Second Edition Combat Tick Sheet

I quoted poorly. What I actually disagreed with was your blanket statement that the ST shouldn't adjust extras' DVs. As you said, for most Solars it's not an issue. But there are a significant number for whom it is.


You're talking about denying them successes that they should have. That's totally a question of difficulty. But the difficulty of hitting an extra is a tiny part of combat. Damaging them fast enough to get through them, while keeping your own DV high enough to avoid getting hit, means that a few successes either way can mean the difference between carving through them with ease and getting bogged down and overwhelmed. You can't deny that there is a point on the combat power scale where those successes make all the difference.
 
Would it be hard to make one for say 10 characters at once?  Our group is 5 plus having some room for NPC's.
 
Would it be hard to make one for say 10 characters at once?  Our group is 5 plus having some room for NPC's.
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The basic limitation is the width of a 8.5" sheet of paper. I packed just about as many columns in as I could without making the print ridicuously tiny.


Adding more columns would mean, ultimately, having fewer ticks on the sheet, but I'll play with it.


Out of curiosity, (since I've haven't actually played 2nd Edition yet,) what are you guys finding to be a typical number of ticks in a fight? 100? 500? 1,000?


-S
 
I don't think that I've played a fight past the 15th tick. But that being said, I haven't played large-scale battles with many npc's.


Jeppe
 
A 10-Column version of the sheet is up. Check it.


-S
 
I'll let you know after my first game Sunday.  But I can't imagine long.  About 5-6 rounds was all that 1st ever lasted.
 
I may have been over-zealous in my original attempts, if combat isn't going to typically go into the 200+ tick range.


In accordance with that, I made yet another sheet that's a bit roomier, and has space to label each column. It's only 150 ticks, however.


-S
 
To keep track of large groups of NPCs, I divide them into smaller groups. So on a tick sheet Ill have "Elites 1," "Elites 2," etc, each representing 5 soldiers or so.


Usually, a group for each player to dice up. Thats what they're there for, after all.


I'm also a huge fan of just coming up with arbitrary numbers of dice for extras. In first ed, I'd write my extras as "Speed 5, Accuracy 4, Damage 3L, Defense 5." And nothing much else. I'll probably end up doing the same for 2.0 when I'm more experienced.
 
I think I'm going to rewrite my online tick-tracking tool to use this.  Just to edge ever closer to Grandia, the One True Combat System!  Ahahahaa.
 
Stillborn said:
In the old style of combat, I used to give all the extras one initiative roll, and have them all act simultaneously, for convenience. However, under the new system, unless they all act IDENTICALLY, they'll quickly slip out of sync, tick-wise. It seems to me like this would be a nightmare to keep track of in the event of a large number of Extras.
Any thoughts on how to handle this quickly and efficiently?
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I had a few months to think about this, so here's my philosophy:


Don't bother treating Extras as individuals. Create them as a unit similar to mass combat. Have them act on their tick as a normal character but with multiple attacks. I have considered either using Magnitude to determine the number of attacks at full At+Ab or treating it as a flurry using At+Ab+Mag as the dice pool.


If you want to stick close to the normal Extra rules, give the unit three health levels per Extra. For every three health levels inflicted, a member of the unit is fragged. Limit damage from any single attack to three health levels; flurries and extra action attacks can inflict more damage, as can area affect attacks. Would also make an exception for cool stunts that involve very large weapons making sweeping attacks and the like.


For the most part, play it loose and don't worry about body count. Let the action not the numbers determine if an Extra is killed or merely disabled. (Sliced in two by my grand daiklave vs. smacked by my club.) Use different wound levels to represent the status of the unit as a whole or use the mass combat health level rules and reduction in Magnitude.


Anyway, that's just my thoughts on it. The point is, treating them as a whole keeps the paperwork down.


sumocat
 
I just updated the "Expanded" Tick Sheet in the Downloads section. After actually playtesting 2nd Edition combat, I realized that even 150 ticks is probably way more than any combat is likely to run.


I've made it 50 ticks long, but 36 columns wide, so it can be easily re-used for many combat sessions.


-S
 
Sweeeeeet...


Definitely gonna use this one...


As for re-using though, wasn't much of an issue for me to begin with.


It works wonders if you keep it in a plastic sheet protector and use dry erase markers
 
It works wonders if you keep it in a plastic sheet protector and use dry erase markers
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Yeah. I was planning on getting a few laminated, but sheet protectors are probably cheaper.


-S
 
What about half the sheet being used for ticks, then the other half containg current character DV, and perhaps a list of actions that affect DV?
 
I've found that it's pretty easy to keep track of DV in my head, but maybe I'll work up another sheet for the DV-challenged.


-S
 
Yes, for the love of God, please do.  Personally, I don't mind a very large tick sheet; if I use a 100 tick sheet, it could be used for several games since combat doesn't last that long.  As for DV, I was wondering how I was going to handle that.  What I came up with is that after they take their action, I would write down the DV penalty for it in the box below where I X'ed their place and then just apply onslaught penalties in my head.
 
What about a column that runs side-by-side with the ticks for you to fill in current DV?


-S
 
That would be quite awesome.  Just remember to make sure there's enough tick and DV columns to keep track of 10 characters at a time, though.
 
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