Agent_0042
2012-11-04, 03:31 PM
I'm kitbashing a BES/FATE system for a campaign I'm running in a month or two. Without going into unnecessary detail, the game's regularly going to feature combat between opponents of greatly differing sizes, and I'm working on a combat engine that can handle these disparities. Unfortunately, I've hit a bit of a stumbling block.
The rough idea is that everything has a Scale, indicating the general order of magnitude for how big it is. People are Scale 1, a car would be Scale 2, a building would be Scale 3, and so on. Weapons also have a Scale. Most of the time, you're using a weapon that has the same Scale as you. When you hit a target, and the Scale of your weapon is (at least) the same as the Scale of the target, you deal D&D-style hit point damage, probably with wound penalties. When your weapon has a smaller Scale than the target, instead of dealing damage to the target as a whole, you're hitting appropriately-sized hit locations, each with its own HP pool.
Examples:
A human with a machine gun, a Scale 1 weapon, attacks another human, also Scale 1. When he's hit, the human takes damage from his general HP pool.
The same human with the machine gun is now going after a tank (Scale 2). Since his weapon is a smaller Scale than the target, he's dealing damage individually to human-sized hit locations - left tread, right tread, turret, etc. - each with its own set of HP.
The human pulls out a rocket launcher Scale 2, and takes aim at the tank. Since the Scales match, the rocket deals damage to the tank's overall HP.
If I can get it working, the system has a number of benefits. For one, it's recursive - a Scale 1 fighting a Scale 2 is not much different from a Scale 2 fighting a Scale 3. It handles AoE-attacks nicely - they just have a larger Scale than normal. Conversely, it can also called shots in a similar manner.
The problem I'm having is when someone with a machine gun attacks that tank alongside a friend with a rocket launcher. I can't quite figure out how to reconcile locational HP with overall HP. Any suggestions, Playground?
The rough idea is that everything has a Scale, indicating the general order of magnitude for how big it is. People are Scale 1, a car would be Scale 2, a building would be Scale 3, and so on. Weapons also have a Scale. Most of the time, you're using a weapon that has the same Scale as you. When you hit a target, and the Scale of your weapon is (at least) the same as the Scale of the target, you deal D&D-style hit point damage, probably with wound penalties. When your weapon has a smaller Scale than the target, instead of dealing damage to the target as a whole, you're hitting appropriately-sized hit locations, each with its own HP pool.
Examples:
A human with a machine gun, a Scale 1 weapon, attacks another human, also Scale 1. When he's hit, the human takes damage from his general HP pool.
The same human with the machine gun is now going after a tank (Scale 2). Since his weapon is a smaller Scale than the target, he's dealing damage individually to human-sized hit locations - left tread, right tread, turret, etc. - each with its own set of HP.
The human pulls out a rocket launcher Scale 2, and takes aim at the tank. Since the Scales match, the rocket deals damage to the tank's overall HP.
If I can get it working, the system has a number of benefits. For one, it's recursive - a Scale 1 fighting a Scale 2 is not much different from a Scale 2 fighting a Scale 3. It handles AoE-attacks nicely - they just have a larger Scale than normal. Conversely, it can also called shots in a similar manner.
The problem I'm having is when someone with a machine gun attacks that tank alongside a friend with a rocket launcher. I can't quite figure out how to reconcile locational HP with overall HP. Any suggestions, Playground?