I'm going to start with a question/idea that's been on my head for a while now :
It's been pretty obvious for a while now that I'm a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, and I've been trying since I was in high-school (though not really hard) to create a relatively generic pen and paper RPG system adapted to post-apocalyptic settings.
Basically, the idea would be to use a core set of rules for generic things (combat mechanics, survival rules, crafting/repairing/other perks, etc), with additional modules the players could mix and match for different kind of scenario : radiation poisoning rules for Post-Nukes scenarios ; rules for Zombie settings ; or other, weirder things for the weirdest kind of Settings/Apocalypses.
The problem I've always had with that (past the fact I've never been able to play PnP RPGs much to get the necessary first hand experience to conceive a good system), is that I want a system complex enough to simulate all these things that make Post-Apocalyptic settings so specials (all the survival aspect, the unforgiving combat mechanics, and so on and so on
), while at the same time wanting a system that needs the least amount of dice rolls and calculations/computations : because I like my play-sessions to be relatively fast paced, and the problem I had with DnD was that 4/5 of a game was spent doing calculations, searching through tables and all that tedious unfunny shit.So, I was hoping for some discussion about that.
The first question I have is :
How does one get around creating a relatively flexible combat system (integrating hand to hand combat, melee weapons, firearms, explosives or even the more exotic stuff like energy weapons or even weirder stuff [1]), while keeping down the math/dice-roll aspect down to a minimum.
Also, I think it'd be cool if the damage mechanic was relatively realistic : a bullet doesn't do the same kind of damage if it hit a leg or an arm than if it hit the sternum, the head or even one's genitals. But such an idea has the potential to get really too complex really quickly.
Here's what I thought would be closest to what I want :
So, the idea is that the body is roughly subdivided into two different kind of areas : “limbs”, and “vital areas”.
A basic human has four “limbs” (two arms, two legs), and two “vital areas” (the torso and the head).
Each part has the different “harm states” : unharmed => “flesh wound” => serious wound => “dead”(for vital areas)/”severed”(for limbs)
Each limb/vital area has an individual amount of “HP” which get “ablated” depending on the damages they received, and depending on the harm state of the various body parts the character's stats are affected.
The difference between a limb and a vital area lies only in the fact that once a limb gets destroyed, it's just considered “severed” (to the game-master to decide what that mean in practice), while for a vital area it means death.
The idea would be for such a system of limbs and vital areas to be generalized to every creatures (even robots). Some creatures could even have no “vital areas” and would need for each for their body parts to be destroyed to die. I think it offer interesting opportunities as far as monster creation goes...
To save dice rolls with the combat mechanic, here was my idea :
On an unprotected target, you do only one “dice-roll” per attack. Depending on the kind of weapon the calculation will not be the same (a single shot weapon isn't handled the same way an automatic weapon is, or like a club or a grenade is). The result of that dice roll tells if the attack hit the target, and where (some weapons may touch only a specific body part, or all of them, or some). Then the hit areas take a set amount of damage.
On a target protected by some kind of armor, you need another dice-roll which determine how much damages the protection absorb, and how much are transmitted to the target. Depending on the type of protection, the calculation isn't exactly the same : forcefields may be impervious to any attack under a specific amount of damage, after which they fail and the target is left unprotected ; while armors just absorb a portion of the damages until they break, then leaving the target unprotected.
To the game-master to decide what kind of protections are available in the setting – the rule to create armors and protections should be relatively flexible.
The real idea to save dice rolls is that the “to-hit” dice-roll, depending on the proficiency of the weapon user with the weapon, and depending on some factors (range for ranged weapons for example), each action under a certain “difficulty level” is assumed to be an automatic success.
Like, someone with a “master” level in “handguns”, and under normal stress conditions, will never miss his target under a certain distance. However, if he's under stressful conditions, or if he's ill or something, he may have to do a dice-roll, with the malus coming from his current condition applied to the calculation.
On the other hand, if you want to hit something that's behind cover with a weapon that's line of sight only, the action is an automatic fail. You'll either have to use a weapon that do splash damage (like a grenade), destroy the cover, or just get the target to move out of cover.
The idea being that all these calculations are always just sums and substractions of integers. No multiplications or divisions. This to save time for the people playing without a calculator.
Basically, you'd need just a flowchart where you enter the situation's parameters, and you'd need to do only some select dice-rolls depending on the situation.
I hope I was clear enough. Can people with more experience than me on pnp rpgs give me their input on these basic ideas ?
[1] : I had this idea of the "nano charge/grenade", which unleash a swarm of nanites on the target (be it a creature, a robot, or inanimate objects) which turn it into dust down to its molecular components - the funny thing being that depending on the target that dust may be pretty volatile and ready to explode at the slightest provocation
