Dodging and Armor

[Menigal]

Hi everyone,
I've been toying around with some ideas I'd originally sketched out for use in a video game and trying to turn them into traditional pen and paper rules.  Naturally, a lot of the mechanics need to be reworked and one I can't quite decide on is how attacking and defending should work.

First, a bit of background on the general rules.  I'm trying to capture an old, pulpy swords and sorcery feel.  In my mind I see this as an evolved boardgame, like a more complex Hero Quest, rather than an evolved wargame like D&D.  I want the action to be fast and fun, but with deep enough rules and enough options to give it a feeling of realism.  To get the latter I'm using a skill-based experience system, where the more a skill is used the better it becomes (x number of valid uses raises a skill 1 point).  Each general weapon type (sword, bow, etc.) is a skill, as is each armor type (light, heavy, whatever).

To keep the system as simple as possible, I'm trying to make everything based on a skill use the skill level as a die roll modifier.  So a Climb skill of 2 would add +2 to a d20 roll, etc.  I see attacking working the same way, adding the weapon skill level to the attack roll, but I can't quite decide how defending should work.  I know I want there to be two aspects, Dodging the attack and Armor absorbing some of the damage from it.

In keeping with the fast and fun concept, I don't want to make players refer to lots of tables or charts.  Everything should be fairly obvious based on the skills involved, but I can't quite get to this.  Lighter armor (or going unarmored) should make Dodging easier, but give less Armor to absorb damage, while heavier armor should lower Dodge and give a higher Armor rating.  I want to keep this skill based, so someone more familiar with a type of armor can get better use out of it.

Here's one system I came up with, but don't really care for (numbers are rough and would probably be changed):
Unarmored skill: gives no Armor bonus, but full skill level to Dodge.
Light armor skill: gives +1 Armor, skill-1 to Dodge.
Medium armor skill: gives +2 Armor, skill-2 to Dodge.
Heavy armor skill: gives +3 Armor, skill-3 to Dodge.
This system doesn't give armor any further damage absorbing potential as skill level rises, which is one thing I'm wary of.  Of course, if weapon damage doesn't rise with skill level this will be less of an issue.

I've toyed around with the idea of competing die pools for weapon type vs. armor type, but that gets a bit too complex and the die pools too large, especially if tied to a high skill level.

Anyone have any suggestions?  I'm not set on any particular method of determining damage, so that's wide open for playing with.  My only real sticking points are keeping it tied to skill levels and keeping it fairly simple.

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi Menigal,
Here's a quick thought.  Could give you what you're looking for.  I think it's best illustrated via example.

Let's take a character with Dodge skill +4 and Armour skill +2. Let's also say that the armour chart looks like this:

Type / Dodge / Armour
None / inf. / 0
Light / 3 / 2
Medium / 2 / 4
Heavy / 1 / 6

The armour worn acts as a cap on the skill.  So, depending on how he suits up, our character now has skills of:

Type / Dodge / Armour
None / +4 / 0
Light / +3 / +2
Medium / +2 / +2
Heavy / +1 / +2

Couple this with a combat system that puts players in a position to choose between dodging and letting the armour take the hit (but not both!), you'll have all kinds of fun on your hands!

Cheers,
Darcy

[Callan S.]

Hi Menigal,

Have you had a read of the following thread? Blended Armor/Agility Mechanics