Which RPG has your favorite combat rules?

For those that have found their characters in combat, which RPG has combat rules you prefer to use the most?

OD&D, but only for low-level characters. But you still have to houserule initiative. Yeah, I'm lazy, so I fucking play this shit usually just 'cause it's easy to run.

As a youngster, I loved Cyberpunk 2020, but that is nostalgia bereft of knowledge. I hardly remember a thing about it.

Of the officcial:
WW's Streetfighter ST.
Alternately any oWoD with the supplement WoD Combat.
Inofficcal:
The rules i have made.

My homegrown rules of course. Otherwise they wouldn't exist for I'd have no need for them.

Outside of those, I'll go with HERO System. Not perfect, but good enough.

RuneQuest, without a doubt. (That is, RQ2 and RQ3 combat).

Strike Ranks, Attacks and Parries, Impales, Knockback. The whole shebang.

Not counting my own of course, I guess I'd have to go with AD&D 2e.  Easy enough to handle most scenarios without getting too weighed down with complexity.

Harnmaster
GURPS
OD&D

in that order.

Harnmaster is the only combat system I used that successfully immersed the players every time.

Favorite combat rules I actually get to use on a regular basis: Savage Worlds

Personal all-time favorite I never actually get to run or play: Synergy System (Blue Planet v2)

Well most rulesets fall into various camps. Shall we try and elaborate them rather than simply saying "D&D, RQ, GURPS, d6 etc.."

There are the "attack/parry/damage/reduce armour/take damage/lose points" and the "compare two rolls, or a roll and a fixed value, take damage, lose points" and " compare two rolls, and loser takes a disdvantage".. oh heck, it's too complex, we need a matrix and I have no idea how to do that on a BBS.

So, I like:

Attack/Parry, it feels like trading blows, but I can also cope with compare two combat rolls and the best one wins.
I like both hit point systems and gradual penalty/spiral of injury systems, but if I ahd to choose I'd go with hit points since you can keep going until the final drop.
I like armour reducing damage, or modifying a 'staying up' roll rather than it modifying a static defence, but I could see arguments both ways, and this is a major step down for me, BTW..
I used to like hit locations but now I think they're too detailed for fast play.
I used to like roll low under a skill but I am warming to roll high over a target number.
I like low granularity systems, so few hit points, small modifiers, small numbers of dice, small numbers overall.

Does that help? The answer is of course BRP, Savage Worlds, Traveller (Mongoose), D6 and Pendragon.

Quote from: estar;656392Harnmaster is the only combat system I used that successfully immersed the players every time.

Which version of Harnmaster do you prefer?

Warhammer. Roll d100 to hit, reverse the numbers to find where the hit landed. If a critical hit is scored, roll on the appropriate consequences table (described in graphic detail), or do regular damage minus any armour.

Simple, fast, flexible.

Tough to pick one. Assuming its in poor taste to suggest a game I helped create, I'll go with the Elric system. Reasons being it actually feels like you are parrying and dodging, and because its brutal. And the mechanics are not overly cumbersome.

Quote from: TristramEvans;656457Warhammer. Roll d100 to hit, reverse the numbers to find where the hit landed. If a critical hit is scored, roll on the appropriate consequences table (described in graphic detail), or do regular damage minus any armour.

Simple, fast, flexible.

I was going to mention WFRP for those reasons, but I HATE how the damage mechanic works.

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;656415Which version of Harnmaster do you prefer?

3rd Edition with some houserules

The main houserule with HM3 modifies how injury is handled. The problem is that it is too deadly.

Harnmaster works without hit points. Instead you take injury levels. A Character can take a infinite number of injury levels except that everytime you get injured you have to make a roll versus a characteristic or bad things result like stumbling, fumbling, death, etc. Each injury level sustained means an additional dice. So if you take a 2 injury hit and already have 3 injury you are rolling 5d6 versus your endurance (based on a 3d6 characteristic system) to see if you pass out.

That too harsh in my opinion as both are minor injuries. So I opt for 2d6+3 roll instead. 2d6 for the current injury plus 3 for the old injuries.

There is a post of a Harnmaster session I ran.

http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2011/06/911-call-from-attic-repost.html

The core rules are only $10 + shipping from Columbia Games.
http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/harn/cfg/single.cfg?product_id=4001L

RuneQuest, specially MRQ2/RQ6. Or any BRP game.

Rolemaster (RM2).

Capitán Alatriste.

Usagi Yojimbo (the Sanguine version).

I like the combat systems of Hârnmaster and The Riddle of Steel in theory, but I can't say for sure because I haven't played them.