Action vs. Reaction - System experimentation

For those of you who have been following my Action vs. Reaction article where I speak to Kay Sukaue, martial artist and general great guy about combat and game mechanics.  I had mentioned that I was trying to come up with a game mechanic that better interprets real martial arts combat as a hack for Savage Worlds.  Here is a very rough first draft of what I have in mind.  Please keep in mind that this is a first draft I drew up at work during lunch today and was meant to keep Kay up to speed on what I was thinking.

Combat Mechanics Discussion

I’m not sure if you are at all familiar with the Savage Worlds system, but it works on a dice step method. All Skills and Attributes are rated 1-5, see below. All player characters also get a Wild Card die (d6) along with every roll, taking the highest. This represents the Hero factor.

Step Range 1 – 5 (All stats are rated 1 to 5 die steps.  1=d4, 2=d6, 3=d8. 4=d10 and 5 = d12). Both the die values and the step values are used for different reasons.

New Derivative Statistic – Combat Fitness

Vigor (Vi) – Physical Body
Smarts (Sm) – Mental Readiness
Spirit (Sp) – Spiritual Development

Average round up = Combat Fitness (CF)

I went with Vigor instead of Agility for the calculation of this derived stat.  Agility will be an important factor later on as it determines the cap for Martial Arts skills, but this statistic is more designed to create a basis for gathering a Combat Awareness statistic for the new initiative system. As you will see further on, it more describes the ability to determine the appropriate time for a Decisive Strike and to determine opponent weaknesses and strengths.  Vigor to me represents physical conditioning instead of coordination and speed. I figured coordination and speed would become important when a maneuver is executed.

Note: When I refer to a "Martial Art" skill I am referring to any martial melee skill.  This would be anything from Fencing to Greco Roman Wrestling.

New Initiative System

The new initiative system is not designed to determine who “goes first”.  In my new vision for close combat all combat is resolved as opposed and simultaneous rolls.  The difference comes in who has determined the correct Decisive Maneuver first, executes that maneuver and whether the defender at that point provides an opportunity for the attacker to continue on to another maneuver in the chain until the defender is defeated or creates an Initiative Break.

The winner of the initiative simply gets a combat bonus depending on his situational awareness and how well he has sized up his opponent.  Combatants have the choice to attack after not only one but several initiative rolls to see if they can maneuver for a better initial strike.  It is possible for there to be little difference between the two combatants who are very evenly matched.

Advantage Roll

Instead of rolling for “Initiative” combatants roll for “Advantage.” Advantage determines a combatant’s ability to decide upon a Decisive Maneuver and act upon it. The Advantage Roll is a simple CF roll. Checking for Advantage may take several passes since the required number may not be reached in a single roll. Therefore, successive rolls are added together until someone reaches an amount equal to or greater than their opponents Combat Threshold (see below). Rolling for Advantage is part race, part gamble and part strategic determination.

·         The Race: Each combatant is trying to reach his opponents Combat Threshold (CT) first. To determine the character’s CT add his/her CF to the result of a secret Martial Arts Skill or Bluff Skill roll.

·         The Gamble: Opponents do not know each other’s CT, they have to guess at it. Players secretly roll their Advantage Roll and write down their totals. At any point (as long as each side has made the same number of Advantage Rolls) a player may call a Strike and the combat begins. No combatant may roll for Advantage more times than their CF. Therefore a character with a CF of three would be able to make a maximum of 3 Advantage Roll passes.

·         The Strategy: After a Srike is called each side then reveals their Advantage Total (AT) and their CT.  Each side then subtracts their opponents CT from their AT.  The result is their Combat Pool (CP).  Combat Pool is used to act and react in combat. The player with the highest total is said to have the Initiative. Players must be judicious in the use of their Combat Pool in order to survive the combat.  If both sides end up with an equal number of Combat Pool they may choose to call an Initiative Break and reset or continue with the combat with neither side having a clear advantage.



Note: There is an obvious hole here and I will shore it up as soon as I think of a way how. What if someone calls a Strike but their opponent has not yet met the CT? To me thats an iaijutsu or surprise strike kind of maneuver, but I have to think on that a bit more to come up with a solid solution.

