SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK

- How exactly does a tall foe triumph over a short one? How can that be put on paper?

- How does one defend, after their initial defense is defeated? Currently, the character gets one save, but according to the more extensive rules that I've written (the ones that are in a mess), they also get armor, and one surge per turn for an added save, as well as resistance (a feature of armor, but also a feature of strong foes, presented as an 'aspect'; supposedly, a strong foe should be able to push away a smaller one, if they defend successfully - forcing the smaller one to space out their movement).

- Counter attacks? Successful defense with a lesser stat of some kind. Requires some sort of martial arts power or opportunity. Especially brutal if the enemy shifts into their foe, not expecting an immediate come back (in sparring tournaments; such a result is especially vicious, if they countered with a kick).

- Hard and soft armor? I was thinking that soft armor would have more resistance, while hard armor more barrier. Greater barrier means better resistance to weapon penetration. Barrier recovers at the beginning of a new turn.


- Heavy weapons, such as maces, have a great capacity to overcome resistance. Axes, spiked hammers and morning stars, distribute their force to provide a balance of bludgeoning and penetration. Flails are really funky weapons - they have to be wound up and take a good measure of skill (not to mention they expose much of the body, even in armor), but the heavy ones are able to overcome some of the greatest resistance short of a battering ram. Properly wielding a flail in full plate is very very difficult, and most knights will stick to light flails.

- A ranged weapon that horribly under-penetrates can reflect off the armor. There's no way to simulate this that doesn't suck though, apart from maybe like a 20%/10% rule (penetration of 2 versus barrier of 10 means it reflects off the armor and does nothing to lower barrier for that turn). Ranged weapons can also overpenetrate, but this is rare in the middle ages (crossbow does a glancing shot).

- Armor that resists a lot of penetration eventually gets weighed down by ranged weapons that become stuck to it, and the same goes for shields. Again, no real way to simulate this.

- Working with 'simultaneous turns', which force players to more greatly judge whether or not moving forward is a good idea; even if they do intend to move back in the same turn! Also, actions can be interrupted. There's no real concrete way to go about this though that isn't terrible bookwork or able to exploited, although it presents an interesting concept.

- If their is concievably ways to give more actions per turn without imbalancing the game's combat. I'm fantasizing about fighting game combos, however it could apply to more than hitting a foe (ie. bouncing off a wall, hitting a foe, and then shifting backwards).

BLOOD LOSS?

- Blood loss could be somewhat simulated by draining a character's grit. Their total grit could still reflect their mental willingness to stay alive, but their physical self would go down. So +2/+5 means they have suffered significant blood loss and are weakened, so while they still have a +5 to actions reflecting mental toughness (overcome fear, ie.), they get a +2 when defending against a melee, withstanding poison, or compounded blood loss from another wound.

If it was +5/+5, rather, they would have suffered no blood loss and would be at full strength, when meeting a new danger.

STAMINA

- I'm going the skyrim route by introducing stamina into the game; stamina beyond 100 goes up in 10s, goes down when you block a foe (provided blocking is feasible; blocking could be an alternative to simply doing a grit save to stop someone stabbing you that turn) or power strike them.

- Each additional point of stamina gives you an aspect point to invest in strength and/or dexterity aspect. Increasing your wounds on the other hand would grant aspect points towards wisdom and/or constitution aspect.

- Having to frequently recover from blood loss, starvation, trouble breathing, rough living/treatment, and rough travel, all tend to cause stamina drain (as well as stack). Drain is special stamina loss that cannot be recovered without removal or overcoming of the cause. Stamina recovery per turn is determined by Cardio, the constitution aspect, while the benefits of rest can be attained from another aspect such as wisdom's Meditation or constitution's Hearty.

So if you want to overcome all of those tiresome things at once, you simply need a lot of stamina, methinks.

WOUNDS

Your wounds limit represents how much pain you can withstand from compounding wounds before you'd be instantly killed. However, note that even a single wound can knock you out, cripple you, or force massive blood loss that causes you to eventually pass out.

Character pain threshold could be reflected by wounds remaining. When a character is tortured, they may likely gradually take wounds over time, and so it reflects how long they last before death or divulging of information (and then whatever else an evil GM prefers).

WORK IN SHIFTS

- Movement includes regular movement and shifts. You shouldn't be able to double shift without it becoming movement, however you can space out regular movements, attacks and shifts. A shift is D&D's 5ft. step (in this case, about 1m - more if you're taller) - as presented in the real world, a shift is essentially a lunge before an attack, a shuffle, a bob, or a weave and involves in itself in pretty much every striking art known to man. Certain arts might involve shifting without movement - reflecting a duck dodge, utilized by boxers, or halflings that are able to swiftly crouch and huddle.

As such, the acrobatics skill lets you shift more than once per turn, even if turns might end up being less than 6 seconds. Shifting is easy and is done by fighters from all walks of life, and involves itself in any melee.

- A character can ready a shift to avoid an attack. This doesn't work unless the shift lets you exceed enemy's movement (ie. both spend a half turn to move and then the enemy spends another half turn to melee - your half turn shifting followed by more movement - which gets you 1m out of reach, and the enemy can't move forward to hit you - if you moved regularly, the enemy would get in an attack first). It's generally not a good idea to shift into a foe in the same time that they attack either.

