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View Full Version : Focus on attack/defense/environment interactions



NichG
2012-04-11, 12:39 AM
I had a thought for a system or sub-system to focus on making martial interactions interesting. My thought is as follows:

Characters have a number of different qualities at various levels (generally fixed based on class levels, or temporarily increased/decreased due to special moves). Generally speaking, these qualities represent certain modalities of attack and defense combined. For instance, a Speed quality would indicate that one character was moving fundamentally faster or slower than another, and that contributes to their ability to attack and defend.

Now, the dangerous part of the design is this: certain differences in qualities cannot be made up for simply by lucky rolls or strong advantage in different qualities. The system would be designed to favor defense, with any attacks that actually land being very damaging. The trick though is that all qualities have certain environmental factors that neutralize them, and this is strictly true. Add to that the ability to stunt to change the environmental conditions, and I think it might be an interesting system.

An example of this would be as follows.

Qualities:

- Speed: A character cannot be hit by direct target attacks made by a character with a lower Speed. Speed is reduced for the purposes of defense by the environment's Mist rating in excess of the character's Sight (can't dodge what you can't see), and by half the environment's Debris rating.
- Prediction: A character with superior Prediction moves in anticipation to a number of attacks per round equal to their Prediction, but their effective Prediction for the rest of the round decreases by one for every such attack they avoid. A character cannot choose to 'save' their Prediction. Prediction is decreased by an environment's Debris rating (constant false attack signals, movement is difficult).
- Deception: A character's defensive Deception is countered offensively by Sight. Effective Deception is lowered by an environment's Light rating, and is increased by an environment's Mist rating.
- Sight: Allows one to hit enemies with Deception, and helps against an environment's Mist.
- Regen: Defense against attacks by rapid regeneration. Negates attacks below a certain lethality level equal to Regen. Reduced by environment's Hostility parameter.

Environmental parameters:

- Mist: This could also be darkness, smoke, or any other environmental parameter that obscures senses. Can be increased by stunting that creates such things - start an oil fire in the chamber, throw a giant rock into a pond, etc.
- Debris: This is clutter and other junk in the environment. Also rough ground and the like. Generally increased by terrain destruction, property damage, etc. Could also be increased by scattering marbles or whatnot.
- Hostility: Extremely hot, cold, etc environments. Vacuum. Radiation.

So anyhow, thats the basic idea. Different characters might have maneuvers that have modifiers (this attack does better against Speed, that one does better against Prediction, etc). I'm not sure how it'd actually play out, if it'd be too rigid (due to the availability of a lot of ultimate defenses) or what. I guess it'd have to be designed so that no one character can get high levels of all qualities, or a quality so high they're impossible to affect.