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Another Game Idea Reimagined

10/24/2012

2 Comments

 
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Inspiration can come from all different places. Sometimes we ask for it, other times it just happens. So far this new game concept is a combination of the two. As mentioned in the last post, working on a mech combat game was inspired serendipitously by a chat room conversation. Now this new update to the idea has been largely inspired by comments from my friend Paul; comments I asked for. (Thanks again, Paul!) (Read the comments here.)

My takeaway from the feedback was 1. doing a Battletech clone is problematic, but 2. some of the mechanics I envisioned are worth pursuing. Honestly, I had qualms about the first problem right away. It seemed difficult to do a mech-type battle game without copying Battletech. Further, though I was into BT for a time way back in middle school, I have hardly played it in the last 20 years. So while working on even these very early brainstorms I was trying to think of a different genre that would work equally well, but nothing seemed to fit.

Then things seemed to come together last night. For several years I've been dabbling off and on with an RPG battle system. The main mechanic would be that players allocate points from a fixed pool toward movement, attacking, and/or defense/perception. Therefore, you could move very fast without watching around you, you could attack all-out with little defense, etc, but it's always a trade off. Ideally, the system would also incorporate fatigue, so that characters can't just sprint or fight indefinitely. I tried all different tracking mechanisms, counters, sliders, cards, but nothing seemed quite right.

Last night it occurred to me that the mech battle mechanics would nicely fit the bill for just such a system. Rather than a full-fledged RPG, I envision a board- and tile-based dungeon crawl. The battlemech's tracking mat and tiles become the fantasy character's sheet. Each part of the body can absorb a certain number of hits just as before. Heat build up becomes fatigue, and heat sinks equate to stamina or fitness. Heavier weapons use more cards, causing more fatigue. More powerful weapons get more dice (more chances to cause more hits). Just about everything transfers over.

One change is in the nature of movement. Clearly a one-on-one, mapless dungeon crawl would be very limited, so instead of the simple distance heuristic, characters and monsters have a map to move on. The walls would be predrawn, but each section of a room would be randomly placed as 2x2" tiles. The tiles have a 3x3 grid of movement squares, and each square can contain treasure, a monster, or nothing. As the characters move through the dungeon, and depending on the strength of their light source, the tiles are flipped over.

The game would support several players with their own characters and one player as the "monster master". They'd control the monsters and adjudicate any rule questions, but unlike a traditional DM, their role requires no preparation or improvisation.

Those are the basics of the game mechanics. As for backstory, I'm thinking something like this: you've been tracking a diabolical sorcerer for weeks. You have identified his lair and uncovered his plot to open a rift between dimensions, flooding the world with devils and demons. His magical power will reach its peak with the lunar eclipse. You now stand at the entrance to the cavern, knowing that you only have hours before the eclipse, and the fate of the world depends on you... Cheesy? Yes, but it'll do for now.

Aside from this standard random dungeon romp, I could see people setting up specific dungeons, perhaps even adding in continued storylines and roleplaying. At its base though, the game would be a board game meant to provide a little quick relief for people hankering for a more involved D&D type adventure.

That at least is my vision for today. We'll see where inspiration leads me tomorrow.
2 Comments
Paul
10/24/2012 10:45:56 am

Ah, that’s more like it. Much of my concern has disappeared. I like the transition to a different genre. If not fantasy, maybe steampunk because you have a sword and sorcery game in the works already.

I really like the mechanic whereby you have a pool of resources per turn to spend on movement, defense, etc. I played a game called Arcane Legions that did something similar but not quite the same. [It was cool, once I switched to full defense and imagined my group of fighters in testudo formation, unable to attack and slowed to a crawl, but tough as nails.] What would be nice is if you could figure out a simple way to make your pool get reduced as you got hurt; I always thought it didn’t make sense that my guy was just as tough at one hp as when he is uninjured.

Your idea about making bigger weapons do more damage but tire you out faster is also a good one. I was thinking about what BT does in terms of weapon balance: Lasers generate heat but can fire an infinite number of times.. Autocannons make little heat when fired but have limited ammunition. Maybe weapons (swords etc) are similar to lasers, and spells/bows/psychic are similar to the A/Cs. In other words, recreate the interesting balance/tradeoffs between the variety of weapons.

The stamina concept is also a perfect match, I like it. The harder you exert yourself the greater the chance you will tire out and need a breather (auto-shutdown), eventually leading to a heart attack. :) Another BT mechanic was the once per battle coolant flush, you could call that an adrenaline surge.

Would there be damage reduction based on armor worn, along with stamina penalty based on armor worn? Or would your walk/run/jump speeds be based on your armor?
What about critical hits? Everybody loves crits. And how does a character die?

I don’t think you’re trying for a direct BT translation, just borrowing some of the better concepts and blending it with your own. I'd be surprised if a person would recognize the similarities if it wasn't pointed out to them. The system you posted sounds pretty good.

Premade characters you already mentioned, possibly with a short backstory to provide additional interest in each one. I was thinking more about the “create your own mech” rules concept and it might not be so bad to include, BUT – I would make the premades better or equal to what can be created using the rules. They would be less min/maxed but on average a little better, making the choice between the two meaningful.

$0.05

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CrassPip link
10/24/2012 10:40:40 pm

Right now a base character has 8 cards and I think 13 hit points. The HPs are allocated by body part- head 2, limbs 2 each, body 3. I wasn't sure on armor, but my initial idea was: you roll hit location first (like you see an opening there) and adjust the to hit roll (ie to do damage) based on the armor. Each hit just does one point. Mightier weapons roll more dice.

The damage result would depend on the location. One blow to the head, stun for a round, two knocked out. Two to a limb makes it unusable. Three to the body, you fall dying. (Also like BT, if a limb is unusable the damage transfers to the body.) So you die by blows to the head or body..

I figured the odds of hitting vs hit points to see how many rounds a battle would take to calculate this, but it might be too weak for PCs since they hwve to endure multiple battles. I'll do some more solo play testing.

I like the idea of losing cards for taking damage. It could just be minus one card every time a negative effect happens. Or maybe the card loss vs HP loss would be mutually exclusive. I liked in Warhammer FRP that they differentiated superficial damage from real, lasting damage. The card loss could be superficial, but HP loss real..

As for some other details, right now at least I'm keeping it simple: you have a move rate. You have armor. You have a stamina (recovery) rate. These are just numbers assigned to the characters, not calculated off of one another. If custom characters are added, the interactions will have to be figured out. And no crit mechanic yet. 5% chance always seemed way too high to me, plus here you roll more dice.

Let's see.. I had forgotten about the ammo aspect in BT, so yes, I like if spells act like that- no cost to use other than you have limited uses. I had planned on the spells being a tile that you turn each time it's used, so that fits well.
I also didn't recall the coolant flush, but I also like the adrenaline surge (second wind? ;) idea.

I like the idea of back stories for each character. They could even get "points" based on fulfilling some goals. These could also be cards that are distributed randomly so nobody knows each other's motivation unless they share, and could also provide replay value.

As always, good feedback. I'll do some more testing and see how things play out.

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    Dusty (CrassPip) has been playing geek games for 30 years(!) and making his own for nearly as long. Recently, he's actually gotten games beyond the imagination stage.

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