In my 5e games I deal with a lot of laser tag as magic users can move into position, fire volleys of magical attacks, and then retreat behind cover using similar tactics to modern era firearms.
In OSR games there is thankfully a lot less of ranged magical damage dealing resources. I have seen some systems determine that casters need to forego movement to cast spells. BX is the big one I am familiar with here. Cairn 2e allows movement and spells (but the implications are much different since the spells are less offensive in nature). Shadowdark and DCC allow movement and casting of damage dealing magics but is somewhat limited by the potential for failing a spell casting roll.
I wanted to check and see which type of rules fellow RPG Cauldron users preferred to use in their games on this subject and why. If a system you play handles special abilities and movement in a different way I’d love to read about that too.
I’m curious why this is an issue for you, move your monsters on your caster if they are being cheesy with their attacks. But I personally subscribe to the “Shoot your monks” theory, the cool thing about casters is casting big spells from the back. That’s what players using those characters like doing, why punish it?
you already mentioned the biggest work-around: simply not giving players access to zip-zap magic spells. OR, wrapping those type spells around with limitations (once per day, tied to a long ritual that prevents movement, etc).
the other thing to lean on is the GENERAL SOCIAL CONTRACT: turn based combat where the other side kinda pauses while you attack is just an abstraction, the rules aren’t meant to be cheesed. the more freeform nature and loosey gooseyness of the OSR contract points to the GM working with the players to have a “c’mon dude” discussion about the intent of the game and how to resolve the situation in a rewarding way.
ON THE OTHER HAND: the loosely gooseyness should also reward players for being clever and exploiting magic. its part of the general problem solving focus. I love it when my players come up with a situation breaking solution. example: the “animate mirror” spell in black sword hack, one of my players realized that mirrors are very thin, and he could animate the mirror then slide it under a door and attack people on the other side. at first, I thought, “oh that is way too imbalanced” and wanted to make a ruling to diminish the power, but then I thought, ah fuck it. reward the player for the clever idea!
I think what interests me about this how the movement rules changed over time. So I’m coming at this from more of a system reflection point of view than problem I need fixed.
I believe I did a bad job of explaining in my first post. There are some things I find annoying with how movement interacts with gameplay specifically in a high power system but I’ve made my peace with how it plays out by now.
Why this particular interaction of rules interests me is no movement while casting seemed like a pretty strong exception to the regular game loop of “1 action, 1 move” I see in the OSR. Perhaps that’s why this take on casting was largely abandoned (along with slower weapons going last in the combat round). On the other hand for systems with damaging spells I could see more mobility helping to give missile weapons more of a niche.
I would say, the culture of OSR is to K.I.S.S.; so when people add lil rules like the casting exception to the 1 move 1 other action paradigm, those rulelets tend to get dropped and things default to the standard rules. shield rules are like this as well. they get added and dropped all the time.
indeed interesting. since I think that with other play cultures the bias is additive-- more and more rules over time. (? is that fair ? seems to me, looking over the long term, complexity comes and goes like the tides and these sorts of rules are more like waves coming and going)
I think rules and/or rulings in this area have a rather big influence on the feeling of combat, besides the actual mechanics. Let’s say you have the most simple combat arrangement possible, just two melee fighters whacking at each other. Add movement to the equation, and you’ll get no different results, but it could turn from two knights standing in fixed positions to swashbucklers going back and forth and even to Wu Xia martial artists zooming around and landing on the top of temple walls or bamboo stalks.
Therefore my general preferences (and thus house rules & rulings) are based on this mood I want to convey. I almost always have something in that regard, even if I go more “RAW” elsewhere.
Now, what’s my “feeling” towards ducking and covering wizards? Well, I probably wouldn’t do it for the baddies, but for PCs, it would reinforce their feeling of fragility, so why not? If it would annoy me, I’d probably try to introduce something more positive to prevent it, i.e. more carrot than stick. Maybe a Shield spell that works better if you stand around?
If I want mages to be more painfully concentrating on spells and chanting extended spells, I’d probably go for full-round or even multi-round spells a lot more (assuming shorter combat rounds, which I usually prefer over full minutes and the like).
As an addendum, I don’t think it’s a particularly “power-gaming” move, it feels diegetic enough and is easily countered, either by “Ready” actions in the sequential model or by assuming cover to be statistical average in the phased initiative systems.
In D&D derivative games (so everything based either off B/X or AD&D) I tend to use a mana pool and roll to cast system. Spells are not sure casts and can backfire if things go wrong. I have a system like DCC but for sure not as complex. It makes decision making a bit different and in general casters think twice when they cast.
as for your situation, well one thing is that 5e is that kind of game - focused on combat that gives a lot of power to the player characters (thats okay for those who enjoy it).
If you want to find a way to make combat encounters more interesting, well monsters also have tactics and strategies that might target the main source of damage - especially with intelligent beings. Verticality, traps and also differentiating combat goals - aside from defeating either side - can help with it resorting to a shoot out or a slog.