Big to small; Small to Big

Uncharted Worlds has a combat system that isn't really designed for the kind of game I play.  That being said, I like Uncharted Worlds a lot.  So, I generally replace the combat system with the rules from Kult or Dungeon World.  That's one of the great things about these games.  If you want a "Keep It Together" roll in Dungeon World or Sprawl, it's not hard to implement (and might work best for things like Fear spells).  

Here is the difference between Uncharted Worlds combat and that of, say, Dungeon Planet.  In Uncharted Worlds, you make one roll, and that decides how well you did in the combat.  It's useful for mass combats where the character is really one of many troopers.  I don't think it works well on the individual level where you want to know how well Character X is doing. N

Sometimes, however, I'm uninterested in the little nuances of the moment.  I just want to know if army A beats army B, and in that case, its worthwhile to resolve things in one roll and move on.  The trick, for me, is to know which time is best for which kinds of action.  If you haven't looked at Uncharted Worlds and how they do that combat, I'd suggest giving it the once over.  It's worthwhile.

Here's the thing though, I don't think this works for combat alone.  The reality of gameplay is that sometimes characters want to do something and you just want to know if it worked or not.  Sometimes, that's all they want too.  Think of it this way.  If a player says, I want to sneak past the guards and get into the inner chamber of the base commander/king/evil overlord/galactic tyrant, do you play that through.  Because what Uncharted Worlds kind of presents is the idea that you might resolve it with one simple roll, and if it works, cut scene to where the characters made it past the patrols... they're in!  7-9?  6 or less?  Yeah, the cut scene doesn't work and you play through that.

Really, a few of the games already have this mechanic built in.  Think about journeys in Dungeon World.  If the players roll well, the journey happens, probably with little trouble to speak of, move on.  If your adventure isn't a room-by-room search of a galactic cruiser, then ask the players what they want to do, make a roll, if they succeed, they get where they're going, they find the information, they whatever... the minutia doesn't have to be played through.

When is this helpful?  I would argue that it always has potential uses, but it becomes really important in two particular styles of game play.  If you are playing a fast adventure and you want to get done in say 6 hours start to finish, this is a perfect tool to fall back on.  "You land in Tokyo with six hours before you meet with the client, what do you do?"  "We're going to see if there's been any weird activity on their network related to anything they might be doing."  Rolls a 10+.  "Okay, here's what you learn."  Rolls a 9 or less, "Okay, halfway through your search you realize that you're network is being tapped and monitored... what do you do?"

The second style of play where this is the most helpful is when one character splits off from the rest.  If one character decides that they're going to sneak into the Ogre's keep and have a look around for the best way for everyone else to get in... do you really want to play through that?  Give them a roll, and resolve it as a big action, through cut scenes, whatever.  If you do this, you'll probably find characters more likely to separate, but they're never going to want to do that when they have to twiddle their thumbs for an hour while you and one player work out what happens in Encounters 7-10.


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