Raydo's Dice Driven Narrative Combat System

[Raydo]

I LOVED the fights in TCW cartoons. The above fight is my favourite and I find myself going back to watch it all the time. I wanted to come up with a way to help players who prefer narrative combat over PvP that back and forth struggle of combat.

I know some people really dislike the idea of dice being used on the site. In most cases, I would agree, but this is a system of cooperative narrative combat I have been toying around with for a while. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the rules or officially sanctioned battles/PvP. This is just an idea of an optional system two people could agree to use if they are looking to help them out while writing combat scenes.

Narrative Combat is always such a weird dance of trying to write a story with someone, but at the same time trying to preserve the coolness/epicness of your character while also sharing the spotlight. Even if you go into the combat with a predetermined winner, it can be weird/uncomfortable to know when to take hits and give the other person the upper hand. I think this system (or something similar) could help players write more interesting and epic feeling combats like the above video while taking the awkwardness out of it.

Below I will give examples of how a fight could look using this system using Obi-Wan (OW) and Cad Bane (CB).

Step One: Reach a point where combat begins​

OW and CB have run into one another and have a brief dialogue. CB refuses to surrender (Of Course) and the fight begins.

Step Two: Both writers roll a die​

Both Player A (Writes as OW) and Player B (Writes as CB) roll a dice. Player A rolls a 6 and Player B rolls a 5. These actual numbers don't really matter. All we care about is that Player A rolled higher than Player B. That means in this one round OW will gain the upper hand and goes first.

OW: "Seeing Cad Bane reach for his Pistols, Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, sending a wave of energy surging towards the bounty hunter before igniting his blade and charging him.

CB: He gained a firm grip on both of his weapons just as he was thrown backwards against a stone wall. Cad gasped for breath as he leapt up from the ground as the Jedi Master closed on him and fired two quick shots.

Even though Player A had the upper hand, he didn't write as if he assumed the attack hit or not and let Player B decide how he was affected and how his character responded.

Step Three: Repeat until both players are ready to close combat​

Both players would roll again just like the first round. The winner of that roll would then post first and the other player would write their reaction/response. This continues for however long the players want it to and a good stopping point is reached. For this round, we will say Player A rolled a 2 and Player B rolled a 5. Player B will post first since his roll was higher.

CB: After firing the two wild shots, Cad jumped up and activated his Jet boots to aid his leap. He kicked off wall behind him, flipping over Obi-Wan as his holstered a pistol. He spun as he landed, jabbing at the Jedi's kidney with a swift punch. He then kicked his leg out, attempting to sweep the Jedi's feet from underneath him.

OW: As he closed the last few steps, one laser shot past him and one was deflected by his raised saber. (This is the response for Players B post in the first round). Obi-Wan swung his lightsaber as he took the last step towards the Bounty Hunter, barely missing him as he leapt over the attack. The lightsaber caused a gouge in the rock as it sliced through the area Cad had been standing in. Obi-Wan heard Cad land behind him and swung around, Lightsaber cutting in a horizontal arc. Mid-Swing, pain shot through the Jedi's body as the kidney strike landed. Before he could recover his legs were swept out beneath him as he fell backwards.

It is not necessary for all or even any attacks to actually hit. The only thing that is important that at the end of the post, the person with the higher roll had the upper hand. Taking a hit can be a fun writing opportunity. Accept the "disadvantage" and be creative with it.

Step Four: Close out the fight in anyway you both see fit.​

Fights in the Clone Wars almost always ended in someone escaping. During the last round of combat, we roll like we have been and decided how the escape works if that is the route we are going. Just remember, Just because your character is fleeing doesn't mean you can't also have "won" the fight. For our last example, we jump to the end of the fight. Player B has won the roll.

CB: Leaping back away from the strike he spotted the unconscious Anakin. Cad pointed his pistols to the rock ceiling above the fallen Jedi Knight and unloaded his weapon before jump back off the edge of the cliff and using his Jet boots to flee.

OW: The Jedi Master went to follow the Bounty Hunter as he leapt back away from his attack. His eyes tracked as his opponent spun sideways and shot up towards the ceiling. Before he could react further, rocks began to fall from the ceiling. Knowing the rocks would crush his former Padawan, he tossed his lightsaber down and lifted his hands towards the falling debris. It took all of his concentration to deflect the rocks around the Jedi Knight. Dust filled the room, and when it cleared a few seconds later, Obi-Wan ran to the edge of the cliff but Cad was nowhere to be seen.

An example of fleeing when you also lost the roll would be General Grievous jumping to his ship after he was cornered by a Jedi and disarmed. Again, use the roll to determine to the general direction of the post and then be creative. When in doubt, ask your writing partner (After all this is a cooperative experience). You can decide what character "wins" the fight in whatever way you want. Maybe you both choose to go with whoever won the most rolls, or maybe whoever happened to win the last roll. My only suggestion there would be to decide how the decision will be made beforehand.

This has not been tested, but I would love to see your thoughts and opinions. Maybe even find a partner and test this for me and write your experiences down below. I will update and change this if improvements are found.

 

[Raydo]

Reserved for playest and analysis

 

[Topher Ridge]

It's not bad Raydo, I like it alot more than other dice bases sytems. My only problem is would this just work off the Honor system? Something I always worry about with dice rolls is how do you guarantee that the both parties are being honest with their rolls? Other than that I think this could be a fun alternative to pure cinematic PvP if done right.

 

[Raydo]

It's not bad Raydo, I like it alot more than other dice bases sytems. My only problem is would this just work off the Honor system? Something I always worry about with dice rolls is how do you guarantee that the both parties are being honest with their rolls? Other than that I think this could be a fun alternative to pure cinematic PvP if done right.

I would trust most to be really honerable about it, but it was a concern I had as well. I found this site https://rolz.org/join it allows you to create a room and have everyone join. It saves the chat log so people can pop in, roll ,and then leave again.

During me and Norbs test I bugged up the command for two rounds so I was getting 6s everytime but when the command is used correctly, it seems to work well.

 

[Padmé]

*Sees wall of text. *
*Gets wine*
/

 

[Raydo]

*Sees wall of text. *
*Gets wine*
/

I know words are hard, but any excuse for drinks is a good excuse I suppose!

 

[Nor'baal]

Alrighty then, from what I have seen from our playtest of this I have a couple of observations.

The Pros

• The system works well when it comes to determine an advantage. Using the simple roll to see who has the upper hand in each post does clear up some issues we see in PvP - and would be ideal for cinematic PvP.
• With rolling tools online, it is reasonably easy to not only do, but also to moderate so as to ensure nobody flunks a roll to gain advantage.
• It can lead to some very funny results, for example a winning six followed by a one, could mean some pretty epic fails in a PvP.

That being said, I cannot see this being used in a competitive PvP unless it was a moderated and DMed thread. Alongside this, and assuming this is for Cinematic PvP - an early roll that leads to a first round advantage sets the other player back considerably. Perhaps it is worth doing a couple of posts per round, followed by a roll, so the fight takes place in ‘stages’ rather than all in one go?