Abstract Positioning System - Less Board, more Book

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I posted an idea on my blog on how to create an abstraction for movement and positions to eliminate the emphasis on the board and still use all the game rules. Of course, you exchange the board for some extra book-keeping, but in some situations (like play-by-post) it's easy to keep notes, but hard to use a board. In others, the board is still inferior to what is "simulated" - aerial, space combat and under-water combat all require 3D movement, and any board-focused rules hurt the "realismn" or believability of the system. So it might be easier to use an even broader abstraction.

Here are some excerpts, see the full details in the blog post linked above.

Encounter Zones consist of several encounter components or hot spots, as I like to call them.
Hot Spots are firstly defined by their relation. You have to define which hot spots are “close” to each other. You could have a “choke point” hot spot, describing a door and two adjacent rooms, and the choke point would be connecting the two rooms.
Each such hot spots also has certain features, like traps or difficult terrain.

A hot spot has a size score. A size score determines how much movement is effectively required to leave the spot, and several other factors.

Each character is assigned a position score. A characters position score can be negative or positive, but the maximum absolute value (e.g. the value without the minus (-) or plus (+) sign) cannot exceed the size score of the hot spot.
Furthermore, each character has a list of other characters he is currently engaged in melee with.

A character may use each square of movement to change his movement score by one. A character with a negative movement score is assumed to be in a suboptimal position.
Pushing a target means that you can increase the position score difference between you and your target, Pulling means you can reduce the score, and sliding allows either.

EXAMPLE Encounter Zone
This encounter zone consists of three rooms, two smaller (A & B) ones adjoining a larger. Each room is described as its own hot spot. (C) There is a secret passageway between the two smaller ones. The larger room has a pit trap and several barricades before it, and is connected to the smaller rooms via two large archways.
The entrance for the PCs is from one of the smaller rooms and contains a table and 4 chairs. The other small room is full of rubble.

Room A (Size Score 6) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room C, with improved cover into Room A. Secret Door to B is opened.)
Positioning Score -6: Exit to Room C (Arrival Score: -6)
Positioning Score 4+: Take cover behind table.
Positioning Score 3+: Use chairs as improvised weapons.
Positioning Score +6: Exit to Room B (Arrival Score: 0)

Room B (Size Score 6) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room C, with improved cover into Room B if Secret Door to A is opened.)
Positioning Score 1 or less: Difficult Terrain
Positioning Score 0: Secret Door (Perception Check) Exit to Room B (Arrival Score: 6)
Positioning Score 6: Exit to Room C (Arrival Score -2)

Room C (Size Score 12) (Fire Zone: With cover into Room A and B, and without penalty into the pit trap)
Positioning Score -12: Special – Change Positioning Score to +0)
Positioning Score -8 tp -11: Fall into Pit Trap (Attack vs Reflex, Falling Damage and knocked prone. Automatic exit to Pit Trap (Positioning Score -2)
Positioning Score -6: Exit to Room A (Arrival Score -6)
Positioning Score -3 or less: Difficult Terrain
Positioning Score -2: Exit to Room B (Arrival Score 6)
Positioning Score 2+: Cover
Positioning Score 8+: Total Cover

Pit Trap (Size Score 2) (Fire Zone: None)
-2: Exit to Room C (Positioning Score -7). Requires Climb Check.
2: Exit to Room C (Positioning Score -12). Requires Climb Check.


This example is not perfect – it might be nicer to split Room C in more hot spots – the pit trap surrounding, the pit-trap, the rubble near room B, and finally the “safe” zone behind the pit trap.

Both the system and the example are mere sketches, and further refinement might be required.

Space Combat might require more fluent "hot spots" - basically define general areas where "stuff happens". In Battlestar Galactica (think of the first regular series episode - 33), one hot spot might be rag tag fleet, one would be galactica and its flak screen, another the dog-fight area, and a further the cylon basestars.

To get from basestar to rag tag fleet (the goal of the cylons), you had to move through the dog-fight, and pass galactica and her flak screen.

So, what are your thoughts?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

apparently, no thoughts...

 

[infax]

Looks good, Mustrum.

