Last week I discussed how the use of high modifiers could extend the duration of conflict, thus generating more dramatic face to face situations. While this hi-mod system is fine and dandy, it does little to deal with the most important aspect of a showdown: good role-playing.

In film, confrontation between opposing forces tends to occur multiple times. You generally have three kinds of battles; those in which the good guys fight the bad guy’s henchmen, those in which the good guys fight the bad guy but nobody wins, and those in which the good guys fight the bad guy and waste him.

By far the most numerous battles occur between the good guys and some kind representation of the bad guy, usually henchmen of some sort. I’m not going to dwell on this kind of conflict because I probably handle it the same way most GMs do, i.e. a lot of gunfire, a lot of blood. I do, however, want to make the point that the main reason a majority of the situations in Shadowrun involve such forms of conflict is that the GM is usually restricted to one face to face fight between the runners and their main adversary because this is the point at which Mr. Bad buys it.

For this reason, fights during which the runners meet Mr. Bad - but don’t kill him - are nearly nonexistent in SR. This is primarily because the Shadowrun rules governing firearms, spells, and other implements of violence do little to promote anything but extreme injury and/or death. Last week I made an attempt to tweak the rules away from this unfortunate trait, but screwing around with the rules will only get you so far. Since Shadowrun is a role-playing game, and not a game of gunfire exchanges, more has to be done to solve the problem.

In order for a non-lethal showdown to work, it is essential that certain sacrifices be made by both the GM and the players in order to keep the action going. Cinematic Role-Playing involves taking a step back from the isolated view of one PC or NPC’s actions, looking at the situation as a whole, and saying to yourself: Is the combat taking place right now interesting, or is it simply an exchange of spells and gunfire? Look at virtually any film involving conflict between two or more major characters and you’ll notice that, in addition to shooting at each other, they often fall, drop their guns, obliterate objects around the target instead of actually hitting it, shout obscenities at each-other, and even sometimes break off combat when the action has reached such a point of insanity that they’ve destroyed the set and alerted numerous law enforcement agencies to the presence of their conflict.

In order to achieve such a level of complexity in combat both the GM and the players must be willing to go out of their way to make their own situation more difficult than it would normally have to be. I’m talking about leaping, dodging, slamming through windows, purposely losing your weapon if it seems like the logical result of falling through three stories of rotting apartment building floor board, etc. You can also ‘play’ with a target you know is weaker than you, or - for once - role-play being afraid of someone who is more powerful than you. Everybody involved in the conflict should also think back to their 20 Questions and recall if there’s anything happening in the fight that they’d be afraid of or especially annoyed with. Many PC archetypes adhere to some kind of honor system (a nice E-Mailing individual just reminded me of the “street samurai code”), most of which involve strictures on how one must fight (i.e. gun vs. gun, fist vs. fist). Adhering to these guidelines can make combat more difficult, thus more interesting.

The GM can also perpetuate action by converting physical damage into property damage (i.e. instead of dishing out a moderate hit, just say the gun the target was using was blown apart) and increasing the amount of collateral damage resulting from a fight, such as burst steam pipes, falling plaster, exploding computer monitors, a Lone Star response team responding to the fray, etc. And if any of the NPCs have some kind of honor system, it should be adhered to as closely as a PC would to his.

Through self sacrifice and good role-playing you’ll find that your combat situations will rise above simple bang-dead exchanges and actually add to the development of the characters involved. When the final conflict occurs, the PCs and Mr. Bad will know a lot about each other, turning their ultimate showdown into an explosive, high powered war of pent up emotions and unbridled rage. Or, and I’ll admit these occasions are rare, the two parties may realize that this particular conflict really isn’t necessary and both parties will walk away in one piece.