Gus
Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!
Basic rules of combat in the arena:
First, note that this is still a collaborative writing project. Dice are in no way meant to replace negotiations for describing what happens in a fight. They are merely meant to push characters in a particular direction of negotiations more quickly to get to the fun part of describing stuff.
Whatever happens, make it interesting!
Second the use of dice as described below are meant to be a very quick, down and dirty resolution system, not a detailed simulation of reality. Outrageous situations are meant to be par for the course. Write around them. If the dice give you an implausible scenario, GOOD! Write around it. Take it as a challenge. If you want to play GURPS or something, knock yourself out.
THIS! IS! AEGIS!
Third, to reiterate, this is still about negotiation. When you attack, choosing which stats to use is deliberately left to the players to decide. Strength versus Agility to attack might make sense for a typical punch, but if you are doing a Judo throw, maybe agility versus agility might be more appropriate. For a damage roll, Strength vs Defense might be good for a punch, but for poison gas maybe Energy vs Health. Some attacks will require more thought; what if your partner wants to shove metal up your nose and down into your lungs? These things happen.
Negotiate with your partner!
Fourth, and perhaps most important. This is Non-Canon! The arena exists outside of spacetime in a kind of old school ‘secret wars’ type of fight club. The first rule of this fight club, is there are no consequences to these fights. So feel free to die, kill, team up with villains, whatever.
Go wild.
Bearing those primary rules in mind, here are the WIP rules for arena combat:
That is, for now, literally all the things. You have all the weapons you need. Now, fight!
First, note that this is still a collaborative writing project. Dice are in no way meant to replace negotiations for describing what happens in a fight. They are merely meant to push characters in a particular direction of negotiations more quickly to get to the fun part of describing stuff.
Whatever happens, make it interesting!
Second the use of dice as described below are meant to be a very quick, down and dirty resolution system, not a detailed simulation of reality. Outrageous situations are meant to be par for the course. Write around them. If the dice give you an implausible scenario, GOOD! Write around it. Take it as a challenge. If you want to play GURPS or something, knock yourself out.
THIS! IS! AEGIS!
Third, to reiterate, this is still about negotiation. When you attack, choosing which stats to use is deliberately left to the players to decide. Strength versus Agility to attack might make sense for a typical punch, but if you are doing a Judo throw, maybe agility versus agility might be more appropriate. For a damage roll, Strength vs Defense might be good for a punch, but for poison gas maybe Energy vs Health. Some attacks will require more thought; what if your partner wants to shove metal up your nose and down into your lungs? These things happen.
Negotiate with your partner!
Fourth, and perhaps most important. This is Non-Canon! The arena exists outside of spacetime in a kind of old school ‘secret wars’ type of fight club. The first rule of this fight club, is there are no consequences to these fights. So feel free to die, kill, team up with villains, whatever.
Go wild.
Bearing those primary rules in mind, here are the WIP rules for arena combat:
- Picture the scene laid out as a storyboard or a comic book. Where tabletop games are measured in turns, AEGIS combat is measured in beats, or panels. Basically each thing you do takes one panel. All the panels together makes a scene.
- Any task you choose to do unopposed, you can just write that you do. If you want to jump off a bridge and dive into the river, write that down. Done.
- HOWEVER, if you are pushing the envelope of what is possible given relevant stats (such as a six foot vertical leap given strength of 3) your writing partner may ‘challenge’ In this case roll a d6. 4 or better succeeds and 3 or less fails
- If you feel the challenge is unreasonable you may appeal to any GM or acolyte in Discord. If they side with you, still roll, but you need a 1 to fail. If they side with your partner, you fail on 1-5
- For any directly opposed actions, each player chooses a relevant stat, rolls a six sided die and adds it to that stat. The player with the higher total decides what happens.
- Ties go to the player with the higher stat. Tied stats go to the player with higher rank (including number--C4 trumps C3) As a last resort, re-roll the dice.
- If you have a clever tactic in mind, you may add one to your roll. (Your opponent might also do so, depending on the scene you have set so far)
- If you have the lower stat AND a palpable advantage, such as a weapon, an opponent mired in mud, or blinded by blood in their eyes, you may add an additional plus one to your roll. You may NOT add this extra bonus if you have the superior stat. This bonus is for underdogs only. So there.
- If there are more than two people in the combat, the underdogs in any particular action may get one final plus one bonus to their roll if they team up to perform it. (e.g. the strong character throwing the smaller more vicious character at the big bad in order to boost the attack)
- Stats of 1 or 9 have a special rule because they go off the scale. If you have a one and your opponent does not, you divide your roll in half, rounded up. Contrariwise, if you have a 9 and your opponent does not, their roll is divided in half, rounded up.
- This system is not only for attacks; you could use it for catching up to a player who is attempting to run away for example
- That said, obviously the main utility of dice is to decide if your attack hits, and if so, how much damage. Rolls to hit are binary and resolve as any other opposed action above.
- Rolls for damage are more of a spectrum, and work like this: If the attacker gets the higher total, a debilitating hit results. For a tie, the defender is bloodied. If the defender gets the higher total, they are only winded by the hit.
- Debilitating hits give -1 to all your subsequent rolls, and your health drops by three. If you get to zero health or less, you drop.
- Bloodying hits make it impossible to take any bonuses on your next roll, and your health drops by one for the remainder of the combat.
- Winded gives you a -1 to your next roll only, or you can try to spend one panel doing nothing that requires a roll, to catch your breath. (Note that if your partner tries to hit you, you will need to roll for that. If you want to avoid that penalty, you have to find a way not to roll at all for one panel. This could be as simple as teleporting away or turning invisible, or even just holding up a time out sign to your sparring partner and appealing to their sense of fair play)
That is, for now, literally all the things. You have all the weapons you need. Now, fight!
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