Fair Battles and Situations in an RPG
Ever wondered how to make an RPG battle seem realistic, rather than just having your character smash all the orcs? Here’s a great system. All you need is dice or a graphing calculator. Here’s how to do it.
For each character, create a set of stats, probably including…
~ Attack
~ Defense
~ Speed
~ Agility
~ Strength
~ Dexterity
~ Endurance
If you want to make encounters more random, you could also do a Charisma stat. Now then, roll your die or put your graphing calculator on random with a range of 12. Roll for every stat, and write down the number. If you wish, you can put in race plusses and minuses – i.e., elves would get +1 dexterity, but would get -1 strength because they aren’t incredibly hardy.
When you are actually battling within your game, decide how strong the opponent is. The stronger the character (this is not random, it’s your judgement), the greater range within the rolls. Roll the die out of 12 for your attack. If your stat is under the roll, then you’ve hit it. To see how much damage is caused, roll for strength. The lower the number you get (below your strength stat), the more damage you have done. When you are attacked, you can either block (defense stat) or dodge (agility stat). Roll, and the lower the number is, the more sucessful you are. If the roll is over your stat, you’ve been hit. To see how much you’ve been hurt, roll for your endurance. Once again, the lower the number, the better off you are. In this case, the lower number is the lower amount of damage.
My suggested race plusses and minuses:
~ Man -none. You should have a character that is a mediator
~ Elf – Dexterity +1, Agility +1, Strength -1, Endurance -1
~ Dwarf – Defense +1, Strength +1, Agility -1, Dexterity -1
~ Hobbit – Agility -1, Endurance +1, Dexterity +1
Now then, say that I had a sample character. Let’s make it a Dwarf named Rotimil. I set up my stats, and then roll a die for each one. Say that my rolls are
~ Attack: 9
~ Defense: 6
~ Speed: 11
~ Agility: 3
~ Strength: 5
~ Dexterity: 12
~ Endurance: 7
Then, I add or subtract according to race, so for a dwarf…
~ Attack: 9
~ Defense: 6+1=7
~ Speed: 11
~ Agility: 3-1=2
~ Strength: 5+1=6
~ Dexterity: 12-1=11
~ Endurance: 7
So, these are my stats for my character. If he does really well he can earn stat boosts of 1-2 points at very long intervals. Now then, what if my character is attacked by, say, an orc? I roll the die to see if he hits me when he attacks. Since my Defense (blocking) is better than my Agility (dodging) I decide to block. My roll is a 9. Since this is above my defense stat, I’ve been hit. To see how much it hurt I use my endurance stat. If I roll a 3 on that roll, his hit gives me, maybe a scratch at most because three is far below my endurance stat of 7. If I choose to attack him, I roll to see if I hit first. If I roll a 9, then I’ve hit him, but just barely because it is so close to my attack stat. Then, to see how much my hit hurt him, I roll for strength. If I roll a 1-2, then that orc is out like a rock. The higher I go, the less damage I’ve done. If the roll goes above my strength stat, then my hit just sort of pings off of his armor.
That’s a basic layout of battle systems. It can be used with any range of numbers. Now, go set up an RPG!
3 Comments
These kind of randomized battle in the Role Playing threads would be so much more fun and interesting than reading about how Mary-Sue beheads three orcs at once. The only trouble that I have with this system is that you don’t specify what Dexterity and Endurance are for. I myself tried several different ways to randomize my RP battles, and eventually settled on the (very complicated) rules used in the LOTR Battle Strategy Game. But what you have here are rules that are simple and yet complex enough to make the whole thing easy and fun. Better still, anyone with a dice or graphing calculator can use them.
I’d like to suggest that you keep up the great job and work on rules for ranged weapons as well. This is just great!
I think I will try this, but not for an RPG, I think with this system I could play a lot of funny games with my friends. I think the princip behind this system is really interesting, youcan use it for nearly every games with a winner and a looser… 🙂
That is a bit much to consider in a writing RP.
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