Combat System, To-Hit

Over the next few posts we are going to examine the new combat system in Lycadican version 6. Due to the new game mechanics the combat system in version 6 is much changed from version 5.

Today we are going to review the basic To-Hit system. Determining whether or not someone has hit an opponent via Melee, Missile or Magic is done through a boundless roll called the To-Hit roll. Modifiers from weapons, skills, abilities, powers and attributes (such as those from Dexterity) modify the to-hit die roll to present a final score.

A successful melee or missile hit is one where the to-hit roll matches or exceeds a targets defence rating. This also applies to magic that produces melee or missile effects. If you match your opponents defence rating exactly you land a blow but only barely.

Spells that do not have melee or missile effects are successfully targeted if the to-hit roll meets or exceeds the targets applicable resistance score, not their defence rating. The relevant resistance score can usually be deduced by the spells' function, but such spells generally list the resistances that are relevant. See the section Defence and Resistance's for details.

The final result of the To-Hit roll is used to determine three outcomes. The first is whether or not you’ve hit, which we’ve already covered. The second outcome is the degree of success. Extreme degrees of success or failure result in critical blows or mishaps. The degree of success is determined by subtracting the opponents’ defence or resistance rating from the result of the To-Hit roll. A positive result is the degree of success; a negative result is the degree of failure. A degree of failure that is greater than or equal to 10 indicates a critical mishap. Any roll resulting in a degree of success of greater than or equal to 10 represents a critical hit.

The effect of a critical hit or critical mishap is determined by the Realm Master, however, critical hits have special effects when armour is involved in combat, which we'll talk about in a future post.

The third effect of the to-hit roll is assigning extra damage. By default weapon damage ratings are scaled so that a degree of success on a to-hit roll of 0 indicates a glancing blow. Any positive degree of success value is added to the damage the target sustains in combat. This corresponds to the notion that the higher the degree of success, the more damaging the blow.

Time for an example. Our hero Ragnok is fighting a nasty creature called a Bantrie. The dog like creature lunges at Ragnok with his mouth of razor sharp teeth which could do 4 points of damage. Ragnok's defence rating is 4 due to the fact that he is wearing some rather heavy plate mail armour that slows him down and makes him easier to hit. If yours truly as the Realm Master rolls the die and scores (after any modifiers are applied) a 1,2 or 3 then the Bantrie misses. If I score a 4 my degree of success is 0 ( my to-hit score is 4, subtract Ragnok's defence rating of 4 and you get 0.) Thus I only do my 4 points of damage. If I had scored say a 10 then my degree of success is 6 (10 - 4 = 6) and I'll do 10 points of damage ( 6 + 4 = 10 ).

Simple right? Right.

Lycadican Art

Just a quick note. I've added an RSS feed to the Lycadican Art web album that is on the google picasa website to the right. Please note that all of those images are copyrighted to the Lycadican project and cannot be reused without specific permission.

Lycadican Version 6 Preview Now Online

Hello. I've uploaded a preview of Lycadican Version 6 content at my Lulu Storefront.

You can find it here: http://www.lulu.com/khardan

Each of the books are available for free so go crazy, play test it and send me your feedback!

Cheers,
Sheldon.

New Basic Game Mechanics

The game mechanics for version 6 have completely changed. Instead of d30's in a very AD&D 2nd edition type game I have moved to a completely d10 based system. Where before you had different rolls using different types of dice there are now only 3 types of rolls, each one using the d10.

The procedural roll is just a roll of the d10. The boundless roll is a roll where if you roll a 1 you roll again and subtract, if you roll a 10 you roll again and add. You continue until you don't roll a 1 or a 10. Lastly there is the trusty percentile roll, which give you a spread of between 1 and 100 (but this roll is only very rarely used.)

These three rolls are used to determine success by meeting or exceeding a target number which is typically set by the referee but can be a character statistic such as the defense rating.

In play testing it seems to work well, but there are some interactions with the armour system that need to be addressed (which I'll write about another time.)

I am curious, however, as to how many people would be interested in having the system switched to be d20 compatible? Let me know your thoughts. I'm not that familiar with the d20 system especially in the D&D 3rd+ edition rules, but I know that it is widely played.

Lycadican Blog

Hey there all Lycadican gamers! I've created this blog in the attempt to keep Lycadican gamers up to date on what is happening in the land of Khardan. There is a lot that has happened in the last couple of years that has not been visible on the internet. I hope to change that soon.