Wryte
2018-02-27, 06:52 PM
In tomorrow night's session, my players will be aiding the city guard in a raid on a thieves' guild stronghouse. The stronghouse has two entrances on opposite ends, one of which will be taken by the party, and the other by a squad of beefed-up Guards and their sergeant. In order not to slow the game down by having to roll out off-screen combat for two factions of NPCs, I've written up a system for determining how the battle goes with a single opposed roll per round.
Each round that there are members of both factions in the same room as one another, on initiative count 1 I'll call on a player to roll a d20 against me, with the results determined by the difference in the rolled values.
* 0-4: Both sides hold their position. One NPC on the losing side takes 1d8 damage.
* 5-9: Both sides hold their position. One NPC on the losing side takes 2d8 damage, or two NPCs take 1d8 damage.
* 10-14: The losing side back by one room, and may be pursued by the winning side. One NPC on the losing side takes 1d8 damage.
* 15-19: The losing side back by one room, and may be pursued by the winning side. One NPC on the losing side takes 2d8 damage, or two NPCs take 1d8 damage.
Any side that rolls a natural 20 deals 1d8 damage to a member of the other side. Any side that rolls a natural 1 takes 1d8 damage to one member of their side. Whenever a side takes damage, any member that has a limited resource (spell slots, potions, etc.) may expend one to cancel out one of the damage rolls.
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Ideally, this system should result in the guard NPCs having an impact on the combat by chipping hit points and resources off the thieves before the party encounters them, without the guards outshining the party and clearing half the dungeon without them, and without slowing the game down for the party or making me do too much bookkeeping. My main concern is whether 1d8/2d8 damage is going to be too much when the HP values of the NPCs on both sides run between 30-60ish. Secondly, I'm wondering if I should include any kind of modifiers in this system. For example, should I be giving both rolls a bonus to their result equal to the number of NPCs on each side in the fight? Should I change the damage to be based on the number of NPCs on the winning side (ex., instead of 1d8, take xd4 where x = 1/2 the number of NPCs on the winning side, rounded down)? Should sides gain advantage on the d20 roll depending on the terrain, or would that just be complicating things for myself?
Each round that there are members of both factions in the same room as one another, on initiative count 1 I'll call on a player to roll a d20 against me, with the results determined by the difference in the rolled values.
* 0-4: Both sides hold their position. One NPC on the losing side takes 1d8 damage.
* 5-9: Both sides hold their position. One NPC on the losing side takes 2d8 damage, or two NPCs take 1d8 damage.
* 10-14: The losing side back by one room, and may be pursued by the winning side. One NPC on the losing side takes 1d8 damage.
* 15-19: The losing side back by one room, and may be pursued by the winning side. One NPC on the losing side takes 2d8 damage, or two NPCs take 1d8 damage.
Any side that rolls a natural 20 deals 1d8 damage to a member of the other side. Any side that rolls a natural 1 takes 1d8 damage to one member of their side. Whenever a side takes damage, any member that has a limited resource (spell slots, potions, etc.) may expend one to cancel out one of the damage rolls.
____________________________
Ideally, this system should result in the guard NPCs having an impact on the combat by chipping hit points and resources off the thieves before the party encounters them, without the guards outshining the party and clearing half the dungeon without them, and without slowing the game down for the party or making me do too much bookkeeping. My main concern is whether 1d8/2d8 damage is going to be too much when the HP values of the NPCs on both sides run between 30-60ish. Secondly, I'm wondering if I should include any kind of modifiers in this system. For example, should I be giving both rolls a bonus to their result equal to the number of NPCs on each side in the fight? Should I change the damage to be based on the number of NPCs on the winning side (ex., instead of 1d8, take xd4 where x = 1/2 the number of NPCs on the winning side, rounded down)? Should sides gain advantage on the d20 roll depending on the terrain, or would that just be complicating things for myself?