I'll tell you what--how about you not tell people what they can talk about on these forums? If you're not interested, go find another thread. Here, I'll help you.
Labyrinths and Outlands
Funnily enough not the first time Ive heard that. High chance its going to change at this point, given how much has changed about it.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
I think it's time for some fictional (or actual) play samples. That would help me grasp the bigger picture, anyway.
Nat40 could stay or go. Some other ideas:
Nat40 could stay or go. Some other ideas:
- The Answer (to Life, the Universe, and Everything), since the max is 40 and there are 2 dice.
- 2eac4i0n system, because it's fire.
- Aw, Nuts, because, well, you know.
That could be arranged. It doesn't has help that a lot of this (even between posts) has changed, but it has come off a bit weird and Im not certain if its down to how I present it or if its just a consequence of a sort of non-typical way of doing things.
It does make sense once you get through that hiccup though, so yeah, Id agree on the example part.
Im leaning towards some sort of riff on Energy. I believe I quoted it earlier, but I've recently reconfigured the Attribute/Skill system to simplify it, and now a lot of the game is a morphing (in very fun ways) from the change. Having your current CP, Mana or Stamina, your Energy by which you do basically everything, drive the saving throws you invoke was a very clever idea and its enhancing things considerably though some of the math got thrown off course. So many issues with the idea of HP just vanishing, I love it.
Its even revealed a way to integrate survival into the gameplay loop in a way thats both visceral and not-feel-bad, which is exciting.
If I could just finagle an appropriate integration of Luck into the new dynamics, it'd be perfect I think. Im inclined towards how DCC does it, but a part of me wants to try and find an original way to do it.
@GMMichael Voila!
Okay so here's a quick-ish example run of Combat in this system, and for the sake of brevity I'll try to keep the set dressing to a minimum. This will just assume 1 player, a Level 5 Barbarian Beastheart, and I'll also note that some of what may be mentioned isn't stuff I've talked about at length or may be different from how I described it previously.
And for absolute clarity, I'm also going to include the actual Abilities and Stats that this character could have at this level (though not all, again to keep it brief), as well as statistics on their gear.
=================================
Righto, here we go. GM and Player are marked, anything done that doesn't correspond to talking will be listed in italics.
Bramdo is on a mission to save his new novel from the devilish bandits who stole it out of his camp. He has tracked them across the Outlands, and he is coming up close. The GM has just cleared the Tension Pool, his face is...grim.
GM: Okay Bramdo, time has advanced; as you cross through the last 6 miles of your journey, following the clear trail of the Bandit party, you come upon a forest edge just as the twilight sky darkens your surroundings. There is an extensive tree line before you as far as you can see, and the hills are behind you. The air feels warm, but it is awfully quiet. You come to a stop for a moment as you take this in...what do you do?
Bramdo: Hmm...something isn't right, I don't like this quiet...I look about myself, do I see anything through the trees across from me?
GM: You do not see much; even with the sun as high as it is it is still rather dark under the canopy; roll Perception to see if you spot anything.
Bramdorolls; 2d10+Acuity; 18.
GM: 18...Your eyes pierce into the darkness of the forest. For a few minutes, you see little, but just as the sun begins to creep below the hills to your back, you see the faintest reflection of light from deep into the forest. Though you cannot make out a person, what you saw was the unmistakable reflection of a person's eyes, and just as swiftly as you caught it you...
GM checks their notes, Bramdo has an Acuity of 5, making his passive perception useless, but because he used his Perception to check the tree line, he beats the Bandit's Stealth check of 12 at a +6 difference, negating the attack entirely.
...Swing your maul upjust in time to deflect an arrow away from your throat. Roll Iniative, someone is coming for you...
Bramdo rolls,2d10+Ini Mod (All energies/30, in this case, +1), 17. 2ndin Initiative out of 3. At the same time, Bramdo rolls 2d20 to set up his first round. 14 and 7. Bramdo decides to Double Down, taking 22as his Act Rating (+1 from Pitdog); he has 21 Movement to use for the round.
GM: As you ready yourself, the first Bandit comes forward out of the woods; you recognize him immediately, you saw him with your Novel last night...he rushes forward to attack you, 15 to Hit.
Bramdo:He hits me! I wasn't ready for him!
GM Rolls damage; 1d8 Slashing; 6.
GM: You take 6 Slashing damage as he swipes at you with his short sword, and the Bandit steps back... he seems ready for you.
Bramdo: Okay its a fight now...I want to go for his head and take it off!
