tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542161330240702751.post9128210682000070357..comments2023-10-29T05:18:25.934-07:00Comments on Impossible Boulder: A Review of Mutants & Machine-gunsThe Boulderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07463838423641054939noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542161330240702751.post-29299125833759306762013-04-28T12:46:37.908-07:002013-04-28T12:46:37.908-07:00RPGs are about giving players the option to do any...RPGs are about giving players the option to do anything they can imagine and that's why I think limiting combat to just several choices is a less than ideal design choice. You could take the system as it is now and add a grid and you are still left with very little choice as a player. To improve the system you need to facilitate all of those off the wall ideas that players might have and I think that is especially important in a gonzo setting.<br /><br />I think that you are making a basic assumption that there needs to be a dedicated combat system, that there needs to be a transition from one type of gameplay to another. I don't think that is true and since you aren't currently using a grid you don't really have a design need to do so.<br /><br />Right now everything you do in M&Mg, except combat, is handled by a 2d6+attribute roll. Why not extend that to include combat? If I am in combat with a super mutant and my intent is to harm it then the question should be "How do I harm the mutant?" and a roll should follow. If I want to tackle the mutant and stab it with my trusty combat knife then I am clearly trying to overpower it and should use Might. Maybe that isn't how I fight, though. Maybe I circle the mutant, waiting for it to strike and at the last second dodge and try and cut it. In that case I would roll Reflexes.<br /><br />For a rules lite game like M&Mg you want to keep things simple. Treat a conflict or challenge as a series of questions:<br /><br />What is your character doing?<br />What is the goal of the action?<br />What happens if you fail?<br /><br />Players describe one and two as part of gameplay and the GM tells them which of their attributes is relevant. If they are successful then the goal is achieved, wounding a monster for example, and if they fail then the GM responds with something bad that happens. It could be as simple as them missing to them losing a test of strength with a desert worm and being constricted.<br /><br />Further, you could simplify your monsters to only two things: HP/Wounds and Danger. Danger would be their target difficulty in all matters. This causes some problems on a granularity level because Danger would apply versus all attributes, (what do you mean I can't outwit the giant, unintelligent sand worm?) but it is useful in rules lite games. The alternative is to just stat out monsters in the same way as player characters. Which brings me to another possible approach. <br /><br />You could treat combat (and everything else) as opposed rolls. That is players roll their attribute vs. monster's attribute, environment's danger level or machine's difficulty and the winner has things go in their favour. Remember also that you can also scale success and failure by how much a roll exceeds another. If I beat someone by 6 that might be better than beating them by 1.<br /><br />Ultimately you want to give the player's as much choice as possible in how they approach things, combat included. I think that if you are going to restrict choice there needs to be a solid design reason to do so (see Apocalypse World's moves). Right now there doesn't seem to be a reason to restrict players in combat so I think you should rethink how it works. I think your current system could be expanded to be for satisfying, but in doing so the game would move beyond a small rules lite game and into something bigger, which I believe is contrary to your goals.The Boulderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463838423641054939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6542161330240702751.post-15188219524428216702013-04-28T04:54:11.286-07:002013-04-28T04:54:11.286-07:00Thanks for the review :)
This review really helps...Thanks for the review :)<br /><br />This review really helps in improving on the next version. I guess it feels like a console rpg because of the 'menu' driven option and yes after some battles it feels repetitive. One question though, what kind of combat system would be great for a post apocalyptic game? Would a grid based combat be nicer?Robertson Sondoh Jrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09214749735651677537noreply@blogger.com