D&Dhammer Battle Report

Ok, let's see how this works. I put together two armies using stats from Old School Essentials:

Orcs and Goblins

• Orc footmen (3 units): AC 13 HD 3 ATT +0 ML 8
• Goblin archers (2 units): AC 13 HD 2 ATT +0 ML 7
• Goblin spider-riders: AC 13 HD 3 ATT +3 ML 8 (I used the black widow stats. They have a poison attack, but I just decided to increase their attack bonus instead of dealing with that.)
• Siege Stone Giant: AC 15 HD 9 ATT +7 ML 9

Using the number appearing from OSE as a guideline, this would represent about 180 orcs, 120 goblins, 10-20 spider riders? (the NA for black widows is 3, but that seems far too low), and 1-6 giants. However, there's no real reason this couldn't represent twice or three times those numbers. There's definitely room to use your best judgment and try to keep things proportional.

Vampire Lords

• Skeleton horde (3 units): AC 12 HD 3 ATT +0 ML X
• Brigand archers (2 units): AC 13 HD 2 ATT +0 ML 8
• Giant bats: AC 13 HD 2 ATT +1 ML 8
• Vampire knights: AC 17 HD 7 ATT +6 ML 11

The orcs and goblins had 17 HD of units and vampire lords had 14, but they also had the highest-stat unit and 3 that didn't need to check morale.

Round 1

Orcs win initiative. Goblin archers attempt to bring down the vampires' bats, since they're the only ones who can attack flyers, but miss. Bats go after the archers in retaliation, but miss too. Spider-riders hit the vampire knights, who hold morale. The vampires' archers hit the giant, who holds morale. The giant then throws a boulder at the knights, but it doesn't find purchase. Vampire knights charge the goblin archers, who manage to scramble and hide. Finally the orc footmen and skeleton hordes clash, and the orcs inflict two hits.

Round 2

Orcs win initiative again. Goblin archers hit the bats once, who hold morale. Vampire knights charge the goblin archers again, inflicting a hit, but the gobbos barely hang on. Giant goes for the knights, but misses. Bats miss the goblin archers, and spider-riders miss the brigand archers. Brigand archers rain their arrows down on their goblin counterparts, and the little greenskins finally break morale, wiped out since they've lost all HD (At this point, going by the rules I laid out in the previous post, the bats should be impervious to attack, but I'm going to argue with myself and say the giant is big enough to get them so I can keep going). Orcs wipe out the remaining skeletons.

Round 3

Vamps take the initiative this time. Brigands loose on the giant, missing with both attacks. The giant swats the bats out of the sky, wiping them out. Knights tilt at the giant, missing. Spider-riders scurry for the brigand archers, but can't inflict a hit. Orc footmen overrun the brigands, hitting, but the archers hold formation.

Round 4

Orcs regain the initiative. Giant misses the knights, knights miss the giant, spider-riders pull off a coup and hit the knights. Those pesky vamps hold morale. Brigand archers miss the giant. Orc footmen smash the rest of the archers.

Round 5

Vampires take the initiative, and with only the vampire knights remaining they manage to throw the orc footmen into disarray with a hit. Giant misses the knights, but spiders hit. High morale keeps the vampires hanging on.

Round 6

Vampires hold the initiative, and with a well-timed charge they force the giant into disarray. However, the spider-riders countercharge, sending the vamp knights into disarray. Orc footmen manage to reform their ranks.

Round 7

Vampires keep the initiative, manage to pull themselves together, and hit the spiders, who are thrown into disarray. The giant can't pull it back together. Orcs can't attack the mounted knights, since the knights are cavalry and too fast for the footmen.

Round 8

Vampires manage to keep the initiative yet again and rout the spiders, pushing them off the field. Since the remaining orc footmen cannot attack the knights, they just hurl insults at them. The giant can attack the knights...but misses.

Round 9

Vampires keep the initiative and I start to wonder if Google's dice roller is broken. The knights hit the giant, sending it into disarray. Since the orcs can't attack, they decide to quit the field. The vampires have won, but at a great material cost.