Spending Combat Pool

Combat Pool is a representation of comparative situational awareness.  These points can be used to give a combatant more options. Once you are out of options, you are probably out of luck. The character with the higher Combat Pool has more options and therefore has the Initiative. Combat Pool can be spent in the following ways.

1.      Check for Bluff: If a character suspects his/her opponent of using the Bluff Skill to determine their CT he/she may spend a CP to force an opposed Bluff vs. Perception test. If the Bluff check is higher, nothing happens.  If the Perception check is higher and the combatant did indeed use the Bluff Skill to determine CT the character that used Bluff must subtract his/her opponents Perception Skill from their CP and CT until the next Initiative Break. This must be done before any combat is resolved.

2.      Mitigation: Players may spend one CP to remove an environmental combat modifier found in the regular combat rules in Savage Worlds. By using their superior situational awareness characters can overcome situational obstacles.

The Combat

Now that we know who has the Advantage in combat it’s time to strike. Each player must spend one Combat Pool to engage each enemy in the combat. Therefore, if a character is fighting three opponents he/she must spend three CP to engage all three. If a character does not have enough CP to engage all of their opponents, he/she cannot defend against all of them. All friendlies in the combat can split the CP cost between them as long as each enemy is engaged with at least one friendly character. All combatants that are in combat with an enemy they cannot engage can suffer from a free strike.  Free strikes are resolved before all other combat. Combatants can make a free strike by making a normal Martial Arts test against the victims Parry. The Margin of Success of this roll is then applied to damage directly.

Once engaged each combatant can spend 1 CP to add a die of the appropriate type to their Martial Art Skill to a pool. Once all combatants have decided on how many CP they are going to spend they roll their dice plus one Wildcard die. The character with the highest total (including the rule of doubles) can then choose to subtract one from their opponents Combat Pool or add one to their own Combat Pool. If both sides have 0 CP an Initiative Break occurs and the combat resets.  Once a combatant is reduced to 0 CP  and one or more of their opponents still have CP remaining then that character is hit and damage is applied.  If multiple characters are reduced to 0 CP characters engaged with them may choose to hit an opponent of their choice. If one combatant facing several is reduced to 0 CP and his/her opponents still have CP remaining, the victim is hit multiple times.

Damage

Weapons no longer have a dice value for damage.  They have a single damage value.  This damage value is added to the remaining CP of the attacker and compared to the victims Toughness and damage is applied normally.

Response from Kay

I like what I see so far.  You are going to have to explain the +/- 0 play on CP.  Sounds like CP is life blood in combat… without correctly applying CP then you may be overpowered or out maneuvered.  Am I getting that right?

My Reply

That is correct.  The whole thing boils down to getting the edge on Combat Pool over your enemy.  It’s a measure of your Situational Awareness and assessment of your opponent. At that point it’s up to you to employ that advantage in real terms. If you are aggressive and have a CP edge, you want to push that advantage by having a higher dice pool than your opponent and then using that edge to erode their Combat Pool, this simulates you attacking and setting yourself up for the follow up maneuver.  Once you lose all your dice, you have basically run out of options. It is also possible for both sides to run out of CP at the same time and therefore forcing an Initiative Break.

I plan on using edges that reflect different martial arts styles.  Like a Defensive Martial Art would grant you an edge verses an opponent that has a higher pool than you (or in other words an opponent that is very aggressive grants bonuses to a martial artist that is trained to counter that kind of move.

Let me know what you guys think!

Third part of the story leading to the Corellian Corvette Event at Gamex

The halls of the Home One, a Mon Calamari Starcruiser, were very different from those of an Imperial Star Destroyer.  While its Imperial counterpart had sterile clean lines of polished durasteel, the MC80 design was very organic.  Curved and suffused in warm lighting with bulkheads of glistening white, it didn’t have the same feel of a purely military vessel.  If it weren’t for the constant hustle and bustle of uniforms and battle gear, one would think that this was just a research and exploration ship, which in essence it was. The Rebel Alliance had a reputation for being a rag tag group of terrorists and civilians playing soldier, but if they were to see how Admiral Gial Ackbar lead and trained his men, they would think twice before slinging their insults, especially after the Battle of Endor.

