This is a test game for a combat system I've been simulating for the past couple days. Each stat combination is roughly comparable in terms of overall strength, moreso than any single-dice-roll-based system I tested.
The other day you got a letter without a sender. It was an odd letter that gave off a light mist as you opened it, but nonetheless had a sort of professional air to it, politely imploring you to participate in some sort of game show. Well, here you are, though not necessarily at will.
One by one, six contestants materialize onto the stage: paragons of virtue, everyday Joes, and curmudgeons from all ranks and all kinds of places. The jeering audience goes wild. A lively announcer fellow in purple-white dress, complete with top hat and a pointing stick that gets twirled every now and then, walks up and everyone down.
"Congratulations! You are the millionth person to be born in your world!" he repeats as each one arrives.
"I welcome you all to what we call... the Real World! Here, simulated beings of all sorts fight for fun and profit, and when you're done we'll return you to your world, of course! Let the games begin!"Combat is turn-based like you'd expect. Everyone rolls initiative at the start of each turn (d100, +5 per point of AGI above 1), attacking in order. You then get two Actions per turn, and can pick any combination.
---Movement---
Move: Move to a location (on the map, if there is one). One move is about 15m. All moves (including Charge, Flee) get cancelled if you get attacked by a melee weapon before your turn is up.
->Charge: You can only charge if the enemy's position was within two Moves, and the max distance you can charge is equal to the default distance times the ratio of your respective AGI stats. If you succeed, you'll be placed in melee range, and can melee for free.
->Flee!: Run in the opposite direction of an enemy. If your AGI is higher than an enemy's, the enemy can never catch you unless you get backed into a corner or retreat into dangerous terrain.
->Sneak: Costs an extra action. Roll d6, and add your INTuition and Cover bonuses minus enemy PERception for each enemy--enemies with enough of a bonus will get PM'ed your location. If you succeed 3+, you become invisible on the map, and you roll d6 every turn to maintain stealth.
You can make other actions during Stealth while remaining hidden, but firing guns or other loud ranged weapons will unstealth you.
---Fighting Actions---
Combat: Costs one action unless using a Light Weapon, but melee is free while charging. Once per turn only.
Hit the Ground: Gives +1 AGI against ranged attacks, but -1 AGI against melee this turn.
Draw: Draw a weapon from your inventory. It is not Ready (i.e. can't be used to parry) until your turn. Light weapons are free to draw.
---INTuition Actions---
Predict: Against NPC's, you can predict what their next actions will be. Roll d6, and add your INTuition minus enemy INTuition.
First Aid: Try to heal a bleeding wound, rolling d6+INT-(Bleed value) and succeeding on a 4+. Can't use Combat Actions or Active Defense in the same turn.
Search. This gives you an extra, private roll to finding a stealthed character within a 3x3 square around you. You roll d6, and if your d6 is higher than the target's roll to maintain stealth, you get notified via PM. INT modifiers apply as usual.
---Misc Actions---
Cut Circulation: Tie a piece of cloth or tourniquet around a limb, cutting off bleeding but making the limb unusuable. No roll required.
Interact: Anything that doesn't fall into the above categories, including using Items.
You get one Combat action per turn. There are 10 basic actions 6 for melee, 4 for ranged:
Melee:
Attack: Attack with your equipped weapons or a natural weapon (Fists have 2 attacks, Kicks have +1 STR and are Heavy). You can target any bodypart.
Assault: Reroll your Attack phase if it misses. You cannot perform Active Defense this turn.
Defend: Reroll your Defense dice if you are wounded this turn. If you block on the first time instead, your leftover dice can inflict wounds! If you block any attacks, you steal your attacker's base initiative die if it's higher. Your moves also don't get cancelled by being attacked in melee if you defend, regardless of success.
Grapple: Instead of doing damage, engage in a wrestling move. Your opponent can't block Wrestling with VIT, and would use STR or TACtics, whichever is lower.
Counter: Similar to Attack, but you must predict what bodypart your opponent attacks, or if your opponent defends. If you call it right, you get to reroll both your attack and the incoming attack on the Defense Phase
Feint: Pretend to Attack a bodypart. If your opponent counters your pretend attack, make a different aimed attack, rerolling if you fail. If this doesn't happen, then you Aim at a random bodypart instead
For each arm grappled, the target loses 1/2 DEX. For each leg grappled, the target loses 1/2 AGI. Also, two-handed weapons cannot be used if one arm is wrestled (unless you have multiple arms!).
There are also natural attacks you can make such as punching, kicking, and tackling. Most of these are regular attacks based on your STR, but attacks based on speed (like Tackling) or legs (like Kicking) will actually use your AGI instead of STR during the Defense phase.
Ranged:
Snap Shot - One Attack. Does not cost an Action. Hits random bodypart(s).