GM: Okay, take -5 to hit.
Bramdo: 16! Give it to me! (Bramdo marks down 1 point of Stamina used)
GM: The Bandit seemed ready to fight but as your maul connects with his face, you see the briefest glimpse of sheer terror as it goes flying off to your left, landing some (Gm rolls a d10) 8ftaway from you. The body stands there for a moment and collapses. What else do you do?
Bramdo: Yeah...I move forward 20 feet to theedge of the tree line, and I'm going to use my Skill Action to Provoke them; I yell out “GIVE MY F!#$! BOOK BACK YOU BASTARDS”.
GM: Aight, roll Provoke.
Bramdo rolls, 2d10+ 5 Acuity; Natural 20 for 25 total. Bramdo adds 2 Skill Points to Provoke. Marks down 1 point of Acuity used)
Bramdo: Nat 20, 25 total! Lets goooo.
GM: Nice. You see nothing for a few moments, but you hear some hushed whispering before you see two figures start bolting in the opposite direction, and you can hear the clang of metal as their weapons hit the forest floor. But then a third figure cries out: “Son of a...Alright, you want it? Come and get it!”
You see the figure appear from behind another tree, about 20 feet away from you. He backs up, holding your book aloft in his hand; he waits to catch your eye and as you glance up at the book in his hand, you see it fall onto the forest floor just as a knife comes screaming from the Bandits other hand; +18 to Hit.
Bramdo: Gah! Im hit again.
GM: (rolls, 1d6+2, 8; also rolls2d10 +20 Stamina, 22) You take 8points of Piercing damage as the knife sticks in your leg. As you recoil from the pain, you see the Bandit back up further, darting as he does. He's seems quite fast, you better catch up...Next Round!
Table rolls. Bramdo rolls 2d20, Nat 40. GM Rolls 2d20, 10 and 15. Bramdo adds 2 Skill Points each to Heavy Arms and Heavy Armor and waits to go; he has 57 Movement and 18 Composure left; GM opts to Double Down for a React rating of 25.
GM: Alright, you see the Bandit ahead some 42 feet away, what do you doBramdo?
Bramdo: I invoke the Frenzy, and I rush forward to meet him. I say nothing but instead look at him with pure malice as I attack; Nat 20.
GM: Nice! As your rage and fury well up and you swing your maul to take him down, he just barely reacts in time to deflect your blow, but it may well not be enough! Roll damage!
Bramdo Rolls; 1d12 + 1d4, 8 + 4, 4 doubles due to Frenzy, total 16. Bramdo marks down 2 points of Stamina.
Bramdo: I hit him for 16 Blunt damage, and I let out a roar as I do it!
GM: The Bandit nearly falters under the crash of your maul, but he still managed to deflect some of the blow; he's shaken but still standing.
GM marks the Bandit down to 8 Composure from 20; As he had a high enough React, his Armor Rating of 4 applied a reduction to the damage.
GM: The Bandit collects himself, he is still too shaken to try and fightback, but as you look him up and down, just like that he snaps out of his daze, and you see the flick of another knife! But it is not aimed at you, but to your right. Just as suddenly, you hear the creak and moan of the trees surrounding you as a huge log comes swinging towards you! What do you do?
The GM has activated the Bandit's Environmental Action, Log Trap. This allows the Bandit to call down a conveniently placed log tied up high to swing down and hit a target for 2d12 Blunt Damage at a +15 to Hit(it would have more if the Bandit had not used up their react to survive the blow from Bramdo)
Bramdo:I swing my Maul to Parry the Log away. Nat 20.
If the Bandit still had their React available to them, they would have had the log hit at +40, enough to break through the Nat 20 Reaction, but Bramdo's Critical Defend would still allow him to negate 10points of the damage, with this Armor Rating of 5 doubling due to the Critical. Meanwhile, the GM rolls for the Bandit; 2d10 + 17 Stamina;19.
GM:Nice, the log's ropes break from the force of your blow and it crashes against a nearby tree, the echo of the colliding wood piercing the air. The Bandit is still swaying back and forth, he doesn't look long for this world, and he uses his Skill Action to run from you, darting away another 20 feet.
Bramdo: I use the rest of my movement, 15 feet to try and catch up to him.
GM: Alright you get close but he's just out of reach. Next Round!
Table Rolls; Bramdo rolls 19+15, he assigns 19 to Act for +20, and 15 to React; 31 Feet to Move. GM Rolls 2+2. He Doubles Down, but it won't do any good. Bramdo marks down 2 points of Stamina for his upcoming attack.
