Sunday, March 31, 2019

OSR: Revised Combat Rules

                                                    by bitrix-studio

Initiative:
- Everybody rolls 1d20+DEX modifier
- Highest Roll go first
- If you tie, the person with Higher DEX goes first

Melee Combat:
- Do not roll vs a Static AC, instead roll 1d20 and a damage dice.
- Your opponent rolls a 1d20 as well, along with their damage dice.
- Both of you should add any attack modifiers to your d20 roll and any damage modifiers to your damage di(c)e, respectively.
- Higher roll wins.  If the attacker wins, they do damage equal to what they rolled on your damage dice.  If the defender wins they take no damage instead.
- Any attack that does max damage (ex: rolling a "4" on a 1d4) does normal damage and causes a Horrible Wound.

Melee Weapons:
- Come in three groups, Quick, Balanced and Powerful
- Quick Weapons:
+ Include such things as daggers, brass knuckles, and anything one-handed or concealable
+ Do 1d6 damage, then add any class based damage modifier, but no STR bonus
- Balanced Weapons:
+ Include anything bigger than a Quick Weapon, but nothing oversized
+ Examples include such things as most swords, some axes, some hammers, most spears
+ Do 1d6+STR damage, then add any class based damage modifier
- Powerful Weapons:
+ Includes the big stuff excluded from the previous categories
+ Examples include: widowmakers, morningstars, flails, bastard swords, big axes and hammers, and anything large and oversized
+ Do 1d8+STR damage, then add any class based damage modifier

Ranged Combat:
- There are two types of Ranged Combat, with weapons that you can evade, and ones you can't
- For Weapons you can:
+ These include things such as slings, atlatls, blowpipes, darts, shuriken, throwing needles, throwing knives, arrows, or etc (Referee's Discretion). 
+ Treat these as melee attacks
- For Weapons you can't:
+ These include things such as guns, missiles, or etc (Referee's Discretion)
+ When using these, they only require a full action to use
+ When one is directed against you, make a saving throw.  Then have the Referee tell you the Range.
> If the Range is Close, then a successful save means you take half damage.  A failed save means you take full damage.
> If the Range is Medium, then a successful save means you take no damage.  A failed save means you take full damage.
> If the Range is Long, then a successful save means you take no damage.  A failed save means you half damage.

Ranged Weapons:

- I explained the Categories above, so I'll just list a few common Ranged Weapons below
- Common Ranged Weapons you can evade:
+ Bow and Arrow 1d6+STR damage
+ Sling 1d4 damage
+ Blowpipe 1 damage (poison sold separately)
- Common Ranged Weapons you cannot evade:
+ Pistol 1d8
+ Long Gun (rifle, shotgun, etc) 2d6
+ Shotgun 3d6 at Close range, 2d6 at Medium range, 1d6 at Long range: if firing shot.  If firing solid slugs, treat as a long gun.

HP and FS:

- Players have two pools of HP
- Enemies only have HP
- HP:
+ Stands for Hit Points
+ The physical integrity of your body
+ If this gets damaged you can take damage to your body
- FS:
+ Stands for Fighting Spirit
+ This is your willpower, magic, and your ability to defend yourself
+ When you take damage to this, all injuries are minor, or the attack misses in the fiction, even if you take FS damage
+ It's like one of those blows in a fight scene where the Hero evades a blow just barely
+ While you have at least 1 point of FS, you cannot receive a Horrible Wound
+ If your FS is extinguished, if there is any leftover damage, it doesn't "roll over" into HP

Armor in a world with no AC:

- Armor has a rating, from +1 to +6
- When defending, instead of rolling damage dice, you can just add your AC to the roll

<note>

The above is my old System, I have decided not to use it.  Now the Armor Rules can be found here.

</note)

Horrible Wounds, and how to acquire them:
- I use Emmy Allen's tables and rules for these.  She came up with it, not me.  Find the tables here.

                                                   by Samuel J. Woolf

6 comments:

  1. I don't understand why the opponent also rolls damage dice if the defender winning the roll simply means they take no damage. What am I missing?

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    Replies
    1. My two reasons. Firstly, the attacker rolls their damage Dice as they attack to save time. Instead of waiting for another roll, it's already there.
      Secondly, it enhances realism, as the more powerful an attack is, the harder it is to defend against. I think that is a self-explanatory concept.

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    2. I understand why we might roll attack and damage dice together—we do it already, for example. But I don't understand why it is written that the defender also rolls damage dice while saying if the defender wins the roll it merely avoids taking damage.

      "Your opponent rolls a 1d20 as well, along with their damage dice."

      "Higher roll wins. If the attacker wins, they do damage equal to what they rolled on your damage dice. If the defender wins they take no damage instead."

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    3. Ohh, okay. I think I understand your question now. Again, it is for two reasons. Reason 1 is that if the defender didn't roll, it might stack the odds in favor of the attacker too much, weakening game balance.

      Reason two is meant to represent the strength or skill of the people fighting. For example, in a fight, generally the stronger person has the advantage, especially if the two opponents are similar in other ways, such as in training or experience or etc. This is meant to show that. So by including it, you can see the relative power of an attack immediately against the relative strength of someone's defense.

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    4. Ohh, so the attack and damage rolls are compared _summed_ between the attacker and defender! That would make sense! We have to try this out now. Thank you for the explanation.

      Delete
  2. I have a question: an attack that does max damage causes a Horrible Wound, but that applies only if you have no FS, right?
    Because if that's not the case a group of three goblins wielding, say, 1d4 daggers are more dangerous than a heavily armored warlord with a greataxe.

    ReplyDelete