Another way to avoid, is shifting to an area where they can't reach you, or would place them in danger (ie. a ledge or difficult terrain, or flanking foes). Eventually, after playing with this system - it should become obvious that an aware target will probably try to shift away whenever they can.

You can also shift into a foe's occupied space, for a free attack, but the consequences of failure can be brutal (open up a free action to grab the foe and stab with them with a knife; push them away like a pin ball, etc.). This is why kung fu movies may often involve the hero performing a leaping kick with their shift, or a grab of their own - specifically to take full advantage of this feature.


- No such thing as readying an action. Too much book work. :P

FOUR ATTRIBUTES

Aspects, Skills, Talents, and Powers make up the core character.

There can also be space on a sheet for two more - Flaws and Perks. Each flaw lets a character have the option of one perk, or a few more points to put into aspects. A flaw would be, ie., fat or thin - while a perk could be extraordinary height. Perks are always beneficial, but can often contain some kind of draw back as well.

Some perks can stack and be taken multiple times, and may even be used to create non-human characters or foes. However, not every non-human requires a perk.

SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES

The character's vitals, such as wounds and stamina - and focus, their mental acumen, which assists the use of skills, as well as their saves, grit and reflex. Finally, there is shifts and movement per turn.

EQUIPMENT AND ITEMS

Everything not covered by the above attributes can be accomplished with equipment and items. For puzzle solving adventures, players are free to get creative and improvise with the attributes that they have.

ARMOR CLASS

- Currently it's melee attack versus enemy's defence of resistance + grit (if the enemy has a save; they get one per turn), or ranged attack vs. arbitrary target number given by GM. If attack fails to hit, attacker may be pushed away with grit or the defender weaves beneath them with reflex.

SKILLS

Talents let you specialize, but the generic skills are listed below.

Acrobatics

Maneuver aspect lets you balance and get through things, as well as land. However, the acrobatics augments this natural display of body awareness into an art, allowing you to use obstacles and terrain to your advantage. Assisted jumping, and sports that emphasize performance such as dance and gymnastics.

Athletics

Climbing, swimming, un-assisted jumping, and endurance. Also, skill with most sports (football, skateboarding, biking, tennis, etc.), getting around in armor, and foot travel in general.

Knowledge (Nature)

Reflects intuitiveness about physics and chemistry (however much is recorded and how that knowledge can be applied to immediate surroundings; ie. roughly how much 100 degrees would be, going by feel), magical knowledge (whatever the magic level is), minors in math and models, as well as species of animal, agriculture and weather. Higher ranks let you pick up on this sort of knowledge, write books, etc. Of course, this skill can be applied to engineering, but it is difficult.

Knowledge (Geography)

Cartography, and what to expect of a terrain. Also, knowledge of locales and customs. Geographers are a more eclectic folk. One of the specialist talents lets you study intensively into exotic locations, even if you've never visited a place. Another one makes you particularly good at spelunking (replaces D&D's 'Knowledge: Dungeoneering').

Knowledge (Business)

Knowledge of currency, merchant operations, courier operations, royal seals, etc. One of the specialist talents of this skill lets you be able to forge signatures, royal seals and even impersonate entire documents and licenses, for conducting a variety organized crime or operations in any campaign. Another makes you more adept at plying whatever your trade is, and includes interpreting laws of a sovereign or region of a kingdom, imperial law, and using any legal loopholes to your advantage.

MARTIAL SKILLS

Unarmed

Striking, grabbing, holds, pressure points, cripplers, blocks, dodges, throwing, and escape plans. The multi-universal art of throwing weapons too. Talents let you enter certain martial arts styles, but you typically must visit an instructor. Can open up powers. The trouble with unarmed is, while awesome, a character with a weapon can often wound you first.

One Handed

Anything most convenient in one hand. Includes daggers, as well as 'hybrid' weapons such as bastard swords; bastard swords, which are essentially long swords with longer hilts and slightly broader blade by D&D standards, I suppose, can also be wielded in two hands. Long swords in real life, are the blades of riders, and have pommel hilts for pommeling. Like unarmed, talents let you specialize in certain weapons or martial arts styles, often requiring visits to an instructor, reading a book, etc., and you can also open up powers.

Each weapon still has its own advantages and disadvantages - one handed skill is a flat bonus, while specializing lets you get rid of the tactical disadvantages of a specific weapon.

Two Handed

Big weapons, requiring two hands. Mostly for heavily armored or tough foes that don't think they need a shield. Big weapons are typically less handy, but have more reach and momentum for overcoming just about anything (even a charging horse). Some two-handed weapons, however, are still quite handy, such as the katana or quarter/bo staff.

Marksman

Use of 'accurate' ranged weapons, such as bows, crossbows and firearms in general. Firearms that aren't accurate are included in this skill, too.

Heal

Treatment of wounds and understanding of herbs for the purpose of treatment. Specalist talent lets you do surgery or make poison.

Speech

The will one can exert over other men. The way of the snake.

Tinker

Opening locks, carving out quick tools or weapons for improvising, and being your own mechanic.

Sleight of Hand

Stealing off another person, or placing an object upon them (in-combat, or if person is awake or asleep) and smuggling or quick hand use in general.