Game Design #118: The Advantage and Melee

 In my "haunted Forest/Medieval STALKER" world I've been investigating RPGs for ideas (even since someone pointed out Symbaroum kinda covers what I've been trying to do - i.e. 'relic hunting' with adventurers in a forest with radiation corrupting magic.)

Advantage 

Somewhere along the way (D&D 5th ed?) I recall seeing the idea of "Advantage" i.e. if a player has the advantage, they can roll an extra dice and pick their best of the two rolls. If they had disadvantage, they roll an extra dice and must pick the worst.

In context of the game, it was just a very strong modifier that made the other modifiers pretty irrelevant. Basically a 'choose your best re-roll' is a lot stronger than a +1 or -1 here or there; so having 'the advantage' was all-important.

So it was kinda an extra complication in how it was used but didn't add much to the game besides a very strong modifier.

Trench Crusade takes this idea further; it removes modifiers and replaces them completely with the advantage concept. I.e. you roll 2d6, and depending on your level of advantage, roll extra dice/s and pick the two best. Disadvantage means extra dice and picking the two worst.  Basically it doubles down on the advantage concept and removes modifiers entirely which is nicely streamlined....

....the downside is that even a +1 or -1 extra dice 'advantage' is very strong. As TC also uses +/-1 "advantage" as its "stats" to show differentiation in melee/shooting etc between units, there is a bit of a problem in that having a +1 in melee is a very big advantage (I forget the math but it was about 50% better). In a game all about fantastical troops, this lack of detail/differentiation is a bit meh. Even a +1 in melee means the better side wins the great majority of the time, and +2 advantage is a cakewalk.

Melee 

But the 'advantage' concept interests me. D&D used it as an all-powerful modifier, TC uses it a bit heavy-handedly to replace all stats/modifiers, but what if different advantages or disadvantages gave different effects? i.e. we used the advantage concept to add decisions to melee?

To keep it simple, in my example "stats" are shown by different size dice. d4 = bad, d6 = meh, d8 = good, d10= great, d12= superhuman. They have to beat a target number. Say 4+ to succeed. (I lifted this from Savage Worlds but I'm trying to keep it familiar so we don't get hung up on the mechanics).

Example

Let's say we roll opposed melee dice. One dice each for starters. Say a d8 for an orc warrior and d6 for a peasant militia.  

a) The way melee will work is we remove any fails (rolls of 3 or less) and resolve the successes in order, highest to lowest. 

b) Before either of you roll, you can choose to strike (i.e. usual e.g. score damage on a hit) or parry (if the weapon is capable of it) to cancel enemy hits. So we have a bit of choice right out of the gate, albeit just 'attack - hurt them' or 'defend - try not to get hurt'

.....now we can add extra advantage dice depending on what you choose to do. This also relies on what you are equipped with. Some weapons will offer no inbuilt advantage i.e. an ordinary dude armed with just a dagger, for example. Other weapons are just not suited i.e. you cannot parry with an axe.

 These are just random ideas and not carefully thought through. Regard them as the 'concept.' 

 

1. Advantage: Reach. If you have a longer weapon held in two hands.

Roll extra melee dice, choose highest. You basically get a better strike, but only one hit.

 

2. Advantage: Block. If you have a shield or parrying weapon, and equal or better strength than opponent. 

Roll extra 'defensive' melee dice, of a different colour. It cancels an equal or lower opponent hit. You may hold your ground and push back opponents 1".

 

3. Advantage: Dodge Roll. Any - but better agility stats = better chance of success. 

Roll extra agility dice.  It cancels ANY hits (own or enemy) equal or below, and must move back/away 1" from opponent. 

 

4. Advantage: Dual Wield. A 1h weapon in each hand. 

Roll an extra lower level melee dice (ie. if usually d8 melee, extra dice is +d6); however you count (and inflict damage) for both rolls.

 

5. Advantage: Mighty Blow. If a two handed polearm or hefty weapon like an axe or mace.

Roll an extra strength dice. If it beats the opponent melee roll, do double damage.

....etc etc. Point is, the players in melee get some choice. 

Their likely action will be dictated by their loadout and stats. I.e. a spearman with shield and spear could choose reach, dodge or parry. However if he was heavily armoured, dodge may be less attractive than block. A barbarian with a two handed battleaxe might only choose mighty blow or reach. A duellist with a sword and dagger might choose block or dodge or dual wield. So models which are equipped differently actually ACT differently, and are not just +1/-1 to hit or be hit.

Obviously these skills would need to be balanced (I stole them from Skyrim) and could be tied to the use of a stamina stat, for example, to add further depth. I guess my idea here is: Can we use the D&D concept of the extra 'advantage' dice to give some flavour and choices in melee?

 

WIDER TOPIC: How can melee be made interesting, offering choice? ....Vs just "push models together and roll til someone dies?"

What is the simplest way to do this? Compared to my example which is aimed at a Mordhiem-a-like, ME:SBG gives ideas for the simpler end of the spectrum. You can push back enemies or stay locked in combat, choose to defend (extra dice to better win fights but cannot strike blows) and have some simple weapon-based choices (elf swords can be used as 2h or 1h; the former less likely to win a fight but doing more damage)....   

At what point does melee bog down? Overly complex mechanics and too many decisions may make melee unfun.....