Battle System for upcoming RP, Accepting suggestions too. Options

[Nicsp]

So, as some of you may know, i'm currently working in a simple action-based RP which will, hopefully, attract new people here to these subforums. Now there's a problem, because of the nature of this RP, there will, no doubt, be many battles. And since the point of this RP is to attract new members, not only the usual text battling way could be a bit of a disadvantage for new RPers but also would require a certain distancing from the author to it's character since, as we all know, no one likes losing.

I have discussed what battle system should be used with Sparrowsmith via PM for a while and we came up with two options to choose from, one being very simple but requiring the need of one or more admins of the RP to be frequently present to handle the battles and the other one a lot more simple but also very complex. Needless to say, we are also accepting suggestions, if any of you have any.

"Rock, paper, scissors" system by Nicsp.

[Show/Hide] Clicky.

Instead of making up their own weapons, the GM will make a list of avaible weapons and assign to these weapons ten points through three different "stats", that data will only be avaible to the GM and to the player who owns the weapons, and then when two people fight, we have them choose what stat they want to use to battle the opponent, the stat is then PMed to the GM who will then reply to both people saying which is the winner. Each of these stats "beats" each other (Think rock, paper, scissors.), and when that happens, the "winning" stat gets a 2x value bonus over the other one.

So...By example...

Bob has...A shield.
Block: 5
Charge: 4
Strike: 1

John has...A chainsaw sword.
Block: 3
Charge: 3
Strike: 4

Block>Charge>Strike>Block

Bob uses block and John uses Strike.
Bob: 5
John: 4

But since Strike>Block then...

Bob: 5
John: 8

John wins.

Now on another occasion:

Both John and Bob use charge.

Bob: 4
John: 3

Since charge=charge then Bob wins.

After the result has been calculated by the GM and sent back to both of the RPers involved in the battle, it will be up to the RPers to now RP the battle as they see fit, keeping in mind which of the two has to win.

Tactical Stance system by Sparrowsmith

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An RP fight needs to go on as long as is necessary for entertainments sake, but as short as is possible for story development. One idea would be 'stances'.
In each post you can either change your 'stance' or attack, but not both. The three stances are offensive, defensive, and moving. If you're defensive, you can't be hit or hit, if you're offensive, then you can hit and be hit. Moving is for any REAL movement (of course you can move while attacking or defending) moving is for positioning that would take time (such as an archer getting to a good distance for firing).
This would still be difficult to do, but would create a real sense of a battle field...

So, these are the two options we have at the moment. Opinions and suggestions?

[Ryuga]

It took a few reads to understand what you were saying. But unfortunately Sparrow, the system still doesn't work.

Close offensive (first turn)
Blocking vs close offensive (no damage)
blocking vs blocking (no damage)
close offensive vs blocking (no damage)
close offensive vs close offensive (double damage)
blocking vs close offensive (no damage)

While this would make sense, we have a major design flaw.

close offensive
blocking (attack is unsuccessful, no damage done)
blocking (both players blocking, no damage)
tackle (tackle breaks through blocking, P2 SHOULD do damage)
parry (tackle is negated, no damage is dealt)
Open (damage is again averted by changing to open - avoiding the parry)
Close offensive (damage IS dealt, P2 is in open and parry cannot be used)
Close offensive (damage IS dealt to both sides)
Score: 2-1
Dodge (attack is dodged. P2 is reverted to open, P1 gets to choose a new DEFENSIVE stance) Counter (damage is dealt - P2 is now blocking, P1 is close offensive)
Score: 2-2

Okay let's walk through this.

close offensive
blocking

Blocking vs offensive (no damage)

blocking
Blocking

blocking vs blocking (no damage)

blocking
tackle

Blocking vs tackle (damage to P2 but..)

tackle
parry

Parry negates blocking vs tackle from above.

This is already a big no-no.
It invalidates the tackle into block maneuver because then the other player can just counter with a parry. And there is no way to prevent the parry because in order to intiate a tackle the player was in the blocking stance to begin with.

Here's one other flaw.

parry
open
offensive
offensive

When it comes to this example, we find that the player who parries first is at the advantage. As the other player either has to move to open to avoid damage, but takes damage from close offensive anyway and falls short of the exchange.

Also we can't counter parry from what I can gather.

tackle
parry
stance other than open

tackle vs parry (from the context I assume parry wins: damage to P2 because there is not open stance to negate the parry.)

No matter how you slice it, all I see is P1 giving the first blow, which is unbalance because than P1 is ahead in the race the whole time, and P2 can only break even.


Also negating certain exchanges makes no sense in the from a RP perspective. While each other stance exchange operates indepedently, (hence we calculate points as we go down), certain stances manipulate the outcome to exchanges that have already happened.

With the
block
attack
attack
block
senario, we would RP something like the following.

P1 raises his sword ready to catch the blow from his opponents weapon (block )
P2 swings wildly desperate to get at hit. (attack: [block vs attack])
P1 sees his chance and attacks back, landing a couple blows, but taking some hits from his opponents flailing weapon. (attack vs attack)
P2 in an effort to minimize the damage, raises his sheild to defend the rest of the attacks. (attack vs block)


But when it comes to

attack
Block
tackle
parry
open
things are different.

P1 swings with his sword, (attack)
P2 blocks the blow with his sheild (attack vs block)
P1 charges his foe in an attempt to knock him to the ground (tackle vs block)
P2 moves aside completely dodging the charge and strikes back (parry vs tackle)
P1 moves back and stands around like a dumbass.

So why does a character take damage when he attempts to block but goes completely untouched when avoiding a tackle?

This post has been edited by Ryuga: Jul 14 2011, 11:57 AM