combat elision part 2

18 Nov, 2024

New combat rules for a highly stripped-down GLoG variant in the making.

FIGHTING: Every player character has 1 Fighting Die (FD), and it's like a GLoG Magic Die. (It's a 6-sided die. The thing asking you to roll the FD will tell you how to interpret the numbers. If you roll 4+, the die goes away, and you can't use it again until tomorrow. If you manage to roll multiple dice and they come up doubles, you trigger a Mishap; usually triples would trigger a Doom, but not here.) As long as you have at least 1 FD, you can fight. You can fight anything you're equipped to fight. (You can't fight a fire elemental if all you have is a torch.)

When you fight, describe what you do. Usually it will either work, or it will not work and you will take some damage, reduced by your armor. You can roll your FD and take [sum] less damage.

If you can't fight, describe what you do. Usually it will either work, or it will not work and you will take some damage, reduced by your armor.

Some people are made to fight, though.

THE HERO
+1 FD per Hero template
Skills: Choose one - Disobedience, Athleticism, Chivalry

A: Heroic Potential, Hold the Line
B: Duel, Try Me
C: Master and Apprentice, Higher Power
D: Takedown

Heroic Potential: Choose the nature of your strength.

• Iron Fist: You're equipped to fight anything a person with the best weapons and armor could fight, even if you don't have any weapons or armor.
• Spit Blood: When you have exactly 1 FD, you can roll it 4 times, as if it were 4 FD.
• Firestoker: When you lose one or more FD, someone else who can see or hear you gains them.

Hold the Line: [Highest] opponents can't get past, away from, or around you for [dice] rounds. After this, you can break away and start running.

Duel: You can invoke trial by combat to settle legal matters. Up to [dice] x 1,000 gp of damages or losses, or [dice] deaths, or [dice] other local violations. Your accuser gets to choose either the challenger and equipment, or the place and time (within the month), and you choose the other. To refuse the terms is to accept defeat.

Try Me: You can prove yourself capable of any challenge. [Sum] combined HD of witnesses (starting with the most influential) are impressed by your power and convinced you could do what you claim. If it makes no sense that you could handle the challenge, [lowest] combined HD are impressed instead.

Master and Apprentice: With a season of training, you can give 1 FD to anybody who doesn't have more FD than you. You don't lose yours, they just gain one.

Higher Power: Choose your transcendence.

• Battle Inside the Mind: You and your party are equipped to fight enchantments, inner demons, and other things that only exist in someone's mind.
• Challenge Death: If Death comes near, you and your party see him and are equipped to fight him. You can't kill him, obviously, but if you win, he has to leave without whatever he came for.
• Fight the Tide: You and your party are equipped to fight policy, public opinion, and prejudice.

Takedown: Whenever you roll FD, you can take down [sum] combined HD of targets using your fighting prowess.

Mishaps (d6):

1. Break the weapon you're using, if any. It wasn't strong enough for you.
2. 1d6 damage.
3. Spray of blood blinds you and 2-in-6 blinds an opponent.
4. You turn your next interaction into a fight on 3-in-6.
5. Underestimated your own strength. Random injury, self-inflicted.
6. Lose all your FD for 1 hour.