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A-A
01-09-2002, 08:35 AM
System for my next game.
I'm looking for plenty of combat but keeping the combat very short.

The basic mechanic comes from Matrix Game by Chris Engle www.io.com/~hamster/.

See also Free Kriegspeil page at http://home.freeuk.net/henridecat/
(how can anyone say no to anything created by Prussian General von verdy du Vernois)


Basically the player gives three reasons why something should happen. Reasons
should not be repeated in the same session in the interest of fun and creativity. The
gm assess the likelyhood of the reasons and the player rolls a dice. (It could be a
d6 or whatever you like using)

Azer the hero is searching the black hills which are heavily populated by Orcs.

Encountering an orc scout Azer's player states, I kill the orc because,
1. My extensive training in the art of swordmanship.
2. Its blows will bounce off his steel chain mail armour.
3. This orc will truly fear me as only a hero would walk alone in these hills.

The gm thinks this must likely and says you succeed on any roll but a 1 (d6 being employed)

If a 1 was rolled the gm would roll a d6 and on 6 Azer would be injured. As its only one
pesky orc the gm would allow Azer to kill it on anything but 1 a next round without
any need for more reasons.

Later Azer is ambushed by 20 orcs! Fortunately for Azer his best reasons for
success have been kept in reserve.

First the player argues why Azer is not in surprised,
1. Azer will smell 20 orcs a mile away.
2. the orcs are bound to be overconfident seeing only one man.
3. Azer is always ready for action.

The gm is not terribly convinced, as 1. Azer has wandered for weeks without bathing
himself, he has no experience in tracking; 2. Azer strides around like the hero he is
in fine chain mail. 3. Azer is overconfident, tired and hungry. So the gm says you succeed
only on a 6.

Player gets lucky and rolls a 6 success!

The gm now decides whether to finish this combat quickly (there are other players waiting)
or given its seriousness over many rolls.

Quick version.
Azer is given reasons for victory;
I, Azer the hero, am champion of the four kingdoms of Tel-Groth
My sword is the Sinister Sabre of Menyded.
As I have spotted their ambush I can charge the orcs surprising them.

As all three things are true having been established in character creation.
The gm says thats likely and you can succeed but will need to roll a three or
better for victory.

Roll Possibly outcome a gm might assign.
1 Azer is seriously injured and the battle continues (d6 orcs dead)
2 Light wound for Azer and a six orcs dead but the now he is surrounded.
3 Azer seriously injured but d6+6 are dead and the rest flee
4 After a mighty struggle Azer is successfully with only a couple of light wounds.
5 Just a few scratches, they were only orcs and not very brave
6 Herioc victory, a pile corpses and all orcs in the black hills will fear Azer the hero.

A-A
01-09-2002, 08:40 AM
Other longer version.
Azer will try to gain advantage. Possible strategies, fighting amongst trees, identifying the
and killing the leader. By building arguments, if he succeeds the task of killing all the orcs
becomes easier. If Azer had not spotted the ambush then he would have had a lower
chance of success in the fight with the orcs. In several rounds of combat the gm would
allow him to use variations on previous rounds so long as it stays interesting, for instance,
if he was attacking the orc leader he could use I became champion of the third kingdom
by killing an orc far greater than this.


If Azer the hero had fighting the Mighty Lord Karm or any other major named figure
in the campaign then both the player and gm would have given three reasons and rolled
the dice in opposition.


The system is clearly not one for over-argumentative players and clearly unsuitable for
power gamers. I would like to hear comments and if people are interested I will write and
more and post it or put it on an internet site.

Spiral
01-09-2002, 12:23 PM
This looks good.

The only problem I forsee is that the GM has to assign 6 results to every task undertaken - not always practical.

Perhaps a *gasp* table outlining generic/suggested results? That may alleviate the sometimes daunting task of arbitrating and describing the results of the PC's actions.

As for deciding on the "target number" of a given task, It just might be possible to judge each of the three arguments on a Poor (0)/Adequate(1)/Good(2) scale, each reducing the target from 6 by 0-2 (obviously). So two adequate and one good argument would be a 2+. Failure to come up with all three arguments might count as -1 or 0...

I'll stop rambling and try this out offline. Thanks for the inspiration!:)

A-A
01-10-2002, 03:54 AM
The GM only works out the one result after he sees the die roll. I put in 6 results to show what might have happened in each result.

A few generic tables would certainly be useful as a backup. Dungeon crawls would be a nightmare under this system (there is only so many you can say I burst into the room to catch them by surprise!)

The advantage of the system is that you don't have to work out rules in advance and you can be very flexible.

The disadvantage is that its you have to do a lot more thinking and make a lot decisions. If the players don't like your decisions or feel you are unfair then it became rapidly unworkable.

I have played and run Amber Diceless RPG which was fun but I really want an element of randomness whilst keeping the limited rules and high flexibility aspect.

I used to run Champions but the entire session used to dominate by combat. I hope to have a version of this system which will make combat quick but still dramatic and allow time for the characters to live their secret identities and other roleplaying opportunities