Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Pennetra (New Combat System)

 "Pennetra" logo

Okay, here’s a new combat system.  I’m calling it Pennetra because I had to write the word ‘Penetrating’ like 10 times in this post and other potential names like Penetrox are already taken by industrial aluminum joint compounds.

I’m trying to do (1) something new, and (2) something where a smaller % of attacks are misses.

Simple Version

This is the one-roll version.


Next to each weapon in your inventory, you have two numbers: Penetration and Damage.  Penetration helps you hit, and Damage is how much you hurt the other guy.  



Penetration

Damage

Dagger

d4

4

Sword

d6

4

Greataxe

d6

5


Making an Attack


When you make an attack, you roll Penetration to see if you hit.

  • If the result equals the target’s Defense, you hit.

  • If the result is 2x the target’s Defense, you hit 2x and deal +2 damage.

  • If the result is 3x the target’s Defense, you hit 3x and deal +4 damage.


That’s it.  That’s the whole mechanic.


Modifiers


  • Increase your Penetration die by 1 size if you are a Fighter.

  • Increase your Penetration die by 1 size if you have a magic weapon.

  • Increase damage by 1 point if you are strong.

  • If you have a situational bonus to hit, decrease their Defense by 1 point.


Defense


Unarmored = 1 (everything hits)

Leather = 2

Chain = 3

Plate = 4

Dragon = 5


There’s a satisfying effect here: against unarmored enemies, all weapons are equally likely to hit.  However, against heavily armored enemies, daggers (and other small weapons) become almost useless.  (The big advantage of daggers is that they can be concealed, thrown, and used in a grapple.)


When you get a situational bonus, you decrease their Defense instead of upgrading your Penetration die.  This is to benefit small weapons (like daggers) and non-fighters.  If you have a situational advantage against a person in leather armor, a dagger is as good as a sword–which kinda makes sense.


Some side effects of this system:

  • Attacks hit more often, so you’ll need to increase HP if you want combat to take a similar number of rounds.  Alternatively, keep HP the same if you want combat to be shorter than what you’re used to.  (For monsters, I’m going to try 5 HP per level and see how that feels.)

  • Physical weapons got a buff, but magic didn’t.  As a result, magic damage will feel weaker than what you might be used to.  This might actually be a feature if you want to push your wizard players towards using non-damaging spells.  It might be a bug if you want your wizard to be the nuke.

  • The scaling between armor types is sharper here.  Plate is stronger than what you are used to, and leather is much weaker.  Chain is about the same.

Adding Complexity: Double Dice

Okay, maybe you want something a little more interesting?  Let’s change it to a pair of dice rolls.



Penetration

Damage Die

Dagger

d4

d6

Sword

d6

d6

Greataxe

d6

d8


Once rolled, these dice are not fixed.  You can switch them freely.


This makes it even easier to hit your targets now.  It might look like you’ll be doing a little less damage, but since you can arrange your dice so that (if both dice are equal-or-higher-than the target’s Defense) the bigger die is the damage die, that doesn’t end up being the case.


The modifiers are the same as above.  2x and 3x hits each add another d4 of damage.


Monster Attacks


Some speculative conversions.



Penetration

Damage Die

Flat Damage

Goblin

d6

d4

3

Bandit

d6

d6

4

Bear

2 x d6

d8

4

Orc

d8

d8

5

Ogre

d10

d10

6

Owlbear

3 x d6

d8

5

Giant

d12

d12

7

Dragon

3 x d10

d8

5

Adding Complexity: Mighty Maneuvers

Fighters have a chance to do cool things with their attacks, for free.


Beginning at level 2, Fighters get a third die to roll, called the Mighty Maneuver die.  This is a d4 at level 2, but it becomes a d6 at level 4.  (If you have a d5, you can use that for level 3.)


The fighter will roll all 3 dice, and assign each one to a task: Penetration, Damage, and the Mighty Maneuver.  After damage is dealt, the value showing on the Mighty Maneuver die becomes the DC for the enemy’s save to avoid the Fighter’s combat maneuver.  You still need to hit your target in order to attempt a Mighty Maneuver.


