History Main / RocketTagGameplay

* Destroyer-on-destroyer battles in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' are basically this. Their guns are powerful enough that if both ships are AI-controlled, the one that gets off the first salvo usually wins.

* ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'', using the FATE system, lends itself to this, as it doesn't take much to inflict wounds or death on an opponent (barring [[MadeOfIron Toughness]] abilities). One or two solid shots is usually enough to end a fight, and many battles boil down mostly to defending and maneuvering in order to set up those one or two solid shots.

* The Djinn system is a major part of VideoGame/''GoldenSun'', as they allow for class changes, summons, and stat boosts. However, when you use several of them to prepare a more powerful summon, it lowers your stats accordingly (and depending on which Djinn are on which character, their class. Going from StoneWall to SquishyWizard is a nasty surprise for the unprepared). Against most bosses, the best strategy is to go into battle with lowered stats, fire off all your summons and survive, gaining back the stats one turn at a time until your Djinn are ready to be used again.

** Most FPS's that tout themselves as realistic use this trope. One lucky shot can kill you, and in some games even if you survive you might as well be dead due to wounds.

* In ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster ACE''[='=]s multiplayer mode, clearing 20 lines is a victory condition. To put it in perspective, 20 lines is five Tetrises.

* Destroyer-on-destroyer battles in ''VideoGame/{{X}}3'' are basically this. Their guns are powerful enough that if both ships are AI-controlled, the one that gets off the first shot usually wins.

* High-level gameplay in the ''{{Disgaea}}'' series and other NipponIchi strategy [=RPGs=]. Due to the way attack vs. defense is calculated damage increases exponentially as levels rise, so more or less any battle over level 500 or so means you either kill your opponent in one shot or die in their response attack. It's actually possible to take multiple hits in the fourth game by stacking defensive abilities, though.

When both sides are made up of [[GlassCannon squishy characters]] and have [[BigFuckingGun extremely powerful guns]], you have a case of Rocket Tag Gameplay. The slightest caress from any weapon in the game will reduce anyone to a fine pace, so the gameplay becomes entirely about hitting first and never getting hit yourself. It could mean that twitch reactions and being the first to attack is vital, it could place huge emphasis on dodging and leading targets, or it might just be a case of camping with extreme patience and never giving your position away, but in any case, being exposed to damage is a swift trip to the GameOver screen or a respawn.

The reasons for this are usually straightforward; attacks do about as much damage as you have health, more or less, and your attacks do the same to them. This changes the relationship your game has with damage considerably. In a regular game, it might be worth it to expose yourself to damage to do some yourself. Here, however, you don't have that option. Concepts like hitpoints and damage per second or per turn fall to the wayside in favour of avoiding being hit, ensuring your attacks land, and making sure you always attack first.

This trope doesn't ''have'' to be a bad thing. Fast-paced battles tend to be more exciting than longer and tedious ones, and they may require less LevelGrinding. In RPGs, this can make each turn extremely tense, as the stakes are always at their highest. In real-time action games, this allows the inclusion of weapons which are difficult to use, like an extremely slow-moving rocket launcher, for example, because if it connects at all there will be immediate positive feedback (like your opponent exploding). In a real-time strategy game, this can place a greater focus on the "strategy" side and the logistics, as once battle is joined there is almost no time for the player to micro orders to troops before the demise of themselves or the enemy.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. In 1st Edition ''Advanced D&D'', there was no limit on the damage that could be done by spells, so (for example) a Fireball cast by a 20th level magic-user did 20d6 (20-120) HitPoints of damage. This meant that at higher levels of play, whichever side gained initiative would probably win the fight. The designers of 2nd Edition decided to put level caps on most of the damaging spells to prevent one-round wipeouts. This also happened between two editions of ''Basic D&D''.
** ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 3.5 edition is often accused of Rocket Tag gameplay. Not only because damage outstrips hit points (and [[http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872838/Little_Red_Raiding_Hood:_A_Tale_of_38;_Guide_to_the_3.5_Dragoon Hood]] is merely one example), but because of an excess of spells which instantly kill or cripple their targets (and spellcasters knowing so many spells that they can always choose the one that's most effective, like MindRape against a dumb enemy). In fact, it was possible for every one of a caster's spells of 4th level or higher to be very direct "instant win" spells. For example, ''solid fog'' (a 20' radius) meant standard movement was limited to 5', or 20' if the target ran as fast as he could in a straight line and remembered he could do that. ''Evard's black tentacles'' tried grappling all creatures in the area (in a 30' radius, natch) and usually succeeded. Add ''stinking cloud'' (another 20' radius) to taste, which prevents those who fail their Fortitude save from acting and you have yourself a killer combo. At level 7. In ''core''. (In general, spells of level 3 and below can't plain win fights like this, but a failed save against a ''grease'' or ''color spray'' or ''glitterdust'' or ''web'' means you're pretty much screwed while the caster's friends & minions quickly beat you to death.)
** And if you're a Shadowcraft Mage, then with the right build, you can use a ''level 0 spell'' (''silent image'' with the Gnome Illusionist substitution level) and Heighten it to make it do what was just described. Or cast ''miracle''s.
** At mid and high levels, defenses tend to be binary. If you aren't flat-out immune (or they got unlucky and missed), you're going ''splat!'' in one round or even one hit. Pretty much no exceptions.

