Help Wanted - Fans of Combat Mechanics

[Bilharzia]

Yikes. As in it seems like crazy ramblings? Even the example right above? I felt like that flows pretty logically.

What are the skills? How are skills measured? What is a success? How do skills influence success? How does Al win the exchange? What is momentum? How is it measured? How does it affect skills or a skill contest? If Al engages first, why does he attack again immediately afterwards? what determines this? How does Bob parry? What determines this?

Not a single moment has any explanation.

Start with the basic mechanic, explain simply and clearly how that basic mechanic works.

 

[Sam Crow]

What are the skills? How are skills measured? What is a success? How do skills influence success? How does Al win the exchange? What is momentum? How is it measured? How does it affect skills or a skill contest? If Al engages first, why does he attack again immediately afterwards? what determines this? How does Bob parry? What determines this?

Not a single moment has any explanation.

Start with the basic mechanic, explain simply and clearly how that basic mechanic works.

Well I haven’t gotten to that part yet. Let me give each mechanic a shot. I recognize what I’m trying to do is tricky - give an overall explanation of the whole system first without explaining each mechanic. It’s admittedly a brain dump. But if what I’ve already posted is already too clunky imagine what it would look like if I broke down each mechanic in it.

I intend to go item by item. I agree that if I can’t explain each step succinctly and clearly then I oughtta go back to the drawing board.

 

[Sam Crow]

I'm going to echo the critiques espoused thus far: your text is lengthy and rife with jargon. It is exceedingly unfriendly to anyone trying to learn the system. Compare it to a very simplistic description of mechanics:


I'd be even inclined to Strunk and White this down further.


Contrast that with your own text:


I understand what you're saying here (broadly) but it's obtuse and user-unfriendly. You will need to simplify. Example:

I understand. I especially like your addressing the reader directly.

 

[Sam Crow]

Core Mechanic

Description

Every maneuver in combat has its own skill level. That skill level is a combination of factors (to be described later) including the combatant’s physical abilities, his proficiency with the item he’s using, and the characteristics of the item itself.

When engaged in combat, you’re either attacking (that is, engaging or committing to strike) or you’re defending an attack (that is, blocking, evading, or parrying).

When attacking, you flip a number of coins equal to your skill level plus any momentum you’ve gained plus or minus any situational modifiers.

When defending, you flip a number of coins equal to your skill level plus or minus any situational modifiers (defenders do not have momentum).

The winner of the exchange is the one with the most heads. He subtracts the number of heads his opponent got from the number of heads he got. The remaining heads become points that can be used for maneuvers in the following exchange as described in the type of maneuver, below.

The winner of an exchange gets to act first in the next exchange.

Example A

Al engages Bob. Al has a skill level of 10 when engaging with his sword. Al has not gained any momentum so far and there are no situational modifiers. Al flips 10 coins and gets 5 heads.

Bob parries Al. Bob has a skill level of 10 when parrying with his sword. There are no situational modifiers. Bob flips 10 coins and gets 4 heads.

Al has won the exchange and gained one point of momentum while Bob must escape his square to one of Al's choosing. If Al presses his attack in the following exchange, he will flip 11 coins against Bob’s 5.

Example B

In the next exchange, Al continues to engage, trying to build more momentum. He flips his 11 coins and gets 6 heads.

Bob again parries. He flips his 10 coins and gets 7 heads.

Bob has won the exchange by 1 point. If he elects to counterattack, he shifts immediately to offensive posture in the next exchange and attacks with 1 momentum while Al is still in offensive posture and can't parry.

Bob need not counterattack; he can use the point he gained in other ways, such as to recover ardor or avoidance.

Notes

Conceptually, success just means doing something better than your opponent such as engaging better than he evades or parrying better than he engages. The effects of success can be subtle (such as gaining better positon) or dramatic (such as cutting his hand off of his arm) depending upon the circumstances.

Next

Proceed to Beginning Combat or return to the Table of Contents.​

 

[Puddles]

On a quick read, the first thing that jumps out to me is this is a very crunchy system but uses coin flips for its RNG. This strikes me as an interesting choice because I would imagine players that are after crunchy systems would not be the same who also enjoy flipping coins while playing an RPG. Also, flipping 10 coins will take substantially longer than say rolling 10 d6 and counting the dice of 4+, slowing the system down.

Have you considered a card based system instead? There could be a deck that the attacker draws from and a deck the defender draws from - or there could be a single deck and the cards have a top half (used when attacking) and a lower half (used when defending).

All of the little bits you've added like parrying and counter attacking could be cards that are played in sequence. This might recreate the same feeling of fencing and delivering ripostes as players go back and forth playing cards to counter each other's last move before someone lands a blow.

 

[Thomas Shey]

At the very least, you'd probably speed things up by rolling D6 instead of the coinflips, and just counting even/odd.

