Category Archives: Combat Notes

The Hit Parade: Connecting Storytelling to Hit Points

The second entry in this series focuses on what happens when a character “hits” another.  A reminder of the four goals I’m trying to achieve:

  1. Make combat a more compelling storytelling experience.
  2. Have combat better reflect player choice in action and equipment selection so that it doesn’t feel disconnected and random.
  3. Make combat gameplay more engaging by expanding tactical outcomes and choices.
  4. Don’t add undue complexity or slow down the game.

I hope it can achieve these goals by applying a philosophy on how hit points are interpreted from both gameplay and storytelling perspectives.

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Connecting Story with Gameplay in To-Hit Rolls: Attribution Via a Preponderance of Evidence

The first entry in this series focuses on characters making a deliberate attempt to attack and injure an opponent. 

I hope it can achieve these goals by collating all of the modifiers that you’re already taking into account in attack resolution and making them a more explicit part of the process.

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Combat System Notes

These blog notes offer suggestions to add storytelling and tactical opportunities to combat in RPGs.  Too often, combat is simply a war of attrition with little of the drama seen in sword-and-sorcery fiction.

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