Script: Aerial Combat in GURPS

Script: Aerial Combat in GURPS

Another video transcript.

I have talked about how different underwater combat is from normal land combat, but there is another environment that is used much more often than water – and that’s air. Giant birds, dragons, beholders, airplanes, winged elves – flying creatures and vehicles are present both in low-tech fantasy games, modern games, and ultra-tech games. Rules for air combat definitely are not as complex as underwater combat rules, but there’s still a lot to keep in mind. These rules take up less than one page – that is page 398 of GURPS Basic Set.

First of all, how do you become airborne? In terms of advantages, you can use Flight, Insubstantiality, Walk on Air, or Telekinesis. Alternatively, you could use a flying mount or an air vehicle – I explained the rules for mounted and vehicle combat in other videos. Your Air move often is much higher than your Basic Move, but this does not mean that you will always use the High-Speed Movement Rules! These rules come into effect only when you move faster than your Basic Air Move, not simply your Basic Move. So, keep them in mind if you decide to sprint in air or if you have Enhanced Move for flight, or when you decide to dive – this way you can add +10 multiplied by the local gravity in Gs to your basic air Move. However, even if you are not using High-Speed Movement Rules, you still often are fast enough for speed penalties to come into play. Depending on the type of your flight, you might need some other conditions to fly – for example, if you have wings, then you need enough room around you to spread them and cannot fly in trace atmosphere or vacuum.

In terms of movement cost, vertical movement and horizontal movement are treated the same way. Moving a yard vertically and a yard horizontally simultaneously, that is moving diagonally at 45 degrees, costs the same as 1.5 horizontal yards. If you have flying combatants, then you should keep track of their altitude, just like you track depth when fighting underwater. I remember that when I played D&D on a graph paper sheet, I just noted down the number near the monster. And I do the same in GURPS – in Foundry, for example, you can set it up in the resource tracker.

When land-bound characters are fighting flyers, rules for Combat at Different Levels come into effect, and weapon reach becomes very important. However, when two flyers fight, these rules are not used. Posture also may work slightly differently – for example, humanoid flyers usually fly horizontally to be able to observe the ground, like Superman. So, they take up two hexes on the battle map, as if they were lying prone.

Generally speaking, being airborne is a huge advantage in combat with those who are stuck on land. Not only you can attack them from above to get good attack bonuses and penalize defenses, you can also use ranged weapons, and if your enemies have nothing to retaliate with, this is almost always an automatic victory. Also, you often are fast enough to “step” 2 or more yards in flight! And, if you can hover, you can retreat out of the plane of an attack up or down to get an additional +1 bonus to defense from retreating. Speaking of hovering, I give most winged creatures Flight with Winged and Cannot Hover limitations. Cannot Hover means that the flyer has to move at least ¼ his top air speed each turn or stall and start to fall. This makes air supremacy of flyers less pronounced, as they become limited to Move and Attack or All-Out Attack.

Pyramid #3-14 has the Fight While in Flight article that expands aerial combat with some new rules. In addition to providing some air combat styles, it introduces new techniques. Aerial Sweep, Aerial Throw, and Aerial Trip are versions of Sweep, Judo Throw, and Trip that can be used mid-air. Their effects are different! Instead of being knocked prone, the enemy loses control of his flight and may also be sent to a different direction by the user. These changes might seem inconsequential, but they make air combat feel much different from land combat. There is also the Aerobatic Recovery technique that allows you to recover control of your flight, and the Wing Buffet technique that lets you strike with one of your wings without buying your wings as Strikers or Natural Weapons.

Pyramid #3-111 has the Animal Combat Styles article that provides some new techniques for winged fighters, such as Dancing Death, Full Braking, Hide in Sun, Rushing Death, and Swooping Attack. The author also suggests expanding the mounted combat rule that I used to often forget – if the relative difference between the attacker’s and defender’s velocity is 7 or more, the attack is at -1 to hit, but +1 to damage. In the GURPS Basic Set, this only works in mounted combat, but this article suggests making it a generic rule that does not depend on the mount.

And that’s it. Air combat does not use that many new rules, but it still often feels special. After all, you are literally adding a new dimension to combat. Flight also makes balancing combat and designing adventures more difficult. Some traditional obstacles become irrelevant, and many of the encounters can either be easily avoided or trivialized. So, be careful with flight! If you feel that you won’t be able to balance things around flying characters, just tell that to your players and suggest them not to take any flight capabilities.