ENGAGEMENT/DISENGAGEMENT
Rules governing entering and leaving combat contact — attacks of opportunity when you retreat from melee, zones of control that stop movement, disengage actions that trade tempo for a safe exit.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN TACTICS · CRPG · MOBA · STRATEGY
D&D-derived systems like Baldur's Gate 3 make disengaging a full action, pricing retreat; Into the Breach makes all movement free until you commit; and MOBAs run the same logic continuously, where 'engage' and 'disengage' name entire team compositions and abilities. Designers formalize engagement because without stickiness melee is meaningless — ranged units simply kite forever — and because commitment cost creates the genre's core drama: entering a fight must be a decision with weight, not a reversible dip. The rules also create protective play (bodyguarding a mage by threatening opportunity attacks) and specialist roles (skirmishers who disengage free). Key decisions: how expensive leaving contact is (free, an action, provoked damage), whether some units ignore engagement rules as their niche, and how visibly threat ranges are displayed before the player commits. Pitfall: opportunity attacks that trigger on any movement turn positioning into paralysis — the mechanic should punish careless retreat, not forbid all repositioning.