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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Levitator" data-source="post: 3398518" data-attributes="member: 40099">That actually turned out to be the best side effect of gaming diceless.  We initially tried it to speed up combat, and it definitely does that!  But the best part about it is that the game truly becomes a roleplaying game, where people are using descriptions and those descriptions are the basis for decision, not numbers.To be fair though, we use a relative health system in our game.  We primarily use Maptools as a virtual tabletop, and it has the ability to assign different colored halos to each character token.  Our system is this:Green = healthy (76-100% of total HP)Yellow = Light Battle Fatigue (51-75% of total HP) LBF is -1 STR, -1 DEXOrange = Moderate Battle Fatigue (26-50% of total HP) MBF is -2 STR, -2 DEXReed = Heavy Battle Fatigue (1-25% of total HP) HBF is -4 STR, -4 DEXThe reason I use the term "battle fatigue" is that I created a system to reflect the wear and tear and physical drain of combat.  My players don't like the way that a 100HP fighter fights just as well at 1HP.  So, I created this system to emulate the physical effects of swinging swords and taking nicks and smacks to the ribs in combat.  I put the modifiers at the end of each example of the relative health system.We also use the Opposed Defense Roll variant from the DMG, the Clobbered variant from the DMG, and the Facing variant from UA.  We added these things so that I can give a more vivid description of a gritty and dangerous combat.  That's what my players wanted, and I did my best to give it to them.Take the Opposed Roll Variant.  There's no more foregone conclusion of the high level guy always hitting and the low level guy always missing.  Statistically, the high level guy is still going to come out the same, but at least the lower level guy has a chance for luck to step in and turn the combat around for him.  The other nice thing about the Opposed Roll variant is that a poor swing can still hit (both roll low) and a great swing can still miss (both roll high).  That gives me a lot more options to describe combat in greater detail.The Clobbered variant basically says that if you take at least 50% of your current HP, you can only take a standard action the next round.  What a great addition for a DM in a descriptive sense, but it also makes combat MUCH more tactical.  Going from 60HP to 30HP isn't time to panic, but when that same fighter is down to 8HP it will only take 4HP to clobber him.The Facing variant not only helps me with descriptions, but it gives a lot more tactical options to the players.  We have an engagement rule in place because it seemed that with the UA rules as written, players could essentially "leapfrog" each other to get into flanking positions.  With the Engagement rule, you may engage 1 combatant.  That means that your facing will change to match that combatant if he tries to circle or change your position.  My players have really learned to use that by engaging with an enemy, and circling to give their allies flank and rear attacks.As you can see, we've added several variants to actually ADD "gameability" to our game.  We may play diceless, but I believe our game style is even more "gamelike" than Core, because my players have more options in combat, and their decisions are based on visualization, not numbers.I have no problem with people that have superstitious beliefs about dice.  But those people really shouldn't make judgements about something they've never even tried.  I guarantee that our gameplay style feels every bit as "gamelike" as rolling dice.  I'd even be willing to demo it via online if anyone were willing to give it an honest shot.  All you need is Maptools, which is free and found here <a href="http://rptools.net/doku.php" target="_blank">Maptools</a> and either Skype or GTalk.  If anyone wants to experiment with it, IM me first, as we are using the development version of Maptools and there are several to choose from.  I'll be more than happy to help people learn how to use Maptools.I'm not going to try and convert anyone, because I know that our style of gaming isn't the "be all end all" of gaming to everyone.  And neither is anyone else's style.  But I would at least try their way of gaming first before weighing in on it.I'm already working with 3 other DM's on playing our system, so it may take me a day or so to get back to anyone who wants to give it a go online.  Like my mommy used to say, "don't knock it 'till ya try it"  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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