Request Children of Gaia(RPG development)

[Dragnar]

While I do have an unfinished RPG lying around - the Alchemy Engine, posted here a few months back and currently awaiting final playtesting, finding someone to commission for cover art, and typesetting - most of the work remaining on it is going to take time. Time that's largely out of my hands, leaving me kinda twidling my thumbs here! So, I've decided to work on a somewhat smaller system in the meanwhile. And this one, I'm going to go about creating somewhat differently.


Specifically, I'll be doing all development publicly, here in this thread. Not to say every last thing I write for it will be posted here, I do need scratch paper after all - but I'm curious how it will go, having my through processes accessible for people to pick apart from day 1 of the project, and I suspect there are people around here who would be quite interested to see how the game design process works. (Or, how it works for me anyway. Nobody can quite seem to agree on a single 'correct' process or ordering for this sort of thing.)


It's way too late to post much right now, but I thought I'd make the thread before heading to bed, to force myself to get cracking on the game tomorrow if nothing else. Expect a first update within 24 hours, containing all my initial brainstorming for this project!

 

[Dragnar]

Right, so, time to get started: Today's goal, getting some initial questions out of the way/organize my thoughts a bit. I have thought about this a bit, but only enough to figure out where I'm starting here - actual planning starts here. Nothing complex right now or anything, just starting to get things straight in my head.


Theme/Feel/etc


Before any mechanics or anything, theme needs to be solidly decided on - ignoring this until there's a shell of a system ready will just result in everything feeling dull and flat, because the mechanics of the game don't reinforce it's primary themes - or worse yet, work against them. Starting out with just some bullet points to organize my thoughts:

• Realism vs Fantasy
  Existing somewhere at the intersection of gritty reality and anime combat, this is a game where getting hit once might very well be lethal, and will severely hinder you until treated - but at the same time, getting hit should be a rarity, as the players are the best of the best, trained at this and with a dozen different tricks to keep themselves alive. The stakes are high and loss is always a looming possibility, but with tactics and cunning clear-cut decisive victories are always possible.
  

• Scope
  This isn't going to be a game about saving the world, or political intrigue - it's a game about extraordinary people fighting for survival in a hostile world.
  
• The world is epic in scale, and the cities from which the characters hail are fantastic, but there is simply no way for individuals to change the scope of history when humanity is barely scraping by. Instead, victories are smaller in scale, incremental improvements in standards of living and growing fame and respect from those around you - heroes certainly, without whom things would be very different. But on a local scale instead of a global.
  

[*]Themes

• Struggle for survival
  
• Extraordinary heroes rising to even more extraordinary odds
  
• Cunning vs strength
  
• Awe-inspiring enemies
  

Setting


The one part that's actually somewhat planned already, as the title of the thread might imply. "Children of Gaia" is the name of a setting I wrote a while back and never did much with - but with a bit of tweaking and fixing, it's perfect for this. Again, just using bullet points to highlight important things right now.

• Somewhat Monster Hunter inspired, but attempting to be far more internally consistent, with a real history and reasons for why everything is the way it is.
  
• Humans are one of the, if not the, weakest species on the planet naturally - magic/tech doesn't 'correct' this gap either, no weapons exist that can make the task of taking down larger creatures anything approaching easy.
  
• To survive in such a hostile world, humans paradoxically live in the shadow of the most powerful, titanic creatures of all. These Titans are so massive as to not even notice them, and no other monsters dare come near - thus, the most dangerous things there are, are also the only safe place for humanity to live.
  
• While the titans provide safe zones, there is a limit to how much they provide. Farming is difficult in most places, and there are no domesticated animals - so, to obtain food and resources beyond what little can be scavenged from the land, Hunters are needed. An immensely dangerous job, even with the full weight of human civilization (such as it is) behind it... But essential, to protect the rare outposts of man outside reach of the titans. The mines and farms and that cannot be moved at a whim, and without which people would be doomed.
  

 

[Grey]

I am monitoring this thread.

 

[Dragnar]

Right, so, several distractions (*coughShadowrunReturnscough*) later, back to work: Today's goal, figuring out a basic framing of how gameplay will work - since this is a pretty specific system, for playing a single sort of character in a single setting, the entire thing will be revolving around this one mode of play. Namely, fighting giant monsters. (and possibly some infrastructure surrounding that... Will elaborate there later.)


