Evolving Tefr Combat

I made a sort of mission statement at the start of the year running through what worked and where things were a creaky in the combat element of the current Tefr system. It stated:

“Over the last few years there have been various updates to the world and other rules. There has also been a general ground-shift in the playing focus, namely that Tefr is not a pure ‘rule and dice game’, but a group-narrative. To reflect this shift the game system needs to shift from formal and inflexible rules and tables to a more flexible system that allows a little more player determination. A system that favours narrative embellishment.”

Tefr originated more than 20 years ago. RPG combat back then was rule, table and dice-roll heavy, which was fine at the time, but the style of play has evolved. Players now need a more flexible form of gameplay especially in combat. They need combat that feels dynamic and dramatic, with action that they can shape as they go without feeling complex.

“The proposed changes must trim the clunky analogue elements whilst ensuring that the game is still Tefr and not some radical completely off-the-wall system. As with any RPG combat system a balance must be struck between playability and mechanical realism.”

Frankly, the Tefr combat system has been long overdue an update to reflect this.

Not Reinventing the Wheel

Writing my mission statement allowed me to realize I didn’t have to re-invent the wheel. After all the original combat system had been influenced by Chaosium’s original Runequest rules and the D100 skill based model still worked for the rest of the system. In turn I could see desirable aspects of the new Runequest combat system that would dovetail nicely with some of the changes I wished to implement. Features such as specialist combat actions that players could choose to implement during the round.

The mission statement considered Critical hits, fumbles, stuns, grappling, and small weapons. It also looked at how severe wounds might be dealt with.

“The Severe wound mechanic will be retained but altered significantly (No more tables). Should a character lose half of their Hit Points or more in a single blow they will have taken a severe wound. This will necessitate a roll for location to determine what area of the body the wound has affected. The nature of the wound an NPC takes can be determined by the Referee with considered input by players. Players should be encouraged to determine what wounds their own characters have taken with considered input by the Referee.”

One of the main changes I wished to fit everything round was influenced by Dave Morris’s Tirikelu rules for The Empire of the Petal Throne world. He talked of simplification of combat whilst allowing the players to have more input on the combat itself. This got me thinking and has led me to develop a core system where a player character may have three combat actions in a round. One at full chance, two at half chance. These actions can be attack, defence or other specialist actions, but the ground-shift element is that they may be combined. Either to two actions at full chance or one at double chance. Less important NPCs only get One full chance combat action and one half.

Tactics and Style

This change enables players to plan their combat more tactically or to develop a fighting style for their character. It also weights combat in favour of player characters giving them a chance for more dramatic combat that doesn’t end up with endless attack/parry cycles. Boss NPCs of course can have the same number of actions as a player character, or more; after all there have to be some challenges.

Using it for Real

“It’s always very easy to make sweeping statements and very hard to make these crucial game elements work well. I’m well aware this needs a lot of work and thought and testing.”

It is still a work in progress, and the initial suggestions were viewed as somewhat radical by the players, but it has begun to coalesce into a system that has a new verve to it. I’m looking forward to running it in a real fantasy scenario (if that isn’t an oxymoron).