Fatigue, a Bidding Mechanic for Combat

Since the horrible people outside are power washing the wood directly outside my window and jack-hammering concrete (?), my efforts to sleep in have been for naught. Alas, alas, my kingdom for a lass, right?

Pictured: Your author

...anyways, something that's been going through my head recently is tied into the only fighting game I've plated recently, the very fun UFC Undisputed 2010. If you're not into the sport, it's a real-life mixed martial arts event where two young men are in a very lightly regulated cage match, where the goal is to either knock out or put your opponent in a hold where he must submit, typically by nearly breaking his arm. The video game is pretty good, and can be a lot of fun with your buddies, or with people who've never played before, heh.

One of the things that makes the game a pretty serious mind game is that nearly every move has either a counter or a way to block or nullify any move. If you try and punch somebody, he can weave and counter-punch. Or he can grab your arm and try and throw you, judo-style. Or he can get you in a Muay-Thai clinch and put his knee in your face.

Owie!

The point is that the game punishes you for making mistakes, provided that your opponent chooses to capitalize on them, or you've made yourself obvious enough. And it makes the game more cerebral, or at least as cerebral as a game about two dudes punching and kicking each other to death can get, anyways. It's a cat-and-mouse game of trying to land punches while not getting countered, of preventing your opponent's actions while getting your own through.

And then it dawned on me: That'd make a pretty good combat minigame. Now, there's absolutely no way that it'll fit into standard Dungeons and Dragons or Labyrinth Lord or even most other games, although it could probably be bolted on. The problem is that in D&D, combat is abstracted somewhat. An attack either hits or it doesn't, and the reasons why are absolutely up to you and your DM. If it misses because the guy blocks with his shield, or because he knocks your sword away with his gauntlet, or because he parries, or because he simply weaves a little and your sword goes whizzing by, it's irrelevant.

But it could possibly work in a different game, assuming it's not already. See, the rough draft goes something like this:

Fatigue = Opposed Bidding

Can be used to stop enemy actions, i.e. you are in Close range with an enemy (grappling, more or less), and he attempts to draw his dagger. You spend one fatigue to stop his hand, but he spends one fatigue to keep going. Do you try and spend more fatigue and risk tiring yourself out, or do you let him draw his dagger and possibly kill you?

One of the theoretical results I'm fairly happy with is that at some point, both combatants will inevitably do what we always see done on TV, when real people fight each other- both of them will be tired, and their attacks and motions will get weaker, and slower, and easier to dodge or avoid. Tell me you wouldn't be tired after getting in a grudge match with this guy.

Pff. I could take him with my eyes closed.

I know it's a variation on a bidding mechanic and that some people don't really enjoy them, but it's one that should honestly be explored more, especially since it's because that's more or less the way fights are ended. People aren't fighting at full capacity for very long, if at all- we're always tired or hurt from previous days and from the simple act of exerting ourselves. This is in direct opposition to all sorts of games, obviously, and we could easily go into why copying D&D while changing what made the game make sense (such as abstracted combat, a focus on exploration, and gold for experience) is a horrible idea, but that's neither here nor there.

The point is: Fatigue is a currency for player actions, and, importantly, can be used to stop other player's actions. Are there any other (free, or reviewed, preferably) games that use a similar idea, and how did it work? Did it encourage the desired in-game behavior, or was it abused and meta-gamed?

Death by Mold / What's Next?

One of my players the other week died because they set foot in some yellow mold. The mold, being a weaker variety than normal, dealt less damage than it normally would have. After being burnt a little by its acid, they took note and decided to drop a torch on it.

Normally, it would have resulted in a normal bit of damage, but this mold happened to be underground in an extremely arid environment. The fire spread out, and burnt both the players for a tiny bit of damage, which unfortunately was more than the Minotaur ("reskinned" fighter) could bear. He died, leaving the cleric to flee back to the surface where the Minotaur's brother was waiting for the two of them to come out. When only the cleric returned, Minotaur II vowed to finish his brother's works.

Just a quick anecdote on one of my favorite player deaths. Set ablaze by a yellow mold's corpse! Classic.

Game-Building 1: Stats

My stat system is probably going to be simple. When it comes down to it, I'd rather have a few stats that do a lot than a lot of stats that simply don't do much. I'd also like for there to be stat bonuses based on classes. For example, a warrior type could get extra strength, whereas a wizardly type could get extra intelligence or some such. There's sort of a chicken-and-egg situation with classes, really.

Warriors are warriors because they were strong, healthy children who learned that the best way to get ahead in life was through physical means. They weren't necessarily aggressive, but they knew that if you weren't at least strong enough to put up a fight, then somebody could kill you or worse. Since they spend so much of their time fighting, training, or practicing, they've become stronger and tougher. Alternately, they could just have natural strength and practice being large and in charge the same way a moose practises having antlers.

Wizards, on the other hand, may have come from more educated families. They could have always been more intellectual, more cerebral than their more brutish counterparts. They had learned from an early age that outsmarting your foes is easier and more useful than bludgeoning them to death. Since they spend their days using, practicing and learning magic, they're a little more intelligent than their sword-swinging cohorts.

But I digress.

My ideal system would be, basically, similar to the GURPS system, in that there would be only a couple of stats and then a couple more "derived" stats related to them. For example, Strength would have Fatigue as a derived stat, and Intelligence would have mana.

And here, I would like to digress again. As much as I love Vancian magic, and as much as I enjoy the writings, settings, and ideas of the man, I dislike the way D&D has dealt with Vancian magic. The magic, as far as I recall, was basically that magic was advanced mathematics and that the spell itself was torn from your head after you cast it. You would have to sit down and re-study the magic formulae after each casting, so alien was magic.

I don't want to get into some sort of wierd debate, so I'll just let it be said that it doesn't fit the flavour of the setting I have in mind. In this world, magic isn't a bizarre mathematical formula, and it isn't available to everybody. I'm thinking more of a Moorcockian magic, where magic is bought from otherworldly beings, with pacts and bargains and bloodlines figuring in more than one's ability to wave carved sticks.

Anyways, I'm thinking maybe a couple of stats.

One for your character's toughness; this one isn't debatable. Although I like systems where your health is more or less the human average, I like the idea of there being Herculean demi-gods alongside pale, sickly, and wretched peons or what-have-you. I'm thinking of just calling it Toughness.

There should be one for your character's strength. Again, this isn't really an option. I'll probably just call it Strength, although I like the poetry of calling it Might. There's something poetic about the stat being an examplar instead of a mere description, if that makes any sense. This is obviously more useful for the brutish warriors.

For an example, Brilliance. It's not called IQ, for Pete's sake. It's not a measured calculation of whatever, exactly, IQ tests are supposed to measure. It's a measure of how Brilliant you are. How much of an incredible genius. This would be useful for wizardly types.

Not really an example, but Dexterity. You should know what this one is.

The last stat would be Cunning. It's a measure of your character's deviousness, his responsiveness, and such. It's also a measure of his perception. It's more useful for wizards than warriors, but like all stats, should have a little something for everybody.

That gives us, in all, five stats: Toughness, Might, Brilliance, Dexterity, and Cunning. One for everybody, two for warriors, and two for wizards.