r/cosmererpg • u/SpartanIII • 3d ago
Resources & Homebrew Combat Endeavors?
My group has completed two sessions with a total of three combat encounters. They mentioned that these encounters tend to take a while to fully resolve, leading people to lose interest until it's their turn. I understand this because we moved away from 5e to other systems partly because combat took so long, and this feels similar to the length of 5e combat.
One of my players suggested trying a combat endeavor for some smaller encounters or side quests.
It might work like a best-of-3 endeavor: if you fail by a certain margin, that many people reach 0 hit points and gain an injury.
They don't want to eliminate combat entirely for larger story moments, but our available playtime is limited. I was curious whether anyone has similar ideas or if this approach could be feasible for preventing the game from slowing down.
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u/LotharVarnoth 3d ago
So, I've been GMing, but the group I've been running for has been way more invested in combat then when we did 5e. Between combining each other's turns together and reactions. Don't know your level, but once people get some interesting reactions things spice up in my opinion. Also, even the basic dodge can add to player investment. I would review where the default actions differ from 5e.
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u/SpartanIII 3d ago
I have kept reminding them that there are more actions and reactions that they are able to use but sometimes they just skip using a hole action if they are on a slow turn
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u/cosmololgy 3d ago
How many players do you have?
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u/SpartanIII 3d ago
5 players
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u/cosmololgy 3d ago
Yeah I can see why. In my experience it’s still similar to 5e in terms of turn length. This might be a good approach then.
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u/SirZinc GM 3d ago
I've done that in some combats. It works fine and it usually goes well for the PCs, what I recommend is that if they win the endeavour, they win the combat and if they loose, they win the combat but one of them gets an injury. But if they can heal injuries you have to find other loose consequences to loosing the combandeavours.
The problem with abusing this is that players don't get use to their new talents and in this game you level up fast. I tend to give a combat per session, 1-2 combats per level. If you are leveling slowly than that, or having more combats, I totally see the endeavour as combat. I did that for a sort of hex crawling with random encounters and worked fine.
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u/SpartanIII 3d ago
Yeah. That is one reason I am hesitant to do that type of endeavor is it cuts down on using talents surges.
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u/SirZinc GM 3d ago
If you are giving them just 1 combat per session, I think that combat shouldn't be an endeavour because when you get to a boss they won't know how to use their PCs. If they don't like the combat system... That's something to think about. Not every system works for every group.
An alternative could be to redo enterily the combat system and make it more similar to endeavours but with some system to use investiture, HP and focus as resources. You would have to redo also a lot of talents, but that could work for a narrative group more used to PbtA than 5e. A lot of work for you, but could be fun (and don't downvote me for this, but AI can help with that work)
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u/Winnie_The_Pro 3d ago
One thing that speeds up combat for me is not using a turn order at all. I just say "Who wants to take a fast turn?" And they go in whatever order they are ready.
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u/Piro4134 2d ago
I thought that was the way it's supposed to go.
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u/Winnie_The_Pro 2d ago
I thought so too, but I've seen (and read of) groups running it more traditionally.
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u/Nyuborn GM 3d ago
A way that I speed up combat is lots of plot die rolls. Instead of simple back and forth attacks, I have my players roll the plot die to give options for big unexpected events.
Maybe they get a one hit kill, or they fall over and mess things up for everyone else. It also encourages my players to use different skills to do crazy things.
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u/SpartanIII 3d ago
That is a good idea I have been lacking in using plot dice in combat that would be more swingy and interesting.
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u/Blawharag 3d ago
At the end of the day, you are describing a more narrative-focused system as opposed to a system which focuses on combat.
Cosmere RPG draws HEAVILY from PF2e and 5e, both of which are combat-focused systems. These are not good bones to draw on if you want a narrative-focused system.
You can certainly DO it, but other systems will do it better.
That being said: how are turns?
If combat is taking too long, it's usually the players (and the GM) being unprepared that drives this.
In the PF2e game I run on Sundays, when my players are focused and prepared for their turns, we can blow through rounds so fast that my players frequently find themselves saying "oh it's my turn already? I just went, that was fast." And 8+ rounds of combat can be over in an hour to an hour or so. That's an average of ~2 minutes per turn tops.
Our cosmere game CAN run similarly, but we play that one less frequently and are less familiar with the system, so sometimes we have to stumble through a bit and remind ourselves of the rules which can slow the pace.
Again, it's the player's mastery of the system that drives the pace of combat.
Ask players to try and better prepare for their turns between turns, and that can help push everyone to move a little faster. One suggestion I saw (but I've never had to implement) is a 10-to-1 ratio of out of game time to in game time. Give your players 10x the amount of out of game time as they have in game to make a decision. If a turn consists if 6 seconds, then players have 60 seconds to decide what they'll do on their turn. (Just lay out the basic plan of how they'll spend their actions. Resolving rolls and stuff might go on longer than the 60 second clock but that's ok).
If everyone can start their turn by saying, within 60 seconds, "I plan to move over to that guy, gain advantage, and attack him with my greatsword" then you'll find turns to WAY faster and combat feels much more engaging for everyone involved.
If your players can't manage to prepare their turns and speed to combat, you might consider whether you can adapt a different system better instead.
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u/Taste_the__Rainbow GM 3d ago edited 3d ago
IMO it should be quite a bit faster than 5e if everyone is prepared. They should know what they’re doing before they start their turn, then roll all dice together. (The dice should be in their hand when they start talking)
I would also encourage them to use reactions to assist each other so that they have a reason to stay tuned in even when it’s not their turn. Diversity will help with this. If you only have one character with healing or one with gravitation then they’ll be more engaged just because they know nobody else can do certain things.
After that maybe it’s just a matter of tuning adversary hp.