ideas that need to go away

[OgreBattle]

-you hit automatically, your target then rolls to evade, if they can. This seems like the same result, but since you're not the one rolling it's less a feeling of "god damn I suck" but "god damn this monster's tough!", since it's the monster rolling the die to avoid your hit.

Our system does something like this, although it is still possible to miss (but highly unlikely past level 4 or so - generally only on a natural 1).

echo

What is your system? Is it pretty much your own D&D with all the Stuff That Needs To Go Away, gone away?

[echoVanguard]

What is your system? Is it pretty much your own D&D with all the Stuff That Needs To Go Away, gone away?

There have been some posts about it in the IMOI forum, but long story short, it is a starting-from-scratch tabletop RPG that we've been working on for about six months now. Our design process can be summed up pretty succinctly as follows:

1. Examine a core game concept or system.
2. Collect and analyze all ways this concept or system is currently implemented in all "major player" TTRPG systems, as well as any particularly noteworthy independent implementations. Add at least one "nobody else does it this way" alternative way to implement it.
3. Perform statistical and holistic analysis of all the various ways to implement that concept or system.
4. Select the best fit and integrate it into the global system.

The system is still largely under development, but a couple of common trends have emerged:

- the core of the small-scale combat mechanics are pretty similar to d20. but mixes some of the fixed-damage aspects of Shadowrun and Storyteller with point-based resources and a token-based Wound system. It also includes Luck Points as a player-based narrative control system in the vein of Eberron's Action Points or Shadowrun's Edge, but they can only be used to avert negative outcomes.

- Classes consist of Base Classes and Advanced Classes - all classes are 5 levels in length, similar to the "graduated class progression" rules of d20 modern and 4E. The level system overall has a sharply upward-sloping power curve up until about level 5, at which point the power curve slows considerably.

- The skill system is percentile-based, but incorporates some of the design concepts of Shadowrun's skill math and some of the training granularity from 4E's skill systems, as well as a tiered "threshold" system.

- Techniques and Spells are 'Special Attacks' which are learned individually with prerequisites and function similarly to ToB maneuvers (for Techniques) and Sorcerer spells from 3.X (for spells), but use point costs in a similar fashion to 3.5 Psionics as well as a circular Element system in the form of a five-component RPS model. The magic system also borrows a few concepts from Shadowrun, most notably the global requirement for sustained concentration on spells with effect durations. Lastly, each Technique or Spell has at least 4 discrete use options - for example, any spell can be cast as an Illusion (which has different costs and effects depending on the base spell), and has a different effect when used with or without its Material Component. Non-spell Techniques always include at least one noncombat usage.

- it is set in a strongly-themed specific setting which will begin with one extremely well-fleshed out city and several broad-strokes areas. As players run adventures or campaigns in the "unexplored territories", they can send in accounts of their sessions and the outcomes thereof - if we find them suitably fitting, the next content release for the setting will include the events and characters as permanent setting canon (and writer/playtester credit will be given to the submitters).

The playtest rules are still under heavy development (particularly the Techniques and Spells section, which at last count had roughly 540 discrete usages), but we hope to produce a playtest PDF in the very near future.

echo

[the_taken]

One idea I had for reducing 'misses' was to keep track of separate ACs and their bonuses.

At base AC 10, a roll result of 5 or less was the attacker just sucking. Then their DEX mod, dodge and luck bonuses was added on, and results in that range were the defender being deft or lucky. Then next tier up was the person's armour or tough hide taking the hit. Then the shield bonus was next, then all the misc magical bonuses. The idea was to facilitate certain effects that could still go off from hitting an enemy even if they didn't take any HP damage, such as contact poison or a Monk's stunning fist.

As you can imagine, it was a nightmare in book keeping (especially on the fly), but it did allow me to allocate damage to equipment for once. I actually got the players to repair their armour. Still, the complaints of slow combat got me to drop the idea after the second session of that.

[echoVanguard]

As you can imagine, it was a nightmare in book keeping (especially on the fly), but it did allow me to allocate damage to equipment for once. I actually got the players to repair their armour. Still, the complaints of slow combat got me to drop the idea after the second session of that.

This was a hurdle that took a significant amount of iteration to resolve for us as well, but we were able to get it down to 2 rolls (attacker's to-hit roll and defender's defense roll) and O(n) math complexity (which is about as complex as 3.X's basic combat interactions). By mixing fixed damage values with single-die attack and defense rolls, basic combat rolls are over in about ~5s on average. Advanced combat rolls take about ~15s due to counter actions and element interaction.

echo