I mentioned this above, and have run my first combat with a 'zone' style combat map, as opposed to the standard coordinate grid. I'm going to post a quick summary of how it worked, and open the topic for discussion.
The scene.
Old School Fantasy: the party has entered this cave, and is chatting with Gristle (WC NPC) when orcs rush in the entrance and blather and attack.
Setup:
Cavern Entrance
- Perry (thief)
- 5 orc warriors {P:5 T:9(1)}
Storage Area
- Gristle
Arena
- Garam (fighter)
- Lyrial (wizard)
- Sir Derrick (Paladin)
Notes:
all zones are roughly MBT size.
you can use your move action to move into a different zone. (so you can move into the zone w/ the orcs and then attack, if you want).
If they are in the same zone as you, you are in melee range.
the above is pretty much what I gave them (I trimmed some stuff out that is not necessary for this discussion (mostly spaces for ease of reading and the empty zones, also initiative)
Round 1: Gristle hefts his axe and moves into 'Arena' (he now becomes the players' extra), Sir Derrick casts Smite, Lyrial casts 3 bolts, Perry does a trick to get away from the orcs unscathed. Garam charges an orc and shakes it. The orcs attack, one-on-one and don't manage to hit anyone.
I told the party: "As I see it, everyone is prety much fighting in pairs and moving around, mostly focusing on the foe right in front of them. However, you are not blind to your surroundings (that could be fatal), and it's not a huge space. If you see that a nearby orc has dropped it's gaurd... A well-timed attack could leave you with one less orc, and won't leave you open to an opportunistic attack from your dance partner (unless you roll a 1 on your fightin' die - in which case something uncool probably happens)."
leaving open the option of taking a shot at someone else's orc without a huge downside.
Round 2:
Cavern Entrance
- Garam (fighter)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
Arena
- Perry (thief)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
- Lyrial (wizard)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
- Sir Derrick (Paladin)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
- Gristle (fighter)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
Orcs get a Joker and go first, Lyrial and Garam both get 2 wounds (they each manage to soak 1). Derrick, Garam, and Gristle manage to shake their orcs. Perry taunt's Lyrial's orc into shaken.
Round 3:
Cavern Entrance
- Garam (fighter)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)} - shaken
Arena
- Perry (thief)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)}
- Lyrial (wizard)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)} - shaken
- Sir Derrick (Paladin)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)} - shaken
- Gristle (fighter)
- 1 orc warrior {P:5 T:9(1)} - shaken
Perry takes a shot at Lyrial's orc (Lyrial is out of bennies and not in great shape) and drops it. Gristle and Sir Derrick both drop their orcs (fantastic rolls), Lyrial unshakes, and Garam kills his Orc. The only remaining orc, can't hit the little thief even with a benny, and is eliminated in the next round.
Because this post got a little longer than I intended, I'll post my impressions later.
