Hi. Testing combat alone tonight. Wanted to share the Hack hack and get some feedback.
Hi. Testing combat alone tonight. Wanted to share the Hack hack and get some feedback.
When last we left off, I'd wanted to house rule in a different Initiative and try out my damage modification per the other thread. In review: use Troika's initiative system by drawing markers out of a bag blindly indicating action order with a special marker indicating "round ends" and restart. For Damage, I modified damage to include a variant on Ian Wyckoff system where any hit to PCs that would reduce characters to zero or below would instead result in randomized d6 temp stat damage (aka a significant wound; aka like the way Traveller does damage).
Scenario: 1st level party of 3 are attacked in closed quarters by d6 Brigand Party. 3 brigands and 1 boss brigand fighting with short bow.
Surprise round: brigands set range and make a surprise attack. One of the party takes significant bow damage. First round bandits go first, that same character takes immediate damage again, enough to kill them. Instead, we try stat damage of -2 Wis (call it a concussion); another bandit hits the same character again that round and again enough to kill; instead -4 Con.
At this point, we're just into the end of the enemies' initiative on round 1 with what would have been a certain fatality for the party. Before any reasonable expectation of surrender.
That's the first waypoint for where it might have ended. But with new damage system, I continued to press on.
A few more rounds tick over. The party gets a little unlucky on the initiative back but it was a cinematic goldmine. They damage one of the bandits, who withdraws. The other 2 pcs take some damage, including -2 CHA to the Strong character and a few hps amongt them. As they can, they begin to pull back. On their first kill of a bandit the bandits call it off.
All of the fake pcs started with max hps. At the end of the encounter, they are mostly left with 1/2 hp and some stat loss, most significantly that first character that ended up with Con 8>4 and Wis 16>14.
Not sure how healing would work here. I'm thinking that either players could heal hps normally and then stats afterward at 1x a week; or maybe a doctor/med kit would allow a more accelerated stat recovery. who knows.
I tried a second encounter with a large snake like creature and sort of mangled my way through grappling. Should have reread that section of the book first. :)
anyway, sharing.
When last we left off, I'd wanted to house rule in a different Initiative and try out my damage modification per the other thread. In review: use Troika's initiative system by drawing markers out of a bag blindly indicating action order with a special marker indicating "round ends" and restart. For Damage, I modified damage to include a variant on Ian Wyckoff system where any hit to PCs that would reduce characters to zero or below would instead result in randomized d6 temp stat damage (aka a significant wound; aka like the way Traveller does damage).
Scenario: 1st level party of 3 are attacked in closed quarters by d6 Brigand Party. 3 brigands and 1 boss brigand fighting with short bow.
Surprise round: brigands set range and make a surprise attack. One of the party takes significant bow damage. First round bandits go first, that same character takes immediate damage again, enough to kill them. Instead, we try stat damage of -2 Wis (call it a concussion); another bandit hits the same character again that round and again enough to kill; instead -4 Con.
At this point, we're just into the end of the enemies' initiative on round 1 with what would have been a certain fatality for the party. Before any reasonable expectation of surrender.
That's the first waypoint for where it might have ended. But with new damage system, I continued to press on.
A few more rounds tick over. The party gets a little unlucky on the initiative back but it was a cinematic goldmine. They damage one of the bandits, who withdraws. The other 2 pcs take some damage, including -2 CHA to the Strong character and a few hps amongt them. As they can, they begin to pull back. On their first kill of a bandit the bandits call it off.
All of the fake pcs started with max hps. At the end of the encounter, they are mostly left with 1/2 hp and some stat loss, most significantly that first character that ended up with Con 8>4 and Wis 16>14.
Not sure how healing would work here. I'm thinking that either players could heal hps normally and then stats afterward at 1x a week; or maybe a doctor/med kit would allow a more accelerated stat recovery. who knows.
I tried a second encounter with a large snake like creature and sort of mangled my way through grappling. Should have reread that section of the book first. :)
anyway, sharing.
the system as illustrated is broken. needs refinement... currently it doesn't really go to zero. I guess it does if it hits stat loss to nil but with a randomized stat loss that makes it unlikely.
ReplyDeletei "like" the stat loss damage because as a player that's a sacred area and helps to personalize the effects of damage.
Maybe go to zero, and then do stat damage with some sort of Save vs blackout or death?
Round 2
ReplyDeleteBringing the damage more in line with WH, I've moved to replace the existing 'defy' damage 1/combat vs Save > to 'defy' 1/combat vs Save for d6 random Stat damage. It sits in the pocket of WH and gives me some random cringe-worthy rp to bully the players with.
I'm still having trouble with my snake. If I look at Grapple as written, it says (p18 v2) to make a regular 'unarmed attack'. I haven't found a definition for 'unarmed attack' for WH but can infer from similar games. Currently my snake needs to Grapple before it can 'pin' which provides either Constricting damage or the ability to move its prey...
My question is: How would you rework Grapple to make it a bidding contest?