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This is the best summary of things more subtle than a letter from an evil mastermind. I have used all of them in games. Subtle clues work best, assuming that your players are remotely clever. Also, a short note that doesn't explain the plot in detail is great if you want to have wheels within...

As an aside, the final result of this musing may take up to 3 forms: A combat rules supplement for 5e. A combat rules supplement for Savage Worlds. A completely new game. In the end, I just hope people find this discussion useful and productive, even if everyone is not 100% happy with the...

Experience, Skills, & Skill Points It's hard to talk about combat without talking about skills. In any game that doesn't have "Classes," using weapons is rather obviously a subset of the skill system. OpenD6, which allows you to actively defend as an action in combat, also calls out Dodge and...

Full Disclosure: I've read Savage Worlds extensively, but while we were about to start our game when the pandemic hit, I haven't actually played or run a game. But I've been active on the PEG boards, so... 1) Toughness = 2 + Half Vigor + Armor. So yes, you can absolutely roll low enough for...

I hear what you're saying, but if someone is making a downward strike at my head and I use a beat parry, the momentum of their strike now carries their blow "off-line," opening them up to an immediate counterattack. This trick works quite well with both one and two-handed swords, and it...

OpenD6 also has a Body Points option for damage that is a pool somewhat like Hit Points, and includes (for those who want them) the optional conditions of "Stunned," (>20% lost) "Wounded,"(>40%) "Severely Wounded,"(>60%) and finally "Incapacitated," (>80%) before it gets to "Mortally Wounded"...

That's a really fascinating system. I'm intrigued by how it handles locations, HP, and armor. I'm still not entirely certain how I personally feel about having to make a location roll as a default, but I can see how it could work. If I recall correctly, Top Secret, S.I. had a not totally...

Well, the AGE system uses HP, but Armor functions as DR. Also, the math is rather different, as heroes start with between ~20 (for a low-Con Mage) and ~38 Hit Points (for a high-Con Warrior), and only gain 1d6 + Con per level. Which means by Level 10, the Mage would have about 50, give or take...

Conditions, Wounds, Damage, and Death Spirals So, at this point, I want to take a minute to talk about a system for tracking damage that I've seen variants of in several games. Most recently, this system is in Savage Worlds, but something very similar to it exists in d6 Star Wars, Mutants &...

So, I'll try to explain my thinking, and I grant that this is largely from an early to pre-modern (Renaissance and medieval) European swordplay perspective, although I have studied a variant of Kenpo and done some kickboxing as well... Typically in a dynamic sword fight, the point is to avoid...

I suspect the line is that the "fantasy versions" of the pantheons count as discussing "mythology," whereas most discussions of Abrahamic religions count as "religion" because of their ubiquity in modern culture. The religion is sufficiently intertwined with the "gods" that you can't fully...

Well, the last version of Warhammer I played had... Hit location tables Grievous Injury tables Per strike attack rolls - i.e. two swings equals two attacks Separate Parry and Dodge rolls Granted, that was the Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd Edition (by Green Ronin) from, oh, 15 years back or so...

Personally, I like combat in games. But I like fun, over-the-top, cinematic action combats that feel like they were pulled straight out of a Three Musketeers or Indiana Jones movie. Simply put, combat in D&D doesn't feel like that. Grim and gritty "Realistic" systems also don't generally feel...

Just as an aside, there's a Finnish god named Ilamatar, with the same rough description as the FR god in Deities & Demigods, so Ed can claim whatever he wants, but...yeah.

As a setting default, I personally love how religion/gods are handled in either Eberron or Wolfgang Baur's Midgard. As far as actual pantheons, I can make the above approaches work with any pantheon, and I have favorite gods in all of them. I find it striking how much love there is for the...

Randomness, Action Points, and Narrative Control: One truism of games is that we're always trying to balance random chance with giving players a degree of narrative control. Some groups take the attitude of letting the dice fall where they may, whereas others prefer a cooperative storytelling...

It's been a while since I ran or played it, so my memory may be "fuzzy," but the best spaceship-combat system I remember using was in WEG's (d6) Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. That game had really good rules for both chases and dogfights, albeit (IIRC) they could get a bit unwieldy if the...

Great feedback and thoughts guys! I know I have my own biases, but I am trying to make a system that can be tailored. In the end, I may end up designing a new RPG around it, but if it works as intended, I may also include rules to make it a usable add-on/plug-in for, say, D&D and Savage Worlds...

Thanks for the comments. I really liked some of your points and I appreciate the feedback. Just as a comment, Savage Worlds (which is also from Pinnacle) shifted the concept from "Wind" to just "Wounds" and obliterated the hit location table. The wound location remains abstract, unless the...

I know that some people prefer full narrative or quick resolution combat. Personally, I find the "player can make naughty word up" just a little TOO freeform for my tastes. I had GURPS recommended by some exceptionally simulative gamers who always liked tables, charts and so forth. They'd talk about...