Zebulon “Zeb” Akarimas rounded the corner of the main corridor leading to the ships large briefing room and nearly ran into his commanding officer.  “Oh, hey there Colonel, I have been looking for you.  I wanted to hand you our equipment roster for the upcoming mission.  It looks like we are packing half the Proton Torpedoes in the fleet.”  Lt. Col. Ichijyo took the data pad with a calm warm smile that was as casual as your favorite sweatshirt. “Impressive, the Alliance does not skimp on equipment.”, said the veteran commander of the 42nd.

“Well, I don’t think they can afford to skimp sir.  Since we’ve been with the Alliance we have been up against three to one odds.  If it weren’t for the fact that we are more skilled, motivated and well equipped than the Imps, this Rebellion of theirs would have ground to a halt a long time ago.”  Akarimas said in his well-practiced fatalistic tone.

Both men started walking together towards the center of the ship. “You really need to stop referring to it as ‘their’ Rebellion Zeb.  We signed up with the Alliance, it’s our Rebellion.  You need to stop thinking of yourself as a mercenary or even worse an Imperial”, said the Colonel as he gently patted the young man on the shoulder.  “I know that you like to stay detached, but we are past that now. We either succeed or fail along with this endeavor.  I don’t think that the Empire will cut us any slack because we once wore an Imperial uniform.”

Zeb’s shoulders sank in acceptance of that truth. He always liked to think that he can take or leave this whole war, pretending that he could always go back to jockeying Ixiyen strike craft on the outer rim for fun and profit. Now he is an officer in the Rebel Alliance and marked for immediate execution by the largest fleet to ply the stars since the old intergalactic wars of the Sith Empire.

“Yeah, I know sir. I’m just not used to fighting with idealists.  It’s much harder to fight for faith than for money.  The latter is far less tangible and less likely to bail you out of a god forsaken gulag. There is little difference between hero and criminal here.” Zeb said dourly.

The Colonel stepped in front of the worrisome pilot and stopped him dead in his tracks. “It all depends on who interprets history Zeb. Let’s leave that for future generations. As for me, I would rather make history, here and now, instead of discussing it after other men had the courage to make a difference. Win or lose. Men like us weren’t meant to get old.”

Zeb nodded and smiled.  “It’s close to time for the briefing sir. We don’t want to keep General Dodonna waiting. It looks like we have an Imperial Governor to bag.”

Mr. Ray Harryhausen, thank you for everything. I love you.

Many would look at this and say that these effects were as dated as the dinosaurs that Ray Harryhausen so loved to re-create. Did you know that british sensors declared that this scene was too scary and realistic for children to watch?

"The Valley of Gwangi" (1969)

I remember when I was four and my family had just immigrated from Chile to Miami Florida. I didn't know anyone, didn't speak the language and up until that point hadn't really known my father since he was in the States working most of the time I had been alive. Needless to say I was lonely and had little in the way of entertainment.  I distinctly remember one day sitting at the 13 inch black and white GoldStar TV my father had just bought and catching Jason and the Argonauts. I was spellbound by what I saw. I didn't really need to understand the language because the images were so transfixing and vividly real.  A giant parting cliffs for a ship at sea, a bronze statue came to life, the Hydra, the skeletons, the harpies! Oh, my!

This lit a fire under me. I needed to know more about these things. A lifelong passion for myth, legend and folklore sprung from that simple viewing. I became obsessed with Greek mythology and that was just the beginning. I began to wonder. Not wonder as in "Why is the sky blue?" but wonder as in how far can I possibly stretch my imagination. Ray Harryhausen tried to answer that question with his decades long career that revolutionized fantasy movie fiction.

This sense of wonder developed in my young mind. My parents, seeing that I was interested in this kind of things bought me books at the used book store in little Havana. I read spanish translations of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft. Tarzan, Conan, Cuthulu, John Carter, Kull, the Necronomicon all became part of my life and soon in my mind everything from a pill bug to a rusty old car became a story in my head.

His Dynamation works, although lacking for the most part in any real depth in writing and acting talent* had a way of sweeping us away to distant lands, inhabited by strange and mysterious creatures. Ray Harryhausen captivated the imaginations of millions.

