[Anima Hunters] P19 + Fighting

[Ben Lehman]

Hey Stefan -- The game is played on a hex map or a square map.  You can totally use your minis.

Right now, weapons have either heft or grace, but of course powers can change that (for instance, Combat Stance will give you +1d6 grace even if you're using a Broadsword.)

Christian -- Thanks for your enthusiasm.

yrs--
--Ben

[StefanDirkLahr]

Cool - so you get to run around on the board nice & visual-like.

I want to follow up on Dave's question from below - How do the Speed dice work, and why are they an exception to every rule?

To me d20s feel kind of unwieldy compared to the rest of the dice pool, but that might just be because i don't use them often. I suppose that is the point here though - they stand out from the crowd.

[Ben Lehman]

Speed dice are special dice that let you act first, but don't actually give you any power, so you're required to abort to use them.

Since, for abort-actions, you have to take from the highest die, and also roll two or more dice, there's an interesting decision here -- do you cash in your highest dice for a speed advantage on the opponent or do you wait around and try to tough it out?

They're cool, though not a core part of the system.

yrs--
--Ben

[StefanDirkLahr]

So, Speed dice stand out on purpose, and can roll high to grab that powerful first action, but you have to burn other dice to actually do a move or attack once you have siezed the moment - sounds cool to me!

So combat goes like this:
We start on the opposite sides of the board, or however based on the higher-level strategy, and then take turns with positioning moves (with most of our combat dice wasted, unless we have ranged weapons) before coming into the big melee. I suppose two ranged-fighters would dance around the board, instead.
We attack each other back and forth - the first attacker has an advantage, but then has to close with his target so that might be fair - losing die after die to "wounds". The first one to run completely out of dice is the loser.
If the monster goes down, then the hunter gets to take their power. If the loser is the PC, do they die or just get some strategy-level setback? 

[Ben Lehman]

So, Speed dice stand out on purpose, and can roll high to grab that powerful first action, but you have to burn other dice to actually do a move or attack once you have siezed the moment - sounds cool to me!

So combat goes like this:
We start on the opposite sides of the board, or however based on the higher-level strategy, and then take turns with positioning moves (with most of our combat dice wasted, unless we have ranged weapons) before coming into the big melee. I suppose two ranged-fighters would dance around the board, instead.
We attack each other back and forth - the first attacker has an advantage, but then has to close with his target so that might be fair - losing die after die to "wounds". The first one to run completely out of dice is the loser.
If the monster goes down, then the hunter gets to take their power. If the loser is the PC, do they die or just get some strategy-level setback? 

I think that's largely the tactics, although maneuvers are really useful in melee, too.  If you look at the situation where we're at melee range with these dice showing

I have:
7C, 6C, 5C, and change

And you have
7A, 4M, 3C, 2A and change

Anima goes before combat, so it's your go.  You could attack me, but I'd just block with my 7C and then unleash on you.  A better option would be for you to step out of my range, maybe three steps back.  Suddenly, all of my bitching big attack dice vanish -- you just took away my target.  Then you can use your 4M to step back into melee range and strike with your 3 vs. my change.  So dodging and weaving is potentially a big part of play.  (Of course, this assumes that I have room to manuever in.)

One last bit -- technically, it isn't necessarily the first one to completely run out of dice.  If the victor is clear at the end of the round, the combat ends.  No need to drag on if I've got 1d20 and 4d10 versus your 1d8.

As for the higher level stuff, it's still somewhat half baked.  My thought right now is that your character dies.  For the remainder of the hunt (a series of fights and interludes), you play additional antagonists, perhaps even getting rewards for gacking hunters.  After the hunt concludes, you have the option of either making a totally new character, or migrating your Anima Soul (what gives you your powers) into a new body -- so you get slightly different base numbers but you get to keep all your powers.

yrs--
--Ben

[StefanDirkLahr]

The fighting tactics sound good - i had forgotten/misread about the order of the dice.

What do you gain by messing about with the Anima Soul & body-rebuild rather than just taking a beating and gettign back up after the monster has slipped away - Is it sort of a check, in case your stats are really screwed up, and need resetting?

[Ben Lehman]

The fighting tactics sound good - i had forgotten/misread about the order of the dice.

What do you gain by messing about with the Anima Soul & body-rebuild rather than just taking a beating and gettign back up after the monster has slipped away - Is it sort of a check, in case your stats are really screwed up, and need resetting?

I like the symmetry of:
Monster gets whammied -> Monster dies
Hunter gets whammied -> Hunter dies

I also like the idea of moving through several characters in a game, for stat-checking and other purposes.  It hits the player with some sense of loss without incapacitating him.  And gives the GM the old-school satisfaction of administering serious murderation on the PCs.  I always kind of found "oh, you're okay, you just fall down and wake up later" solutions to character death kinda lame.

