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[Joben]

Joben, would it be possible to save vigor of one of the hunters by having another carry it? I ask specifically as, unless going further than far range burns no vigor, then Unholy Pariah will still run out after next turn.

I'll say you could drag one of your fellows at least some distance. I'm not sure of the exact technique but it seems like creatures with hands should be able to manage it.

And yes, you can move beyond Far, it's just an abstraction for handling striking distances during a fight. When you get out of strike range and can relax Vigor stops going down by the second. Like I think Dwarmin's is at 10 and I'm just going to leave it there.


Now about hitting 0 Vigor...this gave me trouble for some reason. Mostly because too many ways to handle it, not a lack of options. I think theres a misleading early draft of the clause in the rules doc. (Sorry about that.)

The concept I'm working from now is that Vigor 0 = Exhaustion, not unconsciousness. You're out of breath, muscles burning. You'll fight like crap, but you can probably walk away under your own power.

I'll post mechanics when in the morning when coffee will help my brain work.

[mastahcheese]

Bite it's face while it's down!

[scapheap]

Continue outlooking for Unholy

[Maxinum McDreich]

fair enough.

Retreat to medium range. Taunt cos this thing's practically dead.

[Joben]

move to max range

You move to Far range.

(Move x2)

Action: Yip! I flee!

You move out past Far range, well out of plausible reach of the Bigtooth.

(Out of Combat; No Current Threats, Vigor burn halted)

Keep attacking the neck! Bite and rip, make it bleed a lot!

You kick at the Bigtooth but slip and fall over!

(2-1 vs 4+2-2-1. Clash, Luck 1) (Prone)

The Bigtooth snaps at you while you're on the ground. The angle is really awkward though and it ends up battering you rather than biting.

(20 dmg taken)

Try to spot weakest foe, Furiously kill it with final effort.

You're too exhausted, you barely understand what's going on anymore. The little hunters are just blurry shapes. You can't pick one out. You lash out desperately at the nearest blur, GreatWyrmGold who just made a move against you.

(Sense 1)

(Furious Attack 4+1+1 vs  2+1+1, Hit dmg 20)

Bite it's face while it's down!

You cannot bite ye face.

(Attack 2 vs 5+2-2-1)

Continue outlooking for Unholy

(This works on everyone in the same area)

You screech out a warning to GreatWyrmGold but unfortunately he's prone and gets hit anyway.

(Sense 3+1, Success, Allies Def +1)

fair enough.

Retreat to medium range. Taunt cos this thing's practically dead.

You pull back to Medium, out of it's immediate reach unless it moves, and ridicule it mercilessly. It chuffs back at you, snapping it's jaws once in your direction, but doesn't even try to approach.


The Bigtooth's movement slows. It's remaining good eye appears to become unconfused. It stops snapping at Greatwrym and lays it's head down on the ground. You all know the signs. It's strength is gone. It's breathing is rapid and shallow, then that too slows until the giant ribcage is still.

You have defeated your foe and won meat for yourselves. All of you are alive, though not even one amongst you has escaped harm.

The sky above you dims to twilight, and in contrast to this the door to your cell opens up on the wall, warm light spilling out, providing a beacon to the way back.

You know from experience that you can't stay in the Arena long after a match. Already there is an unpleasant chill in the air that will grow more intense with each passing hour. But for now you should eat.

Over the next few minutes you all get back 3d6 hitpoints and Vigor as any bleeding stops and you catch your breath:

GreatWrymGold: 12
Dwarmin: 13
Unholy_Pariah: 8
Maxinum McDreich: 11
Scrapheap: 12
Mastahcheese: 10

Spoiler: GM Notes (click to show/hide)

 He had 5 Vigor after this turn and was basically broken. It seemed reasonable to just call it here. It was statistically unlikely he could kill one of you in the 1 turn he technically had left.
Especially since you could just walk away and he would die of his injuries unable to pursue effectively.

Taking a last weak bite at Greatwyrm then lapsing into shock seemed a dramatically appropriate end.

Character Status
Game Rules Doc

[Unholy_Pariah]

Eat the bigtooth

[mastahcheese]

Eat the bigtooth

We already did!

Head back to the cell.

[Joben]

Yeh it's basically over at this point. If anyone wants to describe what they do or RP how they feel about it that's fine.

But basically you guys eat, and go back inside. Fade to black. Anyone who insists on staying in the Arena would eventually freeze to death. The entities that run this facility are pretty railroady. 

Thank you for playing a round of Dino Arena.

This game will be on hiatus for about a week, but will return for another round if there is continued interest. In the meantime I welcome questions, comments and suggestions.

Was there anything you did or did not like in particular?

Was there anything you didn't understand?

Do you have any suggestions about how to make the game better?

Any further comments beyond these questions?

Spoiler: Specific thing the GM wants input on (click to show/hide)

What do you think it's a more reasonable penalty for exhaustion in combat?

A negative modifier to all actions?
Or endurance check at the beginning of the turn to see if you can act? If you pass you would continue as normal for that turn. Fail and you stand there panting.

[mastahcheese]

I liked it a lot.

I can't really think of any suggestions, though, sorry.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Spoiler: Specific thing the GM wants input on (click to show/hide)

What do you think it's a more reasonable penalty for exhaustion in combat?

A negative modifier to all actions?
Or endurance check at the beginning of the turn to see if you can act? If you pass you would continue as normal for that turn. Fail and you stand there panting.

