Re: newbie wonders how attack scenes are DM'd

From: tim@leaphome.pelican.org (Tim Franklin)

Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 00:00:00 +0000

scrotes <scrotes@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>PLEASE RESPOND TO scrotes@yahoo.com.au
>
>hi there
>
>me and a few friends played ad&d for a couple of months and loved it. now we
>all live in different states/countries and want to start playing again.
>
>i was wondering how pbem games operate the "attack" or "melee" scenes. do
>you email out every die roll and response to that? eg:
>"i attack again"
>"and again"
>
>im guessing no. how do you do a whole attack scene where players respond to
>each others rolls and decisions?

Personally, I get the players to give me some kind of combat plan, with a
certain amount of 'what-ifs'.  I'll then play out a number of rounds of
combat, stopping when some drastic changes occur or when the plan no
longer covers what's happening; for example, if one (or several) people are
unconscious, enemy reinforcements turn up, the archers run out of arrows etc.

It normally takes two or three written turns to play out an entire combat
(so far - they're only 1st / 2nd level at the moment, and we haven't had
any combat with spell-casters on the other side.  Things might slow down a
little as the party and their opponents increase in power.)

Take a look at http://nightfall.pelican.org/ if you want to see how the
turns work in action. (At least, it works for me.)

Regards,
Tim.

References

newbie wonders how attack scenes are DM'd
"scrotes" <scrotes@yahoo.com.au>
Sun, 17 Sep 2000 00:00:00 +0000