FreakyCheeseMan
2015-08-26, 12:45 PM
I've been working on building a system of my own from the ground up for a while now, and I recently had some inspiration from an unusual source: Hotline Miami. I want to make a game with that sort of wild, fast-paced and desperate improvisation as a staple of gameplay. It's far from finished, but I think I've got a nice skeleton laid out. Lemme know what you think!
The goal here is to create a system where combat is tactically interesting but also very fast, with minimal rules look-up outside of what's on the character sheets. Combat should be very dangerous and offensive-focused, with hard counters and single-turn KOs, so that dropping them before they drop you is the only sane strategy. I want a game where a mage might throw their spellbook at a charging barbarian, because the host of magical power they're sacrificing next turn is less important than not geting an axe in their face this turn.
Small Numbers No long whittling-down of HP, except for rare bosses. Most enemies will be out of the fight after one or two HP. A particularly tank-y PC might get to 10HP if they pushed for it, but for most players, any damage is too much damage.
Typed Action Points Turns are made up of three sorts of action points: Physical, Movement and Thought. Every attack, spell, etc, costs some number of action points. This is meant to encourage people to use all of their resources; phyiscal action points aren't as useful to mages as fighters, but they'll still want to get something out of them, and vice versa.
Active Defenses This is the other side of it. Attacking a passive person will almost always hit. However, you can chose to spend an action point on one of the four active defenses - Dodge, Block, Parry and Counterspell. Doing so will almost always negate the attack, and may have other benefits (a succesful Parry, for instance, causes your enemy to provoke AoO from you.) Action points renew at the end of your turn, rather than beginning, so you'll usually have some points available - but if you spend all your actions defending you'll have nothing left with which to attack, and if you get ganged up on you're screwed.
Hard Counters Constitution equals DR rather than bonus HP, so tough characters will be immune to light attacks. There are other comon ways to get DR or even immunity to specific damage types; this is how armor works. The game is meant to be much less about "Get high numbers" and more about "Find a way to do any damage at all."
Minimal, simplified luck Attack roles are binary - either 0 or 1. There's no BAB and no AC (being proficient with a weapon, or using an active defense, gives you +1.) Advantages such as the opponent being distracted, flanked, prone, unaware, etc, give you +1 each. Damage rolls aren't a thing (sort of, see below.) This is meant to keep the math to a minimum, and keep just enough luck in the mix to make unexpected things happen.
Combat options on additional successes If you have more attack than you need, you get special options on attacks. These include bonus damage, armor bypass, trip and disarm attempts, alternate damage types, etc. Since base damage will often not be enough to get through DR, against particularly tough enemies you'll often need to pile on advantages or work together.
Enforced Carry Weight This is a weird one, but there's a (simplified) system for carry weight. Still working on the specifics. Right now wielded weapons and armor aren't tracked (though you have a strength-based maximum size). The rest you don't have to count pound-by-pound, but there's a point system. Small items fit into packs (like, five potions to a pack that costs one point to carry.) This is intended to force characters to improvise, reward a high strength score for none-face-bashing characters, make people consider their choices in loadout, and avoid the "Wealth = Power" dynamic by having characters be able to carry less than they can afford.
Low-battery, recharging mages Mages don't have maximum limits on spells per day, but they can run out of power very quickly (most mages could easily empty their reserves in a single turn). Recharging takes a few minutes.
Breadth-over-Depth Leveling Leveling up rarely increases direct power. A first-level fighter and a tenth-level fighter making basic attacks against each other will be on pretty even footing. The tenth-level fighter will have more dirty tricks and be able to respond to a wider variety of situations.
Everyone's a Gish Not really, but close. This is for a magic-heavy setting, and an adventurer with no magical ability at all would be like a modern soldier who refused to use gunpowder weapons. Fighters may not have much direct magical power, but they'll often be able to detect, counter and dispel magic in order to level a battlefield. Similarly, mages have learned to expect to have sword swung at their head at least once in a while.
