Battledice - a skeleton of actions and reactions.

[Pyroaquatic]

Well, I do not know how many posts I have. I watch.... a ghostly observer if you will.

Battle dice

Battle Dice is an incredibly simple system. Watching it being tested some odd time ago and watching the reactions on the players faces was quite amusing.

Here is how it generally goes (and i slap my head at how simple this is):

Players are given 50 health.
Players roll for initiative. Highest number goes first.
Player announces action and rolls a d20.
Targeted player announces reaction and rolls a d20
Action – Reaction = Damage taken by Targeted Player.
A One rolled on a d20 is considered a critical failure and the player that rolls takes d20 damage.
A Twenty rolled on a d20 is considered a critical success and is given 20+d20.
Players cannot use the same Action or Reaction twice in a conflict.
Continue until a player reaches Zero Health.

You may laugh now. We laughed too.

One player summoned the Moon on the first turn. And had two critical successes in one roll, while the targeted player rolled a critical failure.

So the chances of:

A Critical Failure/Success = Success/Success = Failure/Failure  1:400

Similarly...

a Critical Failure/Failure/Failure = Success/Failure/Failure = Success/Success/Failure = Success/Success/Success = 1:8000
....
One can go all of the way down the board. The number of dice is equivalent to the exponent of twenty.

.....
So that is an epic event. I have rules.... additions that obviously have to be included. I have set it down for a bit as much as my dismay.

Additions
A player that wins a conflict is given two Points. A player that loses is given one Point. Players that use interesting narratives in describing actions or reactions are given one point-as long as they are not long winded or contrived. Think graceful.
Players use points to create and modify Pieces called Characters, Objects, and Environments which comprise the Gameworld in its entirety.


The reasons I have added these rules?
Well for one, we had more fun beating each other up. Now the fun is directed towards creating interesting Pieces... then using those to beat each other up.

I would like to have this set in a very nomic way. I also would like for people playing this game to use it as an educational tool.... and possibly set it up like scrabble where players buy letters so they may construct these pieces.

Well, I think I am done for now.

Time to work on it correct? Then more playtesting... and more play testing. Reiner Knizia tests his for nine months? Woo.....

Comments, Suggestions, Charm and Wit are all welcome. Oh, hello and goodbye.

[Christoph Boeckle]

Hi Pyroaquatic and welcome to the Forge

My name's Christoph, how should I call you?

I have a few questions about your game: is it an RPG? If yes, what are the characters likes? What do they do? Where do they do it? Got some more detailed examples taken out of your testing session?

Who hands out the points for interesting narratives?

Cheers

[Vulpinoid]

Reiner Knizia tests his games for nine months because he wants to make sure his designs are good...and in most caess his games have a great replayability factor.

While the offering you have presented is just a case of rolling dice at one another and whoever rolls highest wins. I can't see anything strategic in this, nor do I see a way to replicate a specific environment. It's just rolling dice.

It doesn't even offer a transformation of setting or mechanisms based on the types of weapons being used by the combatants or the types of training the combatants possess.

You said it yourself when you claimed that someone "summoned the moon"...yet exactly the same result could have occurred through die rolling if that same player said "I kick him in the nuts". How do you justify what players can do...or can't do?

Do you even care about this?

If you care...why is it important to your game design and where do you see this taking your game design?

If you don't care...what is reflected in the game world by this? Is it a game in the same style as many "over-the-top" anime series, where characters can do anything and everything, but it really doesn't affect the outside world?

Honestly, I've seen simpler systems than this. Some of those simpler systems actually address these concerns.

Have a look at some of the games produced by some of the people around here, have a look at 1km1kt and download a bunch of free rpgs to see how other people might have addressed the idea of quick gaming solutions.

Some of the designs you see will have been generated on the fly, maybe even created as a part of a 24 hour challenge. A lot of the better designs have had a 9 month gestation period, and many more have been in development for years, as their designed have refined concepts and perfected their mechanisms.

You might have the kernel of a good system here, but lets see what you apply it to, and how it evolves.

...anyway, don't let that put you off...Welcome to the Forge.

V

[Callan S.]

Hi Pyroaquatic,

Was it atleast mildly fun? I think my peers are focusing on the integrity of the fiction, slipping right past whether it was somewhat fun already.

So it was atleast a bit fun? If so, that's a good result! If your looking to make it more fun, why do you think it needs to be?