Are most systems too inclined to quick death? I just want to

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>>55363411
Always found lengthy battles really tedious. Give me sudden death any day.

4th ed of D&D

>>55363411
It's hard to strike a good balance, especially a good balance that remains as your dudes get stronger.

FATE does it okay, 4e D&D is okay for about 2/3rds of the game, Strike! is pretty good too, but that's just about all I know of.

>>55363411
I had a weird gaming development because I started with HERO system, where people are KO'd rather than killed 99% of the time- not just with punches, but usually with bullets and swords too unless you've gone full optional lethality rules.
Plus there are 'presence attacks' which in combination with social skills or displays of power, generally mean that you mostly don't have to drag things out to the bitter end, instead convincing enemies to surrender or at least just flee.

In contrast, other games seem awful murderous and lacking in multiple ways to end conflict, or if there are methods beyond dismemberment, the alternate ways feel like you're cheating the system (like a 3.5 diplomancer) rather than actually playing it as intended.

>Go nuts with the description like you're both describing an action movie fight, lots of little hits and counters and throws that don't do anything mechanically
>Set up for a big exchange then roll, or just roll when you run out of ideas

That's how I'd do it. Most of the length in RPG fights is looking up modifiers, rolling dice for attack, defense, hit location, damage, etc. My group, otherwise fanatic about roleplaying every little thing, just does nothing but dice rolls when we get into a fight, because it takes so damn long already. Maybe make fights less lethal to start with, since then you won't get hung up on every little detail that might save your life.

>>55363411
>Are most systems too inclined to quick death?
Nah, man. If anything, the opposite is true, with most systems making combat tedious and overly long.

If I were to make a system based around SF or KoF-styled battles I'd make it so that you only needed to get in a few good hits to knock your opponent out, but actully getting those hits in would be hard and more about getting into your opponent's head and anticipating his maneuvers than rolling well on some dice.

For example, I'd probably get rid of the initiative system entirely. Instead, each player would be given cards with stances; something like 'Aggressive,' 'Defensive,' 'Cautious,' and 'Withdrawal,' which are played face down at the same time by both fighters and revealed simultaneously. Aggressive fighters get a bonus to their attack roll but can't parry or defend at all (if both fighters choose to be aggressive they both punch each other in the face at the same time). Defensive fighters get a bonus to evading and parrying but can't attack at all (if both fighters choose to be defensive the round is simply skipped as neither makes an offensive move). A cautious fighter defends against aggressive opponents and attacks defensive opponents but don't get any of the bonuses that fighters that commit to either stance gets, and if both choose to be cautious the result is the same as if they were both defensive. Withdrawing fighters act as defensive against all other stances except against a defensive fighter (in which game the withdrawing fighter admits defeat and the fight is cancelled) or against another withdrawing fighter (in which case the fight is cancelled and both fighters recognize the other as a worthy opponent).

There's a lot more that can and should be done, such as different kinds offensive and defensive maneuvers that you can only do from certain stances, and stuff like if you manage to parry an attack from an aggressive opponent then he's staggered for the next round, and so on.

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>>55363411
>Shadowrun
>Decker-only party
Have fun!

>>55363411
You could play wild talents with the "all damage is shock damage" variant.

A lot of games can handle similar modifications to turn down the lethality. Turn off the rules for permanent injury, make everything do the system's equivalent of non-lethal damage, and let players use bennies like fate points or inspiration to avoid death or permanent physical injuries.