Death farther away from KO This system is meant to drop PCs pretty easily, but it's not meant to be super lethal. The risk in a battle is usually getting incapacitated, not killed outright.
The goal here is to create a system where combat is tactically interesting but also very fast, with minimal rules look-up outside of what's on the character sheets. Combat should be very dangerous and offensive-focused, with hard counters and single-turn KOs, so that dropping them before they drop you is the only sane strategy. I want a game where a mage might throw their spellbook at a charging barbarian, because the host of magical power they're sacrificing next turn is less important than not geting an axe in their face this turn.
Small Numbers No long whittling-down of HP, except for rare bosses. Most enemies will be out of the fight after one or two HP. A particularly tank-y PC might get to 10HP if they pushed for it, but for most players, any damage is too much damage.
Typed Action Points Turns are made up of three sorts of action points: Physical, Movement and Thought. Every attack, spell, etc, costs some number of action points. This is meant to encourage people to use all of their resources; phyiscal action points aren't as useful to mages as fighters, but they'll still want to get something out of them, and vice versa.
Active Defenses This is the other side of it. Attacking a passive person will almost always hit. However, you can chose to spend an action point on one of the four active defenses - Dodge, Block, Parry and Counterspell. Doing so will almost always negate the attack, and may have other benefits (a succesful Parry, for instance, causes your enemy to provoke AoO from you.) Action points renew at the end of your turn, rather than beginning, so you'll usually have some points available - but if you spend all your actions defending you'll have nothing left with which to attack, and if you get ganged up on you're screwed.
Hard Counters Constitution equals DR rather than bonus HP, so tough characters will be immune to light attacks. There are other comon ways to get DR or even immunity to specific damage types; this is how armor works. The game is meant to be much less about "Get high numbers" and more about "Find a way to do any damage at all."
Minimal, simplified luck Attack roles are binary - either 0 or 1. There's no BAB and no AC (being proficient with a weapon, or using an active defense, gives you +1.) Advantages such as the opponent being distracted, flanked, prone, unaware, etc, give you +1 each. Damage rolls aren't a thing (sort of, see below.) This is meant to keep the math to a minimum, and keep just enough luck in the mix to make unexpected things happen.
Combat options on additional successes If you have more attack than you need, you get special options on attacks. These include bonus damage, armor bypass, trip and disarm attempts, alternate damage types, etc. Since base damage will often not be enough to get through DR, against particularly tough enemies you'll often need to pile on advantages or work together.
Enforced Carry Weight This is a weird one, but there's a (simplified) system for carry weight. Still working on the specifics. Right now wielded weapons and armor aren't tracked (though you have a strength-based maximum size). The rest you don't have to count pound-by-pound, but there's a point system. Small items fit into packs (like, five potions to a pack that costs one point to carry.) This is intended to force characters to improvise, reward a high strength score for none-face-bashing characters, make people consider their choices in loadout, and avoid the "Wealth = Power" dynamic by having characters be able to carry less than they can afford.
Low-battery, recharging mages Mages don't have maximum limits on spells per day, but they can run out of power very quickly (most mages could easily empty their reserves in a single turn). Recharging takes a few minutes.
Breadth-over-Depth Leveling Leveling up rarely increases direct power. A first-level fighter and a tenth-level fighter making basic attacks against each other will be on pretty even footing. The tenth-level fighter will have more dirty tricks and be able to respond to a wider variety of situations.
Everyone's a Gish Not really, but close. This is for a magic-heavy setting, and an adventurer with no magical ability at all would be like a modern soldier who refused to use gunpowder weapons. Fighters may not have much direct magical power, but they'll often be able to detect, counter and dispel magic in order to level a battlefield. Similarly, mages have learned to expect to have sword swung at their head at least once in a while.
Death farther away from KO This system is meant to drop PCs pretty easily, but it's not meant to be super lethal. The risk in a battle is usually getting incapacitated, not killed outright.