So those who follow the anime or gaming block threads might have seen me trying to rework Zanzetkuken's Dragonball system into something that I can work with.
This thread is to work out the balance issues and such of the mechanics I have in mind, as well as open discussion for interested parties.
Note this is NOT the game I'm planning to run, this is at best a group of tests between premade characters.
Currently the mechanics I have in mind for the fights themselves are thus:
'Combat takes place on a 18 square grid, 9 for each side. This allows a simple modeling of range, as well as flight dimensions. Range dimensions are "close" "mid" and "far", while elevation dimensions are "ground" "low" and "high"
'Melee combat takes place when both parties are in their respective "close" square, and the same elevation square. All other combat is ranged, with greater distance on both planes making for longer range. (perhaps basic ki blasts, and some full techniques will have decreased damage with range?)
'Moving from one square to another is an action, as is attacking. Since different characters can end up with different speeds, thus having more actions, this opens up a strategic depth.
'There should be no dice rolls in combat. Combat is based around Power Level, derived from ki.
'Attacks follow a basic rule of Attacker Power Level minus Defender Power Level equals damage inflicted. Fully negated attacks still deal one damage.
'However, most techniques have modifiers to said power levels. Basic attacks have a modified power level of .1x, while a technique such as Kamehameha starts at a 1x, with opportunity to reach much higher multipliers.
'Defensive modifers exist as well. The most basic ones are Aura, which is passive, and Dodge, which expends an action.
'Aura, at first level doubles effective Defense level for the turn, the next level is 3x, then 4x, etc. This passively defends against all attacks in a turn, but expends stamina each turn, with higher levels draining more per turn. (I'm thinking 2 stamina drain per "level" of aura, per turn)
'Dodge fully negates an enemy attack action, and take no damage. However, this expends more stamina then Aura, and only affects one attack. It can be used multiple times in a round. (5 stamina per dodge to start with, we'll see how that balances)
'All attacks drain stamina as well, basic attacks use only 1 stamina each, while techniques drain a base of 10, with more powerful techniques with more modifiers draining more.
'Starting characters begin with 25 stamina, and regain 3 per turn. This can be trained in the full game, but for now we'll leave this be till we figure out a decent balance.
'Starting characters begin with 100 health
So, this SHOULD allow fights to happen without GM input. That will be a godsend for the full game if I'm right about that.
Anyway, I'll roll up a few default characters for people to fight with, then people can start challenging each other and we can see how fast the balance breaks down.
Also note, not working racial traits and such into the mix right now. This is a pure combat system test. All characters are assumed to have flight and energy sensing (these are not things all classes start with in the full game, note)
Character Pool
Low Level
Name: Food Pun
Power Level: 4000
Health: 100
Stamina: 25max +3pt
Speed: 3
Techniques: "Energy Gun Wave: 2x power level ranged blast"
Name: Windpipe
Power Level: 4000
Health: 100
Stamina:25max +3pt
Speed: 3
Techniques: "Nail Gun: 1x power level ranged blast, piercing(halves enemy defense calculation, applies after modifiers such as aura)"
A battle between those two should let us see what two equivalent characters look like, as well as tell us if the piercing technique modifier has any difference to just putting an extra power level on something
Name: Middle Ground
Power Level: 2500
Health: 100
Stamina: 25 +3
Speed: 3
Techniques: "Energy Gun Wave: 2x power level ranged blast"
Name: Butt Monkey
Power Level: 1000
Health: 100
Stamina: 25 +3
Speed: 3
Techniques: "Energy Gun Wave: 2x power level ranged blast"
And these thrown in the mix to see how quickly battles between non-equivalent opponents go. Mostly testing what difference in Power Level turns things into single stroke battles. Don't be afraid to pit these two against the more powerful opponents. ITS FOR SCIENCE!
I'll add more once we have a few battles happen.