Core mechanics

• There is the obvious question of what core resolution mechanic to use, but in this case I think it's somewhat secondary. Specifically, because in this case I don't think I want much randomness in the game, especially in combat. It's supposed to be tactics and planning that wins the day - while I might end up changing my mind on this one, I think it makes more sense for random failure chances to be rare, with most of combat relying more on attempting to predict the GM's actions and figuring out the enemy's abilities than anything else.
  
• That said, some sort of basic resolution system for non-combat conflicts does need to exist - outside any other subsystems that might need elaborated on later (I can think of a few off the top of my head, but currently unknown what should and shouldn't fit within the scope of the game) there is still the need for something more akin to skill checks and the like. Simple, quick, and unlikely to come up in any major way commonly, but it is needed. I personally love the distribution fudge dice create for this sort of thing, but exact details will need to wait until I know what stats a character actually has to roll against.
  

Character progression


There are effectively three basic methods of handling character progression in an RPG. Each one gives a very different feel to the game's arc over a long campaign, and changes how groups approach creating established characters as opposed to ones who are relatively new.

• XP systems and similar: Whether discrete (Levels) or continuous (Directly spend XP), the most common system in tabletop RPGs is for characters to accumulate some sort of resource that corresponds to increased power/skill/etc as the game is played. This tends to encourage metagaming to some extent, as the players always know exactly what new capabilities they plan to pick up, far before they've had time to develop them in-character.
  
• None. Probably the second most common - if characters don't level up in a system, it's probably a decent bet that they simply remain static for the most part, absent perhaps getting more consumable items and the like. This also applies, somewhat, to some parts of FATE-derived systems, primarily with replacing or gaining new Aspects as the game goes on. Typically though, most common in games with shorter running times, with characters not really expected to change much in capability.
  
• Infrastructure-based advancement: Instead of characters themselves growing more powerful, their gear does, their networks of allies/informants do, etc. I don't think I can name any systems where this is the main method of progression, but it's a secondary one in plenty of them - be it Cyberware in Shadowrun, plain old magic gear in D&D, or just a natural result of a politically-focused game. Unfortunately this tends to be a balance issue in a lot of cases, as it's divorced from the primary method of advancement and thus left up to the GM to try and make sure they don't get wildly ahead/behind the other characters and their more easily-controlled progression.
  
• I think for this, my preference is probably the third sort - but with a bit of a variation over how I described it above. I'm starting to piece together how I picture a game of this going, and characters are meant to be heavily trained from the start, past the point of easy improvements in skill. Instead growth comes in one of a few ways: Greater tactical skill, which the /players/ will pick up with time anyway. Greater knowledge of the creatures they face, which may be mechanically represented, or may just be the GM giving out extra info. And last, their supporting infrastructure, the tools and traps and all the other people it takes to outfit a hunting party properly. The more I think about it, the more I'm liking the idea of getting players invested in the place they're protecting by making it their primary source of extra toys, with everything they do for it being immediately and clearly visible as they build it up into something to be proud of... And of course, there's also the fact that it makes them much more personally involved in any surprise attacks and disasters the GM throws their way.
  

Other random pondering

• Without randomness, most games would fall a bit flat - D&D 4th edition comes closest to the sort of tactical planning-based play I'd want here in my experience, but it's a rather different focus. I'll probably want to look into some alternative sources of inspiration. Probably war games.
  
• A large part of good tactical combat comes down to the map. And that's even more true in a setting where environmental traps and lures will be even more important, as the monsters greatly outclass the PCs. For this reason, I intend to leave designing the map upon which the encounter happens (Which I normally like to abstract away, but an exact tile map works better here) partially to the players. In fact, it'll be the first phase of every fight.
  

 

[Grey]

I suggest looking into Malifaux's card-based tactical combat.

 

[Dragnar]

Malifaux eh? Huh, never heard of that one, and I've got quite a library of semi-obscure games lying around. Will definitely take a look! Card-based systems are always interesting, no two of them really do things quite the same.


Editing to avoid pointless double-post: After all that brainstorming before, I'm getting a much clearer picture of what I want with this game. And with that general picture in mind, next goal is... Well, more book-keeping than anything else, but I'm much more productive when organized. So, today's first project is arranging a decent master list of Things That Need Done to have a complete system. First draft:

1. Representation of player characters. (And human NPCs, by extension)
   
   
2. Multiple different 'classes' - each representing a different role in monster hunting. Probably no set-in-stone differences between them, more general guidelines for skills and things.
   