Aimed Fire - One Attack. Target a specific bodypart.
Rapid Fire - Fire multiple Attacks up to the weapon's rate of fire. Hits random bodypart(s).
Take Aim - Instead of attacking, aim at a target and add PER to your DEX if you attack that target. This is called a Precision Attack.
For ranged attacks, firing at Long Range (>30m) confers a -1 to DEX, while firing at Close Range (<3m) confers a +1. Stats can't go negative, so you'll always get at least one hit in.
Note that while you can't parry a bullet without super-reflexes, you can still parry the gun itself by being within close range--consider it the same as pushing a rifle aside or swatting a pistol out of somebody's hands.
TL:DR: You do not need to know exactly how the rolling system works. Just know that your TACtics stat limits how much AGI and VIT you can apply to more than one attack in the same turn, and your DEX, AGI, and/or STR will auto-parry/dodge/block up to FOCus hits in one turn if they'd be higher than what you normally get.
Rolls
Stats in this game don't add directly to your dice, but rather increases the number of d6 rolled, and defensive dice eliminate attacking dice that are less than or equal. Combat consist of two phases: Attack and Defense. During the Attack phase, the attacker rolls a die for each shot (dubbed an Attack), plus DEX additional dice. The target rolls AGI dice plus any given by cover (1 per point of cover), and eliminates as many successful attacker dice as possible.
If the attacker scored any 4's and above, or two 3's, the Defense phase begins. The attacker rolls a total of STR dice (attacker's strength for melee, or weapon-specific strength for ranged) plus any 4+ dice from the last round, which are added and rerolled. The defender rolls a total of VIT dice to defend and proceeds to eliminate with a +1 bonus. Any hits that get through will Wound according to damage rules (see next spoiler), but 3's are only a minor success and a 1 or a 2 is scratch damage/suppression effects.
You can use a different stat instead of VIT, if it makes sense. DEX is a parry, AGI is a dodge, VIT is a block. For elaboration, see the Active Defense spoiler in the Addendum section.
Tactics
While the above rules are valid for 1v1 combat excluding secondary stats, you can only use your full stats on attacks coming from one target, usually the target your character is currently dueling/focusing on. For other attacks, you can only apply as many of your base stats as you have TAC (Tactics), excluding buffs and Cover, which always apply. The extra dice you get against your primary attacker are called Tactical Dice.
Note that if you are unaware of enemy attacks, you can't roll Tactical Dice against them unless you have superhuman reflexes.
Name: (self-explanatory)
Species: (can be anything)
Homeworld: (This decides one of the personalized arenas you might fight in. Can be sci-fi, fantasy, doesn't matter.)
Physical Stats: Everything starts at 1, and you can add 4 points.
DEXterity - (Helps with aiming attacks, both ranged and melee. Also governs parrying.)
AGIlity - (Helps with dodging, and making yourself more difficult to hit.)
STRength - (Helps with melee combat and blocking with a shield. Also governs the max strength of your ranged weapon, for balance reasons.)
VITality - (Protects you from dying, and is there to help when you run out of FOCus.)
Mental Stats: Everything starts at 1, and you can add 4 points.
FOCus - (Helps you actively defend against hits.)
TACtics - (Helps you survive flanking.)
INTuition - (Lets you predict NPC moves and be stealthy.)
PERception - (Allows you to aim attacks for a DEX bonus, and detect stealth.)
Trait: Pick one thing your character is good at. Regeneration, super-reflexes, etc. Subject to buffs/nerfs.
Weapons/Spells/Misc: You can have as many as you like. No, really. You just can't wield more than one per hand. I'll fill in the stats so the final strength of your most powerful weapon is your STR + 2, to keep STR viable as a stat.
The game takes place in rounds, where all six players are thrown into an arena and must fight to the death until one or more dies. The survivors are then cast into a new arena and the roster is refilled from the waitlist. All of this continues until the audience is satisfied, supposedly.
Players (6/6): -NRDL
-Imic
-Mallos
-HEN
-Failbird
-Dickson of the Trinity
Galaxy Express (graveyard): -Gordak Greymane the younger
-Nyr
-Azet
-Haldir
AddendumThis is for extra information and specific rulings. If you have a question about how a certain mechanic works, you can look here. Or you can just ask.
You automatically perform
Active Defense instead of rolling VIT for Defense if you can use one of your other attribute to deflect the blow--think of it as parrying a hit instead of taking it, as an example. This is a table of what you can Actively Defend against with X stat, and what you can't. You can only perform Active Defense against attacks coming from your field of view, and the number of Active Defenses you can make is limited by your FOC (Focus).
