When playing EotE I feel like the combat rounds seem to be more or less identical for everyone, NPCs and PCs alike, we Aim and Attack, unless theres some specific environmental objects to interact with.
So I'm just wondering if people have any good examples of what to use Maneuvers on rather than Aiming, in say a room without obstacles to hide behind or interact with?
Running away? Side step. Defensive Stance. Body guard. Assist. Guarded Stance. Draw a weapon.
Honestly if the room is a big empty box the Gm really isn't doing his job. If nothing else make it a big empty room WITH A SLOWLY LOWERING CEILING. ... seriously though even hanger bays (which are big mostly empty boxes) aren't really empty.
Running away.
Running away? Side step. Defensive Stance. Body guard. Assist. Guarded Stance. Draw a weapon.
Okay I gotta look up some of those again, thanks.
Honestly if the room is a big empty box the Gm really isn't doing his job. If nothing else make it a big empty room WITH A SLOWLY LOWERING CEILING. ... seriously though even hanger bays (which are big mostly empty boxes) aren't really empty.
Yeah we never fight in big empty boxes, I just mentioned those as a barebones setting to get the examples. Our last big fight last session was when the PCs were fleeing in airspeeders, from two armed NPC airspeeders. One of the NPC airpseeders used a harpoon to tether their airspeeder to one of the PCs, which one of the PCs used a maneuver on to balance across so that he could fight the NPCs inside their speeder (did not end well for the PC).
If you don't have cover and do have something like Side Step I would be using it, honestly I'd use Side Step as opposed to taking cover anyway, and then Aim.
Yeah we never fight in big empty boxes, I just mentioned those as a barebones setting to get the examples. Our last big fight last session was when the PCs were fleeing in airspeeders, from two armed NPC airspeeders. One of the NPC airpseeders used a harpoon to tether their airspeeder to one of the PCs, which one of the PCs used a maneuver on to balance across so that he could fight the NPCs inside their speeder (did not end well for the PC).
Well that sounds amazing.
There can be a lot of moving parts and angles to a fight. Doors, trains, ships. Think of all the stuff there is that can move and obscure or change up the fight. Move the antagonists. Get them better positioning or think of a reason to take away Cover or make it untenable or else get the adversary to gain so advantage so moving is a better option.
Or just make the objective time limited. They have to move or that door will close.
Aiming is a pretty solid maneuver, and so it's no wonder that it's the go-to if you've already taken care of cover. The GM should be keeping this fluid so that the PCs don't always have the option of aiming; or, at least, so that players have the choice of aiming OR diving back behind cover, etc.
Part of what makes combats and individual rounds feeling the same is in the framing.
The ones that stand out for me aren't the one location, one set of bad guys setups (e.g. "you're in a cargo bay, pirates are loading boxes onto the shuttle").
Better are the ones where you have to keep moving and/or the environment and/or enemies keep changing. It becomes more exciting when:
it's a running battle to get to the last of the escape pods before our enemies do.
we have to push through an enemy line, because more are a couple of rounds behind us.
Try "camping" under those circumstances and you just lose.
Edited by Col. OrangeTwo of our players have no combat skills whatsoever (myself included), so we usually are looking for some means of foiling our enemies (tech solutions or otherwise), cowering, or trying to aid our allies with situational devices. For those in combat, only one or two of them will remember to aim, most are trying to move into cover, or doing something crazy like some complicated series of movements and rigging that ultimately ends with "annnnd... I fail, but spectacularly." Every once in a while the gambit pays off and someone does something incredible, but usually combat rounds last for 2-3 rounds and someone loses a limb.
Running away? Side step. Defensive Stance. Body guard. Assist. Guarded Stance. Draw a weapon.
Okay I gotta look up some of those again, thanks.
Yeah we never fight in big empty boxes, I just mentioned those as a barebones setting to get the examples. Our last big fight last session was when the PCs were fleeing in airspeeders, from two armed NPC airspeeders. One of the NPC airpseeders used a harpoon to tether their airspeeder to one of the PCs, which one of the PCs used a maneuver on to balance across so that he could fight the NPCs inside their speeder (did not end well for the PC).Honestly if the room is a big empty box the Gm really isn't doing his job. If nothing else make it a big empty room WITH A SLOWLY LOWERING CEILING. ... seriously though even hanger bays (which are big mostly empty boxes) aren't really empty.
First i read this i thought one of the PCs had been harpooned not the speeder.
He'd be a real team player to let someone walk across it while he was skewered.....
Two of our players have no combat skills whatsoever (myself included), so we usually are looking for some means of foiling our enemies (tech solutions or otherwise), cowering, or trying to aid our allies with situational devices. For those in combat, only one or two of them will remember to aim, most are trying to move into cover, or doing something crazy like some complicated series of movements and rigging that ultimately ends with "annnnd... I fail, but spectacularly." Every once in a while the gambit pays off and someone does something incredible, but usually combat rounds last for 2-3 rounds and someone loses a limb.
First off...OUCH!! 2nd...Our group is the opposite...Me and a buddy in our group are the "Guns", 2 others are the skills & modicum of firepower & 1 is the tech geek. So during Social situations my buddy (The other Gun PC DROID) just chills in the corner doing other things in RL while the rest of us solve situations. But when combat starts...PEW PEW!!
I might be wrong here, but I always thought using Threat was a great way to create impromptu environmental shifts which forced people out of their little comfort zones.
Also, think about the layout of the battle in the first place. Not everyone should be using Heavy Blaster Rifles, especially your NPC's. Throw some vibroaxes in there and have them run up to the PC's. That'll get them running quick, fast, and in a hurry... or at least it should theoretically. I mean, they might even be suicide bombers 