Non Tabular Combat
From MRQWiki
Following the update to the player's guide, the game designers have now replaced the original combat tables with an updated set of results, and have also proposed a system whereby combat is considered an opposed roll between the attack roll and the parry/dodge roll. The winner of this roll (i.e. the player that succeeds with the highest roll) automatically downgrades his opponent to a lesser result (critical becomes a success, success becomes a failure, and failure becomes a fumble). The result of this is that combat becomes absolutely lethal, with successful parries and dodges frequently downgraded to failures and therefore giving no protection.
Following a fair amount of discussion on the Mongoose forums which can be found [1]here, the following proposal is suggested as an alternative. This still uses the concept of an opposed roll, but removes the need to find the result of an attack within a table of results, thus making combat simpler and quicker. It also makes combat slightly more survivable by giving a more granular set of results.
First, the concept of a partial success is introduced for the defender. This is where a parry or dodge roll was a success, but lost the opposed roll by being lower than the attack roll. The result of a partial success is that a defender who succeeds with a parry or dodge but loses the opposed roll still gains some benefit from his defensive action.
Second, as already stated there is no results matrix. The attacker calculates his damage, and the defender modifies it depending on his result. The idea is to produce a simple set of combat results that don't need to be checked within a table.
Contents |
Attack:
Success: Inflict rolled Weapon Damage & rolled Damage Bonus.
Critical Success: As a success, but Weapon Damage is doubled. Ignore Overextended and Riposte results.
Parry:
Partial Success: Block AP
Success: Block 2 x AP
Critical Success: Block all damage and may Riposte unless otherwise noted.
Dodge:
Partial Success: Replace rolled Weapon Damage with minimum Weapon Damage. Damage Bonus is still applied normally. Defender must Give Ground.
Success: Ignore all Damage. Defender must Give Ground.
Critical Success: Ignore all damage. Attacker is Overextended unless otherwise noted.
Important
If the attacker rolls a critical, a successful parry or dodge is automatically downgraded to a partial success.
Examples
So how does this all fit together? Well, hopefully pretty smoothly, but here's some examples
First, assuming the attacker succeeds, he rolls his weapon damage and his damage bonus as normal, and tells the defender his results.
1) If the defender successfully parried, but lost the opposed roll, he only gains a partial success and so blocks damage equal to his parrying weapon's AP
2) If the defender successfully dodged, but lost the opposed roll, he would replace the attacker's rolled weapon damage with minimum damage, but apply the damage bonus normally.
3) If the attacker scores a critical hit and the defender dodges successfully, the dodge is first downgraded to a partial success. As per the results of a partial dodge, the attacker's weapon damage is replaced with its minimum, which is then doubled due to the attack being a critical hit. Damage bonus is applied normally.
4) If the attacker scores a critical hit, and the defender scores a critical dodge, all damage from the attack is ignored, however the attack is not overextended as critical attacks always ignore overextended results.
Finally, the following is given as one possible alternative to the above results:
Critical Attack: As a success, but Weapon Damage is doubled. Ignore Overextended results.
Critical Parry: Block 2 x AP, defender may Riposte.
This alternative means the defender may still take some damage following a critical parry, but can always attempt a Riposte, even against a critical attack.
