GUIDE TO COMBAT WITH ESSAYS BY RICHARD PETT WOLFGANG BAUR CHRIS PRAMAS KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO ELIZABETH ANN SCARBOROUGH ED GREENWOOD JOHN A. PITTS & KEN SCHOLES JEFF GRUBB STEVE WINTER ROB HEINSOO AND MANY MORE EDITED BY JANNA SILVERSTEIN Praise for Complete KOBOLD Guide to Game Design “A must-have book for both those looking to get into this industry, and those who merely want to play.” —NerdTrek.com “Highly recommended for gaming nerds everywhere.” —citybookreview.com Winner, 2012 Gold ENnie Award for Best RPG-Related Accessory KOBOLD Guide to Worldbuilding “Class is in session . The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding SHOULD be considered a textbook on intelligent setting creation.” —Dave Hinojosa, The Gaming Gang “While the book is aimed at the RPG crowd, a huge percentage of the material would be just as valuable to an author writing a novel set in an original world. The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding will spark some new ideas and help you add the proper doses of verisimilitude and outlandishness.” —Ed Grabianowski, i09 “A really great work … if you’re seriously pursuing worldbuilding as a hobby, I think it’s a worthy investment .” —Martin Kallies, RPG.net Winner, 2013 Gold ENnie Award for Best RPG-Related Accessory Winner, 2013 Gold ENnie Award for Best Writing Kobold Guide to Combat other books in the award-winning kobold guide series Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design Kobold Guide to Board Game Design Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding Kobold Guide to Magic Find all Kobold Press titles at www.koboldquarterly.com Kobold Guide to Combat With essays by Wolfgang Baur Clinton J. Boomer Keith R.A. DeCandido Diana Pharaoh Francis Ed Greenwood Jeff Grubb Rob Heinsoo Miranda Horner Colin McComb Rory Miller Carlos Ovalle Richard Pett John A. Pitts & Ken Scholes Mario Podeschi Chris Pramas Steven Robert Aaron Rosenberg Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Steve Winter Edited by Janna Silverstein KOBOLD Guide to Combat © 2014 Open Design Editor Janna Silverstein Cover art Emile Denis Publisher Wolfgang Baur Accountant Shelly Baur Art director/graphic designer Marc Radle “Tossing Kegs and Smashing Chairs: How to Stage a Great Barroom Brawl” by Steven Robert originally appeared in Kobold Quarterly #8 “Inspiring Words: A Warlord’s Field Guide to Battle Cries” by Mario Podeschi originally appeared in Kobold Quarterly #8 All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this book in any manner without express permission from the publisher is prohibited. OPEN DESIGN P.O. Box 2811 Kirkland, WA 98083 WWW.KOBOLDPRESS.COM Most product names are trademarks owned by the companies that publish those products. Use of the name of any product without mention of trademark status should not be construed as a challenge to such status. Open Design, Kobold Press, Kobold Quarterly, and the Kobold logo are trademarks of Open Design. First Edition Kobold Guide to Combat Table of Contents Introduction: Entering the Fray by Janna Silverstein .................................... 9 THE BIG PICTURE Why We Fight: Combat as Communication by Jeff Grubb ....................... 12 Tactics for Tyrants by Chris Pramas ......................................................... 18 Military Systems at War by Steve Winter .................................................. 23 The Importance of Tension and Raising the Stakes by Diana Pharaoh Francis ........................................................................ 39 Gaming the Novel: The Differences Between Writing a Game and Writing Game Fiction by Keith R.A. DeCandido ...................................... 45 Speed of Combat by Wolfgang Baur .......................................................... 51 Scratching the Surface: 10 Things Fiction and Film Get Wrong about Violence by Rory Miller ................................................ 57 ENVIRONMENTS Fighting in a Real Fantasy World by Ed Greenwood ................................. 65 Through the Looking Glass by Colin McComb ......................................... 72 Tossing Kegs and Smashing Chairs: How to Stage a Great Barroom Brawl by Steven Robert .................................................... 78 ARM YOURSELF! A Note on Anatomy by Richard Pett ......................................................... 86 The Magic of “The Gambler” by Aaron Rosenberg .................................................................................. 92 Taking Aim: The Role of Archery in Gaming by Miranda Horner ................................................................................... 97 Siege Engines and War Machines in Fantasy by Wolfgang Baur .................................................................................... 104 Inspiring Words: A Warlord’s Field Guide to Battle Cries by Mario Podeschi ............................................................... 