Imaginations of people like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson and Tim Burton to name a few.  Did you know that Harryhausen was the best man in Ray Bradbury's wedding? Ray met him as a teenager in the Los Angeles Science Fiction League and became fast friends. (I also loved the Martian Chronicles)

Ray, without you we would not have things like Star Wars, Indiana Jones or A Nightmare Before Christmas. Everyone described you as a kind and gentle dreamer who, when asked if he had a favorite creature said, "It would be Medusa. But don't tell the others." I imagine that your monsters were as alive to you as they were to a lonely and scared four year old boy watching them on a tiny black and white screen.  In a way, Ray you made me the geek, gamer and dreamer I am today and I owe you a debt of gratitude. 92 years of Epic win.  You will be missed. I love you.

*(except for Clash of the Titans which boasted Sir Laurence Olivier as Zeus)

X-Wing League Week 1 Results!

Week one of the Plus Ten to Awesome X-Wing League at Mercenary Market is done and boy what a great time!

Our league was evenly split evenly between Alliance and Empire.  We had

Paul Thomsen on the Rebel Alliance side and chose:
Garven Dreis
Biggs Darklighter
Tycho Celchu

Also fighting with the Rebels, Rick Roberts had a very straight forward list running:
Han Solo
Wedge Antilles

On the Imperial side we had John and Nicole Deshazer (with the very special help of pea in the pod Haley!)

Nicole chose:
Boba Fett
Winged Gundark
Mauler Mithel
Academy Pilot

John went with:
Darth Vader
Turr Phennir

Here are how all three rounds broke down:

Round 1

Paul Thomsen vs. John Deshazer

Paul: Points Destroyed 63, Points Lost 74 (Match Loss - 0)
John: Points Destroyed 74, Points Lost 63 (Modified Match Win - 3)

Rick Roberts vs. Nicole Deshazer

Nicole: Points Destroyed 0, Points Lost 88 (Match Loss - 0)

Rick: Points Destroyed 88, Points Lost 0 (Match Win - 5)

Round 2

Paul Thomsen vs. Nicole Deshazer

Paul: Points Destroyed 68, Points Lost 100 (Match Loss - 0)

Nicole: Points Destroyed 100, Points Lost 68 (Match Win - 5)

John Deshazer vs. Rick Roberts

John: Points Destroyed 40, Points Lost 99 (Match Loss - 0)

Rick: Points Destroyed 99, Points Lost 40 (Match Win - 5)

For our final round we had Rick with 8 Match Points and Nicole with 5 Match Points.  It was a classic battle between Boba Fett and Han Solo.  In their match, Wedge got caught in a fatal crossfire, leaving the Millenium Falcon unsupported against three TIEs and Boba Fett.

Round 3

Nicole Deshazer vs. Rick Roberts

Rick: Points Destroyed 44, Points Lost 100 (Match Loss - 0)

Nicole: Points Destroyed 100, Points Lost 44 (Match Win - 5)

Boba Fett pulls off a very close match as both ships were heavily damaged in the end and Han had an unfortunate run in with an asteroid.

Final Match Point Total:

Nicole Deshazer: 10

Rick Roberts: 8

Paul Thomsen: 5

John Deshazer: 3

These match points will be totalled after five weeks of play with the highest scorers facing off in our single elimination battle for League supremacy!

Check us out on Sundays at 2 p.m. at Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa.

So you wanna be a GM eh?

I am a rare duck. The same day I played my first game of Dungeons and Dragons 1st ed. I wanted to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons.  I am the kind of person that just has a bunch of stories inside me I guess.  On top of that I love to collaborate with my friends and sharing ideas.  NERD.

Most other people that I know were somewhat intimidated by the idea of running a game.  You may have a story idea or a new game you really want to run but you are intimidated by the task of managing a game, writing a fun adventure or simply being judged by your peers. Well, let me tell you what... STOP IT.  It's going to be ok. Jacques Cousteau said, "When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself." It may not be sea exploration, but making something from basically nothing but your neurons and a piece of paper is truly extraordinary and if you want to do it, try it.  How do you get started?  You've come to the right place.

This is the first article in a series.  Here I will give some very basic tips to get you going on the right kind of thinking. Following up will be a series of articles that will talk about different styles of games, the kinds of stories that go well with them and how to get started writing that kind of story.

