Abstract Movement, Formations and Teams in Radiant Fantasia

The Radiant Fantasia system has seen a lot of changes as I've refined the system. It's probably not obvious but it's built from the OGL, meaning it originally was D&D 3rd edition. It bears little resemblance to 3rd edition now. 

One of the first changes I made to the system was moving the measurements from feet to meters and pounds to kilograms. I spent a great deal of time making that conversion, because I felt it'd make the game more accessible to a world-wide audience.

However one day I decided that I really didn't want my game to be something people needed to have large maps and miniature figurines to play. I wanted it to be possible to play the game mostly in your imagination. 4th Edition plays a lot more like chess and demands use of minis, as the mechanics rely heavily on being able to move and push characters between spaces, or have abilities affect others within a certain number of spaces. I think that detracts from immersion into the narrative, and you feel more like playing a board game than a roleplaying game.

The reason to not require miniature play is straightforward- miniatures cost money, which can be discouraging to new gamers. They also require the GM to prepare maps for the minis to run around on. I think this makes a game harder for new players to get into, and new GMs especially. As I've written before, I want Radiant Fantasia to be a system people can play without having ever played another tabletop RPG before and no one to instruct them on how to play. One of the biggest problems with tabletop RPG design is the designers assume someone more experienced will teach new players how to play. It wasn't always like that -- it was possible for children to buy the Basic D&D boxset and figure out how to play themselves.  That is the kind of gameplay I want to revive.

One of the systems I've liked a lot is Mutants and Masterminds. Because the game has to accommodate characters like The Flash and Super-Man, movement is a lot more abstract. I went further than M&M does (it still clings to a detailed system of measurement) and simplified my movement categories into Short Range, Medium Range and Long Range. Attack range also works that way.

Short Range is essentially the max movement an average human can walk in one round of time (a minute).
Medium Range is the max movement an average human can run in one round of time.
Long Range is the max amount of distance the average human can see.

This means characters like unicorns can cover more ground when they walk and run than humans can; Unicorns, when transformed in their natural horse-like form, can walk at Medium Range and run at Long Range, as can all other types of mountable characters in the game.

This does lead to one problem though, which became apparent to me while playing Mutants & Masterminds: how to strategically form a party.

Basically, it's hard to have tanks when there is no clear understanding of where the front lines are.

So drawing experience from computer RPGs, I came up with the concept of formations. I think it still needs some refinement, but the following pages should demonstrate it allows the tactical depth of 4th edition without necessarily needing a bunch of minis and complicated maps.
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Formations

A Formation is the tactical arrangement of characters on the battlefield. Formations are an abstract concept; characters in a formation are not necessarily standing in a fixed location. Characters might be moving in a formation, perhaps even on mounts or vehicles.

There are three rows in every formation; front, middle and rear.

The most characters that can occupy a row are three, meaning a formation can have a total of six characters.

Characters occupying a row directly in front of other characters provide cover to characters behind them. When a character is providing cover to another character, the covered character cannot be attacked by weapons with a Reach of 1.

However, a melee weapon with a Reach of 2 can attack the front and middle row with one attack, even if a character is providing cover to the middle row. A weapon with a reach of 3 can attack all rows.

Ranged weapons are different. For example, bows can attack any character in the formation regardless of their row or who is in front of them. Spells, like ranged weapons, may target any character in a formation regardless of row.

Some debuffs, such as confusion, force a character to temporarily fall out of a formation, making themselves an easier target for opponents.

Ideally, defense oriented characters should occupy rows in front of less defensive characters.

Flying formations: Normally, if a character is flying then they are considered to occupy a separate formation than characters on the ground. This means that if some characters are flying and others are not, the party is divided into two formations.

However, characters that are merely floating above the ground are still considered to be occupying a ground formation and can be arranged in rows in front of other characters to provide cover.

Attack from the rear: If a formation is caught by surprise, the attackers may choose to strike the rear of that formation. This means all characters who would be in the back row are now front row and all characters in the front row are now back row. Middle row characters remain middle row.

On the surprised formation‘s next turn, the characters can move between rows to restore their normal positions.

Multiple player formations: It is possible for players to divide their forces into two or more formations. This is done to support more than 6 players or (more commonly) to allow NPCs to battle alongside PCs (such as when a Noble has NPC servants and followers).

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Characters are able to change what position they are in a formation by using a Move action. Like D&D 3.5 they have full round actions, attack (standard) actions and movement actions each round. However, they also have what I call a 'reaction', and these power very specific abilities or use of abilities. For example, as a reaction a warrior who is shield oriented might be able to interject himself between another character adjutant to himself in the formation to defend that character from injury. A character can only use 1 reaction command per round, so they should think carefully and pay attention to the battle even when it isn't their turn (reactions are implemented largely to make combat less passive than it currently is in many tabletop RPG systems, where you attack and then someone else attacks. Here you have ways to defend yourself or take advantage of poor choices the enemy makes, even when not your turn. And it's way easier to understand than attacks of opportunity in D&D 3.5, because reactions are tied to specific abilities a character can use, rather than "if you do X, characters who can do the pretty obscure A,B, C or D might hurt you. With my reaction system, it is, "if an enemy does X to you or a fellow party member, you can attempt to do Y to intercept X).

In addition to this,  Radiant Fantasia has a subsystem called Teamwork.
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The Teamwork system allows the GM to reward players for cooperative play and good roleplaying.

The player character‘s party is treated as a character (called the Team) that can level up and earn bonuses.

The Teamwork bonuses are rewards for good roleplaying bestowed by the GM.

Team Experience Points and Team Leveling
Leveling up the Team requires Team Experience Points (T.XP).