What I noticed:

• Initiative is a harsh mistress. Winning 6 out of 9 times definitely gave the vamps the edge.
• It has the same weaknesses as regular D&D combat - lots of misses and rounds where nothing really changes.
• 1 HD footmen units are pretty squishy. I don't think this is necessarily a problem. They are basically shields, like linemen in football.
• What would happen if the orcs had no units that could attack the bats? Battle over? I suppose the orcs could try to push their luck and take out as many units as they could before the bats became a big enough problem and they had to retreat. Fielding balanced forces that can deal with a number of threats will be important.
• Similarly, when it came down to the vampire knights and the orc footmen, the orcs couldn't attack. This isn't necessarily a problem, but I might institute a rule that if cavalry attack footmen but miss, footmen can counterattack if they haven't attacked that round. However, I don't want to keep making situational rules like this that make the rules more fiddly.
• It took about a half hour to do all the rolling and typing. It might be a little bit longer if I was narrating the battle at the table. That seems pretty good as an add-on to a campaign climax session. However, it could be a lot longer if players can't decide how to command their forces.

Overall, though, this does seem to hang together. I have a campaign now in its 6th year where things have moved pretty far into domain-level play, and the players barely use their character sheets anymore. I'll probably use this system with them before too long and try to refine it further. Some next steps: codifying magic some more, dealing with fortifications, and stuff like ambushes/surprise attacks.

D&Dhammer

Ah, the elusive mass combat system. I've overthought this for a long time. Just use regular monster stats, ya dummy!

Specifically AC, HD, THAC0/Attack Bonus, and Morale. Ignore everything else. Each unit is represented by the stats for one creature of the troop type. If there are several units of the same troop type, multiply the HD by how many units there are. If you're not sure how many individuals one "unit" should represent, use the maximum number appearing. Try to keep the HD numbers small but proportional.

No maneuvering unless you feel like it. The type of unit determines who it can attack (adapted from Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers rules):

• Footmen and big monsters: can only attack other footmen/biggies if any are on the field, followed by archers, and finally siege engines.
• Archers and flyers: can attack anyone.
• Cavalry, fast monsters, and siege engines: can attack anyone except flyers.

If you want to get a little more advanced, you could say that any unit that was attacked in melee (so like, attacked by footmen or non-ranged monsters) must pass a morale check (2d6) to attack a different unit (instead of the one that attacked it) that turn.

Roll initiative. Each side takes turns using units until none are left, and then roll initiative again. Ideally, this would happen alongside the PCs engaging in normal D&D combat against the enemy commander or executing a special mission.

Units make attack rolls as normal against each other. A successful "hit" reduces the defender HD by 1. 

Each time a unit is hit but has HD left, it must make a morale check, adding the total hits accumulated to the roll. If it succeeds, it may continue to act normally. If it fails, it is in disarray and may not act again until it passes a morale check. If a unit is hit while in disarray, it is routed and flees from battle.

I have two ideas for how to handle a unit reduced to 0 HD: 

1. Wiped out immediately. Simple.
2. It is only wiped out if it fails a morale check. I like that this would allow for units to hang on for heroic last stands. I worry that this would make low-HD, high-morale units punch too far above their weight. You would have to keep counting hits to add to morale checks.

Mindless units, like some undead, do not check morale at all but are automatically wiped out at 0 HD.

If a commander is on the field, all units add the commander's Charisma bonus to their Morale score. A 12 is still a failure.

In order for a spellcaster to use spells in battle, it must be at least 9th level and use up spell slots (of at least the spell level) equal to the HD of the unit it is casting the spell on. Adjudicate special creature abilities on a case-by-case basis. I haven't thought magic and special abilities through very well.

Even though this is simpler than a real wargame, it is still a lot to add on to a regular D&D combat, so you'd only want to run maybe one or two climactic battles per campaign like this. I'm taking a look at the War Machine rules from the Rules Cyclopedia to try to adapt it into something I'd use. It reduces a battle to one roll, but there's a lot that goes into determining the modifiers to the roll. I'll post my version of that eventually. Honestly, most of the time, you probably don't even need to roll for the results of a battle unless it seems like it would be close. Even then, if the PCs accomplish their part of the battle, their side should win unless it really doesn't make sense.

