Greetings friends!
So over the past week I've put out quite a bit of fluff for FL:O, I hope you've enjoyed it and it's helped to form the worlds that the game will be set in.
But now it's time to look at some rules.
Now to start with the most important rules are how combat is going to play out.
I've looked at a lot of different systems, in particular those that use something a bit 'different' and I think what I've got at present is complicated enough to keep things interesting but simple enough not to slow things down.
Now what I am going to cover now will apply only to player characters, for as we already know AIs will get a single action and what they do is dictated by their AI Archetype.
So currently all PCs have 2 available actions per turn. The first is a utility action, this can be a number of things such as moving or aiming. The second is an interaction, this ranges from direct interaction with objectives, to shooting a gun or hitting with a melee weapon.
You can not do 2 utility or 2 interactions in any 1 turn.
So to start with we have Utility Actions (these are a selection and more should be added as time goes by)
- Move: Move up to your movement stat
- Aim: Aim your weapon increasing your Ballistic dice by (1?)
- Dodge: (Can only be done in melee) Increase your Defence dice by (1?) but reduce your Melee dice by (1?).
- All in: (melee only) increase your melee dice by (1?) and reduce your Defence dice by (1?).
Then we have Interact Actions. These are more about direct involvement with the world around you.
So we have:
- Melee Attack: make a single attack with a melee weapon.
- Ballistic Attack: make a single attack with a ranged weapon.
- Take cover: increase your Defence dice by (1?).
- Interact with objective: As it sounds.
There will also be special abilities available to classes and unlocked through levelling, these will be classed as either Utility or Interact Actions.
So using these combos, what sort of things can you do?
You could move and shoot, move into melee and hit, move and hide or move and interact.
You can aim and shoot
If in melee you can try and fight defensively with less chance of hurting them, or you can fight offensively with higher chance if being hurt in return.
This covers the basics of actions.
But what about combat itself?
Currently Ranged combat is pretty well established and for this example we'll use two weapons; a mag-rifle and a sniper rifle.
Mag-Rifle
Damage: 4
Range: 0-6 / 6-12 / 13+
Sniper Rifle
Damage: 4
Range: 13+ / 12-6 / 6-0
Currently those are the only stats you need to know, however the exact figures are just off the top of my head.
Ok, so for starters you have 2 stats you need to be aware of:
Damage: How many dice you roll
Range: How does range effect your attack?
So the range table works as follows:
+1 Die / No Modifier / -1 Die
So in the case of the Mag Rifle if you are shooting with it and the target is 5" away, you roll 5 Damage Dice (4+1), if it was 10" away you would roll 4, and if it was 16" away you would roll 3 (4-1).
The Sniper Rifle works the other way, the further away the target is, the more dice you roll.
I should probably say, this game has no range of ballistic weapons. The game boards will be 2'x2' and everything should be able to fire over that distance.
Ok, so let's say we're shooting the Mag Rifle against a generic security dude.
You are a bounty hunter with a starting ballistic stat of 4.
In order to determine hitting you roll your damage dice (so that's the amount of the weapon effected by range modifier. Let's say the security dude is 8" away, so no modifier.
So that's 4 dice you roll (this game uses d10s) In this example we roll 2, 7, 3, 2. And in order to determine hits you have to roll UNDER your Ballistic stat which is 4, so a 3 or under.
In our example you have scored 3 hits.
Then the target rolls defence.
The security dude is wearing a flak jacket which gives him 3 defence dice, and his defence stat is 4.
Just like with shooting, for defending you roll your defence dice and have to roll UNDER your stat.
Security dude rolls: 6, 3, 5 so successfully defends with 1 die.
What that means is you deduct the number of successful defences from the successful hits, in this case 2 (3-1). This is then applied to the target as damage. Security dude has therefore suffered 2 damage.
Now let's try this a little differently by throwing in the Utility Actions.
Security dude is now wearing an Exo-Suit which gives him a Defence Dice of 8! However his stat is still set at 4.
Our character is now holding a Sniper Rifle complete with Digi Scope.
Our character is on the other side of the courtyard at 18" away giving him +1 Damage, he also spent his Utility Action aiming and his digi scope increases his dice by +1, we're now looking at a whopping 7 damage dice!
Our character shoots: 8, 1, 2, 4, 3, 9, 6.
So he needed a 3 or lower to hit, that's 3 hits.
Security dude has yet to do anything, so he has no utility bonus meaning it's just his 6 dice to defend.
5,1,5,5,7,2
Again he needed 3s and lower, that's 2 successful defence reducing the damage down to 1.
Now Security Dude in this example has a total Health Pool (HP) of 6, so now he is down to 5.
Security dude's AI dictates that he will move to the nearest cover and shoot with his mag-rifle so he does so.
Security dude's mag rifle has 4 dice however the range gives it -1. Like our character he needs 3- to hit: 1,3,4 he hits twice.
Our character, let's call him Hero, he spent last turn hiding and is not behind cover or similar, so he gets his usual defence rolls and like the earlier security dude, Hero is wearing flak armour (3 dice): 5,1,7. That's 1 defence, he takes 1 damage. Our character in this instance has 6 HP as well, and so is also down to 5.
Now it's our turn. We want to stay at range for our +1 but now the security dude is behind cover which would give him another +1 defence, that's 7 dice meaning we're on equal footing, and we're not a huge fan of that.
So Hero moves his movement distance in a semi circle around the security dude making sure to stay 16+" away from him, ahead of Hero is a rocky outcrop that if he can reach will put him at a spot to remove Security Dude's cover and also give him cover himself.
Hero is now wishing he had run there first before shooting Security Dude.
In order to reach the outcrop Hero will need to move again, meaning no matter what he is out in the open, so he dives to the floor to try and reduce his chance of getting hit, this is the end of his turn.
Security Dude goes, his AI says he should be behind cover and fire with his rifle. He is still behind cover and therefore fires.
4 Damage Dice, -1 Range he rolls 3 Dice: 10, 2, 9. 1 hit
3 Defence Dice, +1 Take Cover. Hero rolls 4 Dice: 8,8,10,4 no defence.
Hero takes 1 HP and is down to 4.
Next turn, Hero gets back to his feet, runs to the outcropping and takes a shot.
4 Damage Dice +1 Scope, +1 Range, 6 dice total: 10,1,10,3,3,1: 4 hits!
Dude defends: 6 armour, no cover, 6 dice rolled: 7,7,4,3,4,9: 1 defence. Dude suffers 3 HP taking him down to 2HP.
Dude is now out of cover, but there is no where within range that he can run to to take cover, so he remains where he is and fires:
4 Damage Dice -1 Range: 3 Dice Rolled: 10,7,8 no hits.
Next turn Hero aims and fires:
4 Damage Dice, +1 Scope, +1 Range +1 Aim: 7 Dice!
3,8,3,4,10,8,8: 2 Hits!
Dude defends:
6 Defence Dice, no cover: 8,4,8,2,2,8: 2 Defence. No damage is dealt.
Dude responds the only way his AI will let him and he shoots again: 3 Dice as last time: 7,8,7 all misses.
This carries on until one of them dies.
Of course we are looking at things in a vacuum, in reality the stats would not be like this and there would be more than just 1 AI you'd be fighting, plus you'd have an objective to achieve.
Now I need to say, every dice roll in this post has been a real roll via my iPhone app, so what you were watching here was a 'real' theoretical shoot out between our two characters.
One thing I'm thinking however, does the Utility/Interaction modifiers make combat too complicated? I'm not sure at this point.
And on that note; stay safe and I'll see you Fringe Side.
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