One thing got me slightly confused, however, how does pushing and pulling work? It was stated in relation of one character to the other, but positioning seems to be with regards to the room.

I steadfastly dislike the reliance on a board so an alternative that would take into account the several movement-forcing powers of 4e would be very interesting.

Usually I GM with no boards at all and I could have easily dealt with Push, Pulls and Slides if they were unranked, but distinguishing between a Push 3 and a Push 4 without a grid can be quite daunting.

Also, I wonder how hard it would be to use that system with a lot of improvisation.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Looks good, Mustrum.

One thing got me slightly confused, however, how does pushing and pulling work? It was stated in relation of one character to the other, but positioning seems to be with regards to the room.

If you have a positioning score 5, and push an opponent 1 square, his end position must be "further away" from you then before. So if he had the same score, it would be 4 or 6. If he had a position score of 7, he would end up with one of 8. If you pull an opponent, an opponent with a score smaller then yours would increase his score, and one with a score higher then you would decrease its score.

my idea here is that pulling means the opponent needs less movement to get to you (or you need less to get to him), and pushing will increase the distance, so you need more movement.
Of course, there are side effects - pulling a creature with a worse position means its position gets always better in the room, and the same for pushing and good positions, but as an abstraction, such drawbacks are to be expected.

I steadfastly dislike the reliance on a board so an alternative that would take into account the several movement-forcing powers of 4e would be very interesting.

Usually I GM with no boards at all and I could have easily dealt with Push, Pulls and Slides if they were unranked, but distinguishing between a Push 3 and a Push 4 without a grid can be quite daunting.

Exactly - that's what makes it harder.

Also, I wonder how hard it would be to use that system with a lot of improvisation.

Mine or the 4E system? Don't know either, but I assume that the "positional score" system would work relatively fine. Basically it provides you a little help to keep things "consistent"...

 

[infax]

If you have a positioning score 5, and push an opponent 1 square, his end position must be "further away" from you then before. So if he had the same score, it would be 4 or 6. If he had a position score of 7, he would end up with one of 8. If you pull an opponent, an opponent with a score smaller then yours would increase his score, and one with a score higher then you would decrease its score.

Ok. I got what you meant.

In that case, however, doesn't the system brake a bit with rooms that do not resemble corridors? Imagine a large, square room with 4 doors, each set in the middle of one of the walls. Trying to make it as simple as possible, imagine there is a barricade in front of each door and a pit in the center of the room. You could say that each barricade is a positive position and getting closer to the pit is a worse position. If you are close to the north door and an enemy is close to the east door, you can pull him without either one crossing the pit. Doesn't the system have trouble representing that situation?

It seems that if you have a handful of room elements it can be hard to simulate them with the system.

Mine or the 4E system? Don't know either, but I assume that the "positional score" system would work relatively fine. Basically it provides you a little help to keep things "consistent"...

I meant your system, yeah. I would have to try to use it to be sure. I'm still trying to grasp some of the intricacies, however.

I appreciate your stab at the problem anyway. I'm still trying to figure a way.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Ok. I got what you meant.

In that case, however, doesn't the system brake a bit with rooms that do not resemble corridors? Imagine a large, square room with 4 doors, each set in the middle of one of the walls. Trying to make it as simple as possible, imagine there is a barricade in front of each door and a pit in the center of the room. You could say that each barricade is a positive position and getting closer to the pit is a worse position. If you are close to the north door and an enemy is close to the east door, you can pull him without either one crossing the pit. Doesn't the system have trouble representing that situation?

It seems that if you have a handful of room elements it can be hard to simulate them with the system.

Well, you might want to split the room into two or three "hot spots" here. of course, that can lead to problems if you add to many features to your game - too many hot spots, and you're better of using the board again. (Maybe you're always better off using the board. )

The key feature is the level of abstraction. You always lose details when using an abstract system. The question is whether you lose too many?

I meant your system, yeah. I would have to try to use it to be sure. I'm still trying to grasp some of the intricacies, however.

I appreciate your stab at the problem anyway. I'm still trying to figure a way.

It probably needs more work and more testing. The "problem" is I want do that anytime soon, because we have a game board, and I don't want to bog down our games with testing a system that is more or less an "emergency" solution.