[*]Representation of monsters.


[*]Representation of the party's "home base".


[*]Combat rules

1. Pre-battle setup
   
2. Battle
   
3. Post-battle rewards/healing/etc
   

[*]Simple non-combat resolution


[*]Setting info (More done than the rest, but it's not at all organized)

 

[Grey]

Malifaux is interesting because of the explicit fate-bending mechanic. Instead of rolling dice, you draw from the deck and add the number to your relevant trait to determine success. But you can also play a card from your hand to modify it. This becomes most interesting when the different suits are tied to Triggers - for example, we'll say Mei Feng, mistress of the Ten Thunders, is rolling to attack a rail golem. She's got a crazy attack stat like 6 or something, which will hurt it badly but leave her vulnerable next activation. But she's got a 2 of Diamonds in her hand, which if played does lower damage but Triggers a knockback kick.


It's got a lot of potential for building up combo attacks.

 

[Dragnar]

Gonna be a bit slow this week, on vacation with family. But, found some time to get a bit more work done earlier - went off on a bit of a tangent to the general organizing of thoughts, deciding to focus more on trying to figure out how to deal with point 2 in that last post. The rest I have a few ideas for, but this one's had me kinda stumped, and I'd like to at least have something in mind for each of those goals before I start writing in earnest - after all, don't wanna end up writing myself into a corner, making any plans I come up with impossible before they're even reached.


Monsters


Kinda an important topic in a game about fighting giant monsters! Unlike most combat systems, this means I can't rely overly much on groups of enemies to make fights interesting - this one creature has to be capable of surprising the players, of interesting movements, and overwhelming even superior numbers without being unbeatable. It is both battlefield and enemy, like a force of nature compared to humans but still beatable through speed and trickery... And now I'm kinda getting poetic here which I suck at, so on to the bullet points. I'll start by listing issues, and then get to thinking about how to solve them: (A bit sparse right now, especially on point one. It's late, I'll finish up later.)

• That 'battlefield and enemy' bit is particularly tricky, but important - Heck, even that silly DM Of The Rings comic pointed out how boring fighting titanic creatures is in most games. They encourage you to just stay on the ground hacking at their heels most of the time. Sure, Shadow of the Colossus is great fun... But it's a good deal trickier to make climbing around on a monster exciting in a turn-based RPG.
  ...Well there's a thought. How on earth would one go about making a NON turn-based RPG... That's probably a bit more complex of a question than I want to get into now, but I'll definitely look into a few more of those at some point. I'd think you could make it work especially well in combination with card-based mechanics. End up with something resembling a faster-paced game of MTG.
  

[*]When creating a game to emulate a genera, you have to make sure it meets the expectations that genera entails. Not perfectly of course, but there are things people come in expecting, and if you don't deliver the game's quality becomes somewhat irrelevant. In this case, one of the biggest such expectations is, to put it bluntly, weak points - to be struck for massive damage.

• Of course, there's no reason to re-invent the wheel if you don't need to. The obvious answer is to just divide the monster up into sections, each body part being targeted by the players individually and having it's own damage multipliers/difficulties to hit. Maybe the head takes double damage, but is out of reach for melee unless you can get a terrain advantage or knock it over? Of course, this is kinda a lot of work for the GM if left entirely to them - would need a decently large section devoted to monster creation with something like this, just to make the GM's life less of a headache. (Anyone ever run Mekton Zeta? I have. I would not wish it on anyone. ...But MAN those mecha were detailed.)
  
• Alternatively, instead of actually giving stats to every part of the monster's body, you can abstract things a bit - use a more Fate-esque system, with the monster possessing a small list of Aspects which indicate these things and which can be used by the players if they can discover what they are.
  

[*]Massive creatures hit massive areas - it's how they're a threat, despite being comparatively 'slow' next to the tiny human warriors. After all, it doesn't much matter if you have several seconds of windup on a punch if it hits an area 10 meters across. This falls somewhat into those genera expectations as well really (who says a giant monster HAS to be slow?) but for pretty good reason: It makes things feel bigger. So what's the problem? Well, this needs represented somehow - both the scale of the attack, and the difficulty in dodging it.

• This is probably the easiest one really. It's simple enough: Make most attacks from a monster more akin to environmental hazards over an area of the map than a targetted thing. The issue is in the dodging.
  
