Was there an "Old School Style" of combat for role-playing games? I would argue, yes. The change over the years has been subtle and good referees have in many cases minimized it. The forces pushing the change are still at work however. I see these as being three-fold.
First: The inflation of Hit Points
This change occurred early in the development of RPGs. The initial version of D&D featured a very small amount of hit points awarded to a beginning character. Usually one d6 worth with only a small addition for a high constitution score. Leveling up of course provided more points, though some classes would only gain an extra point instead of a full dice at certain levels. The extra +1 point awarded to a first level fighter seemed a big deal. It was.
Quite quickly though the game moved to different dice types to produce damage for different weapons. A standard longsword produced one d8's worth of damage. As the game was based on the idea that an average sword blow would kill the average 1st level character, hit points had to be increased. This allowed some seeming simplification as characters would gain hit points by level based on a dice type rather than the number of d6's defined by a table. The average fighter (and monsters) had their 1st level hit points increased to one d8 to match the damage done by a longsword. The poor Magic-User and Thief suffered through with only a d4's worth of hits.
This quickly changed again as RPG's moved more to a style of higher fantasy where story telling was driven more by published adventures and the referee wanting characters to survive to accomplish set hero path tasks. Fighters were moved to a d10 and some fighter types to a d12. Referee's were encouraged to grant maximum hit points at first level.
Even later versions granted 1st Level characters with even larger starting hit points. Characters were seen more as movie or book characters that needed to survive to act out scripted plot lines rather than a shared adventure.
The latest version of D&D has toned this back a bit, but hit points remain high, and character death uncommon.
Second: The proliferation of special powers, abilities, and statuses
Early RPGs were bad enough in this category. Magic weapons, girdles of strength, blessings, and potions all were modifiers to combat. "Buffing" characters before a big fight was a prerequisite to winning. Modern RPGs have made this trend worse. Now the characters themselves often have special powers and damage types. All of this is difficult to track and manage.
Third: The false history of miniatures
Modern RPG often now have detailed miniatures rules included. This was a return to the first days of RPGs where the combats were all fought out with miniatures. Remember that everyone used the "Chainmail" rules to fight out combats. They were required for the original version of D&D. Modern versions now feature these rules as a fairly integral part of combat. (Version 5 was walked this back, I admit.)
That of course wasn't true. Almost no one used the "Chainmail" rules during the first years of D&D. We all used the "Alternate Combat System" featured in the original brown books as no one had "Chainmail" and almost no one had the requisite miniatures. If you did own the minis, they were often based on stands with multiple figures in order to play large Medieval battles. Further, when we did manage to acquire a copy of "Chainmail" few could figure out how to use it. Everyone used theatre of the mind.
So, how has all the above changed combat? It simply has become a grind. The proliferation of hit points means that combat now lasts many more rounds, even a lower levels. The modifiers, powers, and special powers have now gotten to the point that tracking them is stultifying exercise in book keeping. The use of miniatures while possibly fun in some fights, now has become a slow exercise is setting up the required terrain and following the detailed movement rules.
Worse still is all the above has greatly complicated balancing combats in the adventure for referees. Gauging the power level of encounters is now very difficult. In Old School RPGs if your party's level of hit dice was below that of the monsters encountered, you knew you were in for a rough time. Running was a good option. Now a referee needs complex formulas to calculate encounters.
All the above discourages the imagination and the furtherance of the narrative. In my next post I will describe my view of Old School Combat and why I think it is better.
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