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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8051228" data-attributes="member: 6777737">I guess my reaction is: What's the goal of the design? What purpose are we serving? What is the resolution mechanic saying about our game design?Obviously, we can talk about the effects. It means combat is going to be perceived as a coin flip to the players, and therefore could be seen as extraordinarily dangerous. If it's roll d20 and beat a target number, that's highly varied. You could mitigate the issue somewhat with a bell-curve distribution, so that the outcome of combat might feel more predictable to the players. Even, then, I think this mechanic heavily discourages the players from engaging in combat because they don't get to make decisions in combat anymore. It's a loss of player agency. In that sense, combat would feel like the last and most desperate gamble.However, I don't think that's necessarily going to make combat be seen as too dangerous to take part in. It also has the effect of making combat very dramatic, because everything happens with one roll. I could see it working if it were a game about ruling a nation contesting with other nations. You could always choose to send in your armies, but doing so would be taking away all your ability to plan and hinging it on a die roll. If the ability to plan, prepare, and shape the outcome of combat, however, then you could use it as a mechanism to model how a king or even a general could fight a war. You can move and position your armies and supplies, choose where you want to fight. With proper planning and strategy, say you could end up in a situation where instead of rolling d6+5 vs d6+5, you're rolling d6+30 vs d6+10.Think about combat in the Dune tabletop game. It's all down to how well you've prepared, how well you've chosen the battle, and what luck you have with the cards and leader you've chosen. I actually think the bid system in Dune might end up being a better gameplay mechanic, although I'm not opposed to the idea of a random element. And combat in Dune is all-or-nothing, and even when you win a ton of troops die. There's no die roll, but you could certainly add one. I don't know if that would be better or not.So, what kind of purpose do we want single die combat to serve? To make combat not take time at the game table? To make combat more dramatic? To eliminate the combat optimization minigame? To reflect that the player characters themselves aren't acting in the combat themselves? And in exchange for what? What else do you want to fill the game with?</blockquote>

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