Oh, and hey, I changed a rule, just now.  Thinking about how lame the end of the fight is going to be, especially if people get down to only red dice, the rule is now "when your last anima die becomes a wound, you die."

yrs--
--Ben

[Selene Tan]

Hey Ben, Anima Hunters sounds really cool! I like your answers to the P19. I haven't gotten around to really reading and digesting the mechanics you have up yet.

In any case, I have a question: is Vampire Hunter D one of your influences? Because Anima Hunters makes me think of it. Also, the original Vampire Hunter D novels are being translated into English. If you haven't read them, I think you should. They're really neat.

[Ben Lehman]

Hey Ben, Anima Hunters sounds really cool! I like your answers to the P19. I haven't gotten around to really reading and digesting the mechanics you have up yet.

In any case, I have a question: is Vampire Hunter D one of your influences? Because Anima Hunters makes me think of it. Also, the original Vampire Hunter D novels are being translated into English. If you haven't read them, I think you should. They're really neat.

D is pretty much a big influence on everything I do, 'cause I watched that movie about 80 times when I was 13.  I haven't seen it since then, so I have no idea how well it would stand up against the test of time.

The major influences on the game, though, are D&D and Final Fantasy 8, with a definite splash of Sorcerer's combat.  Also, the bits in the old epics (Gilgamesh, Beowulf, etc.) where the protagonist goes out to kill monsters for no other reason that to go out and kill monsters.

yrs--
--Ben

[StefanDirkLahr]

Ben:

Have you thought about positioning (on the tactical board) yet? All that fun stuff with attack & movement arcs has to be worked out! ;)

I've been using this as my default assumption: Movement is directional, with doubled costs to move sideways or reverse; Facing changes cost 1 per side; Ranged Attacks are front arc (on hexmap) only; Melee Attacks are unidirectional, but change facing (for free) toward the target model when commisioned.

I'm probably overthinking it, though!

[Ben Lehman]

Ben:

Have you thought about positioning (on the tactical board) yet? All that fun stuff with attack & movement arcs has to be worked out! ;)

I've been using this as my default assumption: Movement is directional, with doubled costs to move sideways or reverse; Facing changes cost 1 per side; Ranged Attacks are front arc (on hexmap) only; Melee Attacks are unidirectional, but change facing (for free) toward the target model when commisioned.

I'm probably overthinking it, though!

Oh!

Here's my rule: Don't bother tracking facing.  When you start a move or attack, you can rotate your mini any direction you want, and when you end your move or attack, you can rotate it again.  It doesn't actually mean anything, though.

I'm not convinced about the utility of facing rules in general.  For, say, a tank combat game, it gives a "tankish" feeling to actually have to drive around, but for people and creatures I just don't care that much.

yrs--
--Ben

[Ben Lehman]

Filip Luszczyk playtested the game!  His playtest got split off into it's own thread in the Actual Play forum.  Discussion and questions about the rules should go in this thread, discussion about Filip's playtest should go in the other thread.  If you playtest (and please do!) please post your own thread in Actual Play.

yrs--
--Ben

[Filip Luszczyk]

Some additional thoughts:

d6's as weapon dice do not seem to make too big a change. It's 6 maximum, and those d6 rarely made any difference in abort attacks, since you count only your highest die anyway. d4's are practically useless in comparison with other dice I think (although it's only problem broadsword right now). What about making weapon dice rolls open ended? Then, maybe some powers that would allow open ended bare-handed damage.

As for the damage mechanics, I have some idea. One guard dice for every character, that is not rolled with the rest during the round. Every character would start with guard points equal to the maximum on guard dice. Damage would be subtracted from guard points before applying it to the dice. Then, at the beginning of a round everyone rolls his guard dice and adds as many guard points to the result (it is impossible to have more guard points than the maximum on guard dice). This could soften the "first hit spiral" a bit.

I like the idea of "respawning" your character.

I like the symmetry of:
Monster gets whammied -> Monster dies
Hunter gets whammied -> Hunter dies

This does not appeal to me at all - it's a game about hunters, not monsters, right?

"Respawning" after being brought down is deffinitely a good idea. If you have an option of getting back to the game with another hunter with the same abilities, you could just as well come back with the same person.

The idea of transmitting your soul to a different body is fine, yet it requires you to change the image of your hunter. What about simply reforming a new body from the spiritual power of your Anima Soul?

One more thing came to my mind - what about character transformations, Magical Girl-style, that allow hunter to take his "battle form"? Could be interesting visually and thematically ;)