Quick update tonight because it's already past my bedtime, but I've been quiet for a few days and want to give proof of life.
One thing that I've been trying to do for Exoworld is figure out how the heck I'm going to make armor work.
Obviously, it's sort of helpful to have armor in a game where combat can be very lethal, and it also factors into another issue with enemies and damage.
One problem that I was looking at was that enemies would by necessity feel too board-gamey. Defend against X or lose 2 Health is great, but it's too scripted and not versatile.
The solution?
Reverse Magnitude Rolls.
I talked about Magnitude Rolls the other day, and they were a breakthrough to fix some major combat problems.
Now they're a breakthrough again.
The way a Reverse Magnitude Roll works is that the Magnitude starts high and is reduced by the player's result.
So, for instance, if an enemy has a Magnitude of 25 with its attack, a PC would need to roll 25 to prevent all of its attack.
However, the Effect would still be the tens place.
One thing that I'm having issues with is what to do with the awkward 1-9s, but that can be dealt with on a per-case basis. Setting a minimum of 1 Damage seems like it has some weird curve issues, but it's feasible.
There are other advantages of Reverse Magnitude Rolls, and one is that it makes PvP combat possible, even though I'm not a giant fan of it.
The other is that it's a way for group actions to happen. Let's say that there's a jammed hydraulic door. It's a Magnitude 40 challenge, but three or four people with tools can make quick work of it.
This isn't hyper-elegant, but it makes the roll mechanic toolkit for Exoworld a billion times more fleshed out.
Also, I'm workshopping the first bit of the opening fiction on Friday. My local writer's group is doing an online meeting for it, and I think it'll be an interesting experience because I haven't really workshopped outside my MFA since pre-COVID times. Wish me luck!