GM: Bramdo, this is it, what do you do?
Bramdo: I'm going to Throw my Maul at him, he won't get away this time. I take a -5, but still hit for +15.
GM: You watch as your Maul flies out of your hand towards the Bandit; he tries to reach behind himself to Parry it away, but its no use! You hear the deafening crack of his spine as your Maul begins to ricochet off a few trees back to you, and the Bandit is punted forward from the force of the blow; he falls to the forest floor and lies still; he had no last breath.
You look about, you spot your Book easy enough about 20 feet behind you, and the two bodies are free to loot. There is no apparent sign of the other two bandits who ran off. Your Frenzy wears off as you see no enemies about, check yourself.
Bramdo rolls his saving throw; +5 Max Stamina. His Stamina maxes at +18, so he has to roll a 23. His current Stamina is at +13, so he rolls 2d10+13. Just misses, 20 total. Bramdo marks down his 10 Stamina loss, for +3 left.
Bramdo: Bah, serves them right. I collect my book and leave the bodies where they lie. Where is the nearest town? I'm tired.
=================================
And that's the swing of it. I said I would keep the set dressing to a minimum but I couldn't help myself, but it should presumably be clear enough to understand. I ran this encounter ad hoc with a buddy I've been play-testing this with, and all told it took us like, 5 Minutes to run it end to end if we don't count the couple of minutes to note down what we all did each round.
There's a lot of info that goes into it, especially as you get on in levels and start racking up abilities and items, but the actual play once you set yourself up is just so quick. The plan is to design a character sheet that neatly, and hopefully elegantly, collapses all of this overhead into a quick reference to keep things smooth.
Players will have to do some mild prep to keep up with their stuff, but you know what that's kosher in my book. Levels and items don't come all that fast unless you're getting absurdly lucky (that Bramdo got 6 Skill points out of the 10 he needs to level up to 6th Level out of this particular encounter is just a stroke of absurd luck getting 3 Nat 20s in a row), and they only ever intake one at a time, so there's little reason why apart from neglect to not stay on top of it. And even then, as long as you keep track of what you have, it should be easy to update the sheet. (or at least, this is all what I intend)
Okay so here's a quick-ish example run of Combat in this system, and for the sake of brevity I'll try to keep the set dressing to a minimum. This will just assume 1 player, a Level 5 Barbarian Beastheart, and I'll also note that some of what may be mentioned isn't stuff I've talked about at length or may be different from how I described it previously.
And for absolute clarity, I'm also going to include the actual Abilities and Stats that this character could have at this level (though not all, again to keep it brief), as well as statistics on their gear.
=================================
Righto, here we go. GM and Player are marked, anything done that doesn't correspond to talking will be listed in italics.
Bramdo is on a mission to save his new novel from the devilish bandits who stole it out of his camp. He has tracked them across the Outlands, and he is coming up close. The GM has just cleared the Tension Pool, his face is...grim.
GM: Okay Bramdo, time has advanced; as you cross through the last 6 miles of your journey, following the clear trail of the Bandit party, you come upon a forest edge just as the twilight sky darkens your surroundings. There is an extensive tree line before you as far as you can see, and the hills are behind you. The air feels warm, but it is awfully quiet. You come to a stop for a moment as you take this in...what do you do?
Bramdo: Hmm...something isn't right, I don't like this quiet...I look about myself, do I see anything through the trees across from me?
GM: You do not see much; even with the sun as high as it is it is still rather dark under the canopy; roll Perception to see if you spot anything.
Bramdorolls; 2d10+Acuity; 18.
GM: 18...Your eyes pierce into the darkness of the forest. For a few minutes, you see little, but just as the sun begins to creep below the hills to your back, you see the faintest reflection of light from deep into the forest. Though you cannot make out a person, what you saw was the unmistakable reflection of a person's eyes, and just as swiftly as you caught it you...
GM checks their notes, Bramdo has an Acuity of 5, making his passive perception useless, but because he used his Perception to check the tree line, he beats the Bandit's Stealth check of 12 at a +6 difference, negating the attack entirely.
...Swing your maul upjust in time to deflect an arrow away from your throat. Roll Iniative, someone is coming for you...
Bramdo rolls,2d10+Ini Mod (All energies/30, in this case, +1), 17. 2ndin Initiative out of 3. At the same time, Bramdo rolls 2d20 to set up his first round. 14 and 7. Bramdo decides to Double Down, taking 22as his Act Rating (+1 from Pitdog); he has 21 Movement to use for the round.
