Tolkien Style Combat is a homebrew combat solution that I would like to tweak to make combat a little less crunchy and a lot faster. Tweaking those rules has resulted in the combat rules as explained below:
Peter Jackson Rules for Combat
Ambushed
If the company is surprised by the enemy all heroes roll AWARENESS. Those that fail have been caught off-guard and cannot fire an opening volley and the first attack against them is favoured.
Opening Volleys
Those heroes not surprised may make an opening volley with ranged weapons if appropriate.
Tactical Roll
One player hero may be chosen to roll BATTLE to determine how well or poorly the company uses tactics and terrain to their advantage. A success adds 1d to each companies pool of extra dice. Each tengwar shown adds an additional 1d to the pool. These dice may be spent at any time during combat to add 1d to a combat roll. Additionally the difficulty for the combat is set based on this roll
- A great success is a scaling factor of 1x
- A success is a scaling factor of 1.5x
- A failure is a scaling factor of 2x
Select Stance
Stances work like the base rules
- Intimidate Foes: Spend 1 HOPE to attempt an Awe or Battle roll. If it succeeds, it grants +1d to you or an ally’s next PROTECTION roll. Each Gandalf or Tengwar extends the bonus to another ally.
- Rally Comrades: Spend 1 HOPE to attempt an Enhearten or Song roll. It grants +1d to you or an ally’s next Combat Skill Roll. Each Gandalf or Tengwar extends the bonus to another ally.
- Protect Companion: Spend 1 HOPE to attempt an ATHLETICS or Battle roll. On a success, it reduces an attack against the protected hero by 1d, plus an additional 1d for each success icon rolled
- Prepare Shot: Spend 1 Hope to attempt a Scan or HUNTING roll. Grants +1d to your ranged Combat Roll during that exchange. Each Gandalf or Tengwar extends the bonus by +1d.
Combat Order
Heroes roll simultaneously. Attacks against the players are made in stance order, with extras being assigned also in stance order.
Combat Rolls
Each hero will make their own combat roll for each exchange. The TN for this is their STRENGTH TN + the enemy’s Armor rating. You do damage equal to your weapon’s damage rating (shown on page 48 and 100). On a roll of 10 or higher (Gandalf) you trigger an additional Piercing blow.
- Piercing Blow: When a piercing blow is activated you may roll an additional feat die. Subtract your weapons injury score (20-injury rating) from the roll, the resulting value is counted as successes towards the enemy attribute rating.
Additional Successes
Additional Success icons may be spent according to the rules for combat The One Ring 2e, p.99.
- HEAVY BLOW — ANY WEAPON: You have hit your opponent with great force and precision — Spend 1 Success icon to inflict to your adversary an additional damage equal to your STRENGTH rating. Raise the damage by an additional +1 if you are using a 2-handed weapon.
- FEND OFF — ANY CLOSE COMBAT WEAPON: You exploit your successful attack to place yourself in an advantageous position — Spend 1 Success icon to modify your Parry rating for the round by +1 using Axes and all Brawling weapons, +2 using Swords, and by +3 using Spears.
- PIERCE — BOWS, SPEARS AND SWORDS: You have hit a less protected part of the adversary’s body — Spend 1 Success icon to modify the Feat die numerical result of your attack by +1 if using Swords, +2 if using Bows, and by +3 if using Spears, up to a maximum of 10 — thus possibly triggering a Piercing Blow.
- SHIELD THRUST — SHIELD: You bash your opponents with your shield, pushing them back — If your STRENGTH is greater than the target’s Attribute Level, spend 1 Success icon to push back your target. The adversary is inflicted a penalty, losing (1d) for the length of the round (in the rare case this special damage is triggered multiple times, it must be employed to push back different opponents). Additionally, you may choose to spend an extra dice to activate your weapon type’s combat edge, as shown below
- Combat edge table forthcoming
Defending
After the player hero’s attacking round the enemy will execute attacks in stance order. Each player hero may choose to receive their attacks individually, or as a multiplicative sum of the total attacks against them this round.