Terrain in combat

[Darren Hill]

A funny bit of synchronicity. Over in this post, Ralph asked if anyone had any ideas for using Terrain in combat.

At the start of our first battle in tonight's session, which was occurring next to a great lava forge against a really big giant boar, one of my players asked, "so how do we use terrain in battle?" My response: "Erm..."

He wanted to push the boar into the lava, so we put down a counter on the range strip to show where (roughly) the forge was, and said that if he manoeuvred the boar onto the strip, he could then try to push it in using Special Manoeuvres.
But this doesn't feel right. Any better ideas out there?

[iago]

Why not just treat "seizing advantageous terrain" as ... advantage dice?

[Bankuei]

Hi Darren,

When John first mentioned his ranging strip idea on his blog, I immediately thought of using terrain like you would any other character!  Simply make a marker for terrain, and list out the modifiers for the terrain.  People can either move pieces around the terrain, -or move the terrain itself- like any other unit.

Some possible examples:

Wall-
Melee attacks cannot pass through the wall, though attacking a person -on- the wall suffers a -2 to attack.  Ranged attacks to targets on the opposite side of the wall also suffer a -2 to attack.

River/Water-
Double all armor penalties when in the water.

Lava Forge-
The Lava Forge makes an automatic D12 attack against any unit that shares it's space.  The Lava Forge always attacks last in an exchange.

Obviously, these kinds of things should cost Strife, though I couldn't give you exact numbers.  I suspect these things would probably work against the GM more than the players, if only because the players will probably have more opportunities to move the terrain than the GM will.

Chris

[Banesfinger]

This question is somewhat related to this thread:

While I understand there is no upper range (based on a question asked in another thread), is there a max range band based on Starting Range / the Starting Range table (pg 44-45)?

For example: if you start a battle in the Minotaur's Lair (Small Interior), the max range in bright conditions would be 3.
Would you rule that no one could go beyond 3 range bands (otherwise they would be outside of the lair)?

Or, would you say that between the 3rd and 4th range band there was a wall/door, thus forming a terrain blockage.  No attacks through that blockage.  You could position the Minotaur outside of the blockage (thus he exited his lair out into the open).

[Nathan Frund]

A funny bit of synchronicity. Over in this post, Ralph asked if anyone had any ideas for using Terrain in combat.

At the start of our first battle in tonight's session, which was occurring next to a great lava forge against a really big giant boar, one of my players asked, "so how do we use terrain in battle?" My response: "Erm..."

He wanted to push the boar into the lava, so we put down a counter on the range strip to show where (roughly) the forge was, and said that if he manoeuvred the boar onto the strip, he could then try to push it in using Special Manoeuvres.
But this doesn't feel right. Any better ideas out there?

Sounds like you adjudicated okay to me.  Is this where the Boar is from?  If so, pump up his positioning and see if he can manage an advantage.

[John Harper]

Hey Banesfinger,

You would be fine ruling either way. That is, as Antagonist, it's okay for you to say, "In this battle, you can't move beyond range 3, unless you're running away." Creating special conditions like that is within your authority. It would also be cool to make that condition a quality of the lair that the heroes could learn about with some judicious Lore contests before they go in.