Both of those would work. Perhaps decreasing Vigor could lead to penalties, and at zero they need to roll to act?

[Dwarmin]

Was there anything you did or did not like in particular?

Was there anything you didn't understand?

Do you have any suggestions about how to make the game better?

Any further comments beyond these questions?

Spoiler: Specific thing the GM wants input on (click to show/hide)

What do you think it's a more reasonable penalty for exhaustion in combat?

A negative modifier to all actions?
Or endurance check at the beginning of the turn to see if you can act? If you pass you would continue as normal for that turn. Fail and you stand there panting.

1. I can't find much fault with it-I do like the system of vigor being stam/HP. It's easy to understand.
2. A better way of describing wounds might be helpful, but that's just a UI issue. I wasn't sure if I was hurting it at some point.
3. Nope, but I'm horrible with numbers anyway.
4. Glad to have you back, Joben.

5. I would say endurance check entirely. As you alluded to earlier in a post, some animals can fight long after they're probably going to be medically dead. But, I'd make it somewhat permanent-once you fall down, you're not likely to get back up. Either from a 'coup de grace' or instant kill maneuver (such as being swallowed whole or torn apart by a large pack) or simple exhaustion. Since this game is going for the realistic side, it shouldn't be really be easy to kill anything bigger than ourselves, and we'd have to pick our fights carefully. Also, as a player, I'd rather fight to the bitter end, then limp along not hitting anything or being useful because of my massive penalties-which would make me more likely to retreat, anyway.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Realistically, most predators retreat before they get completely exhausted. Also realistically, being tired makes your fighting less effective.

[Joben]

I liked it a lot.

I can't really think of any suggestions, though, sorry.

Thanks. 

Spoiler: Specific thing the GM wants input on (click to show/hide)

What do you think it's a more reasonable penalty for exhaustion in combat?

A negative modifier to all actions?
Or endurance check at the beginning of the turn to see if you can act? If you pass you would continue as normal for that turn. Fail and you stand there panting.

Both of those would work. Perhaps decreasing Vigor could lead to penalties, and at zero they need to roll to act?

That would make sense.

However I am hesitant to add semi-persistent modifiers to player characters for the simple reason that they're hard for me to keep track of properly. One might be ok, but I feel like a tiered system would be difficult to keep track of relative to the amount of useful crunch we got out of it.

Also I'm not entirely convinced that having players be partially disabled for big chunks of every fight would result in fun game play, even if arguably realistic.

Was there anything you did or did not like in particular?

Was there anything you didn't understand?

Do you have any suggestions about how to make the game better?

Any further comments beyond these questions?

Spoiler: Specific thing the GM wants input on (click to show/hide)

What do you think it's a more reasonable penalty for exhaustion in combat?

A negative modifier to all actions?
Or endurance check at the beginning of the turn to see if you can act? If you pass you would continue as normal for that turn. Fail and you stand there panting.

1. I can't find much fault with it-I do like the system of vigor being stam/HP. It's easy to understand.
2. A better way of describing wounds might be helpful, but that's just a UI issue. I wasn't sure if I was hurting it at some point.
3. Nope, but I'm horrible with numbers anyway.
4. Glad to have you back, Joben.

5. I would say endurance check entirely. As you alluded to earlier in a post, some animals can fight long after they're probably going to be medically dead. But, I'd make it somewhat permanent-once you fall down, you're not likely to get back up. Either from a 'coup de grace' or instant kill maneuver (such as being swallowed whole or torn apart by a large pack) or simple exhaustion. Since this game is going for the realistic side, it shouldn't be really be easy to kill anything bigger than ourselves, and we'd have to pick our fights carefully. Also, as a player, I'd rather fight to the bitter end, then limp along not hitting anything or being useful because of my massive penalties-which would make me more likely to retreat, anyway.

1. Thanks, I thought that all worked pretty well.

2. Ok. Could you please dig up a turn where you were unsure of the result so I can look at it? This is definitely something I want to fix.

3. Haha ok.

4. Thank you.

5. The short response to this is "Yes." Those are basically my design goals for this system. Tweaks to further encourage that sort of behavior and result will be enacted before the next round.

[Dwarmin]

@Joben: It was more of an overall thing. Like, if I did 4 damage to the 'monster, I was confused as to where that showed up on the char sheet. Just the wound system in general, I was puzzled with. I didn't really completely understand the number/base/wound table.

[Joben]

@Joben: It was more of an overall thing. Like, if I did 4 damage to the 'monster, I was confused as to where that showed up on the char sheet. Just the wound system in general, I was puzzled with. I didn't really completely understand the number/base/wound table.

Gotcha. I don't think I documented that, because the table was something I realized I needed literally as I was writing the first turn.

The core idea of the wound system is that the main result of injury is decreased stamina and capability. The goal being a downward spiral that roughly parallels the effects of exhaustion, shock and blood loss. It intentionally avoids Critical Existence Failure tropes where you are totally fine until you're not. Instead everything is a gradient scale of 'how injured are you?' The more injured something is the fewer functional turns it has left.

Each body part of the Bigtooth had a hit point value. When this value was reduced below a certain threshold it resulted in a "Wound" which increased Vigor lost per turn and added a minor negative status effect. If a part was brought all the way to 0 it caused a second wound and generally a more serious version of the previous status effect.

So the cells of the table left to right were: | Name of Part | HP of part on previous turn --> Current HP of Part | Threshold of First Wound & Parts Starting HP |