Post by Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland) on Oct 24, 2015 14:11:27 GMT -8
written by Cailean
Hi guys and welcome to IoV’s combat class. Today, we’ll be going over the basics of roleplaying a combat scene and focusing on how to use our dice system with it. The class will be broken up into sections with a Q&A session at the end of each section. If you have a question, type a ! into local and I’ll let you know when to ask your question. Also, here’s a link to the IoV webpage on combat, which you can use to reference information: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html
Part 1: Pre-Battle Prep & Info. Before getting into a combat scene, there’s a few things that you’ll want to know and figure out so that you can be prepared.
The first thing that you’ll want to figure out is how many Hit Points (or HP) you have. Your HP is the amount of damage your character can take before they get knocked out, rendered helpless, downed, etc. You’ll want to know this since combat usually revolves around you and your opponent(s) