[The Fantasy Trip: Wizard] One little booklet = 100,000 words
Nick Caldwell:
Adding my thanks for sharing this -- but also to say that in a weird twist of fate I read this thread and played my first game of Two Hour Wargames Red Sand, Blue Sky gladiator game -- which sounds like it has all the components of Melee and needs its own Wizard rules for completeness.
To give a brief description, RSBS uses a single stat, called Reputation. A typical gladiator has Rep 5 or 6. You get a starting dice pool of 5 times your rep. The points system for buying fighters is based on how much armor they have -- there are 12(?) hit locations that can be armored (unarmored is 3, each point above that you pay for). Finally, more armor slows you down.
So right off the bat -- you know how experienced your gladiator is, which also tells you his endurance in the ring. You know how fast he can move and you know you better protect your right side because you decided to only armor your left to save on points. (and you would do this especially if you were playing the campaign game and needed the points for some other fighter).
For an attack, you and your opponent decide on whether you want to burn 1-4 d10s to roll under your Rep. Run out of dice and you are "spent" -- essentially at the crowd's mercy.
Hits and damage can also burn dice from your pool.
So there's this great tactical choice -- do you keep burning 4 dice for each attack, knowing you are tiring your fighter and hoping to get in a good damage roll that takes your opponent out? Or do you bide your time and fight defensively and wait for the other bloke to burn up?
And talk about color -- everything in the game is table driven so you can even play it solo. Hit on a leg and you might slow your opponent down or it might just be a scratch; hit on an arm and they might drop their shield or be knocked down.
And every action is burning dice -- you can watch your dwindling dice pool and just see your fighter trying to catch his breath. It's intense!
All of which goes to say that while I haven't played Melee -- I get what you are saying. I just experienced it with RSBS. Now I just need a good magic system to go with it and Wizard might just have it with a bit of tweaking.
Cheers!
Nick Caldwell
Links:
For more info:
Board Game Geek review: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/82020/red-sand-blue-skies
For purchase:
http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/rsbs.htm
Ron Edwards:
Hi Nick,
It should be interesting to compare the two systems. Here's what I'm inferring from your post.
1. In TFT (here, I'm using TFT to mean only the original two microgames, not the extensively expanded later versions and their umbrella RPG, In the Labyrinth), there is no way to spread points across several characters in a strategic fashion. There's mention of playing groups against one another, and such play is explicit in the Death Test adventure modules, but points remain character-specific. I don't think there's ever mention of "divide 110 points across three figures" or anything like that.
2. Hit location is absent in the TFT games. Damage is simply deducted from ST without any modifications except the following:
- rolling 4 on 3d6 = double damage
- rolling 3 on 3d6 = triple damage
- taking 5 or more damage in one blow = -2 DX for the next round
- taking 8 or more damage in one blow = knockdown
- certain weapons do extra or double damage in certain circumstances, e.g. charging with a pole weapon
So where a strike hits is pure Color, unnecessary even to mention if we're talking about raw mechanics, and if mentioned, probably as a function of an exceptionally large or small amount of damage done relative to the weapon's average amount.
3. The double-whammy of spell cost and damage upon Strength (ST) in Wizard is not found in Melee; there is no "endurance" in either game aside from spell cost or damage. In Melee, you only lose ST by taking damage.
I also wanted to get technical for a second, especially since I harped on Color so much in my first post. The damage tables in RSBS, at least based on your description, appear to be a Color-ful damage mechanic. That's a bit different from the near-total divorce between mechanics and Color in TFT.
I have a technical question too, based on my long experience with Rolemaster back in the 1980s. In that game, if your basic roll to hit was successful, the range of possible results was extremely wide. Although there was some attempt to match the degree of success in the initial hit to ranges of effect (i.e. different tables to roll on next), it didn't work out too well because the authors seemed incapable of making a d100 table without putting extreme results at both ends. In fact, the second roll was almost like a new "to-hit" roll in terms of the actual impact on the fight.
So my interest lies in whether, as a player, one's attention is primarily focused on the first roll, to hit, or the second, effectively the damage. Or do I have it wrong, and you go the table based on quantitative features of the first roll alone?