Somebody stop me

This system is basically an unholy hybrid of Into the Odd and a few of my previous experiments here and here.

Design goals:

• Remove hit points
• Tie combat effectiveness to statistics, which Into the Odd doesn't do
• Differentiate weapons without variable damage
• Provide interesting tactical decisions in an intuitive way

It's not quite as elegant as I would like (the way you use the injury chart for ranged weapons is particularly clumsy), but overall, how did I do? Any glaring oversights?

Character Creation

Roll 3d6 each for Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower. Saves and non-combat skill checks are roll under these stats. Each level, try to roll over each on 3d6 to increase them by one.


Consult this table for Weapon Skill:

		Dexterity Score
		3-8	9-12	13-15	16-17	18
Strength Score	3-8	1	2	3	4	5
	9-12	2	3	4	5	6
	13-15	3	4	5	6	7
	16-17	4	5	6	7	8
	18	5	6	7	8	9

(The charts kinda got fucked up, but hopefully they're readable.)

Choose equipment according to your preferred method or roll on an Into the Odd-style starting package chart.

Hand to Hand Combat

Combatants make opposing d10 rolls. If they have equal Weapon Skills, they each roll one die. If one combatant has a higher Weapon Skill, he or she rolls one more die. If one combatant has at least twice the Weapon Skill of the other, he or she rolls two more dice. During the first round of engagement, the combatant with the highest-reach weapon adds another die to his or her roll, but after that (until they disengage) the combatant with the highest-speed weapon adds another instead. Compare the two combatants’ highest rolls, and use the difference between them to consult the Injury Chart for the low roller.

Weapon	Reach	Speed
Minor (like daggers)	1	5
Small (like shortwords)	2	4
Medium (like longswords)	3	3
Great (like two-handed axes)	4	2
Pole (like spears)	5	1

Confined Quarters

In cases where the width of the fighting area is less than the length of a weapon extended from the body (use your best judgment), its reach bonus during the first round of engagement does not apply.

Fighting in Ranks

If combatants fight in a line, any reach bonus from their weapons continues to apply after the first round of engagement, except on either end of the line.

Ranged Combat

The shooter rolls a d10 and hits the target if he or she rolls equal to or under his or her Weapon Skill. If the intended target moved in the previous round, the shooter rolls two dice and uses the higher result. If the shooter spent at least one previous round doing nothing but aiming at a stationary target, he or she rolls two dice and chooses the lower result. If the shooter hits, subtract the lowest roll from 10 and consult the Injury Chart.

Armor

For both hand to hand and ranged combat, armor reduces the number used to consult the Injury Table by a certain amount. However, heavier armor reduces the speed of the weapon carried by the armor’s wearer.

Armor	Injury Reduction	Maximum Weapon Speed
Light (like leather)	1	5
Medium (like chain)	2	4
Heavy (like plate)	3	3

Armor Piercing

Longbows, crossbows, maces, and lances from horseback reduce the effectiveness of armor by one point.

Called Shots

Instead of consulting the injury chart as normal, combatants may aim for a specific injury. In that case, consult the Injury table’s “Called Shot Dice” column. In the case of hand to hand combat, the defender of the called shot rolls that many extra dice. In the case of ranged combat, the shooter rolls that many extra dice and chooses the highest roll. If the attacker still succeeds, the desired injury takes effect.

Injury Chart

	Injury to:	First Hit	Second Hit	Third Hit	Called Shot Dice
1-3	Legs	Temporary disadvantage on Dex-related rolls	Disadvantage on Dex-related rolls until healed	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	1
4-5	Arms	Temporary disadvantage on Str-related rolls	Disadvantage on Str-related rolls until healed	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	1
6-7	Torso	Disabled, dead in 2d4 rounds if not stabilized	Dead	-	2
8-9	Head	Dead	-	-	3

Healing takes d4 weeks after a “Second Hit” and 2d4 weeks after a “Third Hit.”

Ok how about this one?

I cannot help daydreaming new combat systems. It's a character flaw.

