The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermGeneral term

Turn-based combat

Combat in which participants act one at a time in a set order, as around a tabletop with Initiative. Standard in early computer RPGs, JRPGs and tactical games, it has enjoyed a revival in games such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur's Gate 3.

Combat in which participants act one at a time in a set order, as around a tabletop with Initiative. Standard in early computer RPGs, JRPGs and tactical games, it has enjoyed a revival in games such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur's Gate 3.

Quick answers

What does "Turn-based combat" mean?
Combat in which participants act one at a time in a set order, as around a tabletop with Initiative. Standard in early computer RPGs, JRPGs and tactical games, it has enjoyed a revival in games such as Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur's Gate 3.

Nearby in the archive

Initiative

Tabletop term

The procedure that decides who acts first in combat and in what order, usually by rolling dice and adding a speed bonus. Rolling initiative is the signal that a scene has turned into a fight.

Active Time Battle

Digital term1991

Square's hybrid combat system in which each character's gauge fills in real time, and the player must choose actions as turns come up while enemies keep acting. It added urgency to menu-based JRPG battles.

Real-time with pause

Digital term1998

A combat system in which action flows continuously but the player can pause at any moment to issue orders to each party member. It combined the tension of real-time play with the deliberation of turn-based tabletop combat.

Pool of Radiance

Computer RPG1988–1993

SSI's 1988 adventure in the ruined city of Phlan was the first computer role-playing game built on the full Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, and the engine behind a golden shelf of D&D games.

Painting: a colossal nautilus-shelled flying ship with tentacles looming over a burning coastal city at dusk, tiny adventurers fleeing across a rope bridge.

Baldur's Gate 3

Computer RPG2023

A mind flayer tadpole behind your eye, a camp full of beautiful liars, and a twenty-sided die deciding everything: Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 turned fifth-edition D&D into the most celebrated role-playing game of its age.

Tactical & Strategy RPGs

Digital genre1990

The RPG played as a war game: named heroes who grow, die and are remembered, moved square by square across a battlefield where every step and every flank counts.

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