A Cinematic Gun Dueling System

[BigNash03]

I wanted to make a system to have cinematic movie-style duels in a D&D game. I based this off of L5R's iajutsu (sp?) system. It's supposed to capture that moment in old westerns where the two combatants eye each other and finger their guns before firing. It's also supposed to make a it a bit more high stakes than a simple gunshot. I've also made some rules for the firearms in my campaign, I'll post those in a seperate thread. Tell me what you think!

Step 1: Size your Opponent
Make insight checks. The character with the higher result goes first in step 2. Reroll ties.
Step 2: Focus or Draw
The two combatants take turns choosing to either focus or draw.
Focus: You get +2 attack and +10 damage.
Draw: Roll initiative against your opponent. The character who chose to draw gets +4.
Step 3: Damage
The character who rolls a higher initiative rolls to hit first. If there is a tie, both characters roll simultaneously. If a hit is scored, roll damage. If your opponent is bloodied by this hit he is stunned and gets -4 to hit.

 

[Wraith Form]

Hmmph. Too bad there aren't guns in 4th ed. I reckon you'll need them, first.

* * Later * * My Hooked on Phonics set is arriving next week. My bad.

 

[BigNash03]

I've also made some rules for the firearms in my campaign, I'll post those in a separate thread.

Yes, I made guns. Thanks though.

 

[DanmarLOK]

Give us a damage range for the guns?

As it stands right now, assuming a normalized damage range for the guns compared to existing weapons, anyone who doesn't focus is assuming average dice on both sides is always going to lose.

Example:

Two warriors 30 hit points.
One elects to go first the other focuses.
Let's assume they roll average rolls on damage and that the pistol is the equivalent of a longbow or 1d10. Also that they hit every time. Fighter b takes focus, fighter a goes first.

After round 1:
Fighter a has 15 hit points
Fighter b has 25 hit points

After round 2:

Fighter a has 0 hit points
Fighter b has 20 hit ponts.

Obviously taking the +10 damage FAR outweighs going first in every single case. Even if fighter a gets a critical he's only doing 10 damage which isn't enough to stun and thus let him shoot again. Add the bonus to accuracy on top of that and focus becomes even greater.

 

[BigNash03]

Revolver
+3 Prof
1d8
10/20 Range
30gp
6 Capacity
3 lb.
Light Firearm
High Critical
Load minor
Dangerous (On a natural 1 this weapon does [W] damage to the wielder.)

 

[DanmarLOK]

I still think you'll need to come up with another way to differentiate the two options. As it stands going first simply isn't an option as it stands. And the higher level the characters are the worse it gets. +10 damage and technically it's higher than that because of the +10% hit bonus which would work out to be +11 damage over the course of the fight and when, by default, initiative is only rolled once and it's still possible for the focus person to win.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to have options here but the system as it stands focus is superior by a long shot. 4.5 damage versus 15.5 average DPR.

 

[BigNash03]

This is only intended to work for the first round of combat. After that a normal initiative order takes over. Perhaps their insight checks would be treated as their initiative for the combat which follows. The Focus/Draw mechanic is only intended to work before the shooting starts. Once a shot is fired, there is no more focusing/drawing.

I could up the damage for focusing in paragon/epic.

 

[DanmarLOK]

Sorry, step 2 made me think that the taking turns would continue throughout the fight.

But the key question is why would you even care if you go first? At best you're going to critical and do 8 damage to the opponent if you hit which doesn't have a chance to bloody any class at level 1 unless they're already wounded.

The other guy has a better chance to hit and his best attack is going to hit for 18 damage assuming a critical and he does have a shot a bloodying the first person which makes the fight even more lopsided due to the -4 and losing his next turn.

For going first to be an option there has to be a way for the person to actually get a benefit from it other than going first. The benefit in this case is for the hit to bloody the person and cause them a -4 to hit and the loss of their next turn because they're stunned. That's impossible with the existing damage of the weapon and the amount of hit points that the classes have.

Just thinking out loud how I'd do a 1 on 1 'showdown' style system perhaps an opposed roll usng bluff, intimidate, insight to get a 'surprise round' standard action for free to the winner.

But the standoff using guns doesn't mesh well with DnD simply because of the damage versus the damage sink. It's impossible for you to die to a single gunshot (or arrow,bolt,magic missle whatever) wound in dnd barring pre-existing damage or bonus damage in some form (+1d6 per + on a critical, or 3[w]+X from a daily etc).

Now if you made some daily level power effect on the guns that multiplied the damage during a showdown by 3 or more then going first would be a viable option.

So to boil that all down, since you can't do anything but damage the opponent by going first and you can kill the opponent by electing to go second and getting the damage boost, going first isn't an option.

 

[Nytmare]

Just spitballing, but what if the damage of the weapons were scaled down, they were kept high crit, and on a crit, the target was considered to be bloody till they healed?

 

[Nytmare]

I didn't mean "high crit" I meant "crits on a 19-20."

Dwarven Firespitter | Superior Ranged | +1 | 1d6 | 5/10 | Load move, critalicious (19-20), grievous

Load Move - You draw and load ammunition as a move action

Critalicious (critastic?) - This weapon crits on an 19-20.

Grievous - When you crit with this weapon, the target is considered bloodied even if it has more hitpoints than its bloodied value.