GM: As you ready yourself, the first Bandit comes forward out of the woods; you recognize him immediately, you saw him with your Novel last night...he rushes forward to attack you, 15 to Hit.
Bramdo:He hits me! I wasn't ready for him!
GM Rolls damage; 1d8 Slashing; 6.
GM: You take 6 Slashing damage as he swipes at you with his short sword, and the Bandit steps back... he seems ready for you.
Bramdo: Okay its a fight now...I want to go for his head and take it off!
GM: Okay, take -5 to hit.
Bramdo: 16! Give it to me! (Bramdo marks down 1 point of Stamina used)
GM: The Bandit seemed ready to fight but as your maul connects with his face, you see the briefest glimpse of sheer terror as it goes flying off to your left, landing some (Gm rolls a d10) 8ftaway from you. The body stands there for a moment and collapses. What else do you do?
Bramdo: Yeah...I move forward 20 feet to theedge of the tree line, and I'm going to use my Skill Action to Provoke them; I yell out “GIVE MY F!#$! BOOK BACK YOU BASTARDS”.
GM: Aight, roll Provoke.
Bramdo rolls, 2d10+ 5 Acuity; Natural 20 for 25 total. Bramdo adds 2 Skill Points to Provoke. Marks down 1 point of Acuity used)
Bramdo: Nat 20, 25 total! Lets goooo.
GM: Nice. You see nothing for a few moments, but you hear some hushed whispering before you see two figures start bolting in the opposite direction, and you can hear the clang of metal as their weapons hit the forest floor. But then a third figure cries out: “Son of a...Alright, you want it? Come and get it!”
You see the figure appear from behind another tree, about 20 feet away from you. He backs up, holding your book aloft in his hand; he waits to catch your eye and as you glance up at the book in his hand, you see it fall onto the forest floor just as a knife comes screaming from the Bandits other hand; +18 to Hit.
Bramdo: Gah! Im hit again.
GM: (rolls, 1d6+2, 8; also rolls2d10 +20 Stamina, 22) You take 8points of Piercing damage as the knife sticks in your leg. As you recoil from the pain, you see the Bandit back up further, darting as he does. He's seems quite fast, you better catch up...Next Round!
Table rolls. Bramdo rolls 2d20, Nat 40. GM Rolls 2d20, 10 and 15. Bramdo adds 2 Skill Points each to Heavy Arms and Heavy Armor and waits to go; he has 57 Movement and 18 Composure left; GM opts to Double Down for a React rating of 25.
GM: Alright, you see the Bandit ahead some 42 feet away, what do you doBramdo?
Bramdo: I invoke the Frenzy, and I rush forward to meet him. I say nothing but instead look at him with pure malice as I attack; Nat 20.
GM: Nice! As your rage and fury well up and you swing your maul to take him down, he just barely reacts in time to deflect your blow, but it may well not be enough! Roll damage!
Bramdo Rolls; 1d12 + 1d4, 8 + 4, 4 doubles due to Frenzy, total 16. Bramdo marks down 2 points of Stamina.
Bramdo: I hit him for 16 Blunt damage, and I let out a roar as I do it!
GM: The Bandit nearly falters under the crash of your maul, but he still managed to deflect some of the blow; he's shaken but still standing.
GM marks the Bandit down to 8 Composure from 20; As he had a high enough React, his Armor Rating of 4 applied a reduction to the damage.
GM: The Bandit collects himself, he is still too shaken to try and fightback, but as you look him up and down, just like that he snaps out of his daze, and you see the flick of another knife! But it is not aimed at you, but to your right. Just as suddenly, you hear the creak and moan of the trees surrounding you as a huge log comes swinging towards you! What do you do?
The GM has activated the Bandit's Environmental Action, Log Trap. This allows the Bandit to call down a conveniently placed log tied up high to swing down and hit a target for 2d12 Blunt Damage at a +15 to Hit(it would have more if the Bandit had not used up their react to survive the blow from Bramdo)
Bramdo:I swing my Maul to Parry the Log away. Nat 20.
If the Bandit still had their React available to them, they would have had the log hit at +40, enough to break through the Nat 20 Reaction, but Bramdo's Critical Defend would still allow him to negate 10points of the damage, with this Armor Rating of 5 doubling due to the Critical. Meanwhile, the GM rolls for the Bandit; 2d10 + 17 Stamina;19.