** {{Pathfinder}} eliminated most of the damage loops and frank abuses of 3.5, buffed melee and ranged physical damage so the warrior classes do most of the damage, and still results in this trope due to the prevalence of "Save or Suck" spells. In short, casters can shut down the enemy with spells that inflict status ailments so severe the warriors simply cut down the enemy like butter. For example, fail a save versus Blindness and your life expectancy can be measured in seconds.

* {{Shadowrun}}
* The ''NewWorldOfDarkness'' gamelines tend to get accused of this, largely because defensive scaling is slower and more expensive than offensive scaling.
** The OldWorldOfDarkness was little better. Since a character was stunned if they took more than their stamina in damage, and most weapons like a shotgun or a melee-focused character would do just that, whoever lost initiative had best just pray they made it out of the first round still able to take an action. Add this to a game system where the average damage for a shotgun was 4-5 health levels, taking wounds caused you increasing penalties to all actions, and you only had eight HitPoints to begin with, and combat was effectively over in a few rounds.

* One of the ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' expansions, "Wrath of the Lich King", did this by accident. Due to a few miscalculations gear scaled up so fast that the healers had effectively limitless magic for healing. Thus damage capabilities were increased to the point where any character could be killed in seconds, so that the healers had to be healing quickly and proactively to keep anyone alive. As a side effect [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] combat became a game of rocket tag where any class could die or kill another in seconds with a lucky crit.
* ''VideoGame/EnchantedArms''. You could generally wipe out RandomEncounters in two, maybe three, rounds if you weren't ambushed. If you were, you were likely to have half your party dead by the time you regained control. As an amusing consequence of this, bosses actually did less damage than the {{Mook}}s you'd been killing to get to them.

** Likewise, the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' lends itself to this sort of thing. By the end of chapter 3 it's a common strategy to stack damage-boosting equipment in every slot, and it's very difficult to build a character that can survive more than a round or two against a high-level Ninja or Summoner. And that's before you start dual-wielding Knightswords, driving your Brave stat as high as it can go and making your attacks ignore evasion.

* A popular mod in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is "Rocket Tennis" (sometimes also called Dodgeball), where everyone plays as the Pyro, trying to deflect a Critical rocket for as long as possible. Since the rocket moves faster as the game goes on, (and the rocket ''starts'' out being capable of a OneHitKill), it's a mad frenzy to reflect like your life depends on it (which it sort of does, since the maps of this mod is Arena-based).
* ''GoldenSun'': The Djinn system is a major part of the game, as they allow for class changes, summons and boost your stats. However, when you use several of them to prepare a more powerful summon, it lowers your stats accordingly (and depending on which Djinn are on which character, their class. Going from StoneWall to SquishyWizard is a nasty surprise for the unprepared). Against most bosses, the best strategy is to go into battle with lowered stats, fire off all your summons and survive, gaining back the stats one turn at a time until your Djinn are ready to be used again.

