Disengaging from combat

[Dragoslav]

(edit: surprised this hasn't come up before, but some of my player can be overly tactical in what is otherwise a more narrative driven game.)

Actually, this has come up once or twice before from others among us who come from more tactically detailed games. The simplest answer is that combat doesn't mechanically start until the combatants are actually engaged.

The way I handle this is, when fighting breaks out, I ask the players who's going to be engaging whom, if there are multiple opponents. For example:

"What do you guys do?"
"I'll hold off the big guy."
"I'm gonna attack the shifty guy on the left."
"Me too."

Then, we break off into combat rounds, assuming that the two parties have moved to engage one another.

It becomes more complicated when you have, for example, people with ranged weapons, but it has worked very well in most combat encounters.

[Gully]

Thanks Dragoslav ... that makes a lot of sense and am going to give your technique a try!