Tarran {5}
"This is not going to be fun, I know it."
...Alright, change my action to standing around like an idiot.
Sargoth - {1}
I go ahead and take my water pill.
Then I look to the others, "We'll have to work together. I suggest we form into two person teams and fight together. Also being at the center, we should head in one direction or another, so we confront one side at a time and not both at once."
Kenton - {6-1}
Organize the group into a circular formation, so that no one can hit any of our backs.
Nimitz - {5}
Oh no. Starvation and dehydration, I can deal with...but killing someone? The very thought of it disturbs me...but I have no choice. I just hope these people aren't planning on purposely getting themselves killed in this. That would put me in a bind for sure. I will try to convince my "teammates" to give it their all.
Sam Brown - {4-1}
i try to convice the person cracking his knuckles that we need to work together or were all dead.
Batista - {6}
I wait in the middle, conserving my energies.
Turn 3
Tarran taps his foot impatiently, glancing around. He looks extraordinarily foolish, but you daren't say it.
"This isn't going to be fun, I know it.""Cut the idle talk, we need to think how best to survive. I say we —" Sargoth is cut off by Kenton.
"Form up into a circle. We can't expose our backs to our enemies, otherwise we'll be at a significant tactical disadvantage."The group follows Kenton's instructions like soldiers, to Sargoth's chagrin. While stepping into formation, he fishes his water pill from his pocket and pops it into his mouth. The capsule breaks open, and his mouth's mucous membrane absorbs the sweet gel. Ah, immediate relief!
Sam, meanwhile, is considerably worse off.
"Listen, guys. If we don't work together, we're screwed. We need a plan if we're going to stand a chance."Muscles nods his head slightly, and for the first time Sam gets a good look at him. {NPCs section updated}
After a long silence, he utters three words:
"You take point."Ushered forth by Muscles and his buddy, Sam begins to make his way to the center. The metal dividers retract into the box's structure and the path is cleared; soon Kenton's group is well within sight. They seem to be holding their formation...
"Listen, we have the highest chance of survival. We can overpower the others with sheer numbers if need be."Nimitz begins to rally his teammates and is quickly appointed a makeshift leader.
"We'll wait here for the other two groups to fight it out amongst each other, then we'll sweep in and take out whoever's left. Rest up while there's still time."The haggard survivors nod in agreement, grouping around Nimitz. Their hopes were once broken, but his words seem to have kindled a new flame.
Batista adopts Kenton's battle plan without hesitation. He tries to calm himself down, but his blood won't stop pumping -- he's getting excited! This next battle will be fun, he's sure of it.
Sargoth
Health: Hungry.
Inventory: A sharp piece of metal.
Equipment: Wearing the standard gray jumpsuit provided by the AI.
Traits: Knows the basics of computer hardware. (+1 to rolls involving computers)
Skills: <blank>
Nimitz
Health: Thirsty.
Inventory: Nothing!
Equipment: Standard gray jumpsuit. It's seen better days.
Traits: Knows a bit about the human body (+1 to first-aid) and has studied cybernetics.
Skills: <1 leadership xp>
Tarran
Health: Gone without food or water for days. Holding up remarkably well.
Inventory: Completely empty!
Equipment: A gray jumpsuit. There are some signs of wear and tear.
Traits: Knows how to sling a gun. (+1 to shootin' rolls.), disciplined (not affected by exhaustion/hunger/thirst as much)
Skills: <not filled in>
Sam Brown
Health: Hungry and thirsty. -1 to rolls.
Inventory: Nothing.
Equipment: Standard-issue gray jumpsuit.
Traits: Chemical engineering graduate. (+1 to rolls involving chemistry... or engineering.)
Skills: <this concept will be developed more soon>
Kenton
Health: Failed to resist his hunger & thirst. -1 to rolls.
Inventory: Empty.
Equipment: Gray jumpsuit, torn around the elbows and knees.
Traits: Understands the concepts behind AI. (+1 to rolls involving the AI)
Skills: <1 tactician xp>
Batista
Health: Excited! (+1 combat point) Feeling a bit hungry, due to Kenton.
Inventory: Food ration, stolen from an inmate the day before.
Equipment: Typical gray jumpsuit. No more, no less.
Traits: Psychopath. (+1 to rolls involving deceit)
Skills: <not ready yet>
Muscles
Health: He looks fine.
Description: This man stands 6'3" and his muscles are clearly visible through his jumpsuit. Maintaining such a high level of fitness under such horrible conditions as this is quite a feat. Not someone you want to fight hand-to-hand.
Non-notable NPCs:
Muscle's friend: 1/1.
