Shall We Revise The Crap Outta That Combat?

Please reference this post so you have a full understanding of what I'm talking about when I say that the combat I described in my last game design post was, in short, poorly designed. In long, it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

I have been blessed with two children that enjoy playing games and are happy to test my unfinished mechanical systems with me just whenever. They take instructions well and they can roll their own dice and keep track of their totals. So when we had some time to rub together I sat down with one of them and we rolled our way through a couple of combat encounters between roughly evenly matched opponents. What we discovered is that the ammo mechanic limits combat length like mad, and it is, in fact, totally possible to one-shot a PC within the first couple of turns. We made some on the fly adjustments to address those issues, but all those changes did was reveal that the repair mechanic is completely OP, and even with a longer ammo scale two evenly matched opponents will probably never actually kill each other.

So the ammo mechanic has got to go, I think. Also, repair is gonna be nerfed. Like, I can't just cut the legs out from under that, I gotta cut it off at the armpits. And my desire for symmetry on the scales for engine power and armor integrity is probably gonna go unrequited. Or at least having them start at the same value. Something there needs to change.

So what now? There's a tendency I see represented pretty widely among creatives and aspiring creatives that if something doesn't work how they envisioned it they either roll it straight back to the concept phase and start over completely, or they ditch it altogether. Both of which, I would guess, stem from the imposter syndrome we're all 'blessed' with in ample supply. But I don't think I need to start over here. The d4-based nature of the system was fun and interesting, and I liked the feel of the simultaneous turns thing, it was fast and cinematic, and I suspect it will continue to be so long as you don't have to roll a million enemies as the DM.

Which of course means I'll have to have group combat rules specifically for the DM.

So what I think is needed here is revision, not a ground up reconstitution. Some changes are simple; the Ammo scale is gone. There needs to be another way to ensure that combat doesn't drag on. Related to combat not dragging on, the recovery mechanic can't happen every turn. I'm thinking it doesn't even happen during combat at all. I'll keep it around, but that will be an action you take between combat encounters, or possibly in situations where you have eluded pursuit but combat isn't technically over. 

The armor scale as hitpoints feels low as well. I don't want armor totals in this game to generally be huge on the order of D&D, because again, I want combat to be quick. But at least for PCs I think it needs to start between 10-16, to keep even strong beginning enemies from one-shotting them. Could they still be two-shot? Yes, and I like the threat of that, mechanically, because it means that PCs could conceivably two-shot them. But in both cases they'd have to get pretty unusually lucky.

Because there's also the engine power mechanic. I like this concept that you have to be able to hit something before you can... hit it, but engine power is only part of that. If we're talking about dog-fighting fighter craft (and we are, to be clear), pilot skill and other circumstances play a big roll in dodging incoming fire. So the standard engine power scale is probably fine as is; it's a thing you can upgrade to improve your elusiveness as a target, and it starts at 4. But I also need a pilot skill roll to stack on top of that. 

So here's what I'm changing for now.

• Ammo scale? Gone.
• Repair roll? I'll deal with that later.
• Armor scale starts at 12.
• When you roll your d4s for accuracy, you'll also roll 1d6 for piloting. To hit, you have to beat a target's engine power + that d6 roll.
• Tied dice rolls go to the aggressor, full stop.

Now that feels a bit better. Once again, I'm off to go test. If this permutation feels more balanced but still leaves the combat encounters quick and punchy, then I'll work on adding back in the repair mechanic for managing damage between combat encounters. I'm thinking something like a short rest, but which could possibly be deployed even within combat in a pinch. We'll see. 

Gotta get the actual combat revised first.