[b]*** Warning. Contains spoilers for the scenario in the Quickstarter for Eclipse Phase. ***[/b] Hello everybody! I've been reading this forum for quite some time and having just recently finished our first mission for Eclipse Phase, I had some questions/remarks I'd like to post here, if you don't mind. Our group is fairly new to tabletop RPG. We come from a background of boardgame players, but my interest in RPGs and especially the Eclipse Phase universe drove me to try it out! I love what you guys are doing so much, I bought all the books and I think they tell an interesting universe. The group seemed really interested in trying Eclipse Phase out as well, so I started reading and preparing and I decided to give the quickstarter mission "Mind The WMD" a try. The first session went really well and everyone liked it. They ended up blowing the Anora Arabella to pieces, with one of them sacrificing himself to do so. The second part though, specifically the Ebb 6 part, was a different matter. The thing is, I like the combat system, but some people in the group did not like the downtime. I've read that people call the combat in Eclipse Phase relatively quick, especially compared to other systems, but coming from a boardgaming background where downtime is often a huge no-no, we felt that combat in Eclipse Phase had a little bit too much downtime. We were 5 PCs (I was the GM fyi) and there are 5 NPCs in the final battle. That meant that every person had to wait at least 9 turns before they could act again (ignoring the speed 2+). Of course, being first time players furthers slow this down and definitely creates a bias towards believing it is slow, but even then I don't really see how I can alleviate the feeling of downtime (i.e. nothing to do), so I decided to come to the experienced: you guys! How do you guys handle combat? Do you think there is a lot of downtime and if so, can something be done about it? Or is it inherent to the system? My group seems to favor more story oriented content, so I assume as a GM I should just avoid combat as much as possible (though my GF likes it. She likes to blow stuff up!). I don't plan on given up just yet, like I said, it could also be beginner issues and once people get more familiar with it, they might like it more. But remember, they're used to throwing your own and enemy dice into a dice tower and whoever has the most dice coming out wins (Wallenstein), so fairly quick combat. Here's what we did for combat: For every PC and NPC [indent]Move to X and do Y.[/indent][indent]Roll the dice.[/indent][indent](Add some fluff to the outcome).[/indent] Which actually brings me to another question: how do you handle the tactical aspect of it? Do you use the maps that are given or created. Do you actually have them divided in the squares (or hexes) to check movement and tactical positions? Or do you just do everything more in a free flow manner? Like no maps or anything, just the GM's description and the players asking: Can I reach him this turn? Or how long does it take me to get into firing range? Is there cover? And so on... Given my group, I would assume the latter favors them a bit more, though it gets complicated for the GM to track everything. Other than that, we really like it though! I even like the combat a lot personally. And I'm not that bothered by the downtime, but I'm not the one playing, so it's not my decision what to like and not like. I already enjoy knowing what (evil?) things lurk the players :)