The best advice I can give to anyone considering running a RPG session is this. Be like water. Know your people. Never leave a good idea behind and run games with people not AT people. What do all those things mean? Well let me elucidate.

Be Like Water

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

-Bruce Lee

What I mean by this is that if you are too rigid you will fail. If you are too rigid with the rules, you may deny you and your players the chance to craft an interesting scene or simply weigh things down with minutia. Do you really want to make your players count down to the ounce the amount of equipment they carry?  If it's not salient to the plot it doesn't matter.  If you want to run a zombie horror game where every bullet counts then yeah, they have to keep a tally because it important to the tension of the game. If your characters are travelling from New York to Montreal by bus its really not important to note how much they spent on chips and hot dogs on the way.  Just get them to Montreal! Sweat the big stuff, not the small stuff.  This way you clear up time, energy and focus for what is truly important. Being able to tell what is important and what isn't is the bedrock of good decision making.

If your story is too rigid, your players will derail it.  Write your plots loosely. Never be too rigid in your storytelling it keeps you from being able to adapt to player driven situations. This is a bit of a hard concept to wrap your brain around, so let me put it like this.  When you write a story, you don't want to wire in series, you want to wire in parallel.

For those of you who do not speak electronics there are two basic kinds of circuits, series and parallel. As an example, consider a very simple circuit consisting of four light bulbs and one battery. If a wire joins the battery to one bulb, to the next bulb, to the next bulb, to the next bulb, then back to the battery, in one continuous loop, the bulbs are said to be in series. If each bulb is wired to the battery in a separate loop, the bulbs are said to be in parallel. In a series circuit, every device must function for the circuit to be complete. One bulb burning out in a series circuit breaks the circuit. In parallel circuits, each light has its own circuit, so all but one light could be burned out, and the last one will still function.

This means that your plot elements are all built independent of each other, so if one fails the rest can continue to function. When you make linear plot points its difficult to react when the players decided not to take the plot points in order or dismiss a plot point all together.  It's hard at first, but it gets easier as you go.  I will have much more advice on this as we go along.

You are not a slave to rules or plot points. Use them like tools, but never let them hamper your ability to tell your story. Most of the creativity in being a GM is reacting to the random shit your players will do to your story.

Know Your Peeps

Get to know your players. Find out what they like to do or better yet what their characters like to do. Know their loves, pet peeves, good and bad habits.  Try to tailor at least some part of your story to each player.  Don't be afraid to talk to your players, ask questions and answer theirs. They can make it easier for you by giving you backstory for plot hooks and can collaborate with you to create new story elements in general.  Remember that they are your partners in this endeavor so make sure you keep the lines of communication open and easy.

Never Leave a Good Idea Behind

Sometimes I'm sitting on the can and come up with some of the best story ideas.  Sadly, I am getting old and these ideas speed out of my mind like a spooked bat from a belfry. Story ideas are like gold, don't waste them. Jack Kirby, one of the most prolific Comic Book writers ever had a habit of keeping a box of index cards with simple plot ideas on them.  He would come up with a random idea like, "Machine gun wielding dinosaurs from Venus" write it down on an index card and stuff it in the box. When given a project, he would sometimes pull 3-5 cards out of the box and then write ways to connect the disparate story elements together and BOOM THERE GOES THE DYNAMITE! Use your daydreaming to your advantage. I sometimes will send myself a voicemail with an idea just so I won't forget it. Even when it seems like something crazy out there, you never know.

Run Games With People NOT At People

Don't run your game like a puzzle. Don't create situations where there is only one way out or hinge on a single skill, dice roll, save or RP resolution. When you make games like this you are not playing along with the players you are playing at or against them.  Your players are NEVER the enemy. That goes against the very concept of cooperative storytelling.  There are plenty of you versus them games out there and I can list quite a few by genre, difficulty and quality, but none of them are RPGs. The goal here is for everyone to have fun.  If you create scenarios where people are frustrated, confused or angry you have failed at your job.  For many, playing RPGs is about hero worship and people want to see their persona's be outstanding at least at some point. I'm not saying that the players should always win and there should not be any risk for gain.  What I am saying is provide players with options, that way you never deny their contribution.

