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Comments
Right, so, using HP to represent a character's resilience in combat is a good, tried-and-true method. It's simple and pretty intuitive, but some games prove that other methods can work well. The Lord Of The Rings Online, for instance, uses "morale" instead of HP. This means that inspiring speeches and bard songs act as healing, which is a wonderfully thematic approach to it all, and especially ingenious considering LotR's themes of hope and dismissal of despair.
In the medieval German martial art, Kunst des Fechtens, there's actually a factor similar to hit points. This is simply known as "initiative". The balance of initiative decides the fate of the battle; take all of it and you win. Lose all of it and you die. Simple as that. Based on the realistic assumption and true observation that both combatants are going to try and strike at the same time, why not move initiative away from deciding who gets to attack first, and make it the decisive factor of all combat?
For instance, each combatant could have a "base initiative". Both combatants gain and lose initiative in synchronicity with one-another; one point of initiative lost is your adversary's gain. When a combatant's initiative reaches zero, they're dead or injured so much that they can't continue the fight. Some fighting techniques might require a certain amount of initiative be matched or exceeded, others might require initiative expendature and others still might only be triggered under a particular level of initiative.
Since initiative is a completely abstract concept, there needn't be many calculations for weapons or armour; they simply influence initiative.
So, let's say any given combat has 10 points to go around. By default, both combatants start with 5.
One (A) is wearing maille armour, one (B) leather. Perhaps maille gives a +1 bonus to initiative to represent the difficulty of putting oneself in a position to effectively pierce it. Leather armour can be struck as normal, but is somewhat protective. Both armour types might give their wearers some respite on an injury table roll.
So A has 6 points to B's 4. But let's say B has a longer weapon? A has a longsword, but B has a poleaxe, so both combatants are back to 5. And so on and so forth until all the calculations for weapons, armour and skills are done.
With 10 points to go around, it's begging for a d10 system. Both players roll in separate areas at the same time to avoid confusing dice. The number of dice isn't important. Any roll equal to or under a combatant's current initiative level indicates a success. Both combatants tally their successes, and the one with more raises their initiative (and drops their adversary's) by the difference. When one combatant has 10 and the other 0, the loser dies (if a mook) or rolls on the injury table (if elite or a PC).
Thoughts?
Actually, one of the major problems with D&D is how slow and boring the combat can be. Your example only highlights that.
> Part of D&D is indeed its strategy aspect, and it's pretty easy to ignore that and just grabbing weapons you like, but it's a core part of its market. In addition, it all roles down to basic arithmetic. Maybe some halving if you're doing fancy stuff. It does however provide more range for what you can build while still having concrete rules.
Okay, fair enough, if some of the people playing it are in fact playing it for the strategy/tactics aspect. That said, it seems like you've got those people, you've got the role-players, and then you've got the people who are in it for the social gathering aspect.
> Finely-controlled, locked classes. And even more finely controlled classes based on having particular builds of previous classes.
I missed replying to this earlier.
This reminds me about my criticism of D&D's complexity. Not quite the above but something else: There are just so many things to think about and keep track of when I'm making and playing a character.
For character creation:
* HP
* AC
** flat-footed AC
** touch AC
** armor bonuses
* strength
* dexterity
** initiative
** reflex save
* constitution
** fortitude save
* intelligence
** skill points per level
* wisdom
** will save
* charisma
* speed (not to be confused with dexterity)
* attack bonus
** base attack bonus
** weapon-specific attack bonus/penalty
*** sources of bonus/penalty
** damage
** crit range
** crit multiplier
** damage type
** ammo
* alignment
* deity
* possessions
* cash on hand
* magic
** spell slots per day/encounter/etc.
** DCs of spells
** known spells
** prepared spells (if different)
*** if wizard, whether in possession of spellbook and spell component pouch
** domains and powers / specialty and barred schools / etc.
** spell failure chance
** undead turning
* animal companion/familiar/etc.
** basically another list of many of the above stats
* appraise
* balance
* bluff
...
...
...
* tumble
* use magic device
* use rope
* race and class features
* languages
Oh, and when you actually play the character:
* cash on hand
* current HP, temporary HP, nonlethal damage, etc.
* how long spell effects and other item or magical effects last
* temporary ability score penalties, such as from poison
** and how these affect the TONS of derived scores, such as the skill bonuses
* pack weight
* possessions
* whether weapon is ready or not
I've observed that D&D is closer to the simulationism side of things than the simplicity side of things.
> You suuuure? Because in my experience, it's the GM that carries horror. The system is almost immaterial in that respect.
Can you do horror with Risus?
> MadassAlex's "initiative" idea
Hmm, that's definitely something. A device that makes combat so simple that you don't actually play through the fights as much as barely simulate them.
> More than 3 dice types
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/144/6/b/savage_worlds_of_mlp__fim_rpg_by_giftkrieg23-d3cshas.pdf
do it, malk. you know you wanna be wash again.
come on
This only uses and requires d10. Unless you count d100, which is a funny interpretation of 2d10, or d5, which is .5d10.
Can't comment on the other one, though.
More of you ought to learn BESM
Also, this.
I'll get around to finishing reading the BESM 3e book soon. I've read about half of it. As in, "read every word" sort of reading.