The Best Defense is to Actually Have a Defense

I was watching a documentary on the Roman Legions.  I do that.  This one is of a fairly high quality - entertaining and doesn’t look like it was filmed in some professor’s backyard.  But there is one thing I just cannot stand watching and it has me off watching the series past episode 2.  Every time they show a battle scene, the legionnaires immediately charge forward and get into a scrum with the barbarians.  In several cases they throw off their helmets and throw down their shields in order to get into some Errol Flynn style sword/fencing match with the Gauls.  This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen on TV!  OK, probably not, but ...

You know those huge tower shields the legions used?  They had value!  There was a point to them!  The point was not to mix it up with a barbarian horde and let the enemy spearmen get behind you where you can’t see them when they are stabbing you.  If this was actually the way that Caesar fought battles, he would have been dead in Lesbos.

But I have a new group of folks playing Legend Quest, and guess what?  Yep, they do it too!  You might remember the first mission of the Holy War.  The Cavalcade of Champions rides out to gather up the materials that their god sent them.  On the way, they run into some centaur bandits who are looting farm houses.  They are 300 yards away (maybe 300’, it doesn’t matter).  Seeing the centaurs, having the advantage of time and distance, having party members who are of all different skills and archetypes, what do they do?  Everyone immediately looks down at their character sheets to see how far they can run in a turn.

Not one of them thought, “Gee, maybe we could form a defensive formation to keep the centaurs off our squishy healer.”  No one thought, “I bet I could hit them with my bow as they charge towards us and still have time to get my melee weapon out.”  No, “I could dodge their first bow attack and be ready to meet their charge with my planted spear.”  One of them is a flame paladin who’s main attack is to cast flame blade on his weapon and then enter into the fight.  Did he stop to cast flame blade?  No!

Now, they’re new to LQ, so I need to blame something.  I blame that original game with five or more versions.  Why?  Because defense was useless in that game.  One of the driving forces behind the way we wrote Legend Quest was trying to make “Captain America” under those other rules.  A shield was +1 to armor.  A 5% less chance of getting hit.  That’s nothing!  Sure, it could have been a magic shield yadda yadda, but Cap’s shield skills are what make him so good.

I don’t remember the partial cover rules in that other game, but I recall taking cover once and thinking, that’s all I get?  There is some truth to a good offense leading to less of a need for a good defense, but that adage assumes that there is a defense.  If the game rules make it so you cannot defend yourself, then what is the ever loving point?

I get that I’m ranting - That’s OK.  It’s a blog post, this happens.  What you need to take away as a GM is:  If your game makes trying to defend yourself all but useless, no one will do it.  At that point, the only “strategy” becomes how much damage can I do?  If you’re a player, lure them into your trap.  If you don’t have a trap, figure one out!  The vast majority of bad guys fought in FRPGs are relatively mindless and should be expected to charge at you.  You don’t have to be that mindless!  Whether it is a magical spell that aids your party’s defense, or a trap you can place in front of you to damage them before they get to you (like a bear trap or some glyph or ward, not digging a pit) or is it is simply dodging their attacks until they get right where you want them where you can surround them - either mindlessly charging forward or mindlessly watching them charge you is not role-playing.  People in real life aren’t that stupid.