The water bottles are Blue Dragons |
Why do we, as gamers, always assume
that our characters are not just proficient at combat, but exceptional
fighters, brawlers, martial artists or just plain killers? In games like Vampire the Masquerade, the
Player Characters are generally regular people who were chosen to be Embraced,
sometimes because they have a special skill or sometimes it’s an act of
passion. Whether that character was an
artist, a journalist, or a financial advisor, the player will inevitably put a
couple of points into combat Abilities like Brawl, Melee, or Firearms. Likely, the player won’t even try to explain
why or how the character gained those skills.
Even without putting points into combat-oriented abilities, the PCs
react to combat as if they were battle hardened veterans. As soon as the bullets start flying, the
players begin weighing their options and trying to select the optimal choice so
that they can overcome the encounter.
Rarely will players run away or just duck and hide until the encounter
is over.
At no other time during play are
players more likely to discard playing their character in favor of playing the
stats on their character sheets. Rather
than trying to role play their character, the Player is solving the combat problem. Instead of asking how the character would
react in the situation, the player is considering his best move, just as if he
were looking at a piece on a chess board.
Players want to win the encounter.
Because many gamers use game mats, players are allowed a god’s eye view
of the fight. It’s less of a role
playing game and more of a miniatures war game.
Players want to be involved and
contribute to the current scene or encounter.
No one wants to be left out, especially when we are talking about
combat, because that’s the fun part. Combat
is the chance to smash that smug Elder bastard in the face with a spiked
baseball. (He had it coming! He shouldn’t have been such an asshole that
time in Elysium). Combat is
catharsis. The climax of many stories is
that final confrontation with the antagonist and the epic battle where the
players finally triumph and defeat the villain.
If a Storyteller says that a Player can’t take part in that fight
because his character is “just an artist” and wouldn’t fight, then the
Storyteller is robbing the Player of his chance to contribute and have
fun.
The issue of how Players approach
combat is twofold: Character Creation
and Combat Encounters. During Character
Creation, Players are assigning stats based on their character concept, and in
an ideal situation, the player would only allot points to Attributes and
Abilities if they were consistent with the character’s concept. This is not always the case. Sometimes players have too many points to
spend and need expand beyond their original concept. On the other hand the player may have too few
points and need to revise their character concept. In Combat Encounters, as discussed above,
players will act in ways that are not consistent with their character concept. Ideally, the player would always stay in
character, even during combat.
Robert, the Financial Advisor, never mentions his 3 black belts. |
Unlike Dungeons & Dragons,
Vampire the Masquerade players can’t take for granted their characters’ combat
proficiency. In D&D it’s just
assumed that the character can fight and have been trained to fight, whether
it’s a Fighter or a Cleric or a Bard.
All classes assume a degree of skill in combat. In Vampire the Masquerade, even powerful
characters could have zero points in their combat Abilities and be as effective
in combat encounters. In D&D the
best way to earn experience is through combat; in Vampire the Masquerade,
conversely, experience points are not tied to combat encounters. So, when building a Vampire the Masquerade
character, players frequently choose not combat concepts such as an artist or
financial advisor. The player then
builds his character and allots a few points for Brawl or Melee without really
describing how or why that character has those skills. Then in the first combat encounter, the
character suddenly has the ability to make brilliant tactical decisions under
fire as if he were a Navy Seal combat veteran.
When building a character, a player
should consider if he wants that character to take part in combat. There is nothing wrong with having a
character who is ineffective at direct combat in Vampire the Masquerade because
many Disciplines can effect combat without the player needing to ever throw a
punch or swing a chainsaw. Presence,
Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, and a variety of other disciplines can be applied in
combat. Combat isn’t necessarily about
overcoming an opponent through violence or being physical; instead, players
should consider ways to defeat their opponents through methods that make sense
to the character.
For example, a player is creating
Robert, a financial advisor that was embraced by the Ventrue Clan. Robert’s Player has allotted most of his
points in Knowledges such as Computer, Technology, and Finance amongst
others. It wouldn’t make sense for
Robert to have any skill in Brawling or Melee or even Firearms; therefore no
points have been spent in those Abilities.
Instead Robert’s Player has decided that Robert will depend on Presence
in combat situations. The second level
of Presence is Dread Gaze which should be sufficient against most threats,
scaring them away rather fighting them.
Conversely, if a player decides that
he wants his character to be proficient in combat, then the player needs to
determine how the character came across those skills. Is the character a combat veteran? Did he serve in the Marines during the Gulf
War or is he a street punk used to solving his problems with his fists? Or is he a martial artist used to fighting in
the dojo but not in a real fight? Each
of these concepts will require the player to allot points differently. Beyond just a character whose primary concept
revolves around combat, other character concepts may involve combat as
well. A private investigator is probably
handy with a gun when necessary, but not as skilled with it as a soldier. A street racer could have been in a few
fights, but certainly isn’t as skilled as a gang member. A characters Abilities should be organic and
make sense with the character concept.
Appearance specialization: HOT!! |
Another example, a player is
creating Megan, a punk rock singer that was embraced by the Toreador Clan. Megan’s player assigns points in Expression,
Performance, and Streetwise. However,
because Megan is used to going to punk shows at grungy, dangerous bars, Megan’s
player believe that the character should have some points in Brawl to represent
that Megan has gotten in a few fights and can take care of herself.
These are Robert the financial advisor
and Megan the punk rock singer just after being Embraced, but as neonates, they
are going to learn new skills quickly or improve on the skills that they
already have as they venture out into the World of Darkness. Both of these characters are going to get
into fights. They are going to throw punches
or need to pull a gun, but neither one of these characters is a tactical
genius. Neither one is used to being
shot at. The question is how are these
characters going to react to their first real fight.
When
both are caught in an ambush by a pair of hunters armed with shotguns, what
will happen? In most games, both
characters would wade into the gunfire, hoping that their undead flesh, and
inherent resistance to gunfire will keep them alive. Robert, the financial advisor, might snatch
away the hunter’s weapon and shotgun him to death. Robert’s player would be gleeful at killing
the hunter. Megan would smash the hunter’s
head in with her fist and feel the same delight at overcoming the two
overmatched mortals. The players using
their gods-eye view of the encounter and seeing the situation as purely a
tactical exercise, rather than a chance to continue role playing, quickly
overcome the hunters through violence of action.
However, how could the players
remain in character and still overcome the encounter. First, Robert may dive for cover, and if his
Dread Gaze power doesn’t work, he could run.
He might even use his briefcase to protect himself from the shotgun
fire. Or Robert may toss the briefcase
at the hunters and then try to use Dread Gaze again. Megan would, of course, fight back. The gunfire would unsettle her, but given her
innate resistance to gunfire would keep her alive long enough to defeat the
hunters. Having defeated one, she could
intimidate the other with her ferocity (and a successful Appearance plus Intimidate
roll) to send him fleeing.
Having defeated the two hunters,
what would happen next? How would the
characters react to the deaths of the two hunters? If the players are thinking only tactically,
then a dead hunter is just a quick snack to refill blood expended during the
fight. They’ll drink the corpse dry and
might take the time to hide the bodies before someone arrived and started
asking questions. But how would a
financial advisor or a punk rock singer react if they’d just killed
someone? Wouldn’t they be
distraught? Terrified at how they ripped
a human being apart? Scared of their capacity
for violence? Could they feel their
Beast desperately trying to take over? They
certainly wouldn’t be looking at the bodies as if they were a health pack.
Could you explain how your character knows how to tactically clear a room? |
The tactical outcomes were the
same. Robert and Megan defeated the
hunters, but the methods employed by the players better fits with the
characters. Robert used Dread Gaze and
tried to escape because Robert was a financial advisor not a warrior. Megan, more used to fights, was unnerved by
the shotgun blasts, but was able to overcome the hunters nevertheless.
When combat starts, the flow of the
game and the nature of the game changes.
The consequences of actions become more dramatic, more deadly, and more
immediate. Failure is obvious, and all
that hard work put into building and running a character could disappear with
just a few bad dice rolls. The rules for
combat slow down the game. Who can act
and when is strictly determined by initiative rolls. Combat is a complete departure from the rest
of the game, and player shift gears when combat occurs. They are no longer thinking as role players
but as tacticians. The question becomes “How
can I or we win this battle?” rather
than “What would my character do?”
Combat should be a continuation of
role playing rather than a departure from it.
Players should not ask themselves what the best combat option for their
character is. Instead they should try
to determine how their character would react in a brawl or a gunfight. How does that change as the character becomes
more experienced? Just because combat
starts doesn’t mean that a character becomes a piece on the chess board. It’s still the character and the role playing
should continue even during combat. If
that character is an experienced warrior, then the character should make
decisions based on that concept. If the
character is a financial advisor, he might be a little more afraid and a lot
less likely to make optimal decisions in a gunfight.
This is true. Very rarely do people start characters without a premise of combat included into their design. Even fewer role play during a fight. The GM can assist with that by not revealing all the enemies at once and having enemies hide and have to have the players look for them.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character ever was mostly a non com. It was a computer hacking/smooth talking/sneaky underhanded Scoundrel. If there were more opportunities for him to abuse his hacking skills during fights I would have loved that and rarely fired a gun. Fortunately that game had a lot of lightsaber swingers so I was rarely needed during the fight portion of the game :)
It's sad but I can't even guess which version of Star Wars you were playing since Lightsaber swingers have always been overpowered! Nevertheless, I always like to have some ability in combat because I don't like to feel left out of the fights. Typically when I build a character I think about how that character might fight and where the character learned to fight!
DeleteI really like how you were looking to use your hacking skills during combat. Apparently, Shadowrun 5th Edition has a similar system for its Hackers/Deckers during combat where they hack the opponent's weapons.
Thank you for your comment!
The last time I played a D20 game - D20 Modern - I played a fire fighter, good strength and arguably handy with an axe, in a zombie holocaust game.
ReplyDeleteFirst combat, when we encountered the undead, I spent the entire sequence trying to restrain an obviously injured and delirious young lady who kept trying to bite me (rabies maybe? Who knows).
I ending up endangering the rest of the party and nearly killing us all because I refused to drop my characters standard response in a standard zombie encounter.
He would try to save people. That's his job.
In the WoD games I've run I've been lucky enough to have players that prefer to create believable characters rather than marines.
Roleplay should not stop when initiative is rolled.
See that's how I imagine the first combat experience to happen. It's a learning experience. The first fight he tries to save people, but once he understands the zombies and their threat he was much more handy with that axe!
DeleteI have built soldier archetypes for WoD games, but that was back when I was still in college. Now I prefer playing "normal" people. I still like the soldier archetype but it needs to be more than just a guy who can shoot a gun really well.
In Vampire I made a lot of non-combat characters, especially in LARPs. Had a Ventrue without a lick of combat skills. What I did have was lots of money and influence so I had body guards to slow down whoever was attacking me so I could run away. My car was bulletproofed and armored, heck I drove away from every fight I could. Even the club he owned had escape hatches and secret ways out so I wouldn't have to fight. A few players mocked me for it but by the end of the chronicle I was one of only two characters who survived the entire thing. Most of the others had went through several.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your example Peter! That's the kind of roleplaying I'm talking about. Whether the other players mocked you or not, you stayed in character! To me that's the most important thing!
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