• Do you make all attacks 'telegraphed', shown on the map some time before they actually go off?
  
• How about something more akin to how 'Overwatch' works in a number of tactical squad-based games? ie, you can assign leftover resources to a 'reaction dodge' or something, automatically moving to the edge of the targetted area if it's close enough.
  
• Or perhaps take a slightly different twist on the above, something a bit more Dark Souls inspired (I think I can be excused for that example, I mean I've only played 100 hours of 2 already. >.>) and have each dodged attack drain stamina - automatically regenerates and means you'll not be in danger from any single attack, but combos can be devastating if you can't predict the way out in time.
  

[*]Possibly the most obvious question of all: How do you kill something like this? Just having HP that tick down to zero results in the 'hacking at it's heels til it dies' thing again, and worse yet, it makes the fight flat and dull. There's no tempo to it - it's another side effect of facing a singular opponent. You lose the ability to bring in reinforcements or whittle down the combatants.

• The easiest way to change this is to use the first method suggested on point 2 - if the monster's body parts are already tracked separately, you can throw in a bit more Monster Hunter inspiration, with sufficient damage to a specific part crippling the monster, or enough damage in general causing it to go into a feral rage and getting far faster. These are both essential mechanics to the tempo of that game's combat, and this is an attempt to translate something in the same genera to the tabletop.
  
• Alternatively, could use something a bit more... JRPG. Multiple phases of battle, triggered by time, damage, or even location. This is a bit less book-keeping than the above, but harder to arbitrate - especially when the players have control over so much of that stuff. Still, gotta admit - There's not much more effective for making players afraid of something than for it to release wings from under it's shell once they think they have it on the ropes.
  

 

[Dragnar]

Ahh, finally back from the mountains. And of course some other issues have come up... Meh, nothing that'll get in the way of writing at least, just might keep me a little slow for a bit longer. More importantly, I think this has been enough babbling and brainstorming: Time to get to work sketching out actual mechanics. Just a really rough draft for now - A baseline to work from, now that I've got goals and standards for it lined up in my head.


Stats


Whatever they may be called, whether they're a series or numbers, phrases, or even dice - every system has to have some way of representing a character's differences from another. (Well, ok, not every. But this isn't one of those.) Some systems are 'symmetrical', representing all characters in exactly the same manner. This one, by it's nature as a giant monster fighting game, is distinctly asymmetrical - representing player characters and their enemies very differently.


PCs


Player characters do not need extensive stats on their own in this system. Still, those they do have fall into three categories: Those which are set by the player, those which are set by circumstance, (ie, the difference between current HP and Dexterity in most d20 systems) and those which are shared by all characters.

• In the first category, there is little that really needs tracked here. Just enough to make a character feel like 'yours', to make it personalized even on the sheet:
  Traits - What can I say, I love systems with things like Fate's "aspects". They're more and more common in narrative-heavy systems for a reason after all! That said, this is not a narrative heavy system - the use of such things will be much better defined. Traits here shall function more as a source of more concrete bonuses. (...If anyone has played it? The way skills work in Dragon Warrior Monsters is pretty close to what I'm thinking here. A thematic title that ties together everything you purchase under it.)
  
• And those bonuses, underneath traits, are quite simple - Numerical bonuses to combat ability. +1 Resources per fight, +1 damage on successful blows, -1 Stamina cost on a particular ability... Etc. A small table of point values to determine how many of these you can buy probably, with each Trait (each character possessing 3-4 of them) having the same total - set by the GM at the start of the game.
  
• As for gaining new traits, or expanding existing ones... I'm unsure. If there's any direct character advancement mechanic it'll be that - picking up a new trait at plot-appropriate times.
  
• Might be one more class-based stat, but I'll be adding that alongside combat. ie, tomorrow.
  

[*]In the second, characters possess a few abstracted pools to be used in combat.

• Resources - A representation of all the tools and other items needed in a fight, abstracted away to a pool of points instead of picking out your selection beforehand. Might be a good idea to offer a 'discount' if you do pick set ones though? Still, the point is that you can pull any gear you need out whenever you need it. Needing to prepare appropriately for a fight would be nice, but in practice would mostly involve the GM needing to give out tons of really boring exposition about each new enemy before you face them. It works in a video game, not so much here.
  