REFlex is determined by your TACtics plus your PERception.
| Type of Attack | DEX (Parry) | AGI (Dodge) | STR (Block) |
| Arrows and Bolts | No (unless REF > 5) | Yes | Yes (With Shield) |
| Bullets (Small Caliber) | No (unless REF > 5) | Yes (if in Cover) | Yes (with Shield) |
| Bullets (Rifle Caliber) | No (unless REF > 6) | Yes (if behind solid cover) | No |
| Bullets (Heavy Caliber) | No | Yes (if behind thick cover) | No |
| Beams | No (unless pass INT roll) | No | Yes (With Shield) |
| Slash Attacks | Yes | Yes | Yes (with Shield) |
| Stab Attacks | Yes (with weapon) | Yes | Yes (with Shield) |
| Blunt Attacks | No | Yes | Yes |
Note: The following are wrestling moves.
You can't block Wrestling with VIT. You have to Active Defense.
You can attempt to break out of a grab by using the grabbed part, which rerolls the move.
You could also try something cheeky, like running backwards into the wall to flatten your opponent regardless of the grab.| Type of Attack | DEX (Parry) | AGI (Dodge) | STR (Block) |
| Tripping | Yes | Yes | No |
| Disarm | Yes | No | Yes |
| Holds | Yes | No | No -- Unless VIT > enemy STR |
| Throws | No | Yes | No |
Every die that gets past a Defense roll has a chance to cause a wound:
[6]'s are criticals, usually inflicting two wounds, one major debuff such as a shattered leg, and one heavy bleeding wound. A critical to the head is always at least a knockout, forfeiting the next turn.
[5]'s result in bleeding and a major debuff, such as a broken leg
[4]'s result in bleeding
[3]'s result in minor debuffs, usually to a mental stat. These do not apply to the head, because the head is a smaller target--you need to hit 4+ to wound the head.
[2]'s bounce off without damage.
[1]'s also bounce, but something bad might happen if this is the only one that passed
Bleeding
For each point of Bleed, you perform a VITality roll as if you were just attacked, the STRength of the attack being your Bleed value. If a 4+ gets through, you get Pale. If another +4 gets through, you get Faint, and get -1 to all Mental stats. If another 4+ gets through, you're dead.
If a 3+ gets through, it counts as half a point of progress to the next stage of bleeding out (Slightly Pale, Slightly Faint), but it won't carry over once you move to the next stage.
Bodyparts and Targeting
If you target a random bodypart, roll d6 and check the table below:
[6] - Head. Bleeds 2 on 5+, with Major mental debuffs.
[5] - Upper torso, where the heart and lungs are. Major debuffs affect AGI and STR. A [6] will pierce the heart for a +3 bleed.
[4] - Lower torso. Bleeds 2 on 5+. Minor debuffs.
[3] - A leg. You can only pierce the artery once for an extra Bleed, but debuffs affect AGI considerably.
[2] - An arm. You can only pierce the artery once for an extra Bleed, but debuffs affect AGI considerably. You can't use a broken arm to swing a melee weapon.
[1] - A hand. You can't bleed out from your hand unless it gets blown off, but you need hands to fire ranged weapons.
Aiming at some bodyparts confers a penalty to DEX due to their size:
Head: -2 DEX
Arms/Legs/Hands: -1 DEX
Close Range: Defined as being adjacent one tile. All melee attacks are made at close range, and ranged weapons can be parried as if they were melee weapons.
Mid Range: Defined as 6 tiles or less, and greater than Close range. -1 to DEX for ranged attacks at this distance.
Long Range: Defined as 7 tiles or more. -2 to DEX for ranged attacks at this distance.
Melee Attack: Any attack made with a melee weapon, or by specifying to hit someone with your melee weapon. Use the user's STR as base, plus any bonus from the weapon
Light Weapons and Pistols: Are free to use in Combat, don't cost any actions to draw. Can't Parry heavy weapons.
Heavy Weapons: Treat 3's as 4's when rolled in Combat. Can't Parry light weapons, unless it has a Toughness value (becomes a Shield)
Natural Weapons: Weapons that are part of your body, such as hands, feet, and teeth. You don't have to draw natural weapons for them to be ready, they're just there. You could parry a sword with a natural weapon such as a hand, but your hand will take the wound that it blocked.
Thrown Weapons: The range of this weapon is (DEX+STR)*5m
Toughness: A value given to shields and armor. Each point adds +1 to your active defense.
Cover: Each point of cover grants +1 AGI
AoE blast: An attack that affects everyone on the affected tile plus adjacent tiles. You do not need to roll to aim unless it's a projectile or thrown attack, in which case you roll for everyone in the blast radius, and it centers on a random person hit. If it misses everyone, roll d6 as a regular RtD action.
Author
Topic: Interdimensional Death Arena (Drumroll please...) (Read 11995 times)