Following up on the previous blog post, here’s what I am thinking now for combat resolution in ZeroSpace. Currently, the resolution mechanic looks like this:

2d6 + action value [+3 or –3] vs. 8 + difficulty value [+3 or –3]

We want to split up the character’s contribution and their weapon’s contribution, and make both meaningful. That will look like this:

2d6 + attribute + weapon [+3 or –3] vs. 8 + attribute + defense [+3 or –3]

I was pretty happy with the simplicity of “action value” and “difficulty value”, but if we have players adding two things (e.g., attribute and weapon), than coming up with a name for that sum just seems like a needless complication. On the other hand, it does make explaining the game mechanics a lot easier. I’ll keep “action value” and “difficulty value”, for now, and just define what those values actually are on a case by case basis. It might work. We’ll see how it goes.

We currently call the number assigned to each attribute its “rank”, so I suppose the simplest thing to do would be to call the numbers associated with weapons and defenses “rank”, as well (rather than attack rating/defense rating).

And since weapon-like esoteric powers and alien traits would need to work this way as well, we need to add an attribute for them, which I’ll call Power, at least until I think of something better.

So what would this change look like, in practice? It would go from this:

Blast

Blast is a short range (10 m) attack of pure esoteric energy which inflicts endurance damage. The Blast has an attack rating equal to the character’s Willpower.

Dissonance

Dissonance is an unarmed close combat attack which inflicts endurance damage. Dissonance has an attack value (AV) equal to the Willpower rank of the character with the power.

Dissonance ignores all normal forms of protection such as armor and energy shields: instead, the defense value (DV) of the target is equal to their Willpower. This is particularly effective against inanimate objects, since they have no Willpower.

A character with [[ZeroSpace:Esoteric_Orders#Harmony|Harmony]] is unaffected by Dissonance.

Ward

Ward permits a character to use their psiblade or psistaff as protection against most single-target attacks: anything which inflicts endurance damage and is aimed at the individual character.

The defense value (DV) of a character with the Ward advantage is equal to their relevant defense attribute + 1, or the attack rating of their psiblade or psistaff, whichever is greater. As always, this does not stack with armor, energy shields, or other forms of defense — only the highest defense value applies.

Ward does not need to be activated: it is always on, as long as the character is alert and has a psiblade in their possession.

Armor

Armor provides protection against most forms of direct damage: anything which inflicts Endurance damage. The defense value (DV) of a character with armor is equal to their relevant defense attribute (Brawn or Agility) + 1, or the defense rating of the armor, whichever is greater. As always, this protection does not stack with energy shields or other forms of defense — only the highest defense value applies.

Close Combat Weapons

The attack value (AV) of a character using a hand-to-hand weapon such as a club or a knife is equal to their relevant attack attribute (usually Brawn) + 1, or the attack rating of the weapon, whichever is greater. A knife with attack rating 1 wielded by a character with rank 2 Brawn would have an attack value of 3.

To this:

Blast

Blast is a short range (10 m) attack of pure esoteric energy which inflicts endurance damage. Blast has an attack value (AV) equal to the attacker’s Willpower rank + Power rank.

Dissonance

Dissonance is an unarmed close combat attack which inflicts endurance damage. Dissonance has an attack value (AV) equal to the attacker’s Willpower rank + Power rank.

Dissonance ignores all normal forms of protection such as armor and energy shields: instead, the defense value (DV) of the target is equal to their Willpower rank + Power rank. This is particularly effective against inanimate objects, since they have no Willpower.

A character with [[ZeroSpace:Esoteric_Orders#Harmony|Harmony]] is unaffected by Dissonance.

Ward

Ward permits a character to use their psiblade or psistaff as protection against most single-target attacks: anything which inflicts endurance damage and is aimed at the individual character.

The defense value (DV) of a character with the Ward advantage is equal to the rank of their defense attribute + the rank of their psiblade or psistaff. As always, this does not stack with armor, energy shields, or other forms of defense — only the highest defense value applies.

Ward does not need to be activated: it is always on, as long as the character is alert and has a psiblade in their possession.
Armor

Armor provides protection against most forms of direct damage: anything which inflicts Endurance damage. The defense value (DV) of a character with armor is equal to the rank of their defense attribute (Brawn or Agility) + the rank of the armor. As always, this protection does not stack with energy shields or other forms of defense — only the highest defense value applies.

Close Combat Weapons

The attack value (AV) of a character using a hand-to-hand weapon such as a club or a knife is equal to the rank of their attack attribute (usually Brawn) + the rank of the weapon. A knife with rank 1 wielded by a character with rank 2 Brawn would have an attack value of 3.

That’s not so bad, is it?

While adding some notes and ponderings to the Starships chapter of ZeroSpace, I thought of something. At the moment, the way weapons work is that the character’s attack value (AV) is equal to the attack rating (AR) of the weapon or their [relevant attribute] + 1, whichever is greater. Which works out like this:

Novice Marksman (Agility 3)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 4 (Agility + 1)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 4 (from rifle AR, or Agility + 1, same value)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 5 (from rifle AR)

Expert Marksman (Agility 5)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 6 (Agility + 1)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 6 (Agility + 1)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 6 (Agility + 1)

Note: The “Expert Marksman” character would have expertise with rifles (+3 bonus), but that would apply regardless of whether the attack value is based on the weapon or the character’s Agility, so it was easier to just leave it out of this comparison.

The point being that under the current system, the weapon really doesn’t matter unless the character has really low attributes.

