[Power 19] Faux-Fi Horror

[Illetizgerg]

So I've been thinking a little bit about running a non-serious game and what kinds of things I could introduce in order to make the game more fun, and I was thinking about introducing something new into the combat system in order to make it less bland. I was inspired by Regin Smith's idea of having combat stances, and I thought it would be interesting to implement something similar, though less complex.

What I've come up with is a small addition to normal combat based on the tactical wheel of fencing. Although the tactical wheel is often shown as having six, sometimes even seven parts, it can be generalized using four actions. For this game I have named them in such a way that they correspond to ABCD, which is also linked to 1234.

The combat types are....

Attack Oriented or just Attack (A, 1)
Brutal (B, 2)
Contemplative or Considerate (C, 3)
Defensive (D, 4)

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc. This matches the tactical wheel in the sense that a straight attack is beaten by a parry, which is beaten by a feint attack, which is beaten by a counter attack, which is beaten by a straight attack. Essentially, a normal attack can be beaten by defensive tactics. In order to beat defensive tactics you've got to try to deceive your opponents. A careful attack can be beaten by a quick, forceful attack. Lastly, that forceful attack can be beaten by a level-headed straightforward attack.

During each attack made in combat the attacker and defender both pick a style for that individual attack. Each player keeps a d4 on hand for combat, and when they participate in an attack they turn the d4 to their style (either 1, 2, 3, or 4, corresponding to ABCD). They then cup their hand over the die so that other players and the GM can't see it. Once both participants set their dice then they are revealed, and the attack die is rolled.

I've changed around the system so that brackets have sizes, and if an attack is "larger" than the size of the bracket then it is filled. This continues past the first bracket as well, so an attack dealing 11 damage could, for instance, break two brackets of size 5. Bracket do not, however, retain damage.

The sizes of a character's Safety brackets are determined by their armor, however the outcome of the style comparison changes this. If the attacker wins then each bracket's size goes down (I'm thinking by 2), and if the defender wins it goes up (again, thinking maybe by 2).

- Gregory Zitelli

[EdEdEd]

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc.

First off, I like this idea. It's an exciting strategic element that's not a convoluted mess and won't take forever to accomplish. It's also got a built-in Dramatic Reveal, which is awesome. Two questions, though.

Is this a straight victory if you're in the right stance (with attack rolls only mattering if you're in identical or opposing stances), or just a significant bonus to the one side? I suppose either could work, though I think I'd prefer the latter. It might be frustrating to learn you Just Can't Win because you chose to be defensive.

Is there any additional bonus to the stances? It would make your choice even more important than just trying to outguess your opponent. For example, a Brutal attack does a little more damage, a Contemplative attack lets you decide the TYPE of damage (Vitality or Influence), a Defensive attack takes slightly less damage if you fail, and regular Attack is simplest, so it has a slightly higher chance of hitting. Or whatever. It could help you out-guess an opponent by trying to figure out what effect they'd most want to have.

[Illetizgerg]

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc.

First off, I like this idea. It's an exciting strategic element that's not a convoluted mess and won't take forever to accomplish. It's also got a built-in Dramatic Reveal, which is awesome. Two questions, though.

Is this a straight victory if you're in the right stance (with attack rolls only mattering if you're in identical or opposing stances), or just a significant bonus to the one side? I suppose either could work, though I think I'd prefer the latter. It might be frustrating to learn you Just Can't Win because you chose to be defensive.

Is there any additional bonus to the stances? It would make your choice even more important than just trying to outguess your opponent. For example, a Brutal attack does a little more damage, a Contemplative attack lets you decide the TYPE of damage (Vitality or Influence), a Defensive attack takes slightly less damage if you fail, and regular Attack is simplest, so it has a slightly higher chance of hitting. Or whatever. It could help you out-guess an opponent by trying to figure out what effect they'd most want to have.

There is no immediate victory or defeat based on the outcome of the styles, they simply provide benefits/detriments to the attacker/defender. Furthermore, the attacker is always the one doing damage, and the defender is always the one trying to avoid taking damage. Because the chances that one person will have the advantage/disadvantage are very high, I didn't want to make the outcome of combat that random.

I was thinking about giving special effects to each style, but I want to avoid complication at all costs. What I was thinking of is splitting four choices into groups of two, specific (1,2) and (3,4), and giving effects to each group. That way if you knew that your opponent wanted a specific effects (say the one handled by 1 and 2) then you would need to choose between either 4 or 1, which would be in different groups. The final idea is that if you know your opponent's effect then you have two choices, each with different effects.

I like this idea especially because it further develops the strategy of prediction, which is the whole idea behind the four choices. If your opponent likes one effect then you have choices, however if your opponent analyzes your choices they can form more complicated predictions, forcing you to develop more complicated prediction, and it goes on and on.

The idea of having the attacker choose which stat he damages is something I considered, but then the question becomes what effect do those styles have if the defender uses them and wins? There's not exactly an inverse of that since the defender already gets to choose under normal circumstances.

I'm still thinking about it a lot, but the one thing that I'm worried about is complicated effects, because half of the time the result of the comparison is going to effect the game, so it can't be anything that will slow down combat too much.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

Just so people know, I am still in the process of creating this. I have, however, started to go off in a kind of weird direction, so bear with me.

I've become interested in creating a game centered more around old pulp style comics, and less around horror films. There would still be a very large sci-fi influence, however I would prefer that characters survived longer. Specifically, I'm thinking of a game where characters can survive almost indefinitely, and the idea is that your character becomes fleshed out (gains more player-decided traits) as they reach their goals. Alternatively, taking copious amounts of damage results in new player-decided detriments to arise.

This doesn't really fit my setting right now which is why I'm thinking of changing it to pulps, because the heroes always survive. The thing I'm really interesting in is trying to design a system where you attempt to "complete" your character, at which point you can either keep them (without the ability to gain more experience) or retire them and start a new character with added benefits.

- Gregory Zitelli