• Stamina - Similar to resources, only used to pull off various tricks in combat. Recharges over time, but very slowly. Used for anything from climbing a monster's back, to dodging it's attacks, to Power Attack type stuff.
  
• Time - not really a stat exactly, but it acts like the pools above. Ticking down whenever an action is taken in phase 1 of combat.
  

[*]And in the last, though it's debatable that this even falls under stats, are the items and abilities used by Resources and Stamina. Anyone can use any of these - mostly to provide a wide range of tactical options, instead of limiting people to a small selection as many games do. The reason I list this here, is because they also tie into the first category: While all are open to everyone, Traits can be used to specialize in just a few.


[*]So, in short: Characters are defined by a few short phrases, which lead into a series of bonuses to their specialties. Most actions will take points out of one of three pools - one of which regenerates, and two of which are limited-use resources which will be drained over the course of the fight.



Monsters


Obviously, creatures so vastly different from the players cannot be represented the same way. It lessens both, to treat them the same, and removes the fun of an extremely asymmetrical battle. In this case, monsters will be composed of a few parts:

• First, and most obviously, are the stats to differentiate monsters of different sizes. Armor, Scale, and Speed.
  Armor directly reduces damage dealt to the monster. And will often be higher than the damage on most weapons - that's what weak points and things are for. Instead of setting different armor values for every part of the monster, Particularly vulnerable parts simply impose a penalty on armor for any attacks against them - generally removing it entirely or cutting it to one half/third.
  
• Scale is simply how big the beast is - and determines the difficulty of climbing around on it, or making specific body parts vulnerable.
  
• Speed is what monsters use in place of Stamina - it's drained when they take actions. There are two main differences though: First, a monster's speed refreshes every turn, instead of only slowly regenerating. And second, monsters can take actions which require more Speed than they have - it just means the action takes multiple turns, spreading the cost out.
  

[*]Second, I've decided (for now anyway) to go with monsters being composed of multiple parts. Each part is - for the GM's sake - extremely simple though: Possessing only an armor reduction multiplier, a health total, and Protection - a number determining the difficulty of rendering it vulnerable. (ie, zero for the legs, and say, 3-4 for a body part far off the ground, requiring some way of getting to it first.)


[*]Third, the beast has a number of attacks. These are also simple, but possibly the most important part of designing a monster. The only things that need recorded about an attack are it's shape on the map, the Speed cost to use it, and damage. 'Damage' here really means how hard it is to avoid - a direct hit will be crippling pretty much regardless of the attack, but some drain a heck of a lot more Stamina to avoid if you can't get out of the way in time. This is so important, because the areas a monster can attack around itself define a lot of the 'terrain' of the fight. Safe places to stand, how you lure it into place, etc, all comes down to where and how quickly it can strike.


[*]And finally, there's the matter of killing the beast. Reducing the health of all body parts would just get tedious - instead, each attack the creature possesses is tied to a particular part, and 'destroying' that one (inflicting crippling wounds) disables it's ability to use that attack. To actually kill it, monsters come in two types: (Though with the default setting, only the first is used) Those with 'vitals' - Typically, the head and torso. One easy to hit, one with low health. And those with a number of weak points, typically with very low health, but which must all be struck before the creature falls.

• Or in fewer words: Shadow of the Colossus style, vs 'realistic' style.
  

[*]...Oh, and I suppose shape on the map is also important, but frankly, the vast majority of body types are going to end up looking like a square on any grid-based map. Just with a couple added/subtracted tiles. I'll give some examples later, and it does matter, but really it's not something that needs a heck of a lot of discussion on it's own.



Equipment


Just some quick notes here, will be wrapping this up (plus getting to actual combat) tomorrow. Got to work on this way too late in the day.

• While tools and traps and the like are represented either with Time or Resources, these are all single-use things. For gear you use constantly - weapons, armor, and the like - there's Equipment.
  Every hunter needs at least one weapon - you can't exactly kill a massive armored beast with your fists after all. Weapons define two things: Damage, and Range. Damage is self-explanatory I hope, but range is a bit more complex - while it does mean the ability to strike from further away, this comes with additional benefits in the context of battling giants. Specifically, weapons with sufficient range reduce the effective Protection of all body parts by some amount, dependent on the range.
  
