Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Good damage system to use in an RTD? Apologies if in wrong forum/section.  (Read 1134 times)

CT

  • Bay Watcher
  • Gah zombies!!
    • View Profile

Couldnt find anywhere that looked good to post this. What is a good system to use damage wise in an rtd? I want to stay away from plain old HP but i also want to post turns semi fast as we are just playing together on facebook meaning they have to wait for me between each action.

Help appreciated.
Logged
No, yep. That's what I meant too. I want to come out of the theater completely fucked up for weeks.

Eotyrannus

  • Bay Watcher
  • Here to throw dinosaurs at people
    • View Profile

Couldnt find anywhere that looked good to post this. What is a good system to use damage wise in an rtd? I want to stay away from plain old HP but i also want to post turns semi fast as we are just playing together on facebook meaning they have to wait for me between each action.

Help appreciated.
Use the Chunky Salsa rule! They are dead if they explode. They are dead after a few turns of bleeding to death. And so on. For a good example, use Perplexicon!
Logged

10ebbor10

  • Bay Watcher
  • DON'T PANIC
    • View Profile

There's the Monk, Iawatoshort system circulating somewhere on the forums.

Can't find it right now.
Logged

Dwarmin

  • Bay Watcher
  • Where do we go from here?
    • View Profile

My systems tend to be overly complicated, but I try to go by the 'five hit rule'-a standard player can take five hits on average before dying-adjusted to fit the situation.

That being said, there's plenty of stuff around-take a look at the more popular games for inspiration.
Logged
Dwarmin's fell gaze has fallen upon you. Sadly, Your life and your quest end here, at this sig.

"The hats never coming off."

Persus13

  • Bay Watcher
  • 6th King of the Mafia
    • View Profile

I've been thinking of a system where combat is two rolls (ex. [4 vs. 5]). If they differ by 4 or 5: (6 vs 1), (6 vs 2), (5 vs 1) they die, where as if it's a difference of two or three, they just get injured. Said injuries may give modifiers to the fight roll. The Roller's block thread will likely have some damage system ideas somewhere in that thread
Logged
Congratulations Persus, now you are forced to have the same personal text for an entire year!
Longbowmen horsearcher doomstacks that suffer no attrition and can navigate all major rivers without ships.
Sigtext

lawastooshort

  • Bay Watcher
  • goodness what
    • View Profile

There's the Gatleos / lawatooshort system circulating somewhere on the forums.

Can't find it right now.

I wouldn't have suggested something I use myself but since Archimedes suggested it then, well, it has worked for a few games and can be as complicated or not as you want.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=125203

Dermonster's version of it was done well but I can't find it just yet.

This was faster and brutaller:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=127157.0

I think Dwarmin's sounds very good. You could combine it with an opposing d6 roll: if the attacker beats the defender then bang, one of your five hits is gone.

It kind of depends on how complicated the rest of your game is though.
Logged

piecewise

  • Bay Watcher
  • [TORTURE_FOR_FUN]
    • View Profile
    • Stuff

This all depends on how in depth of an RTD you're planning.

Will it be standard d6 for everything with no stats or skills?

Will there be stats and skills and how will the effect rolls? Dice pool? Bonuses to rolled number?

Do you want to use an HP damage system or one that is based more around blood loss and organ damage? Either works, really; hp is easier to quantify but leads to a bit of metaness when it comes to how wounds are handled. Ie, when you can have a rogue stab someone in the throat and the stabbed person doesn't care because hit points.

How in depth are you looking to go with things like injuries or persistent damage from being hurt?

Joben

  • Bay Watcher
  • Elder Thing
    • View Profile
    • Lazy Lizard Gear

I tend to favor hitpoints systems. Everyone knows how they work. They're fast. A lot of the other stuff is just obfuscated hitpoint systems anyway. (Want to categorize characters as Fine, Hurt, Injured and Dead? Congrats your characters have 3 hits points.)

I have a suggestion though. Behind the scenes it's basically hitpoints, but it's obfuscated in way that is useful for roleplay. Make it cinematic. A hero doesn't go down in one shot. He gets his arm sliced, puts it in a sling and carries on. So when a character is injured. It's never lethal the first time (unless they get nuked or something). Describe a simple injury that will limit them. After a few such blows they're out of Hero Luck, and the next one can be fatal.

So it's not "Bob has 1 HP left." It's "Bob is in bad shape with a broken arm and a concussion."
Logged
Broken Arrow - A small stats tweak to fix unrealistically overpowered arrows and bolts.

My RTD games: Roll To Raptor (On hold), Dino Arena