The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 3

Chases and Races in standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part III

The Scenario: A reminder

We began this essay series by examining a scene from the film, Jurassic Park, where the jeep in which Jeff Goldblum rides as a passenger is nearly swallowed by a running T-Rex. The dinosaur gives chase and threatens the jeep until the faster vehicle ultimately accelerates away. It was argued that this scene could not be reproduced in the DnD4E game world using the standard rules.

In Part I and Part II we learned that this is true. DnD4E, in its core form, lacks the tools needed to model this encounter (as we will learn in subsequent commentaries, this is only one of many classic, dramatic combat scenarios that will not work in standard DnD4E).

We have seen also that the Enhanced DnD4E toolset succeeds in this scenario in every place where the standard rules fail. The mechanics detailed in the book Combat in Motion were created for this very purpose: To model combat encounters where combatants do not stand still, and this includes races and chases.

However, we haven’t yet seen the original scene reproduced. One element remains missing: The vehicle.

Let’s put the vehicle into the scene.

Let’s restart the chase again on both the standard DnD4E table and on the Enhanced DnD4E table. This time, let’s make our Elf a driver of a wagon. We will then place the wagon on each the tables for our Ogre to chase.

The Recreation in Enhanced DnD4E

Let’s first have a look at how this chase sequence plays out on the Enhanced DnD4E game table.

Let’s position the Ogre---speed 6---just 12 squares away from our wagon. Dangerously close! And let’s do one thing more. Let’s go ahead and give the initiative to the Ogre. Our wagon---speed 10---sits at a stand-still.

What happens next?

The Ogre begins with a sprint toward the stationary wagon. It moves 8 squares---bringing its token or miniature within 4 squares of the wagon’s token or miniature when the first action of the Ogre’s turn completes. With another standard action, the Ogre will charge the still motionless vehicle before it even begins to move away.

But this doesn't happen.

Enhanced DnD4E empowers the Elf driver to act on the Ogre’s turn at precisely this point. She is able to borrow an action from her upcoming turn to move the wagon forward right as the Ogre’s charge commences.

The wagon has a top-speed of 10 but, in Enhanced DnD4E, vehicles do not reach their top speed on their first move action. Vehicles begin all movement slowed. The Elf can manage to move the wagon just 2 squares. However, she is able to complete this action with the wagon in motion and this makes a significant difference when, moments later, the Ogre’s charge slams into the rear of the cart. The Ogre makes this attack now at a -4 penalty (the Ogre receives a +1 for its charge but, in Enhanced DnD4E, attacks to the rear of a moving target are penalized with a -5 to the die roll).

The Ogre’s turn ends. The Elf’s turn begins.

The Elf has used one move action already. She now has just one move action or one standard action remaining on her turn and she must use this action to move the wagon. She is able now to accelerate the vehicle to a crawl: Half the wagon’s movement. She moves the wagon 5 squares. She ends her turn still in motion.

The first round has ended.

It is now the top of the second round. The Ogre is due to take its turn. However, in Enhanced DnD4E, creatures in motion may challenge one another for the opportunity to go first, and the Elf opts to challenge for the top position. If she can take the initiative, she just might escape.

Both the Elf and the Ogre roll a d20 and each adds the appropriate dexterity bonus.

The Elf loses. The Ogre will go first once more.

To avoid attacking its moving target from the rear, the Ogre sprints its full 8 squares and completes the action running alongside the speeding wagon. With a standard action, the Ogre readies an attack. The Elf, accelerating alongside the Ogre glances to her left and sees the monster raise its enormous club.

As the Elf’s turn arrives, she is finally able to move the wagon its full speed of 10. The wagon token or miniature must enter first the square directly ahead as it moves past the Ogre’s token or miniature. This triggers the Ogre’s readied action.

The massive club slams into the side of the vehicle, rocking it back and forth on its axels. (The attack from the side is not penalized by the wagon’s motion but is still subject to a -2 penalty for the Ogre’s motion.)

