Review: Enhanced 4E – Combat in Motion (Dungeons & Dragons)

Combat in Motion
Combat in Motion is a supplement for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons written by Christopher F. Ash and published by Enhanced 4E.
By Aaron T. Huss

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Combat in Motion provides a large collection of modular mechanics to take combat within Dungeons & Dragons to a completely new level. Much of these new mechanics are similar to what you’d find in a miniatures war game adding more believability or at least plausibility to combat when operating on a tabletop grid that doesn’t always lend itself well to realism.

A common thread in Combat in Motion is the rationalization of the use of a square grid within Dungeons & Dragons for abilities and effects that are clearly not square in shape. This is a difficult task as representing a round shape in a square grid can prove difficult, but there are many options to the contrary herein. This includes movement, burst radius, blast shape, and even terrain. However, one thing to keep in mind while reading this review and considering this book is that it can drastically increase the amount of bookkeeping required while running combat in Dungeons & Dragons.

CONTENT

Introduction is a clear explanation of how to use Combat in Motion, from an overview perspective.

The New Battle Grid is a discussion about counting squares from a diagonal versus horizontal/vertical standpoint, thus creating a battlemap that is a bit more realistic. Here, Combat in Motion introduces the concept of counting paces instead of just squares.

Motion States makes adjustments to combat action depending on if the character ended their turn “moving” or if they were motionless. This has various effects on the character’s subsequent turn and produces a symbolism that just because your turn ends doesn’t mean you have stopped moving.

Off-Turn-Actions allows characters to react to their opposition’s actions by essentially stealing actions from their subsequent turn. Instead of simply standing around while your target acts, such as moving away from you, the character may follow-up with a reaction of their own.

Special in-Motion Movement feeds off of the mechanics presented in Motion States by attempting to create a more realistic feel for how a character moves while they are moving. In other words, we do not move like the world is a square-grid, constantly making turns that aren’t realistic. This is another method of rationalizing a square-grid map into something that is more plausible.

Active Defenses and Counter-Offensives furthers the mechanics presented in Off-Turn Actions by presenting defensive reactions or further movement actions according to what your target is doing. This includes reacting to your target’s defensive reaction.

Terrain Dimensions presents mechanics that add tactical reasons for using the terrain to your advantage (or a subsequent disadvantage). These mechanics are designed to view the encounter as more 3-dimensional instead of thinking in 2-dimensional terms.

Dramatic Direction is more of an additional layer to the previously presented mechanics adding triggers and dramatic effects that play out either leading up to actual combat or while combat is occurring.

OVERALL

Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game where combat using miniatures is pretty much required. The standard combat mechanics are extremely abstract and serve as a means of using the battlemap to a character’s advantage along with attempting to keep the bookkeeping down to a minimum, or at least by not adding more than there already is. The biggest advantage and disadvantage of Combat in Motion is that it essentially turns Dungeons & Dragons combat into a miniatures war game. Yes it presents a much higher amount of options and as war games focus solely on combat, they attempt to replicate that combat in a more realistic manner. However, because Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game and not a war game, use of these mechanics may drastically increase the amount of time spent on combat or at least drastically increase the amount of bookkeeping required to follow the action (regardless if you use paper or tokens as bookkeeping). If you want your combat to be more plausible with a war game-like appeal, then Combat in Motion is a great addition. If you like to keep your combat to a minimum, then I would stick with the core mechanics.

However, don’t base your decision solely on using these new mechanics as a whole. They are modular/layered and you can easily only choose some of them to add to your combat to make it more interesting. At the very least, it’s worth checking out these new mechanics as they truly present a new way of looking at combat not only in Dungeons & Dragons, but on any game that uses a square-grid.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 5 out of 10
Combat in Motion is very poorly edited. Not because of typos or grammar, but because of repetitive and clunky content. Numerous times did I find sentences or explanations that were repeated, although reworded to sound different. In fact, the first section contains the sentence “One square equals two paces” probably ten times. Additionally, some of the mechanic descriptions were clunky with run-on sentences, repetitive thoughts, and poor synergy between paragraphs.

On the complete opposite side, Combat in Motion features a very clean layout, clear formatting, and excellent images. Instead of using drawings to represent miniatures combat, each one is either paper miniatures set within 3d terrain or tokens set on a battlemap. This is an excellent way to represent these types of mechanics and help to overcome the poor editing within the content.

Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Combat in Motion contains some very interesting new mechanics and implementations for combat within Dungeons & Dragons. Most of these mechanics are poorly married with the existing combat mechanics, but they are more meant to be layered on top of the existing ones and sometimes serve to somewhat replace or at least circumvent them (in a good and interesting way). I’m not sure why so many new mechanics were utilized instead of using mechanics that already existed, but then this method of not reusing them allows for different methods of implementation. Obviously the book is all mechanics and there is no shortage of descriptions, details, and examples.

Value Add: 10 out of 10
Value is where Combat in Motion truly shines. Not because everyone will find it valuable, but because the new mechanics presented therein offer a lot of uniqueness and excitement to combat, producing a much more dynamic battlefield. Additionally, the value comes in how the mechanics are layered – you don’t need to use them all and only a couple prerequisites exist. At the same time, you shouldn’t break the game as these new mechanics do not provide overpowering attacks or exotic magic weapons, they just make the battlefield a little more “realistic.”

Overall: 8 out of 10
Combat in Motion is a great supplement with excellent ideas and mechanics to enhance, expand, or just make your Dungeons & Dragons combat different. Its execution is less-than-ideal as the content gets very wordy and repetitive, but the mechanics included and the ideas provided are not only unique but extremely intriguing. If anything, it’s worth using one or more of the options provided just to enjoy a different combat experience on your tabletop.