Matching narrative and martial exploit tempo

[Blue]

(I'll be using D&D-like terminology, but this isn't for any system in specific.)

Okay, that's an unwieldy title, let me jump into what I'm talking about. For non-magic types of abilities, power levels may not be balanced to do it round after round, but on the flip side doing short-rest or 1/encounter doesn't feel right in the narrative. If it's a skill/talent you can do, why can't it be used all the time?

The thought I'm playing with is not restricting how often these types of abilities can be used, but rather limiting what opportunities are available to be exploited on a give turn.

For example, say a character had exploits that let them trip a foe and stab them on the way down, attack with a big bonus to damage, hamstring them to reduce their speed for several turns, cause a bleeding gash for ongoing damage, or hit and distract so you friend can really get them good.

While not all of them are "the best" at any one time, they are all better than a a ho-hum melee attack that they will replace it. But limiting it via a resource expenditure doesn't make narrative sense, nor not being able to do it again until after a rest or the next encounter. Also it can end up that you move the grind from "I attack...again" to "I attack with exploit X...again".

So what I'm proposing is an "opportunities die". All of these types of exploits are given a number (or numbers for more common ones). At the beginning of each round the opportunity die is rolled, and during that round only exploits that match that number can be used. The roll of the die shows what opportunities are ready to be seized in the next 6 seconds (or however long a turn is).

Narratively this represents what opportunities they see in combat this round that they can take advantage of. It's not every round you catch someone out, or can set up to trip someone. This allows a less-than-every-round but instead of fighting the narrative on "why can't I use this more often", it's instead supporting the narrative for "what can I do now". It would also keep combats more dynamic since you can't always do the same combination in the same order.

I think this may be most easily explained with an example.
Flynn has matches his trip attack to opportunity 1, his disarm to opportunity 3, and his acrobatic move without taking opportunity attacks and attack a new opponent with surprise as opportunity 4. Zhak Silveraxe put his cleave as opportunity 2, his set up friend as 4, and his increased critical range as 2-4.

A new round of combat starts with each battling opponents on different parts of the deck of a ship. The opportunity die is rolled and comes up 2. Flynn's action is first, and he has no exploits on that opportunity, so he can just do is normal attack against the pirate captain. Zhak has two opportunities - set up friend and increased crit. Since Flynn isn't anywhere nearby, he goes for increased critical this round - a chance to go for a vulnerable part. Zhak sinks his axe in deep and drops his foe, but that causes two more pirates and their vicious squiddog to charge him. The pirate captain also wounds Flynn with his cutlass - he's a tough opponent to solo.

Next round starts and the opportunity die is a 4. Flynn, seeing his friend outnumbered, dives from the forecastle, grabs a rope and swings over to his friend, using his acrobatic move w/o opportunity attacks. He does a normal variant attack that you have access to all the time - a shove - and with his surprise is able to hit and knock one pirate over the edge of the ship. Splash. Zhak has two opportunities on a 4 he could do. Increased crit range could do a lot of good, but instead he sets up friend, getting an attack on the squiddog and granting an advantage to the next ally to attack the beast.

New round starts again. Opportunity dies is a 1. Flynn can disarm against the remaining pirate, but he's been set up to hit easily against the squiddog which can't be disarmed. Flynn wounds the squiddog instead of using an exploit. Zhak has no opportunities he can take on a 1, so he just swings and also hurts the squiddog. The pirate captain that Flynn was originally fighting finally makes it over as well, and it turns out he's got an exploit on opportunity 1 - he bellow out curses and threats which make Flynn's knees go weak and seem to invigorate the pirate that they are fighting. Zhak (having saved), ignores his threats as only a dwarf can.

Will Zhak and the wounded and demoralized Flynn overcome the pirates, get captured and sold as slaves in the dreaded Buccaneer Isles, or end up dying in the briny deep with their bones gnawed clean by a squiddog?

So, what do you think? Does this work better than "1 per encounter" while keeping things fresh / chaos-of-combat? Does it give reasonable in-game reasons why you can't use your martial talents every round? How would you improve it?

 

[ccs]

I like this idea

 

[Blue]

One thing I would want to add is that I envision players picking the opportunity numbers for their exploits. So you can get things like "on a 4, we all concentrate on one opponent".

Also of note is that you can have more exploits available to a character without causing option paralysis because it limits what opportunities are available right now, and that knowledge comes up at the beginning of the round so the players (and DM) can be prepared.

 

[Garthanos]

I see many of these exploits as tricks ie "they arent going to fall for that one again any time soon" this puts the maneuver in as an encounter style one (practically speaking).

If you see someone run and put the haft of their spear in the ground and pole vault over you or an ally once its going to be obvious and easy to disrupt subsequently, to give an ancient Celtic flavored move.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Why not just go to a card system?

 

[Neonchameleon]

This has been done to my certain knowledge twice under the broader heading of D&D.

13th Age only gives you opportunites after you roll the attack roll for fighters. On a 15+ one ability may trigger, on an odd number another might. This gives you the sensation of button mashing rather than being a fighter who understands their stuff and goes for it (the big problem with an opportunities dice style mechanic); your opportunities die is little better this way and both make the fighter a lot more fiddly without being much more engaging to play.

The Book of 9 Swords Crusader uses a card for each combat ability. At the start of the fight they shuffle their attacks and draw a couple - and then one a round. If the draw pile would be empty shuffle everything and draw a new starting hand of several cards instead. This works a whole lot better because there's intentionality and planning involved and genuine choices rather than "Take advantage of whatever might work" as well as evening out over the course of the fight.

 

[Blue]

Thoughts on expanding this.

Maybe there is a already existing list of generic exploits that aren't as powerful and/or totally replace your action. Though unless those are also individually numbered we might find "okay, this is the round everyone can find sand on the ground to blind you opponent with" which gets weird.

Maybe a better way is that each opportunity number also has a type of move or ability score associated with it, and improv exploits that favor that are allowed. So if opportunity 1 has "forceful" it's good if you want to shove someone, or bind weapons so neither can attack, or whatever. Opportunity 2 might be "panache", so swashbuckler-y or savvy-based improv exploits are the order of the turn. Same thing if you were using ability scores, for STR or INT or whatever your system uses.

Also, I wasn't thinking "generic" monsters would be doing exploits except the ones specifically associated with their species or race, this would be more for henchmen on up - named NPCs.