Enemies usually use a d6 to resist, or a d8 if they’re good at it.  And a lot of actions are impossible.  (You’ll never shove a dragon, for example.)


Example:


Frollo the Fighter attacks, and therefore rolls all three dice: 4, 5, 6.  The target has a defense of 3 (chain).  He decides to use the 4 for Penetration (a hit!) and the 5 for damage.  The 6 becomes Frollo’s trip attempt.


His enemy, the evil unicorn Hexodia, is not easily tripped with four legs.  The unicorn rolls a d8 to avoid being tripped, but gets a 5.  This is less than Frollo’s 6, and so the unicorn topples with a surprised neigh.


Alternatively, Frollo could have used 6 for Penetration (a double hit!) and 1d4+4 for damage.  (The extra 1d4 comes from the second hit).  This would have left the 5 for the Maneuver.  Since the unicorn also rolled a 5, it would not have been tripped.

Why Would Anyone Use This System?

Compared to regular D&D, there's less math and smaller numbers, so attacking is a little simpler. Attack rolls are probably faster for everyone except the fighter. And attacks miss less often, so combat feels faster.


Compared to Into the Odd, it allows for smoother scaling of enemy difficulty. In ItO, enemy Armor affects your hit chance and reduces your damage (effectively double-dipping). In Pennetra, enemy Defense mostly reduces your chance to hit, but because you often switch dice to land the hit, the hits tend to be smaller as well, so Defense functions as a subtle (and milder) form of damage reduction.


It has diminishing returns on strong attackers, which is nice. Even if you get your Penetration die up to d12 (or d20), you'll still miss occasionally against an armored foe.


I think it preserves the intended differences between the different weapon types, while still giving people a reason to carry a dagger.


And it makes Fighters feel cool. They get something that no one else does.

Discussion

You could take this a step further, and add a fourth die that improves your Defense for the next round.  There’s a couple of ways to do this, but I don’t like any of them very much.  


I probably would let a player take a total defense action, though, and gain +1 Defense at the cost of forfeiting all other actions.


Expect some hesitation as players try to figure out which configuration does the most damage.  (It’s not too hard.  An extra hit is worth 2.5 points of damage.)  Is this decision interesting and meaningful?  Maybe.


It’s more interesting for fighters, since they have to choose between dealing more damage and doing something cool.  It could potentially lead to some situations where a fighter focuses more on the maneuver and less on the damage, which is cool.  


I like fighters to be: 

  • Simpler than other classes.

  • More spontaneous.  Instead of declaring what spell you are casting, a fighter is largely reacting to openings that the enemies give.

  • Good at doing several things in combat, not just damage.

Domain Expansion

Actually, you could rip out the engine from Pennetra and apply it to other types of resolution mechanics. Example: crafting.


When you craft something, roll a Materials die, Tools die, and a Skill die. The results are assigned to your three goals of Quality, Efficiency, and Time. (Low Efficiency means that you end up using more raw materials than you thought you would. High efficiency means that you have some left over.)


If you think of any other fun applications, post it in the comments.

Some Classes

GLOG-adjacent.  Fighters and barbarians are both durable, but they’re different kinds of durable.

Fighters 

Fighters upgrade their Penetration die by 1 step.


Level 1 - Defend

Level 2 - Mighty Maneuvers 1d4

Level 3 - Extra Attacks

Level 4 - Mighty Maneuvers 1d6


Defend


Once per round, you can intercept a physical attack that was meant for an adjacent ally.  You take all of the damage that they would have taken.  You can declare this after damage is rolled.


Mighty Maneuvers


See above.


Extra Attacks


When fighting multiple enemies, a Fighter can attack two enemies at once.  They will roll all three dice at the same time.  A Penetration die is assigned separately to each enemy, and the third die is used for Damage.


Alternatively, the third die can be used for a Mighty Maneuver, performed against both enemies simultaneously.