 

[Sam Crow]

Virtual toss makes it instant. For tactile you can also use those tiny coins colored different on each side. You flip them all at once and it’s easy to see. Or yeah dice are fine but two colors no numbers you could do too. Hadn’t thought about cards. Seems intriguing but different system.

 

[Bilharzia]

Look up the Ubiquity RPG, it uses what you are trying to figure out - a die pool system based on success/failure, or d2 dice. You can use any dice and just count the odds or evens. You can get Ubiquity dice which reduce the number of dice you actually need to throw.

Runeslinger has a number of videos going through the system, this is a big mechanics one:

I am afraid you have spent far too long talking to yourself. I now have a hazy idea of what you are trying to do, which is - in a fight, the opponents slowing build up an abstract resource called "MOMENTUM", this can be used to overcome an opponent's defences. That is one of your mechanics. You have invented a way of slowing down combat to simulate walking through a pool of treacle, and this is just the beginning, there is also "trauma, ardor, and avoidance" ...

Try playing out a combat with someone you know, you might find a way out of this. Look at the Ubiquity system, as it is doing something like you are at least where skills, dice and mechanics are concerned - there are over 100 Ubiquity system books on DTRPG, and many Runeslinger videos about it on youtube.

 

[Sam Crow]

Beginning Combat

Description

There is no need to determine initiative. When you and your opponent choose to fight, you simply declare whether you attack (that is, engage or commit to a strike) or defend (that is, block, evade, or parry), and proceed from there. If you both choose to attack, you do so using your chosen attack maneuver. Whoever wins the exchange is deemed to have successfully attacked and enters offensive posture. Whoever loses is deemed to have unsuccessfully parried and enters defensive posture.

Thereafter, combat is resolved in exchanges; brief, elastic moments lasting from less than a second to several seconds depending upon the circumstances. In any consecutive series of exchanges, whoever has won the preceding exchange gets to act first in the exchange following it.

Should the opponents disengage during the combat - say, to rest - then they reengage per the rules for beginning combat.

Example A

Al and Bob square off, weapons drawn and ready to fight. Al drops into defensive posture, waiting for Bob to make the first move. Bob engages, entering offensive posture. The first exchange begins.

Example B

Al and Bob each declares that he wishes to engage the other. Each flips a number of coins equal to his engagement skill plus or minus any modifiers.

Al flips 10 coins and counts 3 heads. Bob flips 10 coins and counts 5 heads. Their swords clash. Bob has won the initial exchange and therefore is deemed to have successfully engaged Al. Al has lost the initial exchange and is therefore deemed to have unsuccessfully parried Bob. Because Bob has won the initial exchange, he gets to act first in the next exchange.

Example C

Al and Bob mutually disengage when Al ceases pressing the attack and Bob remains in defensive posture. They circle each other for a time, trying to catch their breath. At any point, either may attack the other, in which case the one that doesn't attack assumes a defensive posture. If both attack, they reengage as per Example B.

Notes

As should become clear later, ideas like speed, weapon weight, and other concepts traditionally related to "initiative" are already factored into the relevant skill for each maneuver. Therefore, there's no need to roll it or determine it separately.

In the case of multiple combats occurring (e.g., two or more pairs of fighters engaging each other), the above still applies. Should it become important to determine which pair of combatants starts fighting first, the GM can either simply choose or start with the pair that has the highest ratings in the relevant skill they're using.

Next

Proceed to Attacking - Offensive Posture or return to the Table of Contents.​

 

[Sam Crow]

Look up the Ubiquity RPG, it uses what you are trying to figure out - a die pool system based on success/failure, or d2 dice. You can use any dice and just count the odds or evens. You can get Ubiquity dice which reduce the number of dice you actually need to throw.

Runeslinger has a number of videos going through the system, this is a big mechanics one:

I am afraid you have spent far too long talking to yourself. I now have a hazy idea of what you are trying to do, which is - in a fight, the opponents slowing build up an abstract resource called "MOMENTUM", this can be used to overcome an opponent's defences. That is one of your mechanics. You have invented a way of slowing down combat mechanics, and this is just the beginning, there is also "trauma, ardor, and avoidance" ...

Try playing out a combat with someone you know, you mind find a way out of this. Look at the Ubiquity system, as it is doing something like you are at least where skills, dice and mechanics are concerned - there are over 100 Ubiquity system books on DTRPG, and many Runeslinger videos about it on youtube.

Alright. I’ll check out the video. I don’t have anyone to play test my system with (which is kind of why im here). But I’m gonna keep posting in case someone else comes along in the next few who thinks it might be worth looking into. Failing that I’ll move on.

Edit - regarding “slowing down combat mechanics,” that depends on what you mean. I think the mechanics of the combat will move along very quickly - faster than say, a round of 1v1 combat in D&D. But the combat itself will last much longer because each moment of the combat is dealt with. The combat will tell its own story based on the math with the GM only adding flavor to each exchange.