Very nice!

Kathulos wrote:

After having read through this thread I broke down. Earlier tonight I ordered the main book from Lulu.
This looks to be too good a game to let pass by.
Dam it Simon! Why don't we save time and I'll just send my paycheck directly to you.

To be honest, that's part of the purpose of this thread (so it has worked!).  And the game is awesome and now it has an even more awesome map too. You do need to pick up a copy of Crimson Lordsto go with the main book though, else you're missing out on Griots, Wayfarers, Fleshcrafters, Demon-Summoning Merchants, Demons of Pain, half a dozen more monsters including the mighty sea serpent Strygantha, descriptions and stats for the Demon Lords, ideas for running mass land and sea battles, a whole bunch of adventure ideas and tons more!
 

Last edited by Simon W (8/20/2014 10:22 pm)

I'm thinking of tinkering with a few changes to the system for the Crimson Blades Boxed Set and I'm looking for feedback on this idea:

Instead of AC, characters/creatures will have a Defence Class (DC) that will generally be about 3/4. High DEX might make it higher, maybe a shield, maybe there'll be a class-based bonus (Wayfarers, particularly) and certain creatures will naturally have higher DC. Heavy armour may subtract from DC.

Armour is then just damage reduction (DR) as follows:

Light - 1
Light-Med - 2
Medium - 3
Heavy - 4

Melee Combat
When fighting in close (melee) combat, you roll your HD in an attempt to equal or exceed the DC of your opponent.

1) Dortmund, a 1st level fighter (1HD) with DEX 15 attacks a goblin (DC4) with a mace and rolls one die. Normally he’d need 4+ to hit, but because of his DEX, he only needs 3+.

If you have more than 1HD and you are being attacked by several opponents, you may split your HD between your opponents as you wish or attack just one of your opponents.

2) Dortmund is now 2nd level (2HD) and charges into several goblins. This time he’s using his favoured weapon (a longsword) so he has 3HD. He can now choose to attack each goblin with 1HD, or attack two of them, one with 2HD and the other with 1HD or attack just one of them with 3HD. He chooses to go for just two of them, needing 3+ to hit each. He rolls 5 and 3 for the first goblin and 4 for the second. He therefore hits both that he went for, but leaves the third alone.

If you have more than 1HD and you have just one opponent (or you choose just to attack one of your opponents), you may still split your attacks if you wish up to as many HD as you have. Alternatively, you may roll all your HD as one massive attack.

3) Dortmund has defeated the goblins and is now faced by an ogre (DC3). It is pretty easy to hit the hulking creature and a single powerful swing is more likely to hurt the beast, so Dortmund puts his 3HD into one single mighty cleave. He needs 2+ and gets 1, 3 and 6, hitting with two dice.

Damage
Each die that hits the target potentially causes damage. If you hit with one die, you simply roll the damage die for your weapon, add any modifier (for STR, for example) and deduct the DR of your opponent’s armour.

1) Dortmund hits the goblin with the mace (D6 damage). He rolls a 4, but with his STR of 16 he gets +1, so this becomes 5 damage. The goblin has light armour, reducing this to 4, but as he has only 2HP, this is more than sufficient to put the goblin out of action.

If you hit with multiple dice, it depends on the type of attack you selected. If you attacked with multiple attacks (i.e. splitting your dice), the DR comes off each attack that hit.

2) Dortmund hit two of the goblins. The first he hit with two dice, so he rolls them both together getting 1 and 2. Because of the fighter’s STR, he adds +1 to the total, for 4 damage. The goblin’s armour DR1 reduces this to 3, but as the goblin has only 3HP, he keels over. The second goblin was hit with one die. Dortmund gets 7 (with his STR) and this is enough to kill the goblin several times over, even allowing for armour.

If you attacked as one powerful blow, you combine all dice that hit when rolling for damage. You only add STR when you’ve totaled up the damage dice. Likewise, DR from armour only comes off the total damage.

3) Dortmund hit the ogre with a powerful shot, succeeding on two of his dice. He rolls damage – 4 and 4 come up, with +1 for STR, the result is 9. The ogre has DR 2, reducing this back down to 7HP. The ogre can take this easily and smiles, swinging his club.(Note: If Dortmund had attacked with three separate attacks, he’d have caused more damage before armour (4+1=5x2=10) but after DR of 2 for each hit, the ogre would have only taken 6HP.

How does this sound? Anything wrong with it? Feedback (and other ideas) welcome.

Well, it reflects that a powerful blow is better for getting through armour.

In the example, if the ogre had no DR for armour, you'd be better attacking with several strikes - so getting two hits of 4 and 4 and adding +1 to each would secure 10 points of damage. Otherwise, it would only be 4+4+1 = 9.

If the ogre had 3DR, the results would be even more in favour of a single mighty blow - 4+1-3 = 2 x2 = 4HP damage.

So it favours characters attacking unarmoured or lightly armoured foes with multiple strikes or heavily armored foes with a single mighty blow - which actually makes sense. 

Last edited by Simon W (8/24/2014 11:22 am)

Yeah, but then that makes sense, doesn't it? If someone's got armour on, you gotta get through it? It also changes a bit if you've got +2 damage (say from an 18 STR or from 14 STR and a +1 sword).

But maybe -1 for a "powerful blow" - I did think about this before (except I applied it as +1 to hit if making multiple attacks against a single foe), but it didn't seem right somehow...what if you have 4HD and attack two opponents with 2HD each? Is each classed as a powerful blow? Or is a powerful blow only when you roll all your HD against one opponent?