One of the things I’ve realized after playtesting Tales of the Obsidian Idol is that I’m not happy with the BE AGGRESSIVE move, and the way that combat flowed in general. Even doing my best to keep combat dynamic and shifting from my end, I still ended up with many exchanges of PCs just trying to hit the monster with their weapon.
Asking “what exactly are you trying to accomplish with this attack?” was always answered with “I’m trying to kill it.” On misses and partials I would have my monsters/enemies pushing the characters around, fleeing to higher ground, etc. but it still ended up reverting to the traditional RPG “hit it until it’s dead” situation at some point.
Going forward these are my goals when creating the combat system for my game:
GOALS
Avoid grind - players should not be just hacking away at an enemy’s hits. The question “what do you do?” shouldn’t be able to be answered with “I guess I stab it again.”
Completely get rid of the DM having to keep track of the damage an enemy has taken. Especially with multiple foes, I don’t want that paper work. I found even just using my HITS mechanic where every enemy and PC just takes the same non-variable damage per successful attack, that still resulted in my having to stop narrating and erase/scratch out a number and write a new one every time. I’m trying to avoid that like the plague.
Make every move made in combat automatically change the situation. I want to hardcode this into the move to encourage players to do this as the most optimal choice mechanically rather than just flavor being added to the actual goal of whittling down the enemy’s hits.
Keep combat more cinematic/dramatic. In movies, usually the characters fighting don’t take any major physical damage with each exchange. It’s mostly about positioning until someone gets the final strike that kills their enemy. Even with mooks, they usually go down with one hit.
So, this is the version of the move as it currently stands in the game:
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BE AGGRESSIVE
When you unleash a dangerous attack against a threatening foe in mortal combat, describe how and roll +HARD. On an 11+, you HIT them. On a 7-10, you HIT them, but you or an ally suffer the foe’s counterattack. When you HIT them, you may spend one DANGER (or suffer their attack on an 11+) to:
- Put them right where you want them (or keep them where they are)
- Make them release something they hold (You may have to DEFY DANGER to grab it.)
- Distract them long enough for your allies to get away clean
- Create an opening so that an ally can act with ADVANTAGE
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A couple of rules explanations for those not intimately versed in the game:
HITS are how much damage a character can take. A successful attack always inflicts one HIT. PCs have 3-5 HITS, while monsters have 1-10. (More than 5 is quite rare - Ancient Dragons and th like). At zero HITS, you’re defeated.
DANGER is a metacurrency earned by rolling misses or giving into a character’s flaws that can be used for different powers. For those familiar with Fate, they’re basically Fate Points.
The dice mechanic is slightly different, which is why partial successes are from 7-10, and a full success is 11+. That’s all one needs to know for the purposes of this discussion.
So, a few notes about the current move:
THE TRIGGER
One thing I wanted to make sure the move specified was that the attack being used had to be able to damage the foe, thus “dangerous attack”.I wanted the move to only trigger when at least one of the players were in a position to take a HIT, thus “threatening enemy”. This was to assure that the move would trigger when a character made a ranged attack against a foe that was currently threatening an ally. Thus the later “your or an ally suffer the foe’s counterattack” as the result of a partial success.
“Mortal combat” was there to make sure that this move only triggered when at least one of the parties was trying to kill the other. I guess I included this to justify that each exchange was going to result in the taking of a HIT by at least one of the parties involved, but in retrospect I don’t see that as being important. I want my move to trigger anytime a PC is using force directly against an enemy in combat, even if it’s just to run them off or capture them.
THE MOVE OPTIONS
I’m pretty happy with the options listed in the move currently. They’re the kind of things I want to see the PCs trying to accomplish in combat, and for the time being I’m pretty happy with the broad wording of each move. For instance, “Make them release something they hold” could be the hostage they’re using as a shield, the weapon they’re wielding, or the edge of the cliff they’re hanging from.The problem is that I ended up making these options...optional. And expensive. They cost DANGER, which the PCs will want to hoard for their powers and such. Why am I making more difficult for players to do the sort of things I want them to be attempting while encouraging them to focus on just whittling down hits, which is exactly what I don’t want them to be doing?
Oh yeah...30 years of playing games that do that. That’s why.
THE SOLUTION
So here’s what I’m thinking of changing:NPCs will no longer have HITS. They will have, instead, just have DANGER COST (DC). This will just be an abstract notion of how dangerous they are, not just as combatants, but as a force in the world against the PCs. Very meta.
(I might change the name...any ideas are welcome.)
DC is not HITS. You cannot whittle it down. It is the DANGER you must spend in order to slay or defeat a foe. This means I (the DM) don’t have to do any math or write anything during combat. All effects of combat that doesn’t result in the PC not spending DANGER are entirely about positioning, gaining advantage, etc.
So here’s the new version of the move (subject to extensive change):
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BE AGGRESSIVE
When you attack a threatening foe in combat, choose what you’re trying to accomplish from the list below and describe how your actions will make it possible. Roll +HARD. On a 7+, you accomplish the goal, but you or a threatened ally suffers the foe’s counterattack. On an 11+, the foe’s counterattack is avoided.
- Put them right where you want them (or keep them where they are)
- Make them release something they hold (You may have to DEFY DANGER to grab it.)
- Distract them long enough for your allies to get away clean
- Create an opening so that an ally can act with ADVANTAGE
- Pay their DC to slay or otherwise defeat them.
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“Slay or otherwise defeat them” leaves a lot of room for different interpretations of what that means, but it definitely means the foe is no longer a threat for the time being - killed, knocked out, surrendered, sent back to the Void Dimension, etc.
Note that there will be foes with a DC of zero for when you just want to wade through mooks.
CONCLUSION
There. That’s what I’m looking at right now. As far as whether PCs will continue to have HITS or something more fiction-based is a discussion for another time. Right now I’m leaving the “counterattack” nebulous so that I have more leeway in that department.
Looking forward to other people’s opinions!