• Armor... I'm unsure if armor should even exist really. Certainly, most hunters would want some form of added protection, but extremely heavy armor would be suicide, and thus it's easier to just abstract armor away into part of avoiding blows with Stamina. Still, I do have some plans for minor 'enchantments' which would be part of this. But that's very much an extra feature - gotta be sure the CORE is fun before layering too much onto it. Otherwise you end up correcting systemic flaws with what is really little more than a patch.
  
• Mobility. Not a requirement, but pretty common in this sort of thing is ways to move around beyond just, well, walking. From climbing gear to that crazy stuff in Attack on Titan, having access to this sort of thing opens up a lot more options. While I'm certainly not about to add 3D maneuver gear (partially because it would invalidate everything else) giving players way to customize their approach to unusual terrain is always fun. Course, I can't give too much actual mechanics here without detailing how the map works first.
  
• General gear - A bit of a catch-all, for anything from binoculars to shovels. Mostly, this will be stuff which is used to gain info on the monster or provide bonuses to phase 1 of combat.
  

Combat


Phase 1 of combat is a bit unusual for an RPG: The GM provides the players with a general map of the area, and they use their Time to modify it. This doesn't represent terraforming in most cases - simply finding a location where they can lure the creature they're hunting and fight it on their terms. The initial state set by the GM represents the monster's natural habitat - what they're forced to work around regardless of how well they plan.

• Actions here fall into a few categories: Traps, Scouting, and Observation.
  
• Traps are exactly what they sound like - These are the ones that often do involve actual manipulation of the terrain, instead of simply representing finding a better location. Different traps require different surrounding terrain to be created, though these requirements can sometimes be waived for an extra Time cost. Traps themselves have a number of triggers, from ones that need activated manually to things like the classic pit trap which require nothing more than the monster walking over them. In either case, traps tend to be extremely powerful compared to the abilities hunters can use in phase 2, and thus setting them up properly is a huge part of any battle.
  
• Scouting actions are the ones that change the terrain itself. Anything from placing a high vantage point on the map, to a yawning chasm neither hunter nor monster can cross, to places to hide or supply drops. The terrain can radically alter the course of a battle - and before these actions are taken, it tends to be rather unfavorable for the hunters.
  
• Observation actions are a bit more subtle, but no less important than the first two: Instead of changing the playing field, they provide extra information about the monster being hunted. Locate weak points, learn attack ranges, how quickly it can move, etc. More Time-consuming ones can even grant one-time bonuses to be used whenever, exploiting holes in the enemy's armor or similar. Knowing, as they say, is half the battle.
  

Phase 2 is the actual combat, as recognizable from any number of other RPGs. At it's core, things are about the same as you would expect - Characters take turns, one by one, trading blows. That said, the actions you can take vary quite a bit from the norm. (For PCs anyway - monsters have already been mentioned above, using their Speed to move and activate their own special attacks)

• Movement: Movement along the map is simple enough - It costs 1 stamina to move 1 tile in any direction, up to a maximum of 5(?) tiles per turn.
  
• Attack: Weapons have a base damage rating. Monster body parts have armor. Damage is simply the former, minus the latter, and attacking costs a number of stamina dependent on the weapon. (Typically no more than 1-3) Base damage (ie, before subtracting armor) can be increased by spending extra stamina, though this is less efficient than using a heavier weapon in the first place.
  
• Climb: I'm still uncertain on the specifics here, but the short version is, you can climb on a monster by entering a square it occupies, and taking this action. For every successive Climb action you take, you reduce the effective Protection of the monster's body parts by 1 - and can target the (presumably weaker) areas higher up once they hit 0. The question is just how exactly to do this - Obviously, some monsters are harder to scale than others. And also obviously, the easiest way to represent this is varying Stamina cost on the Climb action... But that's dull, overly simple, and misses out on the frantic panic about whether or not you'll be able to cling to the thing long enough to reach your goal, before being flung off. If anything needs randomness it's this, but that's not the only way it could be done. Giving monsters attacks that can target climbers would help, as would adding in a modified Recover action that lets you regen stamina even while atop the monster in exchange for making yourself vulnerable...
  
• Ability: Pretty self-explanatory. Use an action to use an ability. Obviously this won't mean much til I write some abilities, which is the next goal here.
  
• Trigger: Some traps don't activate on their own - maybe a heavy Ballista, assembled before the monster arrived, or the ever-popular swinging log trap. These things need someone to pull a trigger or cut a rope, or whatever - and in any case, this is done via a Trigger action.
  
