Having revamped my combat mechanic a few times, I'd like some feedback on this idea.
Over the course of this game players will play as a pirate captain engaging in combat with merchant ships (NPC), Naval ships (NPC), and other pirates (other players and NPC). This is not the whole of the game but a fairly significant part. I want the combat to be relatively quick, easily modifiable (crew and ship upgrades having significance), and intuitive.
There are a wide variety of ships with different attributes from nimble sloops to large Galleons. A pinnace might have a maneuver rating of 5 but a cannon rating of 1 while a galleon might have a maneuver rating of 1 but cannons =6.
Combat uses custom d6s with faces: 3 X, 2 Y, 1 Z (x might be cannonballs, y cannon icon, z skull and crossbones or whatever)
Players will have a hand of multi-use cards that perform different functions/modifications but all of which have a Wind value
When battle is initiated, both players may simultaneously bid one card from their hand and add its wind value to their ships maneuver. They then roll a number of dice equal to their ship's cannon rating and resolve them as follows:
The player with the higher maneuver scores "hits" on Xs
The player with less maneuver scores hits on Zs
If the maneuver value is equal, they both hit on Ys
Hits result in damage.
Of course the players can use their various crew cards and ship upgrades to reroll, modify rolls, etc.
So a slow galleon has a low probability of hitting per die but rolls a lot of dice. It does have a lot of potential firepower if it manages to hit you.
I think this system emulates the feel of the different ships but I'm unsure of how intuitive it is when the thing you're rolling for varies depending on the targets attributes. Sometimes your rolling for skulls whereas in other battles you're rolling for cannon icons, etc. A lot of combat systems have a consistent target roll; hit on 5&6 or hit on a roll greater than some attribute. Is this a valid concern or am I overthinking it?
