So, I'm playing with a group who really couldn't care less about combat. I was thinking of ways to reduce it down to a single opposed roll each round. This is what I was thinking, I'd appreciate peoples thoughts, especially where there might be a glaring problem.

Note: Instead of a d20, each player rolls a "class die" which is basically the same as your hit die. Ace (d8), Brawler (d10), and Magician (d6).

When in combat, everyone rolls their Class die at once. The number on the die roll is both your attack and defence number. You go around the table, in order from highest die to lowest, choosing a foe who's defence number you have beaten and narrating how you attacked them.

Then you roll your weapon die and add the damage. All damage rolls can explode, meaning if you roll the highest possible number on your die, you get a re-roll and add the results together.

Magical attacks are treated as normal.

Quote from: Kanye Westeros;622138When in combat, everyone rolls their Class die at once. The number on the die roll is both your attack and defence number. You go around the table, in order from highest die to lowest, choosing a foe who's defence number you have beaten and narrating how you attacked them.

I guess the thing that sticks out to me the most is the part where a player only chooses to narrate attacking foes who's defense number they have beaten.  That would get old and stale quickly if you are only attacking foes who you beat in the dice rolls.  Can they choose to attack and fail against opponents who's defense number was higher than the player's attack dice?

Quote from: Kanye Westeros;622138So, I'm playing with a group who really couldn't care less about combat. I was thinking of ways to reduce it down to a single opposed roll each round.

You might want to look at an ORE game for ideas that meet your needs. In ORE, each player rolls a pool of dice and most of the exchange is read from the interplay of those dice. Your intentions determine the dice and the results, including positional information, hit, and damage (and hit location for that matter) are all in the one throw. When I have the requirements you list above, this is what I go to.

Very fast, very simple, and develops an interesting story in the process.

You might find it helps inform your system by offering some alternatives you might not have thought of yet.

Quote from: Drohem;622144I guess the thing that sticks out to me the most is the part where a player only chooses to narrate attacking foes who's defense number they have beaten.  That would get old and stale quickly if you are only attacking foes who you beat in the dice rolls.  Can they choose to attack and fail against opponents who's defense number was higher than the player's attack dice?

It's a valid concern, but - given the group doesn't care much about combat anyway - I don't think it's one they would be interested in following. Although how about...

* Everyone rolls their die
* Starting with the character(s) who rolled the highest, and counting down (Characters on the same roll go at the same time):
    * Character can choose to attack or defend
    * If you defend, take a defense token
    * If you attack, target can spend a defense token to avoid the attack, else roll your damage against them
* Anyone with defense tokens at the end of a round, loses them

I'd be tempted to kick people's die roll down by 1 point for being attacked, but eh.

Quote from: Kanye Westeros;622138So, I'm playing with a group who really couldn't care less about combat.

Then don't have combat in your games.

Quote from: gleichman;622162Then don't have combat in your games.

Agreed. Most people go through their whole lives without combat, an RPG doing the same is hardly beyond the pale.

One roll combat.

The entire combat, in one roll. All attacks, all defenses, all abstracted away.

Each participant rolls once. High scores mean they did well, and take no damage. Low scores mean they did poorly, and were neutralized.

Narrate the results, and go on with the adventure.

I like bidding combat. Each combatant takes an action (or two) and makes a bid. Certain actions require minimum bids. After each bid the opponent can either make a counter bid or call for their opponent to make a roll against a TN based on the current bid. Each "bout" (round of bids) is then finalized with one roll.

Gnomemurdered!

RPGPundit

Quote from: gleichman;622162Then don't have combat in your games.

Quote from: The Traveller;622168Agreed. Most people go through their whole lives without combat, an RPG doing the same is hardly beyond the pale.

What they said. If your players don't like combat, don't have any combats. Have more things they like instead.

Quote from: vytzka;622448What they said. If your players don't like combat, don't have any combats. Have more things they like instead.

I recommend pie.

Quote from: TristramEvans;622450I recommend pie.

Always a good choice, although you should watch out for unfun pie battles breaking out.

Quote from: vytzka;622451Always a good choice, although you should watch out for unfun pie battles breaking out.

But you could at least resolve it using ThaP0 (To-Hit with A Pie at 0-range).

Quote from: TristramEvans;622452But you could at least resolve it using ThaP0 (To-Hit with A Pie at 0-range).

Nice

More seriously, I run a pretty regular Call of Cthulhu game, and in the last two years I think there's been maybe 3 combats. Granted it is Call of Cthulhu, so combat isn't generally the best option anyways when confronting supernatural horrors, but even still I find the players get much more enjoyment out of the investigation stuff and unraveling the backstories/legends. Combat isn't missed at all.