Wise Turtle Publishing

To make combat scenes more fun with terrain, say each combat setting has one or more areas to it, each area having its own feature(s) (see below). Different characters may start in different areas, depending on the story.

Whenever someone uses the refooting action, they may move to a different area in addition to the usual effects. Ranged attacks may reach someone in a different area from you, but otherwise you can use the refooting action to arrive in the same area.

When you knock back a target, you may move it to another area (no refooting involved).

AREA FEATURES
BLOCKAGE: cover, things you can throw at others.
ie rubble, broken earth

CONCEALED: All characters in this area get +1 die to defense, but -1 die to attack.
ie mists, darkness, amid waterfalls, foliage

FRACTURED: All characters in this area can only reach each other by ranged moves.
ie tall spires, cliffs, side-by-side elevators

HARSH: at the end of each character's turn, the character takes 1 or more E damage, depending on how harsh you want it (remember damage goes over to H if E is 0).
ie the vacuum of space, a lava reactor, hail, sandstorm

Thoughts? Features of your own?

Interesting! I especially the "Fractured" area. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I'm not sure if I'd ever hard-code this into the rules, as OVA doesn't tend to put rules on very much, but I like it just the same.

I'll have to do some heavy thinking about it. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome, Clay! I tried to keep things light and effective by following what OVA had already laid out (ranged, refooting, etc). I think OVA's light rules and equal use of traits for both character story AND character abilities are its strongest and most unique points, so I wouldn't want to squish both with undue attention paid to combat.

That said, my futuristic chanbara/shoujo game should be seeing some dynamically memorable combats because of this; I just need to combine it with relevant character drama. Maybe next I'll work on guidelines for GMs to develop plot points from their players' character traits!

It's definitely a fun concept. I wonder if I should incorporate some kind of scene changing rule in regards to knockback...

It reminds me a little too much of the Difficult/Hazardous/Impassable terrain rules from DnD4E.

I'm not sure its actually needed in a rules-light game like OVA, which tends towards narrative and descriptive style combat, rather than minis and terrain maps.

I like it. Reminds me of the idea of "zones" in Spirit of the Century. Using the refooting rules to voluntarily change terrains is also nifty, giving even those who win Initiative a possible reason to use it.

One alternative is to treat different terrains as either having a descriptive quality (allows only ranged attacks, wears away Endurance, etc.), or a +1/-1 bonus and penalties to certain things. So a darkened or misty area adds +1 to Defense (harder to hit anyone in it), but -1 to any attempts at perception or noticing things (making it useful for stealthy characters to hide in).

This way, you don't need a long list of different terrains; the GM can just add the traits to the environment as he feels like it, with the mechanical effects more or less consistent (the +/-1 die). And just like in SotC, a single area doesn't have to be all one terrain; a a battle taking place on a factory floor could be divided into three areas; an oil slick (+1 to hit anyone in it, -1 to movement-based Abilities) the top of a boiler belching steam (subtract some Endurance per round spent there due to the heat of the steam), and the factory floor itself (some odds and ends about, but otherwise no bonuses/penalties or special features; think of it as the default).

Depending on the GM's and players preferences, they could go nuts with different terrains or mostly ignore them. I'm thinking making this sort of thing an option rather than an official rule would be best.

I dig this. It's more "off the cuff" that exemplifies what OVA is about. Once I hammer it out, you may see it on the blog at some point.

I think this would be a good idea to have in a possible OVA Companion, which contains all of these miscellaneous options to enhance your game.