Best, Ron
Nick Caldwell:
I'll try to take the first part in order, then dive into the crunchy bits.
1. In RSBS, you can definitely just pick two fighters and go. In that case, you just pick equivalent "Reps" and the appropriate stock fighters. But there's also the campaign game, in which you have a "gladiator school" and a budget. It's a metagame -- your budget goes towards purchasing your fighters and provides your starting cash that you ante up for each match. In a way, it's a second dice pool -- if your money is exhausted then your school closes or you have to sell off your fighters to keep going.
(Also, I was interested in the comparison between this and your Tunnels & Trolls post. Here you are essentially playing an ensemble cast -- your school almost becomes your character in a way and the individual fighters become your stats)
2. Damage is much crunchier in RSBS and consists of several tables. Actually, even hitting is two steps -- can I gain an advantageous position? Then can I get past your defenses? Once a hit is established, where did you hit? Did you get through the armor there? If yes, then how badly? If no, then am I pushed back or knocked to the ground? (I'll address the mechanics of this more below). You can literally publish a blow by blow account of your battle simply by noting these results (and many people do!). I like this -- a blow to the leg is unlikely to kill, but will certainly slow your opponent down. A serious blow to the head and he's gone! Or no damage at all, but I knock you down.
So -- to answer your question -- yeah, there's a lot of Color embedded in the tables. At the end of damage resolution, you will know "I hit him on the arm, he was forced to burn 3 dice from his pool so it was pretty serious, and because of that he dropped his shield." "Ron Retiaius lunged forward with his trident, slipping under Nick Secutor's shield and piercing his bicep. Nick's arm lost all feeling and his numb fingers dropped his shield to the sand now red with his blood."
To answer the technical question -- hoo boy. Here we go:
All Two Hour Wargames, including RSBS, share a basic mechanic – passing dice and finding results on a table:
"Passing” dice. You have a target number, usually your character’s single stat of Reputation. You roll 2 dice to do something (2d10 in this case). Roll under your target number and the dice passes. Thus, you get 0, 1, or 2 dice passing. So Nick Secutor is Rep 6 -- I roll 2 dice to attack you -- 6 and under is my target dice rolls to succeed.
(Note that either player can burn dice from the dice pool to roll more dice -- but only up to 2 passing dice count no matter how many you roll).If I’m doing something AGAINST you, like bashing you with my sword, then you roll dice, too and we compare who passes more dice. If we both pass 2, then my attack failed. (Or your defense succeeded to put it another way) If I pass 2 and you pass 0, then you are likely in trouble. If it’s the other way ‘round, then I’M in trouble even though I initiated the attack. You then go to a table. The basic melee table is pretty simple but there are LOTS of tables. For RSBS, there is a net throwing table. There is a throwing sand in your opponent’s face table. There’s a “What does the emperor do when you ask for mercy?” table. And there’s a whole slew of tables for NPC actions --- which is designed to allow you to play solo against the system.
So to answer the Rolemaster question -- yeah, I saw this problem with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Oh, look I rolled a 99 -- your head flew off! Oh look, you rolled a 01 -- you scratched my little toe!
So in RSBS: First of all if I roll well against you, I might be able to flank you. Then we bet dice from our pool for our attack and defense. Then if I roll just ok against you there, I might force you to take a step back and burn another die. My turn's over. OR -- if I roll really well and you roll really poorly then I got through your defenses and my steel draws blood in some way (another 1 to 3 dice burned based on where I hit you and whether I got through your armor at that location, plus a possible penalty to your next go if I hit you in the leg or something). OR -- if I rolled really well, hit you in the chest and penetrated your armor - "Game over, man, game over."
But the chance of death, while there, is pretty low if you've got two trained and armored fighters. Most likely you are going to get beaten up to the point where you are too winded or too wounded (i.e. -- you've exhausted your dice pool) to continue. Of course, at that point the crowd gets to give the ole thumbs up or thumbs down!
(Oh, and then there's the rules for condemned criminals (no armor!) and Big Cats -- and of course I'm going to be adding Dragons and Magic SOMEHOW to this system once I tire of Ancient Rome!)
Cheers, Nick
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