Barbarians

Barbarians get more HP than fighters, but they can’t wear armor.  Like Fighters, they also upgrade their Penetration die by 1 step.


Level 1 - Rage

Level 2 - Quaff

Level 3 - Mighty Strength

Level 4 - Mighty Rage


Rage


Increase your damage die by 1 step, but you cannot take any actions that aren’t part of an action to directly murder your enemies.  Rage ends when all enemies are subdued or driven off.  Once per round, you can attempt to end it early with a 2-in-6 chance of success.


Quaff


You drink down some booze.  It heals for you for 1d6+[Level] HP, but you get drunk.  For the next hour, if you ever (1) make an attack roll (2) and miss (3) and get doubles, you suffer a fumble.  Your weapon breaks, an enemy gets a free attack against you, etc.


Mighty Strength


You can do some magnificent feat of strength 1/day, like rip a door off its hinges.  If used to intimidate, you get a large bonus.  This ability isn’t useable in combat.


Mighty Rage


Your rage improves, increasing your damage die by another step when raging.


10 comments:

  1. In the double dice system, why make the distinction between penetration and damage dice, if they can be switched freely? Dagger can just be d4+d6, sword 2d6, axe d6+d8, etc.

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    Replies
    1. You also can't have weapons which are especially good against armor, or bad against armor but deadly if they get through.

      Or am I misunderstanding? Do you have to succeed on the initial penetration roll before you can switch the dice?

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    2. You can switch them after you roll, but before you decide which one is the penetration die.

      You're correct about the distinction, but the values do change depending on who is wielding them. A dagger wielded by a strong fighter is a d6+d8. If the fighter swaps his dagger for a magic dagger, he still needs to know if he is upgrading to a d6+d10 or a d8+d8.

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    3. I don't really like having a high degree of mechanical separation between weapons. I'd rather the players focus on other stuff.

      But if you wanted a powerful but clumsy weapon: d4 pen, d10 damage, no switching dice.

      If you wanted a weapon that is good against armor: ignore all armor higher than 3.

      Delete
  2. Maybe it's just me but I don't like maneuvers without any parameters on them. My players always use them to try to remove attacks from foes by stunning or tripping or disarming them, and this pretty much just let them cheese foes. I feel like some restrictions are necessary. Also: can monsters do manuevers on pcs?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Neat! You reinvented Otherkind Dice (from Vincent Baker). These sorts of "roll and distribute" mechanics had a big influence in the story-games scene a dozen years back. Folks made lots of hacks, including ones very, very similar to this. (In a roundabout way, this class of mechanic helped birth PbtA, actually.) All of which is to say, based on experience, Otherkind Dice assigned to attack and damage is functional, for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Presented for your consideration:

    Spellatro (New Magic System)

    I can't stop thinking about Pennetra, so I’m trying to come up with a magic system that uses a similar dice mechanic, but with more complexity for wizard players to have more dials to fiddle with.

    The basic system is add dice for the effects of the dice and roll low but over the magical defense of the target.

    This is the one-roll version. I envision it as a true name and power word system letting wizards craft their spells out of domains they have a connection to. Add dice for the following:


    DIE SIZE TARGET SIZE WARD MOD DURATION
    d4 coin - fleeting
    d6 flower - minute
    d8 chair - 10 minutes
    d10 person - hour
    d12 room - day
    d20 house +5 month
    d20+d4 mob +8 year and a day
    d20+d6 city +10 decade
    d20+d10 county +15 century
    d20+d12 continent +20 perpetual

    ● The wizard needs to roll above the magical defense of the target but as low as they can on the magical shock table. Rolls below the magical defense (Ward) fail and may also cause a magical shock roll.
    ● Die rolls 6 or under go back into the wizard’s die pool unless they are lost in magical shock results.
    ● The greater the difference between the ward target and the die roll the greater the effect.
    ● Rolls of 1 and 2 do not add to the total for purposes of Magical Shock.
    ● Rolls above 6 expend the die from the pool
    ● Magical dice explode upward: if you roll max on a die, roll it again
    ● If the wizard knows more than one Power Word they can be combined but each word must add a die corresponding to the highest other die used.


