My idea was that you could represent the battlefield without having to use a grid or anything to keep exact track of the combatants' positions. Though the way I originally conceived it would require the relative positioning of each combatant with every other single combatant, which would be quite cumbersome with even just a handful in play.
I think it might be possible to do if you just used a normal battlegrid and placed dice next to any combatants that are adjacent to each other and have any significant number of enemies around a single one change the whole lot to "surrounded" or "flanking" range, with the possibility of activating certain moves at this special range. And I guess anything outside of "far" range (which could probably use a better name, but damned if I can think of one) would be one space away. I'm thinking this is such a great implementation either. This is tricky.
I think the big problem is figuring out when the range dancing inside the squares should translate into multi-square movement. If there's a fight going on, and one guy goes to close, then the other guy goes to far, then the first guy goes to close again... well, they should move back a square at some point, since essentially the one guy is forcing the other one back. The question is, without absolute positioning on a sub-square level, how do you figure that out? How do you decide whether one guy is moving away from the other, or if he's physically knocking the other swordsman back? You can do the second one with your back to a wall, but not the first.
I don't think placing dice next to combatants would be too terribly tricky, provided you can remember which die belongs where. It helps to have an embarrassment of multicolored dice. Then again, my battlegrid isn't in the house, so I haven't exactly tried it myself.
And for a name other than "far range"; "extended" maybe?
I think some moves should allow you to activate some sorts of stances, or whatever you'd want to call them, that would do various things such as boost your defenses or allow you to perform counter-attacks in certain situations. Thinking about it, maybe there should be certain moves that act as combo moves, being able to be used freely upon successfully executing certain other moves, allowing you to not only change stances but alternatively perform a the equivalent of a single step of a regular move as part your turn (it's possible more steps could be included in a combo, but my gut says a single step is probably a good idea since it's an extra thing). Also, some combos, at least maybe stance combos, might be free to execute (since you have to succeed in another move to use them and you can only have one stance active at once (probably)).
This is something I've thought of (and intended to include in the maybe-someday videogame version,) but I didn't include it in the forum game version for the sake of simplicity. There was one concept I was thinking of, the idea of a precondition/postcondition of some description. Basically instead of choosing from any Sword Form you know, you'd have to pick Sword Forms that "connect" to each other to make a smooth dance. By connecting, I mean one of the requirements to start a Sword Form would be a certain stance, and at the end of a Sword Form you'd be in a different stance. Thus, you might pick an unexpected Sword Form which does not help you greatly on the turn you use it, but leaves you in a stance that would let you use a more powerful/useful Form the next turn. Like I said, I think it might be too complicated for a forum game, but in a perfect world I think that's how I'd do it.
Yeah, the idea of combos was that you wouldn't have to break out a specific move just to get into a stance. Also, they would either not generate much useful effect or would use up balance with no chance to get it back. I'm not too attached to the idea, though I think if they were too overpowered as-is they could be made to be only usable with two-step moves or as a substitute to the last step of a move.
I may as well share my original concept of stances while I'm here, instead of the combo version.
Basically, stances give some passive benefit, and they also function as schools; Sword Forms are grouped by the stance you need to be in to use them. Any given turn you have the option of half a dozen Sword Forms to choose from, or you can spend the turn shifting into a new stance for a new benefit and set of Forms. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, different groups of Sword Forms have benefits against other groups; thus, spending the turn to shift into a new stance can give you immediate benefits against the stance your opponent is using. The idea is that there'd be almost a Pokemon style mechanic where stances are almost like type advantage, where you have to evaluate whether the matchup you're in is bad enough to warrant a stance shift, or whether you have enough tricks up your sleeve to keep from being overwhelmed. Of course, being wounded would let you shift stance for free, much like having a Pokemon faint lets you send in one of a different type.
Oh, and I also thought of another way to keep track of fighting range: do as before, with numbers denoting the range, but instead of using dice, you can add or subtract a number of glass beads or poker chips or some other easily countable thing.
I think I like the dice idea better, but counters would work where dice are unavailable.
The idea of using beads was that it might be quicker than changing faces on a die (I haven't done any testing or anything to know for sure either way). Another idea I had that I forgot to mention was that you could just have a piece of paper with the ranges written on it and move a marker or the two figurines back and forth on it. The downside of this approach is that it would only work for one-on-one duels.
I think with the counters, the problem would be if you have like 5 figurines all right next to each other, all with a pile of range counters next to them. Especially if it's a 3-way fight or something. The piece of paper idea isn't too bad; it would work best if you had enough minis to have one on the battlegrid and a separate one for the range paper. Not sure what to do for multiple opponents though; I suppose if you had a bunch of different colored beads/counters/chips so that each combatant could have multiple of their own color, that could work.