Postby Yakk » Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:42 pm
Instead of "roll to hit" and "roll for damage", how about "attempt to kill" and "attempt to survive"?
The attacker attempts to kill the enemy.
The enemy could trust to luck to survive (unlikely, unless attacker is incompetent), or attempt to defeat the attack.
Rocks might use their "tough hide" feature to defeat the attacker's damage. Mantis might use their "ridiculous speed" to avoid the attack. Someone in battle armor might use it to prevent death.
Another form of resources would be wounds. If you lack the ability or desire to spend more of your other resources, you can take a wound, which causes longer-term problems. But a lethal attack can't be completely soaked by a human using a wound -- weapons just kill. You'd have to first reduce the lethality of the attack with a (failed but partial) defense.
Defences would then be pools (of points or dice), which you expend to keep yourself alive in a non-reliable manner.
These pools might be recovered through a number of methods -- taking a break to recover, luck, achieving something, repairing your gear, etc. Or, if you want the ragged edge to be really bad, maybe once your pool is empty you can try to use it in desperation and roll a check to see if you get a single defense attempt out of it...
The attacker's weapon's attribute and skills would then be the challenge that the defender is trying to survive. Instead of peeling off "wound levels", you'd peel off defensive skills until the defender is left exposed.
Ship to ship combat could be similar, with defenders dodging attacks, using shields to deflect attacks, intercepting attacks with drones or point defence lasers, etc. And partially successful attacks would cause hull breaches, system damage, etc.
As a system sketch...
Your character is a collection of attributes and skills. These are represented by dice.
Skills are small die sizes that are "always on". If you have a 1d4 pilot skill, you get +1d4 on all pilot checks. Skills are always a single die, and higher skill levels give you a bigger one.
Attributes are pools you burn through in a scene. A rockman's toughness might be a pool of 3d12.
Equipment is like attributes in that it is a pool of dice that is expended when you use it. Some of it has "easy" reload criteria, like weapons which recharge every round, and others are harder to reload.
A Flamer:
Accuracy: 1d4 (Auto, Splash, Suppress +2d4), Damage: 2d12 (Fire), Reload +1d12
Splash is a keyword for how it attacks -- in a relatively large splash. Suppress +2d4 means you can lay down suppressing fire. Damage 2d12 (Fire) means if you try to soak the damage, you have to soak 2d12 fire damage. Now, Rocks are immune to fire, so they can soak it's attack pretty easily... for anyone else, you probably want to dodge the flamer rather than trying to walk through it! Reload +1d12 means that each action reloads the damage pool by +1d12 if you expend these dice. Auto means that the pool auto-refreshes, like a skill.
A Blaster Pistol:
Accuracy: 2d8 (Aim 1d8/round), Damage: 1d10 (Energy, Auto)
Blaster Pistols have 2d10 worth of accuracy, but require you to burn actions aiming at 1d10 per action to get it. Their damage is 1d10 energy damage, and it is auto-fire (no actions required to refresh it). Dodging an unaimed blaster attack is pretty easy, but if they take actions to aim you might have a problem!
Powered Encounter Suit:
Armor: 1d8 (Auto) Oxygen: 3d6 (recharge: 1d6 per round in breathable air)
While wearing your Powered Encounter Suit, you can roll 1d8 to soak damage against any attack. It also has 3d6 worth of oxygen, which recharges at a rate of 1d6 per round in breathable air. An environment without breathable air will attack you, and you'll use your suit's oxygen to defend yourself, or take damage.
Bob:
Human
Luck: 2d10 (scene)
Adaptability: 1d4 (recharge: 1d per action)
Toughness: 1d4 (recharge: medical treatment)
Skills:
Combat Training: 1d4
Blaster: 1d6
Ship's Weapons: 1d4
Shields: 1d6
The idea of wounds is that you can take a failed defence, and double it, in exchange for taking a "random" wound of some kind. Wounds would persist into future scenes, but the alternative is death (or capture, or whatever the other guy is trying to do do you), or burning more dice from pools you might need later in this fight...