• Dodge: Not really an action, so much as an automatic response to being in a monster's hit zone when an attack goes off. Dodging costs as much stamina as it would take to move to the edge of the zone, plus the attack's Damage. If you don't have enough stamina to dodge, or choose not to, you instead receive some sort of crippling wound. Three of these, and you're down for the count.
  
• Recover: Characters naturally regain 5(?) stamina each turn, but can double(?) that number through this action - on the turn after taking a Recover action you regain extra stamina... Assuming you didn't have to dodge between using the action and your next turn. Otherwise, you get nothing.
  

Non-combat rules: Non-essential, and thus will wait until this part is a bit better planned out.


Oh, and one final note: As you can probably tell, combat is totally deterministic at the moment - nothing at all is random. This might change - Randomness serves a very specific purpose in RPGs, but it has it's drawbacks as well. On the downside, it can lead to failures that are not the player's "fault", which is extremely bad in a game like this one. But randomness - even small amounts that practically don't change the player's chances of winning - adds tension to every action. This is especially valuable when playing in real life. I assume most people know the basics of story structure - build up to a climax, then resolution. In good stories, this buildup/climax/resolution cycle is fractal, with each successive climax along the way drawing readers in, and the resolutions offering brief reprieves in the action to avoid mentally exhausting them.


It's an idea from writing - but it applies just as much in game design. In the most successful games, you can even pick out that fractal pattern at the lowest level of gameplay. Be it the timing on a firing animation+travel time of the bullet+ragdolling enemy in Half Life 2... Or the shake, roll, and reading of a die.

 

[Dragnar]

Updated the previous post with combat rules - still lacking in some example abilities/traps and a few details like how large a map grid is, but mostly finished. Also went on a bit of a tangent in the process of explaining randomness in RPGs.

 

[Dragnar]

Next step, I need to actually sketch out some example abilities and equipment - not a lot, but enough to run a few practice combat rounds. This early in, I can do that myself even. But, before that, I'm gonna try and condense the last post a bit, make a sort of quick 'cheatsheet' to refer back to faster. (Oh, also, need to write up how the terrain effects movement...)


PCs:


Stats

• Traits. Each player gets 3-4 traits, granting 10~ points worth of specialization along some specific line. (I should probably come up with a basic list of possible specializations along with that first combat test.)
  
• Resources - Abstract representation of prepared one-use gear. 15 points base.
  
• Stamina - General energy pool, drained by most actions. Regens at 5 points per turn. Also 15 points base.
  
• Time - Used in phase 1 of combat. Initial value varies per battle, at the GM's disgretion.
  

Equipment

• Weapons - Damage, Range, and weight. Damage is what it says on the tin, Range reduces Protection if high enough. Weight is Light/Medium/Heavy, denoting weapon class and determining base Stamina cost to attack.
  
• Mobility - And this is why I need to write up the terrain rules before moving on...
  
• Gear - In short? This is where you get abilities that aren't on the standard list.
  

Monsters:

• Armor -Directly reduces damage on a one-for-one basis. Tends to be significantly higher than weapon damage for most weapons.
  
• Speed -Used like Stamina on PCs, save for three things: 1, it refreshes entirely each turn. 2, actions can be taken even if they cost more Speed than is available. And 3, it tends to be far lower than Stamina, typically only 5-6 or so.
  
• Scale - Determines both now many body parts the monster has, and how difficult it is to climb. Exact effect in the latter case to be determined by initial test.
  
• Body parts -Each body part on a monster has health, an armor multiplier, and possibly some added effect on the monster when 'destroyed'. Death, crippling, or even making some other part more vulnerable.
  
• Attacks - Composed of an area struck, a Speed cost, and Damage. Likely tied to some body part and disabled by it's loss.
  
• Damage - 'Damage' is actually used to determine how much Stamina an attack takes to dodge - if you can't/don't dodge, all attacks have the same effect: A crippling injury. Three of which results in being incapacitated.
  

Combat:

• Phase 1: Players use Time to alter the terrain and set traps.
  
• Phase 2: Players take turns attacking the monster! Yeah pretty standard there - the complexity and feel comes from the methods needed to do so, as simply walking up to it's legs and hacking away will likely do absolutely nothing. (...Yeah this part is a bit much to summarize here!)
  

 

[Dragnar]

Minor update: Gonna be taking one week (Starting tomorrow) off to work on some IRL stuff, then I'll get back with the last bits needed for initial combat testing.