Raven Crowking
First Post
I think this system is pretty darn brilliant, myself.
RC
RC
Martial Pool - a New combat mechanic?
- Thread starter Galloglaich
- Start date
Galloglaich
First Post
Thanks Raven, I really appreciate that.
How do you think I can get more people to take a look at it?
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Achan hiArusa
Explorer
Advertise. Its a great idea. When you rewrite it, make the pool the center piece of your book. Put it by itself and tell how its different, the first post really helped sell it. Give an example of play using it. Then introduce everything else afterwards.
Galloglaich
First Post
Lol! Thanks Achan, but no I'm not rewriting it. I do little updates periodically and I may add your critical hit idea as an optional variation on our crit rule if I can fit it in the column, along with our several other optionals which are now put in their own section, or we may just put it on the website. Whats in the Codex has been carefully playtested and balanced etc. any major revisions would be in some future edition, though I don't really foresee any reasons for major changes right now. I do see a lot of opportunity for expansions for martial arts from different parts of the world, for monsters, for weapon and armor supplements etc. and that is the most likely direction we would be going next.
The Martial Pool is a major part of this, and an idea I'm sharing with the RPG community, but it's only one piece of this system which is all linked together harmoniously. The way we use it is very dependent on the Martial Feats for example and the way we do the weapon stats, attack and defense bonuses and etc. It all fits together in a synchronistic web of fighting concepts into an integrated system, which can fit into 3.5.
I'd like to advertise, but I have no budget for that really, I'm already in the hole to pay my layout guy and artist. Not sure where to try to do it either even if I could afford it.
Combat examples are a good idea, I did one which is on our website but I'm going to try to do a few more, maybe this week. Whenever I do I'll post links to this thread.
I think I really have to figure out some guerilla marketing techniques. I'm going to try to get a few reviews done, maybe here and some other websites, that would be a start at least.
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Achan hiArusa
Explorer
Find somebody who writes on rpg.net. I thought about it, but I've never gotten around to it.
Galloglaich
First Post
Yeah eventually somebody who is really plugged in to the RPG world will hopefully find it and like it, I really don't know anybody. I'll probably send it to some staff reviewers on there and here on Enworld now that it's been out for a while and we have fixed some of the small editing issues that remained.
but bottom line I know at best this thing is going to find a tiny niche in the DnD world, realistic combat, even if it's fast and fun, and anything historically based is just not something most DnD players are really in to. And anything in 3.5 is shadowed by 4E now anyway, and the codex isn't a goood fit for 4E.
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Achan hiArusa
Explorer
True, historical simulation has gone the way of the Dodo, we went from describing character classes by literary/historical archetypes (1e/2e) to telling them how they fit in a fantasy world (3e) to a two word description such as Martial Defender (4e).
But, no offense intended, your introductory paragraph basically says that the armor bypass, change in the way that armor and defense is handled, and your martial feats really didn't have that much effect. It was the martial pool that made the difference. Being a scientist, I think it should be pulled out from your system and see if it makes a difference in a standard 3e game or in another type of game with the minimum amount of the other stuff you have in your game to allow it to work. It comes with doing experimental work, two variables squares the amount of work you have to do, three cubes it. Hopefully, I will have a chance sometime to do so.
But, no offense intended, your introductory paragraph basically says that the armor bypass, change in the way that armor and defense is handled, and your martial feats really didn't have that much effect. It was the martial pool that made the difference. Being a scientist, I think it should be pulled out from your system and see if it makes a difference in a standard 3e game or in another type of game with the minimum amount of the other stuff you have in your game to allow it to work. It comes with doing experimental work, two variables squares the amount of work you have to do, three cubes it. Hopefully, I will have a chance sometime to do so.
Galloglaich
First Post
I think that smart game designers such as yourself could very likely come up with many other clever ways to use the M.P. mechanic, which is indeed why I started this thread. However as you yourself pointed out, it’s not that easy to fit anything new into 3.X because of all the cascading effects. I don’t think the MP will work well just dropped into the 3.X as is without any other changes. In the Codex the M.P. mechanic works because of the interplay of attack and defense, and the various combat options you have like bypassing armor and etc., and because of the martial feats.
For example without an active defense you really have no reason to spend dice on anything but attacking. Without a passive defense the system breaks the second one guy runs out of Pool dice before the other guy. Without the automatic counterattack rules there is little reason to ever roll multiple dice on the same attack (it makes more sense to just roll each attack separately.) Without the various feats like counterstroke, steal initiative, miesterhau, winden etc. the guy who won the initiative basically wins the fight because he will always keep attacking, but with those feats the fight becomes unpredictable and strategic... which also dovetails nicely as a replacement for many of the 3.5 combat rules like ‘Full Attack Option’ and "Fighting Defensively.".. arguably the MP works a bit more elegantly. You can forget about all the Dex modifiers and +2 to this and -4 to that and just weigh how many dice you are going to use for attack or defense in your hand. And dole out Attacks of Opportunity the same way.
In other words, I think the MP system in the Codex fits into 3.5 pretty well, but it took some tweaking to get it that way. It's not as easy as just dropping the Martial Pool in, at least not in 3.5. But I understand why you would want to play with the basic idea of the Martial Pool and design your own system around it, I'm a tinkerer myself, which is how I got started trying to make the Codex to begin with more than four years ago! So yeah please do apply your scientific mind to this, and feel free to use it – you officially have my permission, I’ve made Martial Pool rule Open Game Content. Do what you can with it, I’ll be excited to see what you come up with.
G.
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Achan hiArusa
Explorer
Thank you for explaining that. I was a little nervous about commenting, but I would like to see how I can play around with it. My friends and I have talked about it, I just have to keep them from finding ways to abuse it (I basically give it to Dok and say "How would you interpret this?" and then go in the opposite direction ). I do love the shifting attacks and defenses and I want to see how to adapt 4e defenses and a bit of a more low-level type game like RQ (since there don't seem to be any 3PP for that game). And I would like to have somebody on the outside critique it because I sometimes fall too in love with my creations and need someone else to look at it. Thanks.
). I do love the shifting attacks and defenses and I want to see how to adapt 4e defenses and a bit of a more low-level type game like RQ (since there don't seem to be any 3PP for that game). And I would like to have somebody on the outside critique it because I sometimes fall too in love with my creations and need someone else to look at it. Thanks.
Galloglaich
First Post
I had a question for you Achan. Have you ever thought of a good way to improve on the 3.5 surprise rule? I'd like something a bit different, maybe a little more like the old 1E system. Have you ever thought about it?
G.
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