I'm curious to know what systems people think are strongest as pure combat games. Before everyone starts furiously typing the names of whatever 5 games they played most recently, I suggest the following grounds for judgement:

- It has to be so fun to play, purely as a combat game, that you'd be happy to just spend the evening resolving duels, gladiator fights, rumbles, etc.
- A typical one-on-one fight should be resolvable in 10 minutes or so
- A typical group skirmish should be resolvable in half an hour or less, pretty much no matter what
- If some nerd wants to cast a spell, that should be possible and work well with the rest of the rules
- Monsters and such

My personal vote is The Fantasy Trip. But I'm such a long-time partisan of that one I'd say my vote hardly counts.

Harnmaster, The Fantasy Trip, and GURPS in that order.

Quote from: estar;936839Harnmaster, The Fantasy Trip, and GURPS in that order.

Dammit Estar- you keep mentioning Harnmaster.   Going to have to grab it at some point.

So, I get TFT, and GURPS would seem to be a related pick (though I think it is too slow). But why do you think Harmaster is better than either? It has an interesting, detailed take on armor, damage and injury. And its basic attack and defense mechanics are BRP-like, which is good. But I don't think of it is as being particularly fun as a tactical combat game.

Mythras for me... not sure if it meets the time limits but thats 'cause its combats aren't boring so I'm not clockwatching.

How does combat work in Mythras. Never mind; I just realized you mean Runequest.

Personal favourites for speed and function.

BX D&D: One table and the fewest moving parts that still gets the job done.
5e D&D: This is a breeze to GM combats for and even large fights tend to clip along nicely even at higher levels.
Dragon Storm: GMed and played this alot and combats flow pretty well. You had all your options laid out with what cards you had and that limits bogging down in choices.

Albedo: probably my hands down favourite for realistic brutal modern combat that rolls along smoothly.
Boot Hill: second favourite for modern combat.

Star Frontiers: This another that I like for SF combat. And its space combat is one of my favourites too.
Gamma World: I liked how this games combat had different weapons have different chances to-hit vs different armour levels. Even with mutations left and right it is still pretty smooth to DM and never bogged down.

Quote from: Larsdangly;936851How does combat work in Mythras. Never mind; I just realized you mean Runequest.

Runequest 6 is a subtly, but importantly different beast from Runequest 2 and 3, however:).

Also, when you say "resolvable in 10/30 minutes", do you mean "possibly resolvable", "average time of resolution", or that it should rarely if ever take longer than that? That would hugely influence my own answer;).

4th edition D&D would be high on the list.

OD&D (or whatever retro-clone equivalent) wins for ease and speed. Also, as most men-at-arms and humanoid monsters have 1D6 HP and weapons do 1D6 damage, the forces are going to chop chop each other nice and quick so tactics and dice luck are mixed nicely.

Palladium if you want lots of maneuvers and options, but Palladium Fantasy is effectively [(AD&D + Runequest)/2] so you get the good and bad of both of those systems.

Savage Worlds if you want to resolve big mash up encounters with figs on the table. If the players know the rules and don't dick around, you can do 20 vs 20 in 30 mins.

Quote from: RunningLaser;9368614th edition D&D would be high on the list.

If you use morale rules, the 4e slog vanishes.

I have no idea why those weren't codified in the rules.  AKA, if a monster is Bloodied, it saves vs. Morale (unless unthinking beastie, golem or idiot undead) - with any GM modifiers based on the situation - and if it fails, it bolts. That makes fights go soooo much faster.

With 4e though, you'd have to say "half HPs" instead of "Bloodied" because I'm sure there are lots of ways to apply the "Bloodied" status tag without actually being below 50% hps.

It seems like either 4e or WFRP3, both "cards and powers" games, would be pretty good for just combat games.

Quote from: CRKrueger;936870With 4e though, you'd have to say "half HPs" instead of "Bloodied" because I'm sure there are lots of ways to apply the "Bloodied" status tag without actually being below 50% hps.

Perhaps those should cause a morale check too? IRL, many people tend to run away without having to be sliced-up first.

I don't understand all the votes for OD&D and 4E. The first is a great all around role playing game, but you can't seriously tell me it is the thing you would pick if you were going to spend an evening playing gladiatorial combats. I call BS on that - it is just way to basic and monotonous. 4E is obviously designed with just this sort of question in mind, but I think it is way, way too slow. I doubt a small group could honestly resolve a fight with a half dozen combatants on a side in less than 1-2 hours. There are just so many special powers and other moving parts.

Quote from: Larsdangly;936890I don't understand all the votes for OD&D and 4E. The first is a great all around role playing game, but you can't seriously tell me it is the thing you would pick if you were going to spend an evening playing gladiatorial combats. I call BS on that - it is just way to basic and monotonous. 4E is obviously designed with just this sort of question in mind, but I think it is way, way too slow. I doubt a small group could honestly resolve a fight with a half dozen combatants on a side in less than 1-2 hours. There are just so many special powers and other moving parts.

Obviously I only looked at the first part of your question and didn't see the 10 minute combat part:)  I'm writing to Santa asking him for a clue.