GM:Nice, the log's ropes break from the force of your blow and it crashes against a nearby tree, the echo of the colliding wood piercing the air. The Bandit is still swaying back and forth, he doesn't look long for this world, and he uses his Skill Action to run from you, darting away another 20 feet.
Bramdo: I use the rest of my movement, 15 feet to try and catch up to him.
GM: Alright you get close but he's just out of reach. Next Round!
Table Rolls; Bramdo rolls 19+15, he assigns 19 to Act for +20, and 15 to React; 31 Feet to Move. GM Rolls 2+2. He Doubles Down, but it won't do any good. Bramdo marks down 2 points of Stamina for his upcoming attack.
GM: Bramdo, this is it, what do you do?
Bramdo: I'm going to Throw my Maul at him, he won't get away this time. I take a -5, but still hit for +15.
GM: You watch as your Maul flies out of your hand towards the Bandit; he tries to reach behind himself to Parry it away, but its no use! You hear the deafening crack of his spine as your Maul begins to ricochet off a few trees back to you, and the Bandit is punted forward from the force of the blow; he falls to the forest floor and lies still; he had no last breath.
You look about, you spot your Book easy enough about 20 feet behind you, and the two bodies are free to loot. There is no apparent sign of the other two bandits who ran off. Your Frenzy wears off as you see no enemies about, check yourself.
Bramdo rolls his saving throw; +5 Max Stamina. His Stamina maxes at +18, so he has to roll a 23. His current Stamina is at +13, so he rolls 2d10+13. Just misses, 20 total. Bramdo marks down his 10 Stamina loss, for +3 left.
Bramdo: Bah, serves them right. I collect my book and leave the bodies where they lie. Where is the nearest town? I'm tired.
=================================
And that's the swing of it. I said I would keep the set dressing to a minimum but I couldn't help myself, but it should presumably be clear enough to understand. I ran this encounter ad hoc with a buddy I've been play-testing this with, and all told it took us like, 5 Minutes to run it end to end if we don't count the couple of minutes to note down what we all did each round.
There's a lot of info that goes into it, especially as you get on in levels and start racking up abilities and items, but the actual play once you set yourself up is just so quick. The plan is to design a character sheet that neatly, and hopefully elegantly, collapses all of this overhead into a quick reference to keep things smooth.
Players will have to do some mild prep to keep up with their stuff, but you know what that's kosher in my book. Levels and items don't come all that fast unless you're getting absurdly lucky (that Bramdo got 6 Skill points out of the 10 he needs to level up to 6th Level out of this particular encounter is just a stroke of absurd luck getting 3 Nat 20s in a row), and they only ever intake one at a time, so there's little reason why apart from neglect to not stay on top of it. And even then, as long as you keep track of what you have, it should be easy to update the sheet. (or at least, this is all what I intend)
I suppose it had to happen eventually but over this 4th of July I ended up instigating a proverbial table flip with my game. A great deal is going to be changing and for the better I think, given on the whole the ideas are going to stay intact.
Much excitement, particularly given I kinda got low during all this, but I persevered and thought my way through the problems I was having, which means the games going to make a lot more sense to other people now
Once I get through the revisions that is lol
Much excitement, particularly given I kinda got low during all this, but I persevered and thought my way through the problems I was having, which means the games going to make a lot more sense to other people now
Once I get through the revisions that is lol
Why its important to read your design notes
So somewhere along the way in the past 6 months, I more or less lost the plot entirely on what combat was meant to look and feel like, and because my brain is the dumb it didn't really occur to me that not only had I inadvertently morphed the design out of its original intent, but that as a result of doing so I ended up causing all the problems Ive been having lately as I continue to plug away at my Mages.
The idea behind Combat is still the same. You roll 2d20, assign them to Act/React, and go from there. Now, where I lost the plot I believe happened when I was working on my Warrior, and got a brainworm going about them being designed around, at max level, running a 4-move combo to get a 5th effect.
This brainworm basically brainwashed me into giving the Warrior 4 explicit attacks in their Act, and this bled over into my Rogue as well, and at no point did it occur to me that I had originally not given the Barbarian any extra attacks for a reason.
And that reason, simply put, is that combat is supposed to be fast and brutal; for most of the game, only one attack is all that characters get. There is no "hit ratings" or any of that. You attack, your opponent might be able to defend themselves. All that matters is whether or not your opponents React is high enough to face your Act; if it is, they can roll to delete some of the incoming damage. If it doesn't, they get all of it.
Its simple, its super quick, and it feels great.
This is a pretty important distinction, and one that was lost on me until a few days ago when after being stumped I started digging through my design notes just to find the solution to all my problems.