Instead of attack bonus, characters have a Weapon Skill (thanks Warhammer) equal to Str + Dex modifiers (and Fighters add their level).

Weapons don't have damage ratings anymore, but instead have Reach and Speed:

• Daggers etc: Reach 1, Speed 5
• Shortswords etc: Reach 2, Speed 4
• Longswords etc: Reach 3, Speed 3
• Great weapons: Reach 4, Speed 2
• Pole weapons: Reach 5, Speed 1

Combatants make opposing rolls (d6 or d10 probably, depending on the game's HD regime). The combatant with the higher Weapon Skill rolls one more die. On the first round of combat, the combatant with the highest-reach weapon rolls one more die, but after that (until they disengage) the combatant with the highest-speed weapon rolls one more die. The winner in the roll-off deals damage equal to the difference between the two players' highest rolls.

D&D Without HP

Since September, I've been looking down the barrel of an hour-plus commute five days a week. It's a major bummer. The one silver lining is that it gives me plenty of time to daydream when I should be paying attention to the road.

On Friday, I was thinking about hit points and combat in D&D (LotFP is my flavor of choice). It exists in this nebulous space where one d20 roll is not necessarily one swing of the sword, but could be a series of successful moves that wears down the opponent's stamina (thinking of HP as stamina has actually really helped me to conceptualize it, I think). In practice, though, it's often more dramatic and just plain easier to narrate the combat as though it were blow-by-blow. Sometimes, that makes it feel like lumbering battleships trading salvoes and doing unspecified "damage" until one finally sinks.

This is the one major disadvantage of the HP system, at least at my table. It abstracts combat to the point where hits have no concrete effect until 0 HP, and I have to do a little bit of on-the-spot adjudication every time a player wants to do something more specific than just "I attack".

What could a slightly more granular, HP-less D&D combat system look like? I've always liked the optional rules for dueling in A Red & Pleasant Land (p. 143). They're designed to add depth to one-on-one fights. Essentially, a dueler rolls on a short d6 injury table for every hit taken after reaching 0 HP. Once they roll the same injury twice, the dueler is either dead or unconscious (that's why the table is short).

I've used injury tables like this before. But what if we took HP out entirely and skipped right to the table? It could go something like this:

d10	Injury	First hit	Second hit	Third hit +	Called shot AC bonus
1-2	left leg	always lose initiative	movement rate halved	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
3	right leg	always lose initiative	movement rate halved	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
4-5	off arm	-1 to most tasks	incapacitated until healed	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	1
6	favored arm	-2 to most tasks	incapacitated until healed	lost, dead if not stabilized in 2d6 rounds	2
7-8	torso	-1 to most tasks	broken ribs, save to move until healed	dead	2
9	equipment	one item destroyed (attacker's choice)	weapon dropped	---	2
10	head	blood in eyes, -2 to anything involving sight	dead	---	3

So, you'd roll to hit vs. AC as normal, but instead of rolling damage, you'd roll d10 to determine where you hit. Defenders would keep track of how many times that body part has been hit and apply the mechanical effects as they come up. If the attacker wants to hit a specific body part, the defender gets to add the indicated called shot bonus to AC.

Weapon damage would be replaced by how many "hits" one attack is worth. d4 and d6 weapons (daggers, shortswords, etc) would do one hit, d8 weapons (standard swords, etc) would do two hits, and d10 weapons (greataxes, etc) would do three. Critical hits would increase the number by one. Since any successful hit by a large weapon is likely to be a one-hit kill, there's a tradeoff: you can't apply any bonuses to hit, just the straight d20 roll. I'd also consider a Strength requirement to even wield a large weapon - either 13 or 16.

Without HP increases to make higher-level characters more survivable in combat, you'd need to increase base AC instead. Fighters and dwarves would go up 1 AC every two levels; clerics, elves, and thieves would go up every three; and magic-users and halflings every four.

This system would make combat short and brutal, which would work for some games but not others. It would require a bit of a different mindset than D&D combat as usual - mindless hack-and-slash without a plan is going to result in a lot of dead PCs. Also, you'd have to modify the table for non-humanoid creatures. Bespoke tables for each creature would help make fighting them feel unique, but it's a lot more work than just rolling up HP.

