Legacies of Veridocia: The Dark Dominion
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} Combat Mechanics
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Previous Problems
with Turn Order
In the Shining Force
games, turn order has consisted of a simple premise: one character moves and
acts at a time, and they do so in an order determined by agility plus some
random factor. Forum games have been unable to fully replicate the system in a
truly satisfying way, as the various turn order systems I’ve experienced make
significant sacrifices to accommodate the play-by-post dynamic the games need.
These sacrifices were as follows:
·
Rigidly sticking to
the turn order forced players to post in a very specific order, and wait for
the GM if monsters moved in between players.
Outcome:
Unacceptably long time for rounds to resolve.
·
Removing the need
for posting in turn order completely meant that players’ post order determined
turn order instead, and all monsters moved together, after all players’ turns
were resolved.
Outcome: Agility was
meaningless, and bunching all of the monster actions together sometimes turned
out too punishing for the players. Additionally, a lack of updates to enemy
actions lead to ever-increasing player uncertainty when deciding what actions
to take, since the result of previous player actions were left unresolved.
·
Splitting the turn
into a fast and a slow phase blended the above two approaches. It limited fewer
players from posting than the first method, and broke up the enemy actions,
preventing all of the enemies from descending on the players all at once.
Outcome: Turns took
a time somewhere between the two previous methods to resolve, the enemy
onslaught was broken up a little, giving some breathing room to the player, and
agility had some significance restored to it by way of prioritising faster
players and monsters based on agility.
·
The Simultaneous
Motion System attempted to provide dynamism to movement and reward players for
tactically using a new marking system to give great emphasis to agility, and
freedom to player actions.
Outcome: After
trying this system in the first battle, it became clear that it became
difficult for both players and the GM to follow its complexity, so it was
scrapped in favour of a simpler system.
Marking Mk. II
This system behaves
much more like previous forum games.
1.
All units move one
at a time, in initiative order
2.
Attacks and other
actions resolve in order of initiative, which is derived from agility
3.
You can post player
actions in any order, and if your action becomes invalidated by a faster
unit/player action, you will be informed and asked to state a new action
4.
To help avoid
invalidated actions you can add Conditions to your post along with your primary
action, that give a reduced chance of having an action invalidated.
Sample Turn
The first step is
for the GM to determine all
enemy movements and actions first. He does not reveal them until the players
have all posted theirs. This is to prevent player moves influencing the GM’s
decisions, and vice versa.
Having done that, the players make their posts, and can do so in any order. Using a map like the one below, players will determine the lay of the
land, and move their characters to tactically defeat the enemy.
Fig 1
Let’s say that
Alexis’ player chooses to move to P-13 and attack the red. Then, Flynt’s player
posts his move, stating that he will attack the bandit from Q-12.
The GM decided ahead
of time that the red bandit would move to P-9 to attack Flynt, and the orange
bandit, who only has 5 MOV, can’t reach a space that would allow him to attack,
and elects to move to Q-12. The other bandits are too busy getting drunk to
fight.
Each unit then moves
and acts in initiative order. Flynt has 6
Initiative, Alexis has 5, and the bandits have 4.
As you can
(hopefully) see, the orange bandit has a little cross at the end of his
movement trail. This is because both the orange bandit and Flynt stated the
same square as their chosen destination. When a space is
contested, the one with the highest initiative lays claim to it, and the slower
unit’s action is invalidated, and must choose a new place to move to, and
possibly a new action. In this case, Flynt
is faster than the bandit, so he gets the square, and the GM chooses another
square for the bandit to go to. He chooses Q-13. If it had been the other way
around, and it was the bandit that claimed the square, the GM would quickly be
able to tell the player that their action has been invalidated, and instruct
them to make a new choice.
Despite Alexis’
player posting first, Flynt’s turn resolves first due to his higher
agility/initiative, and he stabs the red bandit.
Alexis’ action
resolves second, and he also stabs the red bandit. It is entirely possible that
their damage could kill the red bandit before its action resolves, and if this
happened, its action would be cancelled.
In this case, we
assume that the red bandit does not die, but because his action involved moving
to attack Flynt, and Flynt is no longer there, his action is invalidated. This
is where Conditions can help to resolve an invalidated turn.
The orange Bandit
also has his move invalidated, as Flynt took the square he wanted. Conditions
could have helped him too.
Conditions
These can be posted
to give the GM a means of resolving an invalidated turn or action. Two key
Conditions are:
·
Favour target – you
prioritise the target you specified in your action. If the red Bandit had
chosen this condition, he would favour chassing after
and attacking Flynt. Since Flynt moved into his attack range, the red Bandit
would stay put instead of moving, and attack.
·
Favour position –
you prioritise the map coordinate over your action. If the red Bandit had
chosen to favour position, he would move to P-9, foregoing his attack on Flynt.
Other conditions can
include specifying an alternate target in the event of your primary choice
being killed or moving beyond your reach, specifying that you will move to and
attack the closest unit of a certain unit type or colour, electing to abandon
an attack in favour of a heal action if an ally falls below a certain HP value
before your move resolves, plus others.
The Marking System
(Mk. II)
A Mark is an
alternative form of action that a character can choose to take instead of
simply staying. You would post
your chosen co-ordinate as normal, and then you declare one
enemy unit to ‘mark’, along with the action you wish to use on them. This delays your action. If your mark moves within your Threat Zone before your next turn takes place, your specified action will trigger.
Otherwise, the action is lost, and you cannot mark anyone
else for a turn. A mark is a
special type of condition because you are committing to your location and
action, and are gambling on the enemy coming near you. Whether the mark is
triggered will be determined by following the mark’s shortest path of least
resistance, with the x axis taking first priority, followed by the y axis. The
GM will use these rules to determine if a mark triggers.
Your Threat Zone is mostly determined by the reach of the action you specify
as part of the mark. For instance, if
you use arrows, and you mark an enemy, your Threat Zone is the reach of the
weapon, so either 2 or 3 squares away from you. The same applies to magic.
Melee has an additional factor to consider: Stepping.
Provided that you do not expend all of your move points in the turn, the melee character
is allowed to make a single step in the direction of the mark if it would pass within melee
range of the square you are stepping into. This effectively
gives you a Threat Zone of 2 squares. Ranged and Magic
attacks cannot step because they require aiming/casting focus to do, whilst melee does not require such precision. In the event that you expend all of your move, or you are in terrain that increases the
cost to move beyond the move you had left, stepping is not possible, and your Threat Zone is simply your melee attack range i.e. all
squares adjacent to you.
Whenever you take
any offensive action, ALWAYS:
1.
Include a d100 roll and a d26 roll (or whatever your variance die is)
in case your action resolves or your mark triggers.
2.
Consider employing at least one Condition to help reduce the number of
invalidated turns.