Speeding onward, the wagon token or miniature is positioned 8 squares ahead of the Ogre when the Elf completes the first action of her turn. Once again, before she can take the second move of her turn, Enhanced DnD4E empowers the Ogre to move right along with her.

With a sprint action, the Ogre is able to sprint 9 squares, losing just a single square in relation to the vehicle. However this loss will prove just enough to allow the wagon to sprint away as the Elf completes the final move of her turn.

The Recreation in Standard DnD4E

On the standard DnD4E table, the Ogre, having won the initiative roll, advances 6 squares then charges another 6 to hit the stationary wagon with a +1 to its attack roll. The Elf now takes her turn and moves the wagon away from the Ogre (vehicles in DnD4E never trigger opportunity attacks for exiting squares adjacent to attackers). The vehicle “runs” 24 squares---well beyond any hope the Ogre might have of catching it.

The “chase” is over.

Sheer excitement.


Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com and is now also available from DriveThruRPG.

The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 2

Chases and Races in Standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part II

Making the Attack

Now what happens when a running Ogre catches up to and attacks a fleeing Elf?

In the standard DnD4E game, assuming the Ogre was somehow able to intercept the Elf, the Ogre makes its attack with a +3 to its attack roll; the Ogre gains a +1 for charging the target and gains another +2 from the combat advantage granted it by the running Elf (in DnD4E, a running target grants combat advantage to all adjacent attackers).

The only effect of the Elf's motion is to advantage its attacker. But is this a proper reflection of the dynamic between the Ogre and the Elf?

The situation looks quite different over on the Enhanced DnD4E table.

Here, the sprinting Elf’s forward motion grants her cover from all melee, close and area attacks originating to the rear. This subtracts 5 points from all those bonuses the Ogre enjoys. The monster makes its attack with a penalty to the die roll, not a bonus: A penalty of -2.  In the Enhanced DnD4E game, the Elf is moving away from the point of attack. This makes her an inherently more difficult target to strike from behind. This motion away from the Ogre more than compensates for the energy the Ogre has put into its charging motion toward the fleeing target.

Escaping the Attacker

The differences between the standard DnD4E table and the Enhanced DnD4E table do not end there.

If the Elf is struck by the Ogre in the Enhanced DnD4E game, she has a number of defensive and counter-offensive actions at her disposal, which she can use to respond to the attack or mitigate the damage she receives. The fleeing Elf in the standard game can take none of these actions; she can do nothing to impact the game until her turn arrives.

When her turn does arrive, she will find that the Ogre’s presence behind her has brought her to a virtual stand-still. So far as the game world is concerned, she is no longer moving. Once two combatants arrive in squares adjacent to one another, the standard rules of DnD4E conspire to lock them together. The Elf must turn and engage the Ogre or she must trigger an opportunity attack from the Ogre if she attempts to speed away.

Her only other option is to shift a single square and then restart her run once again. However, this guarantees the Ogre will once again catch her on its subsequent turn.

She can’t escape.

How different is the situation on the Enhanced DnD4E table!

Here the Elf has never stopped moving. She remains in motion and, because she does, she may continue her movement away from the Ogre unimpeded by its presence behind her. She doesn't trigger an opportunity attack when she moves. Her sprint isn't even slowed.

Not only is the Elf free to keep moving without interference, the Enhanced DnD4E game is designed to penalize her if she does not keep moving. Because her momentum is carrying her away from the Ogre, any attack she makes against the monster before the end of its next turn is made at a -5 to the attack roll. Moreover, her pursuer also retains combat advantage against her until its turn ends.

Enhanced DnD4E models a chase sequence such as this as a fluid encounter. The combat itself is moving. There is no start and stop and start again for the combatants. They are carried along with the flow of the encounter. Forward motion is never penalized by the swinging of a sword (except where specified as the effect of a power). In Enhanced DnD4E, once you begin to run away, it’s difficult to stop – certainly when you've got a charging Ogre hot on your heels!