SaveSave

Beyond Vornheim

Read these:

Mandy:
Facebook
Google+

Zak:
Blogger

In the absence of hard evidence on either side, you need to decide for yourself whose words are more credible. For my part, I find Mandy more credible because I can see Zak's great incentive to lie, but I can't see hers. I've decided to withdraw my support for Zak - through both my money and my blog - unless I can be absolutely certain that I'm not supporting the person Mandy describes. I wouldn't send someone to jail based on this level of evidence, but I'm not sending him to jail so that standard doesn't apply. The only things I know for sure about Zak are that he makes good RPG material and is unnecessarily combative online, and those things neither condemn nor exonerate him.

Will the Chainmail be Unbroken

I couldn't sleep at all last night, but at least I have these kinda clunky rules for broken armor to show for it:

This works for any ascending AC system, but I'm sure someone who understands descending AC (i.e. not me) could adapt it.

First, you need to know the "armor range" of your AC. This is the part that's not covered by the base AC or Dex bonus. So in LotFP for a character wearing leather armor with a Dex bonus of +1, The full AC would be 15 (12+1+2), and the "armor range" would be 14 and 15.

When an opponent rolls an attack against this character, it misses if it rolls 13 or less, hits if it rolls 16 or more, but if it rolls a 14 or 15 it strikes the armor. When this happens, the player rolls a die (d20, say) and notes the number rolled next to the armor. Numbers accumulate over time, and when the player rolls the same number twice the armor is broken and useless until repaired.

It's a fair amount to keep track of, I know. It also means that heavier armor will get dinged more often, though I kind of like that since it would dull your reflexes anyway. Characters are relying more on the armor to absorb blows and less on their ability to dodge.

For even more to keep track of, you could introduce different armor qualities by rolling different dice to check for breakage, from piss poor (d4) to absolutely legendary (d100).

Now that I think about it, you could do the same thing for weapons by checking for breakage every time you roll a 1 to hit.

House Rules for Prison Island NY-1

As I mentioned, I'm using +Chris McDowall's excellent Into the Odd rules for Prison Island NY-1. The biggest change I needed to make was a new starting package chart, which you can see in the original post. I'm also using these house rules:

アドバンテージ/欠点 ADVANTAGE/DISADVANTAGE

Lifted straight from D&D 5e.

損傷 INJURY

The damage and death rules still work almost the same, but every time you take Critical (Strength) damage you also roll on the following chart. I'm considering expanding it to something more like my D&D chart.

d20	Effect
1	Lose a leg.
2	Lose an arm.
3	Lose a hand.
4	Lose d4 fingers.
5	Lose an eye.
6	Internal bleeding. Unable to move until healed.
7	Broken leg.
8	Broken arm.
9	Broken ribs.
10-11	Scar or burn.
12-20	Flesh wound. Looks worse than it is.

弾薬 AMMUNITION

In the spirit of streamlining things as much as possible, Into the Odd doesn't track ammunition. This makes sense in the context of the original game, where players lead relatively well-equipped expeditions from a big, functioning city. It's fine to assume you brought enough ammo. But this setting is about scavenging whatever you can find in a city-prison cut off from the rest of the world, so yeah my players are counting bullets.

素手による戦闘 UNARMED COMBAT

Most unarmed attacks still do d4 damage as normal, but characters trained in martial arts do d6 damage as indicated on the starting package chart.

交す DODGE

This game grew out of an ill-advised attempt at playing the TMNT RPG. Even after I managed to boil most of the game down to a 10-page document, I still scared my players away. I love it but it's a goddamn mess. This is my one tiny nod to it:

You can skip your next turn to try to dodge an attack against you. Roll a d20 and try to get between the attack's damage and your Dex score.

