Combat system I am working on

[Yoda]

This combat system is based off the Lord of the Rings Games Workshop and I am planning on using it in a battle arena type RP and I wanted to see what people thought of it and if it will even work. This is meant for use with old fashioned weapons, not modern day guns and bombs. Most of the work for deciding who wins a fight is done by the GM and two dice, all the players have to do is make their character with the combat stats I am about to go over and rp like normal until they want to fight another player. If you have any input on how I could improve it or make it clearer please share them with me.

Every character starts out with these base states:

The F stands for fight value. The fight value decides if you win a tie in combat. The person with the higher fight value wins a tie.


The R stands for the ranged attack this is the roll you have to get greater than or equal to hit with a ranged weapon.


The S stands for strength of your character and this is how easy it is for you to cause wounds in close combat.


The D stands for defense and this decides how good you are at blocking and defending.


The A stands for how many dice you get.


The W stands for how many wounds the character has.


The Fate can be used to heal a wound. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6 the wound is healed. You can get more fate through special medicine that the GM declares as fate.

All these states can be affected by elements in the RP, such as weather, dehydration, or sickness the GM will inform you if your characters is suffering from any of these effects.


Customizing characters:

Now each character is different it would be boring if they all had the same states, so each player can add 6 points worth to their characters base states in any combination. You can only add to the F, R, S, or D so one character could have a strength of 9 and another a fight value of 5, strength to 6, and defence of to 4. Adding points to the R brings the value down, so if you add 2 points to the R you only have to roll a 3 to hit. The R cannot go lower then 2, so you can spend a max of 4 points on ranged attack. The Attack and Wounds cannot be changed.

How it all works:

So when two characters meet in hand to hand combat the GM rolls 2 dice one for each characters the one with the higher roll wins, if they both roll the same number the character with the higher fight value wins, if they have the same fight value the combat ends in a tie. After the combat ends and it was not a tie the GM then uses the strength and defence to see if the winner wounds using the wounds chart. The table below is pretty straightforward, but the easiest way for me to describe it is with an example.

Two characters meet in combat Oberyn Martell has a D of 3 and Gregor Clegane has a S of 3. If Gregor Clegane wins the fight by getting the higher roll the GM rolls one dice again this time on the wounds chart. For Gregor Clegane to wound Oberyn Martell he would have to roll a 4 or greater. In the end each combat takes 2 rolls, one to see who wins and one to wound.

Ranged combat:

Every character has a R value on a roll greater than or equal to the to the characters R value the ranged weapon hits, GM only rolls one dice. After a hit the GM rolls on the wounds chart using the S of the character using the ranged weapon and the D of the target. The GM has the power to declare that you are out of range of a target and also the visibility of a target.

Weapons:

Finally weapons do different things the chart below has all the information, which can be changed according to the RP scenario.

Each character can only have two weapons at a time hands and rocks do not count and each character can only use one weapon during a fight.

 

[SedentaryCobra]

While some people may like this, people like simple things. If you have to roll dice, it's gotten more complicated than people like. If you have to refer to a table? Most people are gonna avoid it. Now, given, it obviously depends on the people you're with. But given the focus on a site like this is RP, and not RPG, it needs to be as slim and streamlined as it can possibly be.

Firstly, ranged and melee doesn't mean too much in an RP, given there's no board to space things out. If you have a situation where two players need to converse in PM, it's slowing things down and going too far.

Secondly, choices and decisions you can make in combat (other than trying to flee) should be kept to a minimum. And by minimum, I mean virtually non existent.

Thirdly, weapons aren't necessary, especially if they're not on the table. What if I want to use a crossbow? Some exotic sword? Perhaps a strange weapon like meteor hammers, that's both melee and ranged?

Given this, I've tried to cut off as much fat as possible. Take this any way you like.

You have three stats in total.
Attack, Defense, and Health. Your value for a stat can range from 0 to 10 (health with a minimum of one.)

Attack measures your ability to hit someone.
Defense measures your ability to absorb, deflect, or dodge blows.
Health measures how many blows you can take before being knocked out or killed.
Modifiers such as illness, weather, and other extenuating circumstances may modify these values, at GM discretion.

Combat is performed as follows.

The individual with the element of surprise goes first. Otherwise, the individual with the highest attack value attacks first.
1. The attacker rolls to attack, combining the result of one ten sided die and their attack value.
2. The attackers value is measured against the defender's defense + 5.
3. If the attacker's combined attack is higher than the defender's combined defense, the attacker hits, and the defender loses one health.
4. The defender then takes their turn, reversing the roles.
5. At the end of both player's turns, one or both may choose to retreat. If one has zero health left, they are assumed unconscious, and at the mercy of the opposing party.

Spoiler: Combat Example

Knight: 2, 4, 2
Barbarian: 5, 2, 1

In the deep of the woods, the barbarian sneaks up on the knight and attacks.
Barbarian rolls a 9 on a ten sided die. Adding his attack value of 5, for a total of 14, he beats the knight's combined defense of 9. The knight takes one damage, and now has 1 health.
Knight retaliates, rolling a 6 on the ten sided die. With his attack of 2, for a total of 8, he beats the barbarian's combined defense of 7. The barbarian takes one damage, and has zero health.
The Knight decides to execute the Barbarian, who is unconscious and at his mercy.

If you're using a weapon you're not trained with (it's improvised like a rock, it's your fists, or you're using a spear when you train with a sword) take -1 attack.

Given how powerful someone is, they may get a different amount of points to distribute when making their stats.

Spoiler: Examples

Commoners may be 0, 0, 1.
Militia may be 1, 0, 2.
Knights may be 2, 4, 2.
Soldiers may be 3, 2, 1.
Orcs may be 5, 0, 4.
Crocodiles may be 5, 2, 5.
Heroes may be 6, 4, 7.
Dragons may be 8, 10, 9.

Combat, potentially can be done round by round solely by the GM, letting players retreat or make their posts after each round.
​

I made this in about 20 minutes, there's probably a good deal that could be added, or something blaring that I missed. But essentially, the closer it is to something really simple like this, the better. As little as possible.

​

 

[Yoda]

I really like how you simplified it and the point about ranged weapons makes sense know that I think about it. Instead of having different races or types of one race decide what states a character gets it could be classes, like assassin, soldier, and tank, that way the player can decide his race without having to worry about not having the stats that he thinks his character should have. You mind if I incorporate this into my RP?

 

[SedentaryCobra]

That's perfectly fine, I just threw it out for food for thought. If I may, you can offer the chance to make a ten (or so) point build (from 0, 0, 1) as well as having some classes already made for easy use. Then you can reward points as the story goes on, letting players get stronger to face bigger challenges.