Scraggly survivors, Side A: 5/5. Vigilant! (+1 to combat rolls)
Scraggly survivors, Side B: 1/2.
Metal BoxYou are all inside a gigantic metal box. These bulkheads lead to separate corridors, which in turn lead to the innards of The Dome. The box itself is approximately two kilometers long and less than 200 meters wide. The ceiling hangs above, at a height of 50 meters. Side A and Side B are opposite each other. Large metal shutters have lowered, separating the box into 5 parts.
(character size increased for visibility, walls/doors to scale) Blue = Player Characters, Red = NPCs of unknown or hostile alignment, Grey = Characteres unconscious or with grievous injuries.
Nimitz is at Side A, along with 5 others. Their spirits are high.
Sam Brown is at Side B, along with Muscles and his friend, as well as two scraggly survivors, one of whom is lying unconscious, badly beaten.
Sargoth, Tarran, Kenton, and Batista are at the center of the box, assuming a circle-formation. (+1 to defense rolls!)
So, here's how combat works:
You get 3 combat 'points' per turn (Batista has 4, due to his {6} roll). For the time being, attacking costs one point. You'll roll to hit, the enemy will roll to dodge, then you'll roll for damage. You'll always hit on a {5}.
Instead of attacking, you can 'defend' or 'dodge'. These are essentially the same, but rely on different skills and are affected by equipment differently. (Good luck dodging a bullet, especially if you're wearing some ridiculous power suit!). These both cost two points, but they affect all your defense rolls for the round, depending on your skill and roll. A {1} with a dodge/defend has no effect, as opposed to a negative effect like all other {1}s.
Some actions (bandaging, etc) can be taken in combat, but also require more combat points. Bandaging requires three.
In case that's hard to understand, here's an example:
Demetrius and Lysander are fighting.
Demetrius has 3 combat points.
He attacks Lysander x3, he rolls: {4}, {5}, {3}. One hit plus two possibles. Lysander rolls to dodge: {3 - 1}, {2}. Dodge fails. Demetrius rolls for damage: {6}, {1}, {3}. Massive damage, no damage, moderate damage. Cue flavor text à la:
With burning passion, Demetrius cleaves his spatha toward Lysander. The blade effortlessly carves through his shoulder, nearly bisecting him. The force of the blow knocks Lysander to the ground! While winding around for another strike, Demetrius barely skims the top of his target's head. With one final thrust, he pierces through Lysander's arm. Wiping the sweat from his brow, his foe lies before him, blood oozing from his shoulder wound. He'll be dead in a under a minute, barring godly intervention.
Lysander then rolls for 'bleeding'. Right now he's fatally wounded, so anything short of a {6} and he's going to die, unless someone comes to save him.
Anyway, what it boils down to:
You have three points to spend per turn in combat. You can:
Attack (1 point)
Dodge/Defend (2 points)
Other action (3 points) - bandaging and the like
So you could Attack & Dodge, Attack x3, or Bandage someone.
You can be more specific with your attacks. Attack <target's> <body part> for instance. "Punch Lysander in the face repeatedly"x3
Grabbing, pushing, and shoving are also valid actions, which cost one point each. So grab your opponent, kick him to the ground, and stab him or something. A {1} on your grab roll will result in a reversal; bad for you. Standing up costs a point. Laying on the ground confers a ridiculous to hit and damage penalty, so it's best to avoid that.
As for guns and the like, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Or maybe we won't, depending on how horribly broken this system is.
Named enemies are the only ones who'll have several attacks per turn. So, Muscles will get to attack several times, while the scraggly survivors act like generic mooks and will just mob you.
To answer the inevitable: Why deviate from standard RTD convention?
To allow more 'strategic' depth, at least theoretically. Also to make combat go faster and allow more heroic/awesome/what have you maneveurs. It might prove to be completely unnecessary! I haven't actually checked many recent RTDs, so I have no idea how much worse this system will inevitably prove to be.
It's worth a shot, plus if it's really bad we can switch to the tried & true one-roll system. Just for clarification: outside of combat, you still only get one action per turn. These rules only apply for fighting situations.
Players attacks always take precedence. This might be changed, depending on how unbalanced this turns out to be. I'm going to wind up rolling ~20 times per combat turn now anyway, so there's no harm in adding in a round of initiative rolls if need be.
Also of note: eating/drinking/standing around have, as of this round, been demoted to free actions. Because choking on your food, while hilarious, is kind of not that great.
Author
Topic: Singularity - Post-apocalyptic RTD - Turn 3 (Read 4650 times)