Hi Aurelie,
I really like your “cyberfight with dice roll” concept. I would like to give it a whirl some time in the future, but reading through your rules and the example fight made me think of possible concerns from a balancing point of view.
First thing that came to mind was that there was no limit on how many points one can place in a stat category (other than the default 5 points allotted for distribution). I can see someone—just for the sake of winning and being a poor sport—placing all five points in a stat such as Strength. Sure, his/her character will only have 10 hp, but if he/she chooses to use the strength attribute, that's six different dice rolls, with a rare chance of dealing 35 points of damage in one turn (rolling all sixes and the opponent rolls a 1 with one die roll) or more (with the addition of Strength – 1 to damage that you added to the rule at a later point). There is also no limitation on how often the player can use that stat's attack. A person may end up doing a Str attack over and over and over, just modifying the description of his/her write-up to allow for such situation.
This kinda leads me to my main concern: that there is too much potential for dealing high damage that it feels like it either pigeonholes a player to create a character with high health or high number of stats in other attributes to have a fighting chance in a shootout. A situation that shows the potential for high damage happened in your example when Musclora dealt 12 points of damage in one turn to Felina—taking away 60% of her health.
I want to present a possible solution to this just for discussion's sake. Let me know what you think.
First, that there is a cap to how many points can be allotted into a stat. In the case of the default 5 points for distribution scenario, maybe a stat can only be raised up to a value of 3?
Additionally, that the HP given by Resistance stat be raised just slightly to compensate for the high damage output (which I will present an alternative to shortly). Maybe 11 or 12 HP per resistance points?
The previous two were just slight tweaks, the following is a suggested overhaul that will mostly generate the most 'boo'ing for since it diverts away from the D&D roots that your original rules had.
The relationship between the stats and the number of dice to roll stays the same as the original rules. But instead of adding the numbers together, what I was thinking of was to have the players only count the highest roll. So, for example, let's say Musclora is attacking and Felina is defending. Musclora is using her strength attribute (3 dice) and Felina is using her defense attribute (2 dice). Musclora rolls a 2, a 3, and a 6 while Felina rolls a 3 and a 4. Musclora wins the encounter because her highest (6) is higher than Felina's highest roll (4). A subtraction between the highest rolls occur (6 – 4), and the stat number of the attack is added (in the case of this example, Musclora's strength stat of 3) for a total of 5 points of damage. In the case of a draw where both players have the same value for their highest roll, they exchange the damage to each other equal to the amount that their chosen stat is.
Let us have another example. Felina is attacking and Musclora is defending. Felina is using her Attack stat (giving her 3 dice rolls because the stat is 3) and Musclora is using her Defense stat (giving her 1 dice roll because the stat is 1). Felina rolls a 1, 2, and 5 while Musclora rolls a 5. Because they tie, the damage they inflict to each other is 3 damage to Musclora from Felina, 1 damage to Felina from Musclora. Or if Musclora was doing a healing defense, then only 2 damage to Musclora from Felina (3-1).
I was also thinking of a squash scenario, where if the spread between the rolls of the attacker and defender was 5 (as in attacker rolls a 6 and defender rolls a 1), the attacker is given another 'attack' turn as an advantage. This is more in line of thinking of adding another possible twist to the cyberfighting description writing by breaking the I attack, you attack, I attack, you attack rhythm. Once the second attack turn is done, the defending char will then have an attack turn. Most likely there needs to be a hard cap so that the advantage can only happen one time consecutively so that there isn't a situation where the attacker is able to take the attacking role again and again and again due to the luck of his/her roll. If it is the defender that squashes the attacker... hmm..... Maybe this paragraph can be put in the backburner as a low priority...
As a last thing, I wanted to present the idea of making it so that if the player uses a stat category, then that stat cannot be used for a turn or two. This is just so that someone can't just go 'attack, attack, attack, attack, attack'. If it was just one turn limitation, then the situation becomes 'strength, defense, strength, defense, strength, defense...' so I was thinking maybe two turns recovery time for being able to use that stat. So a situation such as 'strength, defense, attack, speed, strength, resistance, weight, defense'. It would require the player to come up with different description for the situation that he/she is in during the cyberfight, but I guess I would rather see variety than seeing 'and I did a haymaker, and I did a haymaker, and I did a haymaker'... haha. Course at that point, it's not the dice roll system's fault, but more that the other player is unimaginative and boring.
Well, sorry for the wall of text! I guess I wanted to provide some food for thought since your rules and examples gave me food for thought. =p
P.S. I feel that even with the modification to the rule I presented, the player will feel they NEED to put at least a point into resistance in order to have a good enough cushion of health. I wonder if it would be better if the first point of resistance (the default amount) gave a higher amount of health than the subsequent addition of stat points in order to alleviate the feeling of being forced to put a point into that stat (such as, 1st point = 16, 2nd point = 22, 3rd point = 28 just for example's sake).
-DarkLynx
Hello Dark Lynx!
Thanks for all these ideas. There is a lot of truth in what you say, and I'm glad we can discuss it to improve the system.
My goal was to keep the system as simple as possible, and avoid the need to keep in mind a lot of variables. I strongly believe that cyberfight is more about roleplay than chance, and it seems to me that too complex rules would distract the players from the fun of roleplay.
As for putting all one's points into one skill, I would say "why not?". The trade-of might be enough to make this character weak in other crucial skills. And after all, roleplay can bring variety , even in the use of one single skill. There are many different ways of using one's strength, or attack skill.
Also, keep in mind that winning 36 to 1 would be a very rare event. It would be an instant, crushing victory but so rare that it would become a legend. I believe I've heard of a boxer winning a match in a matter of seconds. So, such things may happen even in real life.
But you are right. We must put a limit. Rolling six dices makes you totally safe against someone rolling only one. So, the limit could be around 4 or 5 dices.
Also, I agree that there is a strong risk to be tempted to use always the same skill in a fight, and so, to overload this special skill with dices at the character creation. This is something I encountered in my fight. I eventually lost because I was tired of using always my best skill and tried another one. A fateful choice.
How to prevent that? Your solution is one possibility, although it feels a little artificial. And it would only force players to switch between two skills. What about introducing a tiredness/experience system. Basically, in a real fight, you would not use always the same attack because 1) it would get too well-known from your opponent to be of any effect, 2) the muscles used in that attack would tire. One way to introduce that in the system could be done by adding an exhaustion point to a skill whenever you use it. And whenever you use a skill, you roll SKILL dices and then remove from the result the number of exhaustion points you have for that skill. Accordingly, it would get less and less efficient to use a particular skill.
Increasing the number of HP per Resistance point seems a good idea too. It might not be needed if we introduce the exhaustion system, as attacks will become less and less effective as the fight goes. And there is always the possibility to rest and regain HP. This is something that would be best defined by trial fights. Same for the decreasing amount of HP per Resistance point. Should be tested, although I'm not sure it's worth the complication.
However, I don't like too much your idea of keeping the highest of the dices in a roll. It seems to me that it would lead to too many ties, which ruins the effect. I think it is more realistic, more fun and more spectacular to have only one opponent receiving damages per turn.
I very much like your idea of allowing multiple attacks. As you say, that would break the routine of the turns. Maybe we could say that a secondary attack is accorder when the smallest dice of the attacker is greater than the highest defender's dice. This rule is valid only if the attacker rolls more than one dice, and it is not valid for the defender.
I would be very glad to test these rules with you (or anybody else, by the way).
