Facilitating a Combat of Interesting Choices
I've been having follow-on thoughts from my post yesterday about what my Daggerheart players pointing out as making an especially interesting "combat" framed scene. Playing other systems that make rules-managed tactical combat a focal point of play as well as those that make “the fiction” the linchpin of conflicts has me considering these elements as I try and design my own system.
Of note, not all systems care about this! A game may say that simply dealing with resource depletion (HP, spell slots, etc) is a sufficient outcome of combat and thus making it as streamlined as possible returns you to what it actually cares about. I think most “OSR” games tend to land here, with some like His Majesty the Worm being notable exceptions. Likewise, something that resolves a lot of combat/conflict in a single roll (Blades in the Dark) often bypasses this level of choice and is about resource attrition + costs & character portrayal.
For what I’m interested in though, I think the following elements can contribute to drive choice-filled combat:
Dilemmas: This extends beyond simple resource attrition to frame each choice as either driving a dilemma for one player, or responding to them. This can be direct and fictional as in “the drake springs towards you, claws reaching to rend” or tactical and partially above table as in “do you all want me to try to tie up the melee so we can take out those archers?” Or it can extend beyond the PCs to established goals for the conflict: how do we defend the Duke, can we shut the portal before the waves of demons overwhelm us, and so forth.
Changing Situations: “I hit the goblin for 4hp” generally doesn’t change the situation. “I turn part of the battlefield into raging fire” probably does; so does “ok, so you swing at the bandit and like he turns your blade and does this little twist and your sword goes skittering out of your grasp and down the hall.” Restated, the resolution of each player-action should create a dilemma of some sort for the next to act. This should include some sort of mechanical coverage for adjudicating ending a conflict without “we made everything drop to 0 HP.” Either via a combat scene being responsive to alternate goals as above, something like a Morale roll that the players can push towards, or reshaping the fiction such that the outcome pivots.
Scaffolded Choice: Saying “you can attempt anything” in combat is probably too broad for a player to easily think about how they can take advantage of such a thing. A defined Maneuver with sample ideas, Powers that have pretty broad open areas but some edges, or even just a wide variety of impactful abilities that have different potential outcomes are all better solutions. Blades in the Dark does this with language: its Actions implicitly tell you what your character does and what the game is about. 4e D&D does this with its builds and the various Effects riding on the Powers.
What does this look like? On any given player’s turn in a combat situation (and the GM is player for this purpose) they should have a dilemma they need to respond to: some sort of clear goal, and an obstacle to achieving it. For GM characters, they should have some sort of inherent goal at hand that drove this conflict: guarding territory, feeding on the living, following their leader’s orders. This informs how the GM plays them, what they should try to do, and any sort of alternate win conditions for the combat.
Each character Action should reframe the situation. One side may be put on the back foot, the environment shifts and cuts off options or opens new ones, one dilemma resolves and another begins. PBTAs are a great example of this, as each Move inherently resolves two sides intent and the GM should always be creating a grabby situation for whoever has the spotlight next.
Finally, each player should feel like they have a variety of possible options that feed back into the two steps above, but with hard choices to make. Resource expenditure helps here, narrowing and expanding options as the scene progresses. Constraints are often suggested to aid creativity by focusing your efforts, so being forced to manage a dilemma and some degree of an ebb and flow of options can help a player’s choice feel like it meant something.