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In Search of Flexible Defense Mechanics
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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 9252073" data-attributes="member: 710"><p>The system I am fiddling around with is a bit inspired by some Shadowrun concepts, more specifically 3E. </p><p>3E had a lot of flaws, but what I liked was the combat pool system. You had a combat pool which you could spend from to add dice to attack rolls, to try to dodge an attack, or to help you soak damage. This was a neat little resource management system, and added some interesting choices to the game. Later editions (or at least 4E) removed the combat pool system and replaced active defense with spending one of your actions (which reflexboosted characters had multiple ones of) to actively dodge (using your Gymnastics skill). But I am not a big fan of the Shadowrun initiative with multiple attack phases per round depending on your reflexboosters, and even then, it still it felt like it lost some of its charm.</p><p></p><p>My current idea is that each character has a combat pool that refreshes at the start of combat. Certain actions might allow you to recover some points of your pool, but overall you have to manage your pool over the entire combat.</p><p></p><p>The base difficulty of attacks is mostly defined by the distance (or reach) and vision or cover.</p><p></p><p>Characters have access to two general types of attacks: Setups and Exploits. Setups basically mostly deal normal damage and create "exploitable" conditions, while exploits require the target or attack to have some of those conditions and the attacker must spend a point from their combat pool to execute them. The exploits let you do stuff like ignore some armor, deal more damage, disarm a target, make multiple attacks (double tap, burst fire) or area attacks (blasting on full auto!)</p><p></p><p>The other use of the combat pool is for defensive purposes.</p><p>The most important maybe is dodge.</p><p>If the attacker's result is too low, the hit turns into a miss. If it's better than that, the hit gets turned into a glancing hit (or grazing hit?). On a grazing hit, the weapon's base damage is basically ignored, only the damage bonus from the attacker's result is applied. </p><p></p><p>I wanted to accomplish a few things here</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sopme resource management system that leads to some interesting decisions during combat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some ability to represent an active defense</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leep dice rolling to a minimum since it can be quite time-consuming. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make skill mostly more relevant than the weapon itself (though deadly weapon + high skill still deadliest</li> </ul><p>My current idea is also that dodging applies to all attacks made against you, to create a mechanical incentive to not always focus fire, you want to keep your enemies busy and force them to spend their pool on defense rather than offense. Focus Fire tends to always be more preferable when you need to "stack damage" to defeat an enemy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 9252073, member: 710"] The system I am fiddling around with is a bit inspired by some Shadowrun concepts, more specifically 3E. 3E had a lot of flaws, but what I liked was the combat pool system. You had a combat pool which you could spend from to add dice to attack rolls, to try to dodge an attack, or to help you soak damage. This was a neat little resource management system, and added some interesting choices to the game. Later editions (or at least 4E) removed the combat pool system and replaced active defense with spending one of your actions (which reflexboosted characters had multiple ones of) to actively dodge (using your Gymnastics skill). But I am not a big fan of the Shadowrun initiative with multiple attack phases per round depending on your reflexboosters, and even then, it still it felt like it lost some of its charm. My current idea is that each character has a combat pool that refreshes at the start of combat. Certain actions might allow you to recover some points of your pool, but overall you have to manage your pool over the entire combat. The base difficulty of attacks is mostly defined by the distance (or reach) and vision or cover. Characters have access to two general types of attacks: Setups and Exploits. Setups basically mostly deal normal damage and create "exploitable" conditions, while exploits require the target or attack to have some of those conditions and the attacker must spend a point from their combat pool to execute them. The exploits let you do stuff like ignore some armor, deal more damage, disarm a target, make multiple attacks (double tap, burst fire) or area attacks (blasting on full auto!) The other use of the combat pool is for defensive purposes. The most important maybe is dodge. If the attacker's result is too low, the hit turns into a miss. If it's better than that, the hit gets turned into a glancing hit (or grazing hit?). On a grazing hit, the weapon's base damage is basically ignored, only the damage bonus from the attacker's result is applied. I wanted to accomplish a few things here [LIST] [*]Sopme resource management system that leads to some interesting decisions during combat [*]Some ability to represent an active defense [*]Leep dice rolling to a minimum since it can be quite time-consuming. [*]Make skill mostly more relevant than the weapon itself (though deadly weapon + high skill still deadliest [/LIST] My current idea is also that dodging applies to all attacks made against you, to create a mechanical incentive to not always focus fire, you want to keep your enemies busy and force them to spend their pool on defense rather than offense. Focus Fire tends to always be more preferable when you need to "stack damage" to defeat an enemy. [/QUOTE]
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