    Ward (magical resistance or innate defense)
    True Name Known -10
    Cursed 2
    Fae or Chaotic 4
    Mundane 6
    Holy 8
    Magically Hardened 10
    Dragon 12


    Magical Shock
    1-10 No Effect
    11-20 Minor Mishap
    21-30 Major Malfunction
    31-40 Disasterpiece
    41+ Killed by the Weave
    end of part 1

    ReplyDelete
  5. Start of part 2:

    Because of exploding dice, all spells need to be rolled. FREEZE a coin for 1 minute? d4+d6.


    A wizard with the Power Word FIRE wants to cast a Fireball into a normal dungeon room; she plans that it will explode and dissipate. The wizard grabs a d12 (for a room=size target) and a d4 (for fleeting duration) and rolls them. The total is 6 which is the target for a mundane room, the room explodes. There is no Magic Shock. The d12 rolled a 2 and it goes back into the wizard’s Die Pool, and the d4 rolled a 4 and it goes back into the wizard’s Die Pool as well.


    An apprentice who only knows the Power Word BROOM wants to make his broom carry his water. He’s never tried this before, but here goes! For the broom he grabs a d8 (his DM agrees this is approxamate size of a chair), the job of carrying the water will take an hour so he grabs a d10. This is going to be great! He rolls and gets d8, 7 and d10, 10! Re rerolls the d10 and gets another 10! He rerolls the d10 and gets a 1. A total of 28. Both dice are expended and now he must roll on the major malfunctions table, uh-oh!


    A sorcerer with the Power Word SANDMAN wants to cast sleep on an entire fae city. She grabs a d20 for the city and because she wants them to sleep more than one hour she grabs a d12 for a day duration. The target is ward/fae + city = 14. She rolls and gets a 24, the spell works. Both die rolled over 6 so they are lost untill they can be recovered. The sorcerer rolls on the major malfunctions table and suffers the results.


    Pellucidar the Crow-like is defending a city against the attack of the flying Great Black Wyrm named Temesneorth Destroyer of Hope. He is planning a great working but needs to protect himself. With is mighty companions, he has gone on an epic quest to learn the dragon’s True Name is actually 长胡子 chang-huzi “long beard.” The target number will be ward/dragon 12, bigger than a mob but smaller than a city rounds up to 10 ward mod, so he needs a total of 22 -10 (for the true name) = 12. He is using Power Word DEATH and Power Word GRAVITY. He wants the spell to last 1 minute to fully incapaciate the dragon if possible. He grabs a d6 for the duration and a d20 and d6 for the Target size and has to add a d20 for adding a Power Word. He is preparing to actually roll 2d20 + 2d6 and he stops himself. He takes a breath. He removes a priceless artifact from his bag and crushes it. The crystal amulet lets him take a die down 2 steps, he lowers one of the d20s to a d10. Now Pellucidar casts his mighty work, CRUSHING DOOM. He rolls d20 + d10 + 2d6, 10 + 8 + 2 + 2 a 22! 10 over his target and the 2s don't count toward Magical Shock, but he still needs to roll on the Minor Mishaps roll, a small price to pay for the death of the great dragon. The d6s go back in his die pool and the 2 d20s are expended.


    This will need more thought and testing as the impediments to wantonly casting over-large spells will come in the various Magical Shock Tables associated with each Power Word and such flexible magic will have in-setting consequences. Shock tables for each word are beyond the scope of this document. The discerning DM also should limit the availability of Power Words, perhaps each one after the first requires a quest to obtain.

    One assumes the world is awash is the results of strange mishaps and disasters caused by wizards who died casting spells that got out of control.

    Apologies if formatting is odd moving this to the comments field. I tried to clean it up as much as I can, but not sure the results.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Part 3.

      As far as adjudicating damage from spells, I'm not sure yet. I think either A) roll all the dice you used in the spell again for damage or B) different POWER WORDS will have different damage dice associated with them.

      Delete