Rolling Defenses

[unclevlad]

8 minutes ago, Doc Democracy said:

Question is, would a system that increases dice rolling and counting AND damage volatility, increase or decrease the length of combats?

 

 

Complementary question:  would it increase or decrease the enjoyment?

 

Honestly:  I seriously doubt I'd ever buy Negation, if it was rolled, so for me, the whole thing would be moot...except to say that a change that makes an inefficient power LESS attractive, seems unwise on the surface.  I might define a basic Defense power...let you put in PD, rPD, ED, rED, work out the total costs based on what you put in.  If nothing else, it'd unclutter the sheet.  There is one manipulation with Damage Negation:  make it STUN only.  That's -1/2.  Still:  that's just break-even with buying straight PD and ED, assuming you have enough DEF to bounce the BODY, which is the sensible approach to STUN-Only Negation OR Damage Reduction.  I rarely build an overall defense just based on any one thing anyway.  I actually like Damage Negation, STUN Only...not for price efficiency, but I build to avoid too much BODY, then I can use the STUN only Negation or Reduction to get that back to where I want it to be.  I *can* be hurt...not easily, but it's possible...while I'm also able to last and I don't risk getting Stunned frequently.

 

Mmm...well, OK, come to think...if Negation is rolled, I might just buy CON a few points higher in a 12 DC game.

[Word Sensei 515]

If you want more volatility, just roll 1d20's instead of 3d6's. The range & distribution is different, but the average is the same.  STUN / 7 = BOD normal damage.

9 DC's normal & killing attacks would be 3d20 & 1d20; that's a good limit. If you want more, roll percentile dice & reroll anything over maximum stun damage.

You could even use this for attack rolls Instead of your chances ever getting bad, they remain good, paid for with giving the proficient chances to missIt actually makes things fairer for everyone, the differences are still their but they are less insurmountable, mooks & bricks can actually hit

 

[Sketchpad]

19 hours ago, Word Sensei 515 said:

If you want more volatility, just roll 1d20's instead of 3d6's. The range & distribution is different, but the average is the same.  STUN / 7 = BOD normal damage.

9 DC's normal & killing attacks would be 3d20 & 1d20; that's a good limit. If you want more, roll percentile dice & reroll anything over maximum stun damage.

You could even use this for attack rolls Instead of your chances ever getting bad, they remain good, paid for with giving the proficient chances to missIt actually makes things fairer for everyone, the differences are still their but they are less insurmountable, mooks & bricks can actually hit

 

 

Thanks, WS515, but I'd rather avoid the d20s. 

 

22 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

 

I think the variation and the increased chances of nothing AND higher damage is EXACTLY what @Sketchpad was aiming at here.

 

HERO can be a bit staid and predictable, fights coming to long drawn-out affairs because everyone has done their math.

 

Injecting uncertainty is not that terrible when it comes to combat.  Slowing things down definitely is.

 

Doc

 

 

See, I've never had a big problem with things slowing down a bit. It's not really a damage issue that I'm looking at, but rather having a more variable concept when it came to EGO/PRE static defenses. The STAT+X stuff works just fine, but I was looking to see if it could be less static. 

[Duke Bushido]

11 hours ago, Sketchpad said:

but I was looking to see if it could be less static. 

 

To that end, I offer a quick breakdown of how we do the ship-to-ship stuff where I use a similar idea:

 

Wepaons are bought the same way you buy dice: 5/d6 or 15/kd6.  However, they are calculated as static values:  each Die is 1 Body or 3 BODY for KA.  As we are usinf this exclusively for ship-to-ship---  that is "large scale" weapons, and ships dont really take STUN, but getting a character hit with a ship's gun should be memorable at the very least, when STUN is required, it is assumbed to be BODY x10 for non KA weapons, and BODY x 50 for KA weapons.  This idea of 'scaled' weapons comes, of,course, from the original Star HERO.  Any PC-sized object directly hit with a ship's weapon assumes a x10 damage multiplier.  (For those who balk, go back to Traveller, hit a PC with a missile launcher, and tell me if a funeral is even possible).

 

Defenses are bought as normal (with whatever modifiers are desired), but the final value of the Defense is considered the "rating" for the defense. (It's only a yacht!  We're lucky if it has a 12 armor rating!).    Divide the rating (the defense listed on the sheet) by 3.  When a hit is scored, roll Rating/3 in d6.  Subtract this amount from the attack rating to determine damage through defenses.

 

Combat becomes dicey, and even an SDB might score a "lucky shot" against a dreadnaught.  Not likely, but it can happen, where it just cannot using the rules as written without piling in artificial limits based on ship class, etc.

 

The single ultimate problem with the HERO vehicle rules since Day 1 (Champions II) is that no part of the vehicle has size, weight, or mass.

 

Accordingly, we have always stuck to our house rules for vehicles.

 

Sorry- that's a different topic.

[Sketchpad]

10 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

To that end, I offer a quick breakdown of how we do the ship-to-ship stuff where I use a similar idea:

 

That's an interesting idea, Duke. Does it slow things down?

[Duke Bushido]

Not at all; that is the whole reason that we made the attacks have a static value (any why I suspect Doc Democracy recommended the same basic idea): we are only making one roll.

 

For ordinary combat, we make obe roll- the damage roll.  We just flipped that and made damage a known quantity instead of Defense, and make one roll for Defense, which is now rhe variable quantity.

 

In the narrative, it is lucky shots or poorly-placed shots, hitting seams or reinforced major structural components, etc.   As I said, it was done to add a bit of balance that the rules as written don't allow for without having to add artificial limits that make the sturdiest warship vulnerable to lighter-weight ship's weapons.  Using this system, they generally _aren't particularly vulnerable: we roll a die for every three points of Def, but given the average roll is three-and-a-half, and roughly half of all rolls will be higher than average, and even the higher low rolls may still provide proof against the weapon in use, but abysmal rolls- however unlikely, _do_ happen, so we have eliminated that feeling of being totally invulnerable.

 

Same amount of rolling; samr amount of math, and the desired end results.  What's not to love?