Post by drsamsara on Apr 23, 2010 19:32:40 GMT -5
[Excerpted from the blog]
I have been idly playing with the idea that the Combat Roll is the major determinant of the damage inflicted. Whether this is actually a good idea or not, I'll leave to your judgment, o discerning reader. I'm just conducting a Gedankenexperiment here.
One quirk of S&S is that almost all rolls are made by trying to get 11+ on 2D6. But not combat. Combat works by cross-referencing weapon type to armour class to determine a target number. Of course, non-amnesiac readers will recall my heroic battles with the Combat Matrix to come up with a preferred version. And, as it ended up, I decided that it was easier to drop the idea of having the matrix determine the target number and instead determine a modifier with the target number standardized at 11+ (like everything else).
What a happy occurrence! Because it immediately suggests a mechanic: let the number in the one's place determine damage. A roll of "11" does 1 point of damage; a roll of "18" does 8. I like that. It's dead-easy to remember and it means that the more skilled warriors do more damage, whether they have a +9 Sword of Bad-Asssery or just a pruning knife. That definitely fits in with the abstract nature of Hit Points and combat in general.
Now it gets a little bit more complicated. S&S dispenses with differing weapons doing differing ranges of damage: everything is 1D6. Differences among weapons are handled by how they interact with the various armour classes. Up to a point. Because that same psychology that inspired this post--the one that wants the quality of the combat roll to affect the damage--also wants to see some difference in damage between a dagger and a claymore. In a variable weapon system, that's easily handled, but not in this experiment.
Hmn, I suppose the easiest (if not cleverest) thing would be to give a damage bonus to large or two-handed weapons (say +2) and a subtraction to small weapons (say -2).
So.
So, we roll 2D6+modifiers and, if we get a two-digit result, the one's digit tells us how much damage we do, as modified then by weapon size, strength bonus, magical bonus, etc.
So.
Well, it's an interesting idea anyway.
I have been idly playing with the idea that the Combat Roll is the major determinant of the damage inflicted. Whether this is actually a good idea or not, I'll leave to your judgment, o discerning reader. I'm just conducting a Gedankenexperiment here.
One quirk of S&S is that almost all rolls are made by trying to get 11+ on 2D6. But not combat. Combat works by cross-referencing weapon type to armour class to determine a target number. Of course, non-amnesiac readers will recall my heroic battles with the Combat Matrix to come up with a preferred version. And, as it ended up, I decided that it was easier to drop the idea of having the matrix determine the target number and instead determine a modifier with the target number standardized at 11+ (like everything else).
What a happy occurrence! Because it immediately suggests a mechanic: let the number in the one's place determine damage. A roll of "11" does 1 point of damage; a roll of "18" does 8. I like that. It's dead-easy to remember and it means that the more skilled warriors do more damage, whether they have a +9 Sword of Bad-Asssery or just a pruning knife. That definitely fits in with the abstract nature of Hit Points and combat in general.
Now it gets a little bit more complicated. S&S dispenses with differing weapons doing differing ranges of damage: everything is 1D6. Differences among weapons are handled by how they interact with the various armour classes. Up to a point. Because that same psychology that inspired this post--the one that wants the quality of the combat roll to affect the damage--also wants to see some difference in damage between a dagger and a claymore. In a variable weapon system, that's easily handled, but not in this experiment.
Hmn, I suppose the easiest (if not cleverest) thing would be to give a damage bonus to large or two-handed weapons (say +2) and a subtraction to small weapons (say -2).
So.
So, we roll 2D6+modifiers and, if we get a two-digit result, the one's digit tells us how much damage we do, as modified then by weapon size, strength bonus, magical bonus, etc.
So.
Well, it's an interesting idea anyway.
