Combat is not meant to be a fail state

For today's Devlog I wanted to focus on my design philosophy that is a core part of SOAR, and how I've tried to make it clear with my design, but first, some general thoughts on that topic.

So, "Combat as a fail state" is a relatively common thought process when it comes to a lot of games, and I think its important to acknowledge that it isn't necessarily wrong or makes games worse, I will not pretend game design is my way or the highway.
But
I think there is something to be said that a fair bit of the motivation behind this thought isn't really pointed towards the right thing.

Let's take Cyberpunk Red, for example, because I have run a LOT of Cyberpunk Red now
Cyberpunk Red has a fast and deadly combat system, it is entirely possible for you to have a really good piece of armor and still lose your leg because someone got lucky with their assault rifle shot.
By all accounts, getting into a gunfight is dangerous, deadly and is overall a bad idea if you want to live long in a reliable way.
Does it mean players do everything in their power to avoid all conflicts?
Well maybe its my table, but they don't, its not unlikely to get into a fight every other day in my games.

By all accounts, Cyberpunk Red's combat should be considered a "failure" to get into, and yet players often get into fights in that system, why is that?

I believe it's because combat is fun and a spectacle for everyone involved, it doesn't feel "bad" to be in a fight, it doesn't feel like a fail state either because it leads to interesting, dynamic and fast play, you have a lot of toys, you keep trying to get into cover, find a use for your cyberware, throw grenades, act fast...

Combat being dangerous and risky doesn't automatically make it a fail state, so what does?

Lets take a different game I have experience with that also has deadly dangerous combat that can easily kill your character.
In Delta Green you do not want to get in a fight if you can help it, and if you do, you have to make sure you know what you're up against and make sure you have the upper hand.
A straightforward combat in Delta Green IS a fail state, you do not want to just shoot at someone and hope for the best.
This is, and I say this lovingly, because combat in Delta Green is not fun to engage with, on purpose.
There's no power involved, no special gear beyond some guns killing in one shot if you're lucky (and that's against regular folks), and it is also highly likely that not everyone in your party is good at "fighting", the computer nerd probably barely knows how to wield a gun.
So what this results in is that people actively try to avoid combat or do their best to get out of it without necessarily fighting back in some cases.
Would you look at that, its a thematically appropriate way to engage with the system too!

In my eyes, to view straightforward combat as a failure is to say it is not satisfying to engage with, and this doesn't have to be a negative.

So what does this mean for Shirtless On A Rooftop?

Well, I know something I wanted to do when it comes to SOAR is to make Brawls something that is rewarding to get into.
Not to use buzzwords, but my philosophy for Brawls is "Combat as a Reward", it is meant to be something you anticipate will happen, know will happen and be excited to have happen, because you have tools to engage with it in your own unique way.
How this will shape up in actual long term play, I do not know and I may need to tweak some numbers here and there, but the way I reward people is by giving them a lot of impact over short bursts, I give you tools you can think about using next turn and reliable stuff you can use now.
There is little overlap between the narrative engine and the combat engine in SOAR, and this is on purpose, as far as skills and rolls are concerned that is, by starting from the perspective of everyone being always equally competent at fighting, I could help some people feel more "skilled" in combat without necessarily making them the only person that has fun in a fight.
My view on TTRPG design is very much informed by the media I watch and read, I often compare systems and their mechanics to movies and comics.
When John Wick gets to shoot a dozen of guys on a stairway in Paris, as an audience, it is a payoff, we LIKE to watch that, we are here for the thrill it provides, even if John doesn't especially like it, the movie still has him do this because its a cool scene for the Audience.
This is, in a nutshell, how I view combat for SOAR, even if our characters don't necessarily enjoy it, the players around the table are looking forward to it because it is the payoff for something that was built up, it is a high point for the session, at least that is the intention behind it.
To avoid it entirely thanks a "good narrative roll" would feel like it deflates what was established, imagine that scene in John Wick if he just said "mmmh not right now actually" and everyone stood down?
It wouldn't feel like an interesting scene, the stage was set but it would undermine itself at the last moment.

So how could I make it feel more natural in SOAR? Well I had a few ideas, which I might iterate on.
First of all, I'll probably mention it more explicitly in the GM tips that ask you to use both parts of the system, that one is a bit of a given.
But my second thought, and this will be a harder one to implement, would be to give some advice on narrative rolls influencing combat before it starts, as a reward for rolling well (and if the GM agrees of course) in a way that stays interesting, I think this should help GM realize that if you have a cool fight set up, a player "rolling well" doesn't have to completely negate the fight you planned, but it doesn't have to be a case of "it does nothing" either.

Anyway, I needed to get those thoughts out of my head, so here you go, that's it for this devlog.
Some stuff to look up to for the future of SOAR is some actual layout being done by a very special and cool person (who knows who that is) and some more art (as always).

Oh right, and if you're interested in talking about SOAR with me, want to ask me design questions or rules questions, I have made a discord server you can join here: https://discord.gg/Epu4FwGeNq