGs. If you add your d20 roll to
your opponent's armor class (descending) and all of your modifiers
and it equals 20 or more, you hit. In every edition a character's
chance of scoring a hit increases as they gain experience. The rate
progression varies from system to system. If you look at the THAC0
(to hit armor class zero) mechanic it's the same principle expressed
a different way. Pre-2e editions dispensed with the math and gave the
DM a handy chart. Modern games simply state armor class as the base
number you need to roll with mods to score a hit. Which is a good way
to go as well. There is nothing broken in any of these techniques. 1st edition becomes an issue because at negative AC's you
get a series of repeating 20s before the number to hit starts to rise
again.
Hit Points
Many modern
gamers often refer to these as life or health points; they are not.
They represent your ability to avoid being killed by a successful
hit. Think of them as ablative defense. As your character gains
experience it does not become harder to hit but it does become harder
to kill. Realistically, I don't care how bad ass you are, if someone
shoves an eight inch dagger into your abdomen you're going to die
without immediate, modern medical attention. That said, the idea that
hit points represent physical health is ridiculous.
To summarize,
old school combat is not broken and can be very exciting provided the
players and DM possess enough imagination to engage in their “theater
of the mind”.
Next article:
Firing into melee, aka “The Longshanks Maneuver”