Activities which award T.XP include the following things,
-Completing a quest.
-Defeating a difficult boss NPC.
-All team members surviving a session of play.
-Team members engaging in good roleplaying.

The GM has sole discretion on how much T.XP to award and when to do so. The following chart gives a general idea of how much T.XP to award per task.

Team XP Reward Examples
Difficulty (DC)                         Proposed T.XP Reward
Very easy task                                 0 T.XP
Easy task                                        5 T.XP
Average task                                  50 T.XP
Tough task                                     100 T.XP
Challenging task                             500 T.XP
Formidable task                             800 T.XP
Heroic task                                   1,000 T.XP
Nearly impossible task                  5,000 T.XP

Each time the Team levels up, it can learn a Team Feat.

Team Points
At the start of every play session, the Team has 5 Team points which can be used to perform special team-related tasks such as Teamwork Attacks or Team Skills. Team points will reset to their max value at the start of each new session, but additional Team points can be awarded to the Team as the GM desires.

Team Feats 
As the party levels up, players can vote on what Feats the Team learns.

We Rule
The cost to purchase or construct a Holding for use as a team headquarters or guild hall is halved. This cost reduction can only be applied to one Holding at a time; if the Team wishes to buy or construct a new Holding, they must abandon the previous Holding (or pay the full amount if they wish to keep it).

Treasure Hoard
By spending a Team point, the amount of zenny or treasure the team would gain by looting a defeated enemy (or their treasure hoard) is doubled.

Rumor Research
All members of the Team receive a +1 aptitude bonus to Investigate and Charm checks made for searching or gathering information.

Cheat Death
At the cost of 1 Team point when all Team members have died, the Team can avoid death. By invoking this ability, all members survive their deaths and are restored to 1 Wound point but have no Vitality points.

Glory of Battle
At the cost of 1 Team point, all Team members receive a +2 bonus to Accuracy rolls used to perform a Teamwork Attack for the rest of the encounter.

Emergency Retreat
At the cost of 1 Team point, all Team members successfully flee from hostile characters and retreat to a safe location.

Unionized
All team members receive a +1 aptitude bonus to Craft checks.

Circle Wagons
If ambushed while resting, team members will not be caught off-guard.

Slumber Party
All team members require only half the usual amount of rest.

Fearsome Roster
At the cost of 1 Team point, all Team members can perform a Charm check to intimidate a single foe, combining the results of each Team member‘s individual skill checks into one. This ability can be used against multiple foes at once but for every additional enemy targeted, they must spend 1 Team point.

Teamwork Attacks
Team members can synchronize their special skill attacks together to perform a powerful blitz attack.

A teamwork attack can be initiated at the start of a round by a character using a free action to request assistance with their team members; the initiator of the teamwork attack is referred to as the 'leader‘.

The leader determines the Initiative for all team members who participate in the attack (meaning all characters involved in the team attack take their turn at the same time the leader does).

After a teamwork attack, all members that participated forfeit their next turn for the next round.

Each invocation of a Teamwork Attack consumes 1 Team point.

Teamwork Assist
By spending 1 Team point, a team member can assist all other party members in their use of General Skills.
 This means they can make their skill check apply to every member of their party.

For example, a character with a high skill level in Athletics can use Teamwork Assist to help all their team members swim across treacherous waters.

Teamwork Assist cannot apply to Special Skills like Weapon Techniques or Magic Spells.

Teamwork Movement
Team members have the option of all taking their move action at the same time in order to move the formation to another position. Members that are incapable of moving or decide not to move with the formation will be left behind and break from the formation.

Teamwork Tactical Formations
By spending 1 Team point, team members can organize their formation in a tactical way. While the Team is operating as one of these formations, the team members receive certain benefits.

Box Formation
During this formation all Team members must stand together in a 90 degree angle, like a square. All team members receive a +1 Team bonus to Defense but take a -1 Team penalty to Accuracy rolls.

Wedge Formation
During this formation all Team members organize as a wedge. All team members receive a +1 Team bonus to Accuracy rolls but take a -1 Team penalty to Defense.

Circle Formation
During this formation all Team members surround a formation of opponents. Activating this formation causes the encircled opponents to be flanked.

While circling, neither the player or NPC formations may receive cover—any character may be attacked by any character regardless of their row.

Team Roles
Team Roles are special characteristics which can be assigned to a PC team member. Only one PC team member can be assigned a Role at a time; two characters cannot have the same Role in the Tea

Team Roles may be assigned before a battle but never during one.

Ace
This character gains a +2 role bonus to their Accuracy rolls.

Cannonball
This character gains a +2 role bonus to their Initiative checks.

Mediator
This character gains a +2 role bonus with all Charm checks, as well as all other skills and/or abilities used while being a diplomat on behalf of the team.

Medic
This character gains a +2 role bonus with all Treat Injury checks, as well as all other skills and/or abilities used to heal team members.

Scout
This character‘s Speed increases by one movement increment.

Striker
This character gains a +2 role bonus to their Battle Power.

Wall
This character gains a +2 role bonus to their Defense checks.

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The Teamwork system still needs refinement, but I like the basic framework and feel it has a lot of potential.

Note that with formations, players can still use minis to help them keep track of placement of characters in the formations. Hell, they could use coins or Monopoly tokens, too. Chapstick. Action figures. Whatever they think is best.  The point is the minis don't need to directly interact with anything or move around a detailed landscape, like the room of a dungeon. When they make a search they don't need to say, "I search x squares around me" or whatever, they just say, "I search the room." because their search range is now Short Range, and they can walk anywhere in the room.