Movement and Motion

DnD4E has been characterized as a game that emphasizes tactical movement. But movement is not the same as motion. For example, chess is another game in which there is a lot of movement; a game where movement defines the essence of each piece. Yet in chess there is not a lot of motion. Neither is there much in standard DnD4E.

Motion, and its importance to combat, is barely modeled at all in standard DnD4E. Combatants only move as they move from one point of attack to another. Each clash occurs between fixed points. The confrontation is always motionless. While actions like “charge” (and some other powers held by certain creatures) combine movement and attack, the context of each attack is established by the fixed points of attacker and target.

Of course DnD4E is not alone in this oversight. To the author’s knowledge, moving clashes are not modeled in any miniature’s based table-top RPG or Wargame. But the universality of the oversight does not make it any less glaring. Motion is a very large part of melee combat and is a very large part of what makes cinematic melee action compelling.

Players of Enhanced DnD4E assume table-top roleplaying games should endeavor to model the dynamics and the drama of fantasy, medieval combat: Not just create a more complicated chess game. Enhanced DnD4E puts that neglected dynamic and missing drama back into the DnD4E game.

Enhanced 4E: Combat in Motion is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com and is now also available from DriveThruRPG.

The Enhanced DnD4E Difference: Entry 1

Chases and Races in standard DnD4E vs. Enhanced DnD4E: Part I

The Scenario

There is a scene in the film, Jurassic Park, where the jeep in which Jeff Goldblum rides as a passenger is nearly swallowed by a running T-Rex. The dinosaur snaps at the jeep, giving chase until the faster vehicle finally accelerates away.

That sequence is impossible to model with the combat rules of standard DnD4E.

To see why, let’s recreate the sequence on the battle-map using both the standard DnD4E and Enhanced DnD4E rules.

For the T-Rex we will substitute a more thematically appropriate Ogre. For the jeep, we might place a wagon but the Enhanced DnD4E rules for vehicles add another interesting dimension to the scenario best considered separately. For now, let’s keep the Ogre but have it chase an Elf.

Our Ogre has a top speed of 6. Our fleet-footed Elf has a speed of 7. Our scene begins with both creatures at a stand-still and separated by 4 squares.

Running the Chase

In both the standard DnD4E game and the Enhanced DnD4E game, the Ogre and Elf roll for initiative with the winner taking the first action in the first round. In both games there will be no chase if the Ogre wins, as it will immediately close the 4 square gap to engage the Elf.

Yet in the standard DnD4E game, there will be no chase regardless of who wins the initiative roll. For if the Elf wins the initiative roll, she will immediately escape; she will run 18 squares across the board, ending her turn 22 squares distant, and the Ogre, when its turn arrives, will see it has no hope of catching her.

But over in our Enhanced DnD4E game, things look very different.

Here, the Elf has won the initiative roll and, at the end of the first round (after 6 seconds of game time), she and the Ogre have raced across the battle-grid, averaging 18 squares between them, with the Ogre now 6 squares behind. The Elf is still getting away but the Ogre is in hot pursuit. Why has the Ogre even bothered to chase the Elf when, even in the Enhanced 4E game, the Elf clearly moves faster?

The reason is this; at the top of each round, Enhanced 4E grants the Ogre the chance to turn the tables. Each running creature may make an opposed Dexterity check (much like the initiative roll) with the winner going first.

As the second round begins, the Ogre challenges the Elf for the top spot in the turn order.

Because the 6 square gap between the two creatures exactly matches the Ogre’s movement rate, the Ogre will be able to strike the Elf with a charge action should it win the opposed Dexterity check. Should the Elf win the opposed check, the chase will continue – and it will continue until the distance between the two creatures is so wide that it exceeds the Ogre’s maximum sprinting speed of nine squares. Only then will the faster Elf have truly managed to escape.

Enhanced 4E is available in print and eBook formats from Enhanced4E.com.