When both sides are made up of [[GlassCannon squishy characters]] and have [[BFG extremely powerful guns]], you have a case of Rocket Tag Gameplay. The slightest caress from any weapon in the game will reduce anyone to a fine pace, so the gameplay becomes entirely about hitting first and never getting hit yourself. It could mean that twitch reactions and being the first to attack is vital, it could place huge emphasis on dodging and leading targets, or it might just be a case of camping with extreme patience and never giving your position away, but in any case, being exposed to damage is a swift trip to the GameOver screen or a respawn.

This is mostly an {{RPG}} trope, but can be applied to any game with combat elements and some type of LifeMeter.

This trope is about VideoGames where it's easy to inflict ridiculous amounts of damage, resulting in combat practically just being about attacking first. Actual skill is most likely still involved, but it will be more about agility (Dodging, improvising) than intelligence (MinMaxing, planning ahead).
This trope can happen due to various reasons; Higher offensive stats than defensive ones, an abundance of OneHitKill moves, et cetera.
Please note that this has to apply to both PlayerCharacters and enemies, or it's just a case of GlassCannon.

This trope doesn't ''have'' to be a bad thing. Fast-paced battles tend to be more exciting than longer and tedious ones, and they may require less LevelGrinding.

* A popular mod in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is "Rocket Tennis" (sometimes also called Dodgeball), where everyone plays as the Pyro, trying to deflect a Critical rocket for as long as possible. Since the rocket moves faster as the game goes on, (and the rocket ''starts'' out being capable of a OneHitKill), it's a mad frenzy to reflect like your life depends on it (which it sort of does, since this mod often disables Respawning).

** D&D Next (aka 5.0) converted "Inflict Wounds" (3d8 damage) to a ranged attack... available at level two, when most PCs will have less than 20 health.

** D&D Next (aka 5.0) converted "Inflict Wounds" (3d8 damage) to a ranged attack... available at level two.

* ''GoldenSun'': The Djinn system is a major part of the game, as they allow for class changes, summons and boost your stats. However, when you use several of them to prepare a more powerful summon, it lowers your stats accordingly (and depending on which Djinn are on which character, their class. Going from StoneWall to SquishyWizard is a nasty surprise for the unprepared). Against most bosses, the best strategy is to go into battle with lowered stats, fire off all your summons and survive, gaining back the stats one turn at a time until your Djinn are ready to be used again.

** [[TropesAreNotBad There is a significant upside to this, though]]: RocketTagGameplay for most of the ''Disgaea'' games only happens at levels considerably higher than needed to enter the post-game, wherein you spend the vast, ''vast'' majority of your time LevelGrinding or going through [[BonusDungeon Item Dungeons]] which have dozens and dozens of floors. If battles didn't get shorter as levels increased, they would take an unbearably long time.

* Master-type enemies (things like Hive Tyrants and Daemon Princes), and to somewhat lesser extent Elite ones as well, in ''TabletopGame/{{Deathwatch}}'' and ''BlackCrusade'' tend to be like this. Since both the players and the enemies can do huge amounts of damage, the fight generally come down to who goes first and who can dodge/parry better.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'', especially in earlier generations, has a metagame role called the [[LightningBruiser "Sweeper".]] The purpose of this monster is to one-shot the entire opposing team due to a high speed stat, insane damage, and good coverage on the ElementalRockPaperScissors table. The best counter for a Sweeper? A faster sweeper that can one-shot it. Barring that, a StoneWall or a MightyGlacier that can survive a Sweeper's attack, so it can retaliate. Many Sweepers focus purely on Attack/Sp. Attack and Speed, so they're likely to be a GlassCannon or a PaperRam.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'', especially in earlier generations, has a metagame role called the [[LightningBruiser "Sweeper".]] The purpose of this monster is to one-shot the entire opposing team due to a high speed stat, insane damage, and good coverage on the ElementalRockPaperScissors table. The best counter for a Sweeper? A faster sweeper that can one-shot it.