The Role Playing Public Radio Forums
General Category => RPGs => : doctorscraps August 27, 2009, 12:18:08 PM
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An excerpt from my blog just recently...Lemme know what you guys think.
So two nights ago, I revisited an old idea back when we were working on an RPG system. You know what one of the biggest pains in the ass for a GM is? Enemies. If you do not have a big grid-map with the little miniatures out on the table, it is really easy to get confused on who's attacking who, where they are, who's got how much health left...It's a hassle! After a while, the GM starts knocking bad guys off so he doesn't have to deal with them anymore and get the game moving again.
So--Two nights ago--Old idea. The Event Situation System-- Take the sort of system you would have for a fighting game...the Player Party has one meter of health, we'll call this the Morale, and the Enemy side, whatever you have over there, has their own meter, called the Event Health. The object of this style of combat is to deplete the other sides meter with whatever abilities you have, which gives you a bonus to your roll versus the over sides defense DC.
My reasoning for wanting to work with such a system is to provide a means of having really outlandish styles of combats or high risk situations without having to draw up a huge catalogue of NPC's and their stats. So with my idea, the Event Type has it's own stats...for instance, taking on a platoon of soldiers would have different stats than escaping a horde of rampaging Rhino's.
I keep thinking "Simplicity" when it comes to coming up with your own RPG's-- But in reality, I think complex is more fun. More to do equals fun to me. Games that are just straight combat endeavors tend to be boring for me. I'm thinking of a game where a player can also go out on his own in conjuction with his party, and...build houses...craft items...go into business for himself...get really drunk...go into politics...and still save the world from nuclear holocaust or demon lords. A game with an alcoholic stat! A porn star prestige class! Being able to wield a little dagger between your toes! Yeah...that'd be awesome...
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In reply to your Moral style of combat there's a game that Ive somewhat recently played that you reminded me of. 'Last Remnant', although an eh game, the combat was interesting. You fight with 'groups' of guys, containing at least 1 leader, and roughly up to 4 other soldiers, and as the game progresses you can use more groups. So anyway, the same is for the enemy too. It made combat interesting for awhile until I learned that with the points earned each round, i could just spam super awesome attacks every round in every battle...
I think your idea is a good one if it's a game that isnt too combat heavy, like D&D or the such. And it would be good if you and your players were in a place that would make mapping out combat hard, liek Denny's! :P
Sooo yeah. Nifty idea. Brings back memories. And reminds me to stop buying JRPG's...
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Savage Worlds has a pretty good system for mass group combat. I can't recall the particulars of the top of my head right now, but I remember liking what I read.
You can also employ a system of averages with mass groups. Working the averages could also expidite combat.
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In ORE games, you can represent a threat with a dice pool and then allow any appropriate action to remove dice from the pool - for example a raging fire could be 8 dice with a few extra traits (awesome x2, gnarlyx1, burning in monsters and other childish things) and then let PCs use their hands + shop to fight it with a fire extinguisher or use brains + out think to get the fault sprinkler system working again. Monsters can't directly attack the fire of course but useful abilities like move heavy objects could be used to smother the flames or an attack power could knock holes in nearby walls to bury the fire or create a firebreak.