Gunzhard wrote:If the GM always places monsters the battle almost never moves into the room. I've tried with a single-square door and a double-square door. The cause; there is no reason for the GM to not place his monsters right at the door every time; unless of course he has a rare spellcaster or some ranged weapons at which point he still just needs line of sight or a small buffer zone.
No, the GM always wants you to get inside the room, so all the monsters could move forward and do damage. In HQ heroes always has the "first attack", it’s like they are winning the init all the time. They open the door, the GM put the monsters, and the heroes continue their movement to kill the monsters. Sometimes, in HQ, the GM puts so many monsters that players afraid to get inside and they choose to “lose” their turn and wait the monsters to come one by one to the door. It's the safest way to encounter monsters but the combat is very slow and we do that only if the enemies are very hard.
So, in AHQ, when the GM wins the init he is putting the monsters in their position waiting for you to come in, but he will attack with range attacks or spells and he can also move a melee and hit the hero who is opened the door. If you use the rule “the winner can place the monsters wherever he likes”, the GM will put his monsters normally except the one melee who is placed right in front the door to make the first hit as “hit and move” back to his position. If you also use the “loser moves them 1 square”, the GM will place the melee in front the door, the hero will move him one square far and the GM will do a “move and hit” and the monster will stay in front of the door, so it’s like the first scenario without “winner can place the monsters wherever he likes”, and the “loser moves them 1 square”. in my opinion, don’t use them.
Gunzhard wrote:If the Heroes place monsters, let's say near the farthest corner of the room; then on their turn they can charge in bringing the combat into the room.
In HQ at 99% the heroes charges in the room without the need to place the monsters wherever they like. There is always some space to move inside even if the most of the rooms are 4x4 and not 5x5 as AHQ’s.
Gunzhard wrote:The other issue with the GM always placing monsters is that the Wizard will never be able to place a Fireball template if there are monsters right at the door, at least not without hitting his own guys.
True, if there are monsters right at the door. But GM should not place always the monsters in the first square. This is an adventure, not the WH fantasy battles where you want to kill your enemies. Build your dungeon so to look good, put bosses with extra skills, maybe put some npcs to tell you not to go there because it’s the lair of the boss or give you a tip to find the special weapon first and then go to the boss. This things makes your players happy. They don’t want a GM who thirsts for their blood.
Gunzhard wrote:The 'free moves' are weird though; especially if the GM wins initiative... why move the monsters 1 square when the GM is just going to move them immediately after? Yeah I guess the free-move might disrupt certain things like range/spells on occasion but mostly it seems pointless and counter-intuitive.
Yes, this is the reason. It’s possible to mess GM’s move. It’s as I said about the melee attacker, who is placed from the GM on the door, and finally he makes a “move and hit” and not a “hit and move”.
Gunzhard wrote:Anybody have any brainstorm ideas here? I'm thinking maybe something like this: for all randomly-generated rooms; use the rulebook placement/combat except that the Hero's don't get a free-move when the GM wins init. Then do something different for pre-generated rooms...
I think the “randomly-generated rooms” rule is to place the first monster in the first square and all the others in adjacent squares (like a snake)?… I DON’T like it… They should say “act as GM every time you have to put monsters”. in my opinion, just put them in the middle of the room, or put them as you were a GM, with furniture maybe traps, etc. Then write down the map and you’ll have a quest ready to share it with others in the forum. Never mind…
Gunzhard wrote:OR perhaps... if the GM does always place monsters... if GM wins init he attacks first; if the Heroes win init, the Heroes(not GM) get the free-move then they attack. That way the battle could still progress into the room and the Wizard could still use the template when they win, and the monster placement intention is not too disrupted... what do you think?
Exactly! Because in HQ the players always it’s like they are winning the init, we can say only “if the GM wins he gets the free attack”.
Gunzhard wrote:The other game feature that keeps the battle in the hallway is (most) ranged combat (spellcasting, shooting arrows); which requires no-movement per each phase. SO your ranged guys will basically always be stuck out in the hallway until xyz... perhaps this is not much of an issue though.
Yes, I had forgotten that! I will put it in my list somewhere in the top... Remove it!
