cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1312322
I’ve been DMing a small group of new players. They’ve been literally “hit or miss” with combat. I know at least one is getting frustrated with combat because he can’t roll to save his life. I’m planning on throwing a swarm of small creatures at them next session. goblins, spiders, whatever. just small easily killed, easily hit creatures. Thing is I don’t want to do ‘initiative’ per se as I’m considering having a ton of these things. Anyone have any pointers?
One Roll Engine has a really cool mechanic for this. They’re called “unworthy opponents”. Here’s basically how it works:
Each UO has one stat: its Threat. This is 1 to 4. Any hit whose damage beats their Threat takes them out. They all move together and they all roll at the same time. The ORE takes sets from their massed roll to sum up the whole group’s hits, blocks, and parries. Each group of UO rolls a number of dice equal to their total Threat, max 15d10 per group. At a moment’s notice you know where they hit you, how many times, how hard, and whatever else. You can drop them like flies or they can overwhelm you by sheer numbers. It’s super cinematic and takes little time. There’s a bit more for buffing, debuffing, scaring them off, and stuff like that but you get the gist.
Maybe there’s a way to capture some of that magic in your system of preference. Hopefully it at least gives you some of your own ideas. Best of luck!