|
Post by dstubbs on Mar 23, 2019 0:10:11 GMT
Just a thread to drop my thoughts on how combats work into. Feel free to add your own here too and discuss!
1) Initiative Rolls: we are all quite powerful now, and whilst going round the table keeps things simple it can feel bad if you draw the short straw and get KO’d before your first turn even got round to you. So Initiative Rolls might be worth looking at. Nothing too fancy; everyone picks either Speed it Smarts and rolls a D10, add the two together and you have your score. Super stats roll the appropriate number of extra dice and combine them both. This means that Soeedsters will almost always be going first, but that feels right considering you’re...super fast.
2) Hit Points: so as I understand it your health pool is your Stamina score, which you can increase to 10 and therefore take 10 points of “unsoaked” damage before you drop. “Tanking” is done largely through damage reduction abilities like Armour etc. Which is fine, but as Gestalt proved last night a few judiciously spent power points and an investment in the quite cheap Mega Attack can turn a man into the consistency of chunky salsa. You only need one or two good hits and something falls over. Now, this does make combat quick and dirty and I’m not against that at all. BUUT if you wanted to get beefier consider: HP = Stamina * 1 HP = Super Stamina * 1.5 HP = Mega Stamina * 2 This may also encourage players to burn Stamina for extra actions in combat, which apparently we haven’t seen much of.
All right, I think that’s it for now. GO!
|
|
|
Post by dstubbs on Apr 9, 2019 17:13:41 GMT
Combat: a suggested alternative.
“Wait, what? It’s fine!” Kiiiind of. But Slams are crazy powerful and relegate your Stats to irrelevance because who cares if you can roll an attack score of 8 because of your 10 in Strength when the bad guy opposing you can roll 3 D10 and slam off any of them, rendering your impressive roll immediately useless? It just feels a bit off and doesn’t reward planting all of your points/do into maxing out a stat. So, here is an WNTIRELY ADVISORY PROPOSAL for a possible reworking of combat/skill checks.
IN SHORT: STEP 1) create your D10 dice pool. Super/Mega stats and PPoint (PP) spending function exactly as before.
STEP 2) ROLL! Then, compare your results to the relevant Stat; attacks would roll off Strength/Skill etc, just like before. However, now *all* of your dice are used: for every result that is equal to or less than your Relevant Stat, score a SUCCESS. SLAMS are also a SUCCESS, and the rule of “roll a double = SLAM!” still applies. Now, however, SLAMS *multiply* your SUCCESSES, including themselves. For example, Kaladin attacks a Bad Guy:
-Mega Strength of 7. -Rolls 3D10, scores an 8, 6, 1. -8 is a fail, 6 is a success, 1 is a SLAM success, which doubles total rolled successes. -2S x 2(SLAM multiplier) = 4 -Attack Roll = 4
STEP 3) Defender Step. Defender chooses defence style: Dodge, Shield (if applicable) or Armour (if applicable) and repeats Steps 1 & 2.
STEP 3: Compare Results. If Attacker has scored more SUCCESSES than defender then they win and apply damage as normal (mega attack etc function as they currently do).
STEP 3a: Check for OVERWHELM and DEVESTATED. If the attacker has won, compare the SUCCESSES that they rolled against their opponents chosen defence Stat (if they tried to dodge, it would be Speed for example). If the attackers’ SUCCESSES were 4 higher than the defence Stat, then the defender has been hit with a devastating blow and are OVERWHELMED: the attacker may choose to do one of two things:
-deal an additional 1 point of damage. -choose to WEAKEN the defender. They move at half speed and suffer -2 to all rolls until the end of their next turn.
If the attacker scores REALLY high and manages to beat the defender by 8 or more (possible with PP spent) then the defender is DEVESTATED. Oof! The attacker may choose to do one of two things:
-deal an additional 3 points of damage. -choose to STUN the defender. They lose 2D10 from all dice pools and can no longer move until the end of their next turn. If they were flying / wall crawling etc, this ability is suppressed and will no doubt have unfortunate consequences for them.
END OF ATTACK.
“What does this do and why would I suggest it in the first place?” -It makes Slams a force multiplier that becomes more effective the higher your stats are. Rolling a slam is still good: just one counts as two successes by itself, but where they really get nasty is when you have a solid stat line and a good dice pool to really maximise your success scores. All of that requires cp investment of course, but I feel this system makes that investment feel really potent.
-Slams are no longer an automatic win button, but they’re still haughty desirable.
-Conditions (Weaken and Stun) are now tied to the strength of your attack roll, and are simpler to apply. Stun has been nerfed because frankly I hate anything in any game that just flat out takes your or anyone else’s turn away from them (it’s not fun so why have it?), but it’s still massively potent. You can stack stun effects to remove a defender’s dice pool entirely for a turn, it just takes more effort on the attacker’s behalf to do. Which feels fair. Also, punching a man out of the sky and making crash in a building is now codified into the rules. WINNING.
-I just honestly feel combat will feel more dangerous and involved without over-complicating the system too much. I think it will scale better with higher-level Heroes and Villains too.
Christ. If you made it this far then THANK YOU. Give feedback/tell me to shut it. All appreciated regardless.
|
|
gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
|
Post by gilbo on Apr 9, 2019 20:58:20 GMT
I get where you are coming from but I am not convinced that your proposed system would solve the problem. I am aware that the system is far from perfect and has become worse as the characters have increased in power. I think that the change we recently made (i.e. calculate attack score, you need to equal or beat this to dodge) is a big enough change for now. Having a high stat is beneficial as you directly increase your attack score, and also your chance of getting slams through a 'double' if you have a super stat (i.e. if you had 8 strength and rolled two 8s that would be a slam).
I'm not sure how the proposed system makes having a higher stat more desirable as surely it is just multiplying slams and making them more powerful. Dave will be able to explain it to me.
Anyway, I think I'd rather not make another change so soon after the last (and so late in the game).
However, I totally agree with you about the conditions system needing change. When I wrote it I wanted to try and keep it simple, and wanted to avoid the 'miss a go' mechanic that seemed prevalent in Savage Worlds. Despite this, I still put in the stun rule, so that was a bit stupid. I made all the conditions only last 2 rounds, but in hindsight this also doesn't work as most of the combats only last 2 rounds.
So, my suggestion would be: all conditions only last 1 round. Get rid of stun. Instead, you can't dodge, or you lose one dodge....? What do you reckon?
|
|
|
Post by dstubbs on Apr 9, 2019 22:25:39 GMT
Losing dodges/movements is distance and strong, but doesn’t completely cripple you. I like that.
|
|