Eliminate Combat Drag with Realism

You’ve been there. We all have. The fight, just, will, not, stop. You’re thinking, “Man, this firefight is taking FOREVER.” Yep, I feel your pain. There are plenty of articles and forum posts about shortening combat by changing the rules, and that’s great for some gamers, but for me, it makes me feel like the game is broken. I don’t want to rewrite the system just to enjoy a fight. I want a real-world solution (yes, I know it’s a make-believe world). Here’s the one that’s been working for me for years:

Not every fight has to end with every enemy dead. That’s it. That’s my big secret.

This is not a video game. Runners don’t have to geek every last opponent, and in most fights that’s not even plausible. Is every

• ganger
• corp security guard
• Knight Errant officer
• organlegger
• hired gun
• bounty hunter
• street samurai
• dragon (okay, maybe not the dragon)
• etc., etc., etc.

going to fight to the death? I don’t think so. Unless they absolutely, positively have no other choice, they won’t. If it looks like their side is losing, they’ll turn tail and run. If they can’t run, they’ll surrender. Guess what? The fight’s over, the runners win, and the job keeps moving. And you still get your karma and nuyen, because that comes from finishing the job anyway. Nobody gets paid by the corpse. Done and done.

As the GM, you can have your opposition run or surrender at any time. I suggest doing it once it’s obvious they can’t win. Maybe they weren’t brave to begin with and bail after a round or two. Maybe they give up as soon as their condition monitor is half full, or the first time they start feeling those wound modifiers.

So why is this NPC fighting the runners?

• Is he getting paid?
• Is he getting paid well? (That corp guard pulling a night shift for minimum wage isn’t dying for the company.)
• Is he defending his family, his turf, his most prized possession?
• Is he bloodthirsty?
• Today, is he being lazy?
• Is he all bark and no bite?
• Does he really care if the Johnson’s target gets extracted?

I think it’s important to figure out why an enemy is in the fight to begin with. Once you know his motivation, you’ll automatically know when he quits. Sure, some things will always fight to the death. Drones don’t surrender. Bound spirits do what they’re told. And some fanatics really will go down swinging, I’ve seen it. But after a while, plausibility starts getting strained when every single enemy fights to the last bullet. That’s just not roleplaying; that’s farming.

Now, the Sixth World adds a wrinkle. The guard who runs away isn’t just gone. He’s running for his commlink. So the fight’s over, but now there’s a clock running, and the runners have to decide if they chase him down or grab the goods and get out before his buddies show up.

As a player, do you really have to geek everyone? Does that last ganger running down the alley HAVE to be shot in the back? When you’re facing the big bad, do you think he might surrender, or do you just assume he’ll fight to the death? My players about exploded with epiphany when they tried to take the main bad guy alive halfway through the fight. “You mean, he surrenders? I was just trying to roleplay a bit. Cool!”

And then they had to figure out what to do with him. But that’s a whole other article.