online play combat

[Robocoastie]

I'm going to try out a fast combat method in the pbp game I'm GMing and wonder if any of you see some flaws in this or have tried something similar.

Some of it is heavily inspired by Savage Rules system in that I'm using Lacky's (SW calls them "extras") and Hero levels. This method makes it so the Lacky's are easy to defeat and mainly used for the ROLEplay part.

1. A Lacky is any creature that is 3 or more hit die less than the party average level. Lacky's have one "wound" for each HD they have and each HD represents one "wound". A successful hit on the lacky causes one WOUND, a rogue's sneak/back attack always causes two wounds as does a critical hit. BUT I don't let the players know if something is a lacky or not because they will still roll damage as normal. They'll know it is a lacky by how long its taking to drop the fiend. Lackys cause damage as normal.

2. A Hero is any creature not matching item 1's description and usually also is a more important or tougher opponent. A regular night watchmen for example would typically be a lacky. Sgt. Pimpernail of the watchmen would be a Hero even if his HD is 3 or more less than the party average level.

3. A Hero and Player's "wounds" are represented by the number of HD they are. Example: Level 10 = 10 wounds. Each "wound" represents 5 HP but it doesn't matter if the damage is 1 or 5 to cause a whole wound. Likewise, amounts over 5 cause 2 wounds. A rogue and assassins successful sneak or back attack always causes at least 2 wounds. Any damage equal to or more than their HD incapacitates the opponent. (Not dead but fallen to the grounded/dismounted and wounded enough to be out of the fight etc...) and can be coup-de-graced. (sp?)

The lacky's get to do damage as normal to keep players from ignoreing them like players can do in EverQuest (online) - the silly 2nd level orc trying to constantly hit the fully armored level 20 paladin while he speaks with a friend for example, humerous yes, but completely unrealistic even in a fantasy game for that to happen.

This system favors HIGH damage and rogue/assassin damage but it also dictates who the enemy will attack next. For instance if a rogue just backstabbed the Orc its going to turn on the Rogue and he's going to have to think fast and get away or the others take it down fast, get its attention back etc...

Why not just use SW if it truely has such fast combat? - not everyone has SW, like it or not D20 D&D is the big one everyone seems to have and plays the rest of us get the crumbs or try to convert. In my games I try to run all available systems at the same time so the player can use what they are most comfortable with. In the past that's worked by simply averageing the damage in a matrix, the HP of an enemy tend to be the same anyway regardless of system.

This may not prove to be any faster in the long run anyway, I'm going to test it with the next two encounters (1 lacky's and 1 hero). What methods have any of you tried?

[Treebore]

Hm. Ivid runs his PbP the same way. I'm playing a C&C character and others are using 3E and one other system, 1E I think.

[rabindranath72]

Robocoastie wrote:
In the past that's worked by simply averageing the damage in a matrix, the HP of an enemy tend to be the same anyway regardless of system.

This may not prove to be any faster in the long run anyway, I'm going to test it with the next two encounters (1 lacky's and 1 hero). What methods have any of you tried?

Take into account that averaging may be a dangerous thing to do, since not all systems work with the same probability distributions. Averages tend to favor extreme results, so there can be strong biases.

I never understood how people can mix different systems, when they work with different statistical laws. It would be better to not use any system at all, for what is worth, and simply rely on personal judgment. Everyone can judge whether an orc should be stronger than a character, but things get muddy when the orc and the character are designed under two different systems.

Using "mathematics" to give an "aura" of objectivity in some cases simply does not work.

Cheers,

Antonio

[Robocoastie]

rabindranath72 wrote:
Take into account that averaging may be a dangerous thing to do, since not all systems work with the same probability distributions. Averages tend to favor extreme results, so there can be strong biases.

I never understood how people can mix different systems, when they work with different statistical laws. It would be better to not use any system at all, for what is worth, and simply rely on personal judgment. Everyone can judge whether an orc should be stronger than a character, but things get muddy when the orc and the character are designed under two different systems.

Using "mathematics" to give an "aura" of objectivity in some cases simply does not work.

Cheers,

Antonio

works for me all the time, it takes more work to adjust each stat type every round but with PBP time isn't an issue. Regardless, whether you like or understand using multi-rulesets wasn't my question.

Treebore: does Ivad do anything different for combat speed-up? I know that seems to be the holy grail question of pbp gaming as I've seen it asked a lot and before I found Savage Worlds with its wound system (which is different than my test proposel but inspired from) I haven't found the perfect answer heh.

[Treebore]

He doesn't really even tell us damage. He just tells us when we are hit, when we feel close to passing out, or when we go down. Pretty abstract. I think in PbP it works best if everyone treats it like a choreographed story rather than the normal "dice rolling" game.

I suppose you could download and use a dice roller and just have it show the rolls each post and who was hit or missed with each roll, etc...

The abstract "direction" Ivid uses works for us though.

[Robocoastie]

well playbyweb.com (where I do my pbp'ing) has a built in roller everybody uses but I agree pbp does lend itself more toward abstract type of interactive fiction. I tend to turn misses for example into: "the giant arachnid lunges at Nicoli, but Nicoli sidestep" and so on. It hasn't really been a slowdown issue in the current pbp game I'm GMing because the players have been posting daily , sometimes more than once but for future games with a larger cast I've wondered if there's a method others have found.

thanks,

Rob

[rabindranath72]

works for me all the time, it takes more work to adjust each stat type every round but with PBP time isn't an issue. Regardless, whether you like or understand using multi-rulesets wasn't my question.

Treebore: does Ivad do anything different for combat speed-up? I know that seems to be the holy grail question of pbp gaming as I've seen it asked a lot and before I found Savage Worlds with its wound system (which is different than my test proposel but inspired from) I haven't found the perfect answer heh.[/quote]

Wasn't your question one of "feasibility", i.e. how to deal with some problems you seem to be having? Well, my answer was not to tell you what I do not like, but what might not work from an objective point of view. Knowing how to "adjust the stats", as you say, is just one of the fine points. Mine was only an advice. Take it or not, your choice.

As treebore seems to tell, going totally abstract may be the only sensible thing to do.

Regards,

Antonio

[Robocoastie]

no feasibility was not the question at all. The question was ideas for combat speed up. The rest was for context is all. You see a question is a sentence typed before a question mark. I'm not actually having a "problem" at all I just wondered what methods others have used in their pbp game.

Anyway, whenever I've seen this common question asked before the best answer I've seen is essentially free-form it. And I just wondered what others have tried. sheesh.

To update, last night's posts I tweaked my idea on the lacky's to be straight up free-form and so far that seems to be fine with them.