So what does this revelation mean for the game? Well for one, it means that what I originally envisioned, confirmed via low level playtesting (if we had spent more time at high level Id have realized it eventually...i hope), and have been asserting about how combat feels are now all in-line with what the mechanics provide for. And for two, it gave me a lot of the original ideas I had for mechanics that make things easier to deal with, even at higher level.
But for three, this all also handily evaporates all the hang ups with a couple of mechanics Ive been chasing; namely, Durability and Ammo mechanics that not only blend easily into the proverbial woodwork, but are also fun and desirable to have in of themselves.
To put it simply, I managed to reinvent the Usage and Armor dice from The Black Hack, but my take on it goes quite a bit farther.
For any given weapon, armor piece, or shield, you have a number of dice under it representing the damage these items can potentially deal out or defend against. Each die gives their respective item 2 Points of Durability.
When you use these items, you would want to note two things about the outcome of your roll.
First, any 1s that roll on the dice means you lose Durability in your item, so you simply begin to tick up on your sheet for that item; every 2 points you lose one the dice, and when all are spent the item is broken.
But secondly, and most importantly, you also should note which dice come up as their max value. Every single one will provide some sort of stacking Boon to your next attack. These could be +1s to your Act/React, more damage, or some other neat thing; these will be customizeable.
This is the addition that makes it worthwhile to want to track this stuff, as you have just as much potential to snowball into very potent attacks as you do to break your sword.
And for Ammunition, the same idea is in place, with an easy way to account for ammo without having to do any extra bookkeeping. Essentially, any ranged weapon and its ammunition both provide the damage dice that make up the overall "weapon", with the weapon dice always being at least one die size bigger than its ammunitions Ammo dice. (Ie, 1d12 paired with 1d10)
Done this way, you not only know immediately whether or not your ammo has been affected (roll 1s and you lose an ammo, as its assumed to be unrecoverable) but can easily track it as it happens without having to worry about counting your shots or anything like that.
As long as you know to pay attention to what you roll (which you should be doing anyway as you'll be adding them all up), you have the simplest path to tracking your items as you use them.
So, realizing that system lead to a number of other improvements.
Firstly, Ive fully eliminated the null result in my combat; with the 2d20 roll, rolling poorly on both dice was a very possible occurrence, and this could potentially result in an entire round of nothing happening. While I already knew to bake in abilities that would help mitigate this problem, as they wouldn't be reliant on your rolls to be useful, not all of these are going to be available all of the time for various reasons.
So to fix that, I ended up reading my notes again and some late night laying in bed and spamming out ideas, I had the thought that lead to me making Weapons and Armor their own skills; a player should be able to make use of their Skill Action to make a basic attack.
So with a little thought and some quick and dirty testing, that got refined into the ability to not only make use of your Skill Action in that way (though whether you use it to attack or defend, none of your Class abilities work on it. Just straight weapon and armor rolls), but to also take your cruddy 2d20 roll and use it as a bonus to your Skill Action, which you could use for any sort of Skill Action; if you roll a 1 and a 2, take +3 to Conditioning to get a movement boost and gtfo of harms way. And better still, if even that doesn't seem worthwhile, you could instead simply Hold, and gamble on keeping your 2d20 roll as a bonus for your next turn, assuming you aren't hit by something in the meantime. If you aren't, then you get whatever you rolled as a bonus to one of your dice rolls. (Even damage; gambling a Nat 40 by holding it is going to be a possibility, though you may not roll that well a second time)
Essentially, the whole idea is that rolling low comes with the potential to swing them back into really useful boons. This not only eliminates the null result, but overall I think makes combat more exciting.
And indeed, these ideas are what ended up making the Warrior itself, which got me into the mess originally, fulfill more of its intent as a relatively complex and hard to master class.
While as a standard every character just gets one "Class-Action" (those being Attacks, Casts, Commands, and Channels for martials, mages, summoners, and mystics respectively), they get two by the end game.
This naturally puts the Warrior in a predicament, as they need 4 Attacks to pull off their Battle Combos. To that end, the idea is going to be to allow for characters to forgo their Skill Action, and get two more Attacks instead. As Skills in LNO are being designed to be quite substantive in and out of combat, this is I think a worthwhile tradeoff that, in the scheme of things, would be something that people would expect to be possible. (And in fact, Im also contemplating allowing Doubling Down on your Act to let you do the Actions twice; giving you even more options and more destructive output if you fully commit, basically mirroring Action Surge from 4e/5e).
