More Melee Skills Please?

As a result of play testing outside the inner circle, I realized that many of their complaints and requests trended the game back towards D20 style melee. While initially each request seemed simplistic and justified. However in total, the significantly complicated the system.

For example D100 Melee System, has no "Charge" or "Bull Rush" defined as either a skill or an option in the Rules for moving in melee. On the surface these were simple enough to add as skills and whala! We had well defined charge and bull rush and procedure to carry them out. However what I realized is that neither was really needed as the D100 System already supported those actions and had no need for a defined "Charge" or "Bull Rush" procedure. A character could charge in melee by moving and then attacking in the following second. In fact the D100 System is superior without the defined procedure because it affords a good deal of risk in making an attack styled after a charge. The initiative and actions of both characters determine the outcome, rather then some simple check.

It was a good lesson to learn, the requests were coming from a D20 mindset where the definition is required, in the D100 mind set, the character need only sequence their actions to achieve the same goal. Furthermore it did result in one additional rule, that allowed the character to combine a move action and a attack/defend action into one action with considerable deductions.

Missiles in Melee

Well that is why we play test the game. Recently we play tested a real campaign but added two new players, both d20 die hards and both skeptical. All in all the game went well, but the two became confused repeatedly in melee. It seems the fluid and flexible nature of D100 Melee system confounded them in certain situations involving: Missiles and changing weapons. They made excellent points. No rules were changed but we have to alter the terminology some with respect to bows. Namely not referring to the bow as having "melee" points. Rather as a "Rate of Fire" in melee. It is unfortunate that this terminology created such a stumbling block because both became fixated on it. Lesson learned and that is why we play test outside the creator circle!

Skills Skills Skills

The foundation of the D100 Melee System is the development of abilities through characters acquiring skills. Rather then a class model with limitations and bonuses by major categories we developed a simple listing of skills.

How Does A Skill Work?
Each skill is based on an attribute: Strength, Will Power, Reflex, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma and Movement. The base chance of success is the attribute value. As levels in a skill increase the chance of success increases too.

Is its complicated?
No. The most complicated it can get is when a skill has a pre-requisite. All that means is that to get one skill, you might have to first have another skill. It gets no more complicated then that.

Kinds of Skills
From the perspective of melee there are essentially 2 kinds of skills: Martial and Magical. There are other skills for abilities not melee related, for example: climbing, swimming, bluffing, professions etc.

Acquiring and Improving Skills
The skills are built up by awarding the characters with "Improvement Points". The points are used to buy more skills. The system includes guidelines for how Game Masters could choose to dole out points, but really it is up to the Game Master to do what works best for the group at play. The guideline is simple with no complicated formulas what so ever.

What about Feats?
D20 style feats, do not exist in the D100 Melee System. All character abilities are skills.

Even Magic (Spells) is a skill?
Yes all character abilities are skills. Magic skills for the fantasy realm have the most pre-requisites of any list so far developed for D100 Melee System. Magic is different from D20 Style magic, this is for many reasons: Playability, Lethality, Sustainability. In D100 a character could invest "Improvement Points" and make a deadly caster, a sustainable caster would require more points and so on. In play testing thus far, we have found most characters who start as pure casters, do not live very long unless the party is large, or they are very smart about melee. A more typical path has been to split the skills between magic and martial until a certain level of melee survivability is achieved.

The question of class

An early question for us was if the system should have character classes or not. I was strongly opposed to having class system but we debated it for quite a long while. Classes do provide certain benefits, that make the rules easier to construct. Our decision was that these benefits to the writer of the rules were not really a benefit to the player in any appreciable way, so we ultimately decided to have no classes in D100 Melee System.

If you do not have a class does this mean all your characters end up being strange hybrid characters with odd mixes of abilities?

The truth is, that it could. In play testing thus far, it has not worked out that way. In fact quite the opposite. For the most part characters start out as generalists that stand a fair chance of surviving melee. However as each character grows (and they grow quickly) they develop specific abilities that they need to achieve their personal and also party goals. Effectively creating reasonably skilled generalist with terrific specialized skills in areas the party believes it needs.

So how does it work without a class to define the character?

It is actually really simple. Instead of classes, class abilities, class feats, class restrictions and class bonuses. You have a long list of skills. All skills are based on an attribute: Strength, Intelligence, Will Power, Reflex, Constitution, Charisma, Dexterity and Movement. The character acquires the skill and gains the ability. The character can continue to invest in the skill and improve the ability if they so choose. No skills are restricted, no ability in one skill prohibits an ability in another skill. The only cheviot is that some skills have pre-requisites. In other words some skills require that you first obtain another skill to get it.

Melee Melee Melee

I have to apologize for taking so long to get back to making a blog entry. So much has happened its hard to no where to begin.

#1 The system has been renamed the The D100 Melee System. This change was made, mainly because we found in play testing that we did not really need rules for role playing. The skill system is so flexible and so easy to follow that we found rules for the actual role playing to be of little value and so they were dropped. Yet another simplification achieved!

#2 Terminology changes, these are too numerous to list, but mainly they involve switching to terms that firstly make sense and secondly are easy to remember. We have been avoiding acronyms completely. There shall be no terms like "THACO" to learn in the D100 Melee System.

#3 Melee has had some HUGE changes. The round has been made a little more complicated, by breaking it into 10 phases. Each phase is 1 second. Each phase is played out for actions. In the beginning this was tried, because in melee, the fight was often over before some characters acted. On the surface it sounds more complicated and as it happens it is a change all of us working on the system resisted making. However once we tried it, we realized we would never go back. It actually made melee much easier to execute and simplifies things for the players greatly. Furthermore it added emphasis to maneuver and position that was not present before.

#4 Spells & Magic in melee have been completely re-worked and fits neatly into melee now. The round/phase system really facilitates the caster. The caster has to play smart and be well positioned and/or protected to be of magical value in melee. However in play testing this has proven to add excellent balance with fewer rules and A LOT OF FUN!

#5 Maneuvering in Melee is now as important as the attack/defend actions themselves. Combats that used to play out in the 4 or 5 rounds, now play out in 1 or 2 rounds. Characters who are outnumbered and not careful can get surrounded. Characters have many options and for changing their position, reducing their risk and maximizing their threat that simple does no exist in D20 or any other RPG today. Players have to consider their characters location and proximity to threats constantly. No more D20 style, stand in the room and knock down all comers. Even the powerful and skilled in this melee system will have trouble when outnumbers by foes of even low threat level. The character has to be aware of where he is all the time in melee. This model allowed for the elimination of many rules relating to melee: charging, back stab, attack of opportunity, surprise, flat footed, spell casting, missiles and many more. They are not needed because the simple maneuvering model when combined with initiative makes them irrelevant. Yet another simplification achieved!

#6 Bruise Damage: We just dropped it. In play testing we kept forgetting to use it and realized it just was not needed except in VERY rare circumstances. Yet another simplification achieved!

#7 Shields, we completely reworked how these work. They are clean, useful, and do not slow down melee as they did before. Yet another simplification achieved!

#8 A new D100 public portal has been set up, but the content is not loaded up. A draft rules set is set for publication there in December 2007.