110 Kobold Guide to Combat THE RIGHT CHARACTER FOR THE JOB Reconnaissance and Scouting by John A. Pitts and Ken Scholes ............................................................. 116 Combat from the Shadows by Carlos Ovalle .......................................... 123 Healing Heroes: Combat Medicine and Magic by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough ................................................................ 130 Monsters: The Pointy End of Fun by Rob Heinsoo ................................. 136 On Being a Target : Bravery, Cowardice, and Retreat in Game Combat by Wolfgang Baur............................................................ 141 ONE MORE THING The Illusion of Conflict: Spoiler-Alerts and Combo-Moves by Clinton J. Boomer ............................................................................... 148 About the Authors .................................................................................. 154 Kobold Guide to Combat 8 KOBOLD Guide to Combat Introduction Entering the fray Janna Silverstein torytelling is conflict. Whether that conflict is between a cursed knight S and a half-elf prince at swordspoint, a father and son disagreeing about the direction of the family business, a troupe of adventurers facing down a Cyclops at a bridge, or the armies of two great nations clashing over ultimate power, stories move as a result of conflict. It creates drama, tension; it pushes a story, an adventure to a turning point. It’s certainly what gets roleplaying games moving. Interests at cross-purposes, kingdoms in peril, the possession of treasure hidden, found, stolen and retrieved—it’s all conflict. In RPGs, and often in fiction, the most explicit expression of conflict is combat. With this book, we wanted to examine combat from as many different perspectives as we could, to talk about everything we could manageably cover in a relatively brief way: the place of conflict in games and stories, what makes for a great fight, the roles that different characters may play, and some of the types of combat you might encounter in your journey as a gamer, a game designer, a writer or reader. I knew we’d hit on a key topic when I came across an in-depth discussion of the place of combat in games on Facebook earlier this year. I read the whole exchange—more than 50 posts—as players and designers discussed how to interpret the number of pages a game manual spent explaining combat rules. Is a game mainly about the combat or is combat merely one element of a larger gaming experience that’s also rich with social interaction, negotiation, trickster maneuvers, and more? Clearly people feel strongly about how combat shapes a game, how it flavors an adventure. This book is here to contribute to that conversation. And make no mistake: I don’t think we’ve 9 covered all the answers. We could do a whole volume on different kinds of weapons, for example. Combat is a huge subject. But I think we’ve gotten a pretty good start. I’ve been delighted by the folks who were ready to step onto the battlefield when I extended the invitation. The table of contents shows the variety of people ready to discuss it: from gaming luminaries like Ed Greenwood, Wolfgang Baur, and Chris Pramas to bestselling novelists John A. Pitts and Ken Scholes, and the Nebula Award-winning fantasy author—and former combat nurse—Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. We’ve even got self-defense expert and author Rory Miller, along with so many others. You’ll find essays here that focus on the nuts and bolts of gaming. Steve Winter’s chapter on military systems at war is chock full of history. And we’ve got essays that approach the subject from more of a storytelling point of view. You’ll find that every essay is only one facet of the larger conversation, each brings a unique perspective, and will be useful to your gaming, fighting, storytelling experience. I invite you to enter the fray and get involved in the discussion. 10 KOBOLD Guide to Combat The Big Picture Why we fight Combat as Communication Jeff Grubb know a number of writers who write excellent but ultimately I unnecessary combat scenes. They are fluid and smooth and bring you into the flow of combat, and are filled with broad sweeps, backhand blocks, and devilish dispatches. You catch the feel of the clash of blades and the rippling breeze that follows a longsword’s swipe or a crossbow bolt’s near miss. They are, in effect, poetic. But in the larger sense of the work, these combat scenes are also unneeded. You can skip to the bottom of the combat sequence and pick up the narrative again and know that nothing of note had happened within the flashing of blades and the exchange of gunfire. It is the combat equivalent of the musical numbers in the middle of a 1930s film, where you can comfortably get up to get popcorn without