Stealing from the 40k RPGs

[KPhan2121]

Building on a previous post I made about using Opposed Roll for combat, I want to use it use it to address an annoyance I sometimes see during combat when rolling for damage. Have you guys had fights where a few or even all of the combatants rolled really poorly on their damage for several turns and basically did nothing at all? It's fine when it happens in games like D&D where all damage accrued is cumulative since armor doesn't reduce damage. But for games where this is the case, it can really extend a fight that should only last 3 or 4 combat rounds into a slog lasting almost 3 times as long!

I think the 40k RPGs, especially Dark Heresy may have a ready solution that can be used with little change to the current combat rules. In the combat section of the Dark Heresy 2e rulebook there is a passage that states:

"For all attack rolls, count the degrees of success. The attacker can replace the result on a single damage die with the number of degrees of success from his attack roll."

In the 40k RPGs, Degree of Success (DoS) is counted as the number of 10s digit that is below the skill rating. So if I have a 65% skill rating and rolled a 24, it succeeds with 4 DoS. If you made multiple hits (like with an automatic weapon), only one of the hits has it's damage die replaced. If the weapon uses multiple dice when rolling for damage, only replace one of them. 

This would make highly skilled combatants be more able to deal consistently high damage and reduce a lot of that annoyance when you made a really good attack roll and just flub the damage. Obviously there needs to be some changes since Dark Heresy is vastly different from BRP. First off, the max a skill rating that a character can reach is around 50-60% and the max that bonuses can give to a roll is caped out at +60. Second, Dark Heresy only uses D10s for its damage rolls. Third, the armor values of Dark Heresy is roughly 1/2 of the equivalents of BRP, an example is Power Armor in Dark Heresy blocks 7-8 points of damage while BRP's blocks 14-16.

I think the best solution would be using Opposed Skill Subtraction from pg 174 of the BGB, but only count the 10's digit. Have it only apply to one hit if there are multiple hits (like from automatic fire). Instead of only replacing one damage die if the weapon uses multiple, have it replace the entire roll up to the maximum that the dice can roll and then add the damage bonus. So if a character with a skill rating of 100% rolls a 37, he counts as having 7 DoS. If the weapon's damage roll is less than 7, he can replace the roll with his DoS and add his damage bonus to it. 

 

btw here's my previous post

 

 

[Ravenheart87]

The percentile Warhammer RPGs are notorious for their whiff factor. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition solved this by subtracting the loser's Succes Level (SL) from the winner's SL in combat and using that as the base of damage. So if you as attacker have an SL of 5, while the defender has an SL of 1, your damage is 4+bonuses. What's best is that minuses count too. If your attack would be failure, but your opponent's defense is an even bigger failure, you still win and deal damage - e.g. if you have -1 SL, but your foe has -9 SL, your damage is 8+bonuses. There is always a winner. While I won't bother converting this to BRP-based games, I will sure as hell use it in earlier editions of WFRP.

[Mugen]

9 hours ago, Ravenheart87 said:

The percentile Warhammer RPGs are notorious for their whiff factor. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition solved this by subtracting the loser's Succes Level (SL) from the winner's SL in combat and using that as the base of damage. So if you as attacker have an SL of 5, while the defender has an SL of 1, your damage is 4+bonuses. What's best is that minuses count too. If your attack would be failure, but your opponent's defense is an even bigger failure, you still win and deal damage - e.g. if you have -1 SL, but your foe has -9 SL, your damage is 8+bonuses. There is always a winner. While I won't bother converting this to BRP-based games, I will sure as hell use it in earlier editions of WFRP.

I won't be using the SL mechanism from WFRP 4th edition, as I think it requires too much math.

However, I'd definitely use the idea that when two protagonists fail their roll in an opposed roll, the best roll wins. As I use "blackjack" method, the best roll will be the highest roll (or perhaps just the tens of the dice), but it could be determined by comparing margin of success too.

That will definitely cut the number of cases where nothing happens in combat.

I might also base damage on the difference between the 10s of the rolls, but I'm not really happy with the idea that two failed rolls might lead to bigger damage when two opponents with low skills fail (that is, if two protagonists with skill 30 are opposed, the biggest difference when both succeed is 3, whereas when both fail it's 7).

I would also not consider Hit Points as wounds, but a combination of one's will to fight and stamina, and easily recovered between fights. Only hits that deal a substantial amount of damage would be counted as wounds, and reduce the maximum HP value. As a result, I would be able to reduce the AP of armors, resulting in more frequent HP losses.

[KPhan2121]

On 5/31/2022 at 1:34 PM, Ravenheart87 said:

The percentile Warhammer RPGs are notorious for their whiff factor. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition solved this by subtracting the loser's Succes Level (SL) from the winner's SL in combat and using that as the base of damage. So if you as attacker have an SL of 5, while the defender has an SL of 1, your damage is 4+bonuses. What's best is that minuses count too. If your attack would be failure, but your opponent's defense is an even bigger failure, you still win and deal damage - e.g. if you have -1 SL, but your foe has -9 SL, your damage is 8+bonuses. There is always a winner. While I won't bother converting this to BRP-based games, I will sure as hell use it in earlier editions of WFRP.

I've never played the WFRP games, but I like the idea of damage being tied to success levels. BRP has something kinda like it with doing max damage for special and critical successes. If I were to "take inspiration" from them, you could probably very easily implement it by taking the average damage rolls of the weapons and damage bonus. Use it as the starting damage and add SL after the roll. It sounds like it would work out alright. Maybe you'd have to do away or change the Special/Critical Successes.

 

On 5/31/2022 at 11:39 PM, Mugen said:

I might also base damage on the difference between the 10s of the rolls, but I'm not really happy with the idea that two failed rolls might lead to bigger damage when two opponents with low skills fail (that is, if two protagonists with skill 30 are opposed, the biggest difference when both succeed is 3, whereas when both fail it's 7).

Same, I also think your weapon choice should influence the game mechanics in some way. There's no way a dagger would deal as much damage than a greatsword.

[Mugen]

9 hours ago, KPhan2121 said:

Same, I also think your weapon choice should influence the game mechanics in some way. There's no way a dagger would deal as much damage than a greatsword.

Yes. In my mind, damage was modified by the attacker's weapon "offensive factor" and the defender's weapon "defensive factor".