メカ戦 MECH COMBAT

Haven't finalized this yet, but I'm considering a hit chart like this:

2d6	location	armor	hit effect
2	power cell	5	shuts down
3	weapon arm	7	can't fire weapon
4-5	legs	8	can't walk
6-9	core	10	explodes
10	melee arm	7	can't melee attack
11	thrusters	7	can't fly
12	sensor array	5	blind, erratic

Instead of HP, any hit that does damage would disable that part. Disabling the core makes the whole thing explode, but you'd need a direct hit with something on the order of a rocket launcher (d12). Taking out the power cell or sensor array would also put the mech out of action, and while they're less armored, they're also small and harder to hit.

So for a normal attack, you'd roll on the hit location chart. You could also target a specific part of the mech and attack with disadvantage. Spending an entire turn to aim before attacking would overcome this disadvantage, as would  other situational benefits like luring the mech into a vulnerable position, etc.

Death, Revised

I think I've made my death and injury procedure significantly more complex than the previous iteration without actually making it any more complicated for the players, and that makes me feel like a good boy.

INJURY AND DYING

At 0 HP, make a CON/Paralysis save to remain active and roll d100 on the following table. For further successful attacks against you, roll d100 + cumulative damage x 10 on this table. Italics indicate an infection, with an onset of 4d4 turns on a failed CON/Poison save. No infection has the same cure twice. The duration of non-permanent effects is 2d4 weeks or as described.

d100	Effect
1-4	Flesh wound. Looks worse than it is.
5-8	Hideous scar or burn.
9-16	Broken ribs. Disadvantage on all CON rolls.
17-25	Internal bleeding. Disadvantage on DEX rolls.
26-34	Broken arm. Temporary -2 CON and disadvantage on attack rolls.
35-43	Broken leg. Temporary -2 CON and move as if one encumbrance level higher.
44	1: Wound blisters and turns a sickening fuschia color, burning badly. Disadvantage on all rolls.
45	2: Lacrymal glands leak a black mucus that seals eyes shut. DEX halved, disadvantage on all rolls.
46	3: Agonizing convulsions and retching for d4 turns on a failed WIS/Paralysis save during any physical exertion.
47	4: Vomit acidic, boiling blood that corrodes worn equipment.
48	5: Fever, can’t keep down any food or drink. -1 to all abilities each day, death if any reach 0.
49	6: Fetid pus-filled boils cover the skin. Confusion and madness. Too weak to stand after 2d6 days. Death follows d6 days later.
50	7: Lockjaw after d4 days, no speaking. Rest of limbs follow 2d4 days later, and death d4 more.
51-52	Lose an eye. Permanent -4 DEX.
53-59	Lose an eye. Permanent -4 DEX + Infection 1 (53), 2 (54), 3 (55), 4 (56), 5 (57), 6 (58), 7 (59).
60-61	Lose d4 fingers. Permanent -1 CON and DEX.
62-68	Lose d4 fingers. Permanent -1 CON and DEX + Infection 1 (62), 2 (63), 3 (64), 4 (65), 5 (66), 6 (67), 7 (68).
69-70	Lose a hand. Permanent -2 CON and DEX.
71-77	Lose a hand. Permanent -2 CON and DEX + Infection 1 (71), 2 (72), 3 (73), 4 (74), 5 (75), 6 (76), 7 (77).
78-79	Lose an arm. Permanent -4 CON and DEX. Disadvantage on attack rolls.
80-86	Lose an arm. Permanent -4 CON and DEX. Disadvantage on attack rolls + Infection 1 (80), 2 (81), 3 (82), 4 (83), 5 (84), 6 (85), 7 (86).
87-88	Lose a leg. Permanent -4 CON and DEX, always move as if heavily burdened.
89-95	Lose a leg. Permanent -4 CON and DEX, always move as if heavily burdened + Infection 1 (89), 2 (90), 3 (91), 4 (92), 5 (93), 6 (94), 7 (95).
96	Decapitation.
97+	Septic shock and agonizing death.

Why I like this:

• Consequences kick in at 0 HP. No more negative numbers.
• Players can remain active, but put themselves at considerable and quickly increasing risk if they don't run. Inspired by Small but Vicious Dog. I love forcing hard choices!
• Standardized mechanical effects for injuries.
• Infections! This is a gamey, built-in way for players to get sick. Inspired by Last Gasp. Pull cures from that post if you want.
• Still only a single roll (per attack) on a single chart.