Battle Pool

[Icel]

Since one is not supposed to resurrect threads that are past page one,  is it okay for me to repost my ideas?
I'll just quete my previous posted on the old thread.

Hey,
I have a rpg system which I'm revising, mainly putting some major thought on the combat system, as the early version concentrated on extensive character building (the system is writen in hebrew, or else I would've linked it).
I got some ideas from a forum I read about this combat system. The general idead is that you have a battle pool, which points you give to 4 combat areas: offense, defense, mobolity and damage. Thats means you can consentrate on attack one round, then go of the defense and so on.

I'm interesting to find if someone did a system with a this idea or a close one.

each of the categories gives a bonus to some combat activities: offense gives +attack, defense +parry/block, mobolity +initiative/dodge, damade +damage ( ;-) ).
At first I thought doing different types of categories: offense, dodge, block and parry, but i changed it after a discution in the forum I mentioned.
Also, some when using some weapons its easyer to put points in some of the categories: its easyer to defend with a stuff, but not so easy with a bow.

Is this a task-resolution system, or conflict-resolution system?

Skiping.

Are the points allotted from the Combat Pool dice that are rolled? static bonuses? range increases? I have very little idea how dice work in this game so far.

They are a bonus to a check.

Lets see...
There isn't a spesific setting. It's build for fanatasy genre with a cenimatic feeling.
There is a GM.

The rolls are generaly:
d10+ modifiers vs. 5 (vs. environment) / d10 (vs. player or npc) + modifiers.
I try to keep dice rolls at the minimum.

Combat roll should be something like:
d10+ attack vs. d10 (or a sttatic 5, don't know yet)+ [mobility/parry/block] dependes on the action.
Combat Pool is agility+weapon skill.
raw damage is STR/2+weapon; If character has "unarmed combat" skill, then weapon is STR+[martial weapons, if there is any].
Attributs are on 1-10 scale.

On the weapons issue, first thanks for the reply.
Each weapon can have a *X, *1/X or - in each category.
e.g. bow will get *1/2 in defense. does one will need to put 2 points for every +1 defense with the bow, while a stuff will have *2 defense so one will only need 1 point for +2 defense.

thats what i can't think of on the top right now.

Thanks for your imput.

[Callan S.]

What do you think is cool about passing a roll (or a small series of rolls)? Is there something that make you go 'oh yeah!' like you may have experienced in play before? Could you give an actual play example of that, to help me keep on track?

[Icel]

What do you think is cool about passing a roll (or a small series of rolls)?

I didn't get that one, can you explain?

Is there something that make you go 'oh yeah!' like you may have experienced in play before?

Well, I enjoy stratigic combat. I once had a "kensai" character which could imbue him weapon if enchantments and he was high level and fought against a whole army- and won! I like this kind of things and I thing that if I had the ability to modify the way my character fought would have bumped the experiance to a different level.
Of course this should work not only in "over the top" battles but in smaller encounters as well.

Could you give an actual play example of that, to help me keep on track?

I'll try altough I don't have the system that defined yet.
Lets say I had this kensai with agility 6 and swords 4, for a battle pool of 10 (about average for starting fighter type characters).
I'm fighting against a footman with agility 4 and swords 3, for a battle pool of 7.

In phase 1 of the battle cycle, we allocate our points.
I take a cautious stance since I don't know my opponent.
PC: offense 2; damage 0; defense 4; mobility 4.

My opponent thinks to take me fast and easy.
Footman: offense 4; damage 0; defense 1; mobility 2.

For simplicitys sake, lets say our swords don't have any limits or advantages at the moment.
Initiative is: 1/2 intellect + mobility + 1d10 (lets take 5 for the moment).
PC: 2+4=6+5=11.
Footman: 2+2+5=9.
I start.

I move to strike, my opponent realize his mistake and abort to change stance.
Thats and big point of this system, and I need to decide how many points you can reallocate once you abort.
When you abort- you can't take offensive actions untill the next cycle begins.
For now lets say one can reallocate =weapon skill of points. For the footman its 3.
His new stance is: offense 1; damage 0; defense 1; mobility 5.
He will try to dodge my attack and get an advantage for the next cycle.

My attack is: offense+1d10 (5)= 7.
Footman dodge is: mobility+1d10 (5)=10.
He dodged. Of course, if we won't take fixed results, I could have hit.

Next cycle, the footman stays with his stance since he aborted and so forfeit his allocation for this cycle.
My allocation is: offense 6; damage 0; defense 1; mobility 3.
We can see that the footman begins this cycle.
He attacks, I dodge.
Footman: 6.
PC: 8. Success!

Next its my turn and I attack=11 he dodge=10. Too bad for him.

And so on...
This obviously needs a lot of work, but that the basics.

[Callan S.]

I didn't get that one, can you explain?

What's the pay off of making rolls? Say I'd never roleplayed before - what the fun thing about doing these rolls/a series of rolls? I mean, you'd say its fun?

Thanks for the example. In terms of strategic or tactical play, I don't see that occuring yet - it's generating numbers and comparing them to each other. Are you interested in tactical choices during combat play, or do you like lots of options before combat begins (as in stance, position, morale, height advantage, weapon quality, etc) and then just rolling it all, seeing how it all comes together? That'd be fun, if that's what your aiming at.

[Hereward The Wake]

This is something, i've been working on too. I'd agree that I don't see much beyond the numbers as yet here, as Callan says.
I've tried many options and none really have proved satisfactory. Your way seems very number intensive and also seems that it would take a fair amount of time, stages to dvelop each combat, fine but seems that it would slow things down.
Stratergy is important, but much of what happens in a combat is tactical, ie what maneuvers you choose, and how these relate based upon fighters skill, and alos how they relate in time to one another. Thi sis from my point which is a long time practictioner of historical combat. Obviously some numbers need to be there, but IMO, the imprtance comes from what actula things you choose to do and whether you can do them before your opponent.

Best
JW

[tyrinian]

Hey,
I have a rpg system which I'm revising, mainly putting some major thought on the combat system, as the early version concentrated on extensive character building (the system is writen in hebrew, or else I would've linked it).
I got some ideas from a forum I read about this combat system. The general idead is that you have a battle pool, which points you give to 4 combat areas: offense, defense, mobolity and damage. Thats means you can consentrate on attack one round, then go of the defense and so on.

I'm interesting to find if someone did a system with a this idea or a close one.

each of the categories gives a bonus to some combat activities: offense gives +attack, defense +parry/block, mobolity +initiative/dodge, damade +damage ( ;-) ).
At first I thought doing different types of categories: offense, dodge, block and parry, but i changed it after a discution in the forum I mentioned.
Also, some when using some weapons its easyer to put points in some of the categories: its easyer to defend with a stuff, but not so easy with a bow.

Did you look at the Fireborn RPG? It uses a comparable system. A number of dice that can be distributed between core attributes each round and with rules of shifting them (=changing stance) from one attribute to another.