I’m still (every once in a long while) playing in a unique blend of For Gold and Glory/Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Second Edition)/Rangers & Rabbits. After a trip to Half-Price Books, I have acquired yet another book to add to this blend: AD&D Player’s Options: Combat and Tactics, by TSR. This book, as well as the other Player’s Option book, Skills and Powers, came out pretty late in the Second Edition era. I did not get it, back in the day, and now I’m kind of sad that I didn’t. It enhances game play in several ways, and is (in retrospect) an obvious stepping-stone on D&D’s march from Second Edition to Third Edition. In 2nd Ed (and, for that matter, in For Gold and Glory), a combat round was roughly a minute long. In 3E, it was six seconds long. PO:C&T has a ten-second combat round. It also requires the use of a battle map with one-inch squares, which represented (in melee) a five-foot square. Movement has became more structured using PO:C&T, time became easier and more uniform to manage, and certain random events could occur at moderately rare intervals, possibly effecting the battle. Although spell durations were modified (because a 10-second combat round is lots shorter than a 1-minute round), this didn’t really change much tactically, as the party (and the enemy) are uniformly affected. PO:C&T also adds some great bits to character creation and improvement, which For Gold and Glory already appropriated – namely, the use of Weapon Groups and Weapon Types in the selection of Combat Skills (known in AD&D as Weapon Proficiencies.) PO:C&T also adds some wonderful proficiencies that may fill either Weapon or Non Weapon Proficiency (aka Combat or Non-Combat Skills) slots, giving the character more options. We haven’t had the opportunity to play since I acquired this book, but when we next play, we will include elements from Combat and Tactics. If you see a copy somewhere, I’d recommend purchasing it! Grab some dice, and let’s start killin’ some goblins – … Sum non Satis? Commodore Tank Clark, SFMD Team Leader, 33rd STARFLEET Rangers (“The Paladins”) “Have Phaser, Will Travel”
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Commodore Tank ClarkCommodore Clark has been the Team Leader of the 33rd STARFLEET Rangers for several years. His monthly articles about games (usually Role-Playing Games -- RPGs -- but sometimes about other tabletop forms of entertainment) appear regularly in the Regulator Charge!, the ship's newsletter. Archives
September 2017
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