Next episode: The Encounter Driven Plot and YOU!

Second part of the story leading to the Corellian Corvette Event at Gamex

The general’s time was important. Too many forms to sign, too many approvals to give, and too many administrative assistants always getting in the way. The CO and XO of the Raiders walked in to General Dodonna’s office confidently, saluted and stood at attention until they were addressed.

The general nodded and directed them to the seats in front of his desk. “At ease gentlemen. Break down the information for me.” Kyan and Zeb sat down and pushed a series of data pads over. The older and more battle worn gentleman from Commenor, looked curiously at the information provided on the data pads.

“Sir, the Raiders really appreciate you taking your time to take a look at our action plan. As you can see, my XO had the opportunity to touch base with Rogue’s CO and Admiral Ackbar to greenlight our operation. They suggested that we speak with you and that you may have some valuable insight.”

Kyan looked over at Zeb and nodded. The young Major chimed in. “Sir, we understand that you have expertise in siege and capture tactics which may come in handy.” The General fanned out the data pads on his desk, his dark brown eyes starting at the analytical data carefully.

Soft but carefully placed, “Intel has it that Governor Harn, a former resident of Corellia, has been acting paranoid after ABE (After the Battle of Endor) and his move is a direct correlation with his new orders.”

Zeb straightened out his uniform. “General that is correct. The Empire is consolidating their forces around key strategic areas and resources, mainly bacta. Knowing that the people of Corellia are starting to lean towards the Alliance, Governor Harn saw the inevitable change and made a preemptive move back towards Coruscant and what remains of Imperial Intelligence.”

General Dodonna smiled and stroked his aging beard. “Have you anticipated other Imperial movement in the sector? It’s hard to believe that the good governor would be jumping in just with small number of escorts. I expect at least an honor guard of at least 3 or 4 Advanced Tie Fighters coming in with his personal transport and a full squadron of tie fighters from the surface. Also… with his sudden move from Correlia, he’ll most likely have Imperial Star Destroyer bringing up the rear. Gentleman, you only have a short time to get in and out before you get swarmed and overrun.”

Kyan leaned forward in his chair, “Sir, we've anticipated that we only have a short window to capture the corvette. We'll be using a mixed complement of X-Wing, A-Wing and Y-Wing fighters with proton torpedoes. We've requested for B-Wings but they were on assignment in the fight to push towards Coruscant. We're ready General.”

General Dodonna stood up from his desk. “Gather your men Colonel. We'll start mission briefings at 2100 hours.”

Thoughts on a Hoth event for Gateway 2013

In just a few weeks we will be hitting Gamex with our Corellian Corvette Event. Since we are down to the wire here and have one more playtest before we open it up to the masses, it's time to look towards the future.

With that in mind we have made some steps towards getting a Hoth Event together. How are we going to do that you say?  Well it started here.

Mounted on Corsec Bases these T-47 Airspeeders will be the first line of defense for the Rebels on Hoth. We have some basic ideas on what we want to do with stats (see scenario sheets below) but really need to get some time on the table to make sure we have the balance right.

On the ground, the Empire brings some big guns.

These All Terrain Armored Transports and All Terrain Scout Transports, better known as AT-AT's and AT-ST's make their landing on Hoth and are tasked with taking out the Shield Generator protecting the Rebel Ion Cannon.

We will be mounting the ST's on these Litko bases.  They don't really stand well without some support and its just easier to have the base there for range purposes and the guides for movement.

But the Battle of Hoth was not simply a ground based engagement. The Imperials suffered an embarrassing loss by allowing the GR-75 Rebel Transports off planet. Speaking of GR-75s.

We are going to take this on as three separate games.  First the Rebels will try to intercept Imperial Probe Droids searching for the position of the Power Generator.

Click here to get the full doc from Google Docs!

Then the battle moves on when the AT-AT's land to assault Eco Base!

Click here to get the full doc from Google Docs!

Finally the last transports are away and the Imperials try to tighten the net.

Click here to get the full doc from Google Docs!

We have a lot of work ahead to make sure everything is smooth for the game, but we are looking forward to September and getting all of these scenarios off the ground.