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Dungeon crawl combat mechanics.

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Wed, 08/08/2012 - 18:13
zerotheory
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Let's talk combat mechanics.
I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something NEW as far as determining simple combat outcomes.
No matter what I try to think of I can usually put it into one of several categories that I'm sure many of you are familiar with.
There are:

1. You have a str score or some other number that represents the number of dice you roll then count successes. Be it 6 sided dice with skulls and shields on them, or other dice where you count 6s, or 5s and 6s etc. This is a very old mechanic used by many games that I really want to avoid.

2. Tables. You have an attack stat of some sort and the opponent has a defense stat, you compare the 2 numbers on a nifty table and get a number you have to roll above (or below) with some dice. Another old mechanic.

3. An attack stat of some sort that you add to a dice roll. The same is done with defender then compare the numbers to see who is highest, or the defense number could be static and the attacker just has to roll above it with the stat plus dice. The d20 system is like this as well as the old Talisman (haven't played the new one).

Can you come up with any others?

My Idea:
I came up with this idea. Attack stat is from say 1 to 10. It can be upgraded as the game progresses. When you roll
you roll a 1d10 and attempt to roll below your stat. Say your atk stat is 4, You roll a 1d10 and a 1,2,3,4 is a hit, while anything above is a miss.
My questions are, Does it seem clunky to be rolling for a 'low' number? What do you think of this idea? Overdone? It's mostly a abstract variation of number 1 but still different enough I believe.
Please any comments, questions, suggestions welcome!

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Wed, 08/08/2012 - 18:48
#1
MarkKreitler
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Hi/low

Hey ZT,

It's nice to see someone trying to innovate on this topic.

I grew up playing Star Fleet Battles, which rewards low rolls, so your proposal doesn't seem odd to me. That said, people generally like to roll "big" numbers, so there is a bit of cognitive dissonance in "roll low = best result" systems.

All that said, before considering any system, I'd ask what your design goals are. Depending on the needs of your game, you could forgo dice entirely. For example (and ONLY an example -- I'm not suggesting this seriously), you could give players 3 skills: "fight," "bluff," and "luck," and a corresponding resource for each, then simply let them bid when fighting. The three stats have a rock-paper-scissors relationship, so fight beats bluff, bluff beats luck and luck beats fight, but in the case that opponents picked the same skill, the higher bid wins. Now the game is all about psychology and resource management.

So, how do you want your dungeon crawl to feel? Once you answer that, you'll know a lot more about which dice -- or diceless -- mechanics you want to use.

Good luck!

M.

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Wed, 08/08/2012 - 22:35
#2
Evil ColSanders
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"TOMB" by AEG. Players have 3

"TOMB" by AEG. Players have 3 stats: Melee/Skill/Magic. Each of those stats have 3 colors of dice you roll: Red/Green/Blue. They are d10s which have a number of "hit" or blanks on them depending on the color. (Red being the best, having an 80% chance to hit). Monsters just have straight health points but passive abilities like, "can only be hurt with green dice".

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Thu, 08/09/2012 - 01:53
#3
OATS
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Use different dice?

Perhaps when combatants fight they might use different dice. An average combatant can use a d6 while a much stronger combatant can use a d8; having the advantage of possibly rolling higher in a dueling roll off.
You would have quite a range of strength to work with (with a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20).

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Thu, 08/09/2012 - 08:46
#4
kos
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Integrated mechanics

Similar to MarkKreiter's comment, I think that in order to not seem like just a re-hash of any of a dozen combat mechanics already out there, you should be thinking about how the combat integrates with the rest of the game.

If it's player-vs-player then you can have a RPS or bluffing element. You can do the same to some extent with a player-vs-GM, but obviously those mechanics wouldn't work in a player-vs-system game.

Most player-vs-system games out there are just straight luck. Whatever variation on luck that you use (multiple dice, single dice, etc as per the OP) makes little difference if there is no choice involved. You might as well just flip a coin and get on with the part of the game where the players do get to make meaningful choices.

Mechanics in a player-vs-system game that would involve player choice/skill include:
- Memory/Card Counting: Players choose numbered cards to play from their hand. Enemies draw from a separate deck of cards, which is only reshuffled when it is exhausted. Skilful players can count cards to improve their chances as the deck runs out, thus allowing them to make the most of a bad hand.
- Resource Management: Players have a hand of cards/tokens/etc which are useful both in combat and out of combat. Enemy strength is modified by a random roll, which means players have to push their luck to conserve resources (assuming that winning massively gives no greater benefit than winning slightly). Using lots of resources in combat reduces their ability to take out-of-combat actions, and vice versa.

Regards,
kos

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Fri, 08/10/2012 - 16:39
#5
zerotheory
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Details

Thanks for responding!
Maybe it'll help if I give some details.
This design idea i'm working on is a competitive dungeon crawl board game. The players are against one another however they can agree to team up if even temporarily to overcome hard challenges that may lurk within however one could betray the other at any time as it will be open PVP within the dungeon basically. The goal is to get to the center of the map where a random extremly hard creature lurks (perhaps it could be 1 in 5 different outcomes) and the winner or sole survivor of this combat is the winner of the game.
I think I'll have to stick to numbers and dice of some sort as I want there to be a way to progress easily. For example if you happen to loot a magic sword that has to give some sort of bonus to whatever the current stats are.
The end goal I'm looking for is something fun, fast, new. Those 3 are very hard to come up with.
The different colored dice idea is nice but if that's already been done I don't want to steal their shtick.

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