I was thinking of changing it so that the character’s attack value (AV) is equal to the attack rating (AR) of the weapon or their [relevant attribute]+1, whichever is lower. Which works out like this:

Novice Marksman (Agility 3)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 3 (from rifle AR)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 4 (from rifle AR, or Agility + 1,
  same value)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 4 (Agility + 1)

Expert Marksman (Agility 5)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 3 (from rifle AR)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 4 (from rifle AR)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 5 (from rifle AR)

This has the opposite problem, in that it would make the character’s attributes (mostly) meaningless, which is even worse (if something has to be meaningless, it shouldn’t be the character).

So how do I make everything meaningful? I could add the attack rating of the weapon to the character’s [relevant attribute], and drop the +1:

Novice Marksman (Agility 3)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 6 (Agility + rifle AR)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 7 (Agility + rifle AR)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 8 (Agility + rifle AR)

Expert Marksman (Agility 5)…

• using a target rifle (AR 3) = AV 8 (Agility + rifle AR)
• using a sporting rifle (AR 4) = AV 9 (Agility + rifle AR)
• using a sniper rifle (AR 5) = AV 10 (Agility + rifle AR)

This is actually closer to how combat worked before I simplified it.

One consequence of this is that I would need to revise the attack rating of attack powers (such as Blast). Essentially, they would act like weapons, and the attack rating would add to the character’s relevant attribute. This might not be a bad thing.

Another consequence is that defenses would need to be adjusted in order to keep parity, but that’s a minor issue.

P.S. Following up on this, I would need to add a new attribute to indicate the “power level” of things like alien’s claws or an esoteric order’s blast power — basically, any power that acts like a weapon or a defense. That would be needed to make those powers/abilities work the same way as ordinary weapons and defenses do.

I am thinking of going the easy route and calling that attribute “Power”.

I have been thinking about fine-tuning the game system we’re using in ZeroSpace. ZeroSpace is space opera (or space fantasy), but the game mechanics are intended to be general enough to adaptable to most genres, and I would eventually like to write variations for sword & sorcery, and perhaps one or two more genres.

Specifically, I think combat resolution is cumbersome, but I have not thought of a way to simplify it that I like any better. The gist of it is this:

“to hit”: attacker rolls 2d6 + attacker’s attribute (+/– 3**) vs. 8 + defender’s attribute (+/– 3**)

“damage”: defender rolls 2d6 + protection attribute (typically Brawn) + protection rating (typically armor) vs. 8 + damage rating of attacker’s weapon

** A bonus is always +3. A penalty is always -3. Only one bonus or one penalty applies to a single roll. If the character has both a bonus and a penalty, they cancel out and are disregarded.

See, just typing that out gives me a headache. So let’s go through this step by step and see if we can get somewhere interesting….

“to hit”: attacker rolls 2d6 + attacker’s attribute (Prowess or Accuracy) (+/– 3**) vs. 8 + defender’s attribute (Prowess or Agility) (+/– 3**)

“damage”: defender rolls 2d6 + protection attribute (typically Brawn) + protection rating (typically armor) vs. 8 + damage rating of attacker’s weapon

Thinking of this algebraically… if we treat “vs” as “minus” (because >= is a success), we get…

“to hit”: ( attacker rolls 2d6 + attacker’s attribute (Prowess or Accuracy) (+/– 3**) ) – ( 8 + defender’s attribute (Prowess or Agility) (+/– 3**) )

“damage”: ( defender rolls 2d6 + protection attribute (typically Brawn) + protection rating (typically armor) ) – ( 8 + damage rating of attacker’s weapon )

To make this simpler to read, making these replacements:

attacker’s “+/-3” >> “+ modA”
defender’s “+/-3” >> “+ modD”
“damage rating of attacker’s weapon” >> “DR”
etc.

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA ) – ( 8 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + BrawnD + armor ) – ( 8 + DR )

Moving things around so that the attacker’s roll can be compared to the defender’s roll…

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA ) + ( 8 + DR )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + BrawnD + armor ) + ( 8 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD )

Simplifying…

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA + 8 + DR )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + BrawnD + armor ) + 8 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD )

Simplifying…

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA + DR )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + BrawnD + armor ) + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD )

Simplifying…

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA + DR )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD + BrawnD + armor ) )

Currently, the damage rating of ranged weaons is fixed, while the damage rating of hand-to-hand weapons is equal to the rank of the weapon or the character’s Brawn rank + 1, whichever is greater. Perhaps the protection rating (PR) of armor should work the same way.

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA + DR )

defender roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD + PR )

Because opposed rolls exaggerate the extremes and flatten the median, we will replace the defender’s 2d6 with 8…

attacker roll: ( 2d6 + (ProwessA or AccuracyA) + modA + DR )

defender: ( 8 + (ProwessD or AgilityD) + modD + PR ) )

Which gives us…

The attacker rolls 2d6 + (their Prowess or Accuracy) + the damage rating of the attack [+3 if the attacker has a bonus, or or -3 if the attacker has a penalty]

The attacker compares this roll to the attack difficulty, which is…

8 + (the defender’s Prowess or Agility) + the defender’s protection rating [+3 if the defender has a bonus, or or -3 if the defender has a penalty]

If the attacker’s roll equals or exceeds the attack difficulty, the attack hits. How much the attack roll exceeded the attack difficulty determines the damage inflicted.

What do you think? How does that sound?

I am thinking of perhaps simplifying it one step further, and combining Prowess and Accuracy into a single attribute. After all, weapon specialization is primarily a factor of buying expertise with a weapon type, so there’s not really a need to differentiate them with different attributes.