Another simplification along these lines was eliminating the separated Initiative roll; instead, when you begin your first Combat round, you simply announce your Act rating, if you've assigned a die to it. Highest goes first, and any who don't assign their Act die would slot in as though they rolled a 1, and their React die would decide the order between any others who did so. If they've assigned neither (Holding), they go last, simultaneously with any others who take that option.
This is pretty straightforward and intuitive, and Im surprised it didn't occur to me earlier, but, we've got in there now. Woohoo!
And I think thats about it for now. Theres some neat stuff going on with my mages, including some unintended parallel design between the Magic system and the new Durability system, but those are still cooking, as is the necessary revisions to basically everything to carry these changes through everything.
Hopefully this should be the last time I upend much of the system's core rules. Everything I have left should be straightforward to design and shouldn't be prying up anymore floorboards, so to speak, but we shall see.
So somewhere along the way in the past 6 months, I more or less lost the plot entirely on what combat was meant to look and feel like, and because my brain is the dumb it didn't really occur to me that not only had I inadvertently morphed the design out of its original intent, but that as a result of doing so I ended up causing all the problems Ive been having lately as I continue to plug away at my Mages.
The idea behind Combat is still the same. You roll 2d20, assign them to Act/React, and go from there. Now, where I lost the plot I believe happened when I was working on my Warrior, and got a brainworm going about them being designed around, at max level, running a 4-move combo to get a 5th effect.
This brainworm basically brainwashed me into giving the Warrior 4 explicit attacks in their Act, and this bled over into my Rogue as well, and at no point did it occur to me that I had originally not given the Barbarian any extra attacks for a reason.
And that reason, simply put, is that combat is supposed to be fast and brutal; for most of the game, only one attack is all that characters get. There is no "hit ratings" or any of that. You attack, your opponent might be able to defend themselves. All that matters is whether or not your opponents React is high enough to face your Act; if it is, they can roll to delete some of the incoming damage. If it doesn't, they get all of it.
Its simple, its super quick, and it feels great.
This is a pretty important distinction, and one that was lost on me until a few days ago when after being stumped I started digging through my design notes just to find the solution to all my problems.
So what does this revelation mean for the game? Well for one, it means that what I originally envisioned, confirmed via low level playtesting (if we had spent more time at high level Id have realized it eventually...i hope), and have been asserting about how combat feels are now all in-line with what the mechanics provide for. And for two, it gave me a lot of the original ideas I had for mechanics that make things easier to deal with, even at higher level.
But for three, this all also handily evaporates all the hang ups with a couple of mechanics Ive been chasing; namely, Durability and Ammo mechanics that not only blend easily into the proverbial woodwork, but are also fun and desirable to have in of themselves.
To put it simply, I managed to reinvent the Usage and Armor dice from The Black Hack, but my take on it goes quite a bit farther.
For any given weapon, armor piece, or shield, you have a number of dice under it representing the damage these items can potentially deal out or defend against. Each die gives their respective item 2 Points of Durability.
When you use these items, you would want to note two things about the outcome of your roll.
First, any 1s that roll on the dice means you lose Durability in your item, so you simply begin to tick up on your sheet for that item; every 2 points you lose one the dice, and when all are spent the item is broken.
But secondly, and most importantly, you also should note which dice come up as their max value. Every single one will provide some sort of stacking Boon to your next attack. These could be +1s to your Act/React, more damage, or some other neat thing; these will be customizeable.
This is the addition that makes it worthwhile to want to track this stuff, as you have just as much potential to snowball into very potent attacks as you do to break your sword.
And for Ammunition, the same idea is in place, with an easy way to account for ammo without having to do any extra bookkeeping. Essentially, any ranged weapon and its ammunition both provide the damage dice that make up the overall "weapon", with the weapon dice always being at least one die size bigger than its ammunitions Ammo dice. (Ie, 1d12 paired with 1d10)
Done this way, you not only know immediately whether or not your ammo has been affected (roll 1s and you lose an ammo, as its assumed to be unrecoverable) but can easily track it as it happens without having to worry about counting your shots or anything like that.
As long as you know to pay attention to what you roll (which you should be doing anyway as you'll be adding them all up), you have the simplest path to tracking your items as you use them.
So, realizing that system lead to a number of other improvements.
Firstly, Ive fully eliminated the null result in my combat; with the 2d20 roll, rolling poorly on both dice was a very possible occurrence, and this could potentially result in an entire round of nothing happening. While I already knew to bake in abilities that would help mitigate this problem, as they wouldn't be reliant on your rolls to be useful, not all of these are going to be available all of the time for various reasons.
So to fix that, I ended up reading my notes again and some late night laying in bed and spamming out ideas, I had the thought that lead to me making Weapons and Armor their own skills; a player should be able to make use of their Skill Action to make a basic attack.
So with a little thought and some quick and dirty testing, that got refined into the ability to not only make use of your Skill Action in that way (though whether you use it to attack or defend, none of your Class abilities work on it. Just straight weapon and armor rolls), but to also take your cruddy 2d20 roll and use it as a bonus to your Skill Action, which you could use for any sort of Skill Action; if you roll a 1 and a 2, take +3 to Conditioning to get a movement boost and gtfo of harms way. And better still, if even that doesn't seem worthwhile, you could instead simply Hold, and gamble on keeping your 2d20 roll as a bonus for your next turn, assuming you aren't hit by something in the meantime. If you aren't, then you get whatever you rolled as a bonus to one of your dice rolls. (Even damage; gambling a Nat 40 by holding it is going to be a possibility, though you may not roll that well a second time)
Essentially, the whole idea is that rolling low comes with the potential to swing them back into really useful boons. This not only eliminates the null result, but overall I think makes combat more exciting.
And indeed, these ideas are what ended up making the Warrior itself, which got me into the mess originally, fulfill more of its intent as a relatively complex and hard to master class.
While as a standard every character just gets one "Class-Action" (those being Attacks, Casts, Commands, and Channels for martials, mages, summoners, and mystics respectively), they get two by the end game.
This naturally puts the Warrior in a predicament, as they need 4 Attacks to pull off their Battle Combos. To that end, the idea is going to be to allow for characters to forgo their Skill Action, and get two more Attacks instead. As Skills in LNO are being designed to be quite substantive in and out of combat, this is I think a worthwhile tradeoff that, in the scheme of things, would be something that people would expect to be possible. (And in fact, Im also contemplating allowing Doubling Down on your Act to let you do the Actions twice; giving you even more options and more destructive output if you fully commit, basically mirroring Action Surge from 4e/5e).
Another simplification along these lines was eliminating the separated Initiative roll; instead, when you begin your first Combat round, you simply announce your Act rating, if you've assigned a die to it. Highest goes first, and any who don't assign their Act die would slot in as though they rolled a 1, and their React die would decide the order between any others who did so. If they've assigned neither (Holding), they go last, simultaneously with any others who take that option.
This is pretty straightforward and intuitive, and Im surprised it didn't occur to me earlier, but, we've got in there now. Woohoo!
And I think thats about it for now. Theres some neat stuff going on with my mages, including some unintended parallel design between the Magic system and the new Durability system, but those are still cooking, as is the necessary revisions to basically everything to carry these changes through everything.
Hopefully this should be the last time I upend much of the system's core rules. Everything I have left should be straightforward to design and shouldn't be prying up anymore floorboards, so to speak, but we shall see.
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GMMichael
Guide of Modos
Congrats on finding your compass bearing! I'm not quite seeing the "simple" and "super quick," but I'll hold my breath as the new path evolves.
Edit for specificity: for most of the game, characters get one attack (per round, assumed). Opponents need to have a high enough React to reduce damage. The attacker's weapon has a number of damage dice, providing 2 durability each to the weapon. The attacker needs to record 1s and Max damage results separately (assuming the GM records the totals). In addition, some abilities occur based on the results of the 2d20. Which could be a Skill Action, but in that case, abilities don't count. But if your roll is a 1 and a 2, you get a movement boost. But for any other low rolls, you can choose to save it and turn it into a bonus. Unless you get hit by something . . .
Was all that for a character's one attack per round? I'm not a fan of D&D's "you miss. Your turn is over," but it has simplicity on its side.
Edit for specificity: for most of the game, characters get one attack (per round, assumed). Opponents need to have a high enough React to reduce damage. The attacker's weapon has a number of damage dice, providing 2 durability each to the weapon. The attacker needs to record 1s and Max damage results separately (assuming the GM records the totals). In addition, some abilities occur based on the results of the 2d20. Which could be a Skill Action, but in that case, abilities don't count. But if your roll is a 1 and a 2, you get a movement boost. But for any other low rolls, you can choose to save it and turn it into a bonus. Unless you get hit by something . . .
Was all that for a character's one attack per round? I'm not a fan of D&D's "you miss. Your turn is over," but it has simplicity on its side.
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