Tabletop Tales: The Art of Fightyness

So you got invited, sat down at the table, you have your character. What now? Depending on your GamesMaster and fellow players every table has a different attitude on roleplaying, and I can’t pretend there is a right way to do things when that is concerned. But what will inevitably happen is the GM will shout “Initiative!” and everybody will scramble to find and roll their dice. Combat has begun.

First we need to look down at our handy dandy character sheet to figure out what our purpose in combat is. If you are playing Dungeons and Dragons or it’s twin brother Pathfinder you have a character class that typically spells out what you do; but for now let’s just assume we don’t know the difference. You’re looking for your weapon and any numbers that have to do with using it, ask your GM. Alternatively you might have magical spells with strange names, ask your GM to help you look them up; but a merciful GM has summarized the spell in parenthesis next to the name on your sheet.

The roles I am accustomed with are as follows: The “Tank” is heavily armored, and typically heavily armed. Their job is to run into the breach, sword swinging. “Supports” are combatants that can fight near the front, but also wield healing or beneficial spells/abilities. Your “Squishies” are lightly armored heavy damage dealers that have low survivability but can do intense damage in a few turns. Rogues and War Magicians are what I think of as Squishies. You can go into a lot more detail in defining these roles but recognizing these three will help a great deal in helping you figure out what to do.

Eventually it will be your turn. In most RPG systems you have two actions (A movement and combat action), but there are many different styles. One game called Poison’d does not have a typical combat system at all but a threat escalation system where situations gradually becomes more violent. Assuming we’re in a two action system, you will want to move up along with your allies and attempt to always get your actions worth. Avoid passing your turn or holding your action if possible, because you’re potentially wasting an opportunity to help your team.

If you moved up you will get attacked. How this tends to work is they will roll dice, and if they rolled high/low enough then you are dealt damage. Sometimes you get an armor or saving roll but in most systems you just get hurt. Fall back and heal yourself if you have to, but also consider finishing the enemy off and healing afterwards. In dungeon based RPGs you can rest to regain hit points, so don’t waste your healing potions if you don’t have to. And remember: Victory is not so much a success as it is an absence of total and complete failure.

Should you be reduced to zero hit points, you will normally be knocked unconscious so an ally can revive you; granted you will probably be bleeding out and expire soon if they don’t. The exception is in games with guns in them, where the written rules make it easy to get shot in the head and go down in a turn. The other week in Shadowrun I tried participating in a fight wearing light armor and got shot once, nearly killing me.

For most tables it’s as easy as that. You’ll probably get some experience points from the fight and you’ll continue on role playing and exploring. Your first three or so fights will be again fairly trivial things, but you’ll find the more you play the harder it gets; the GM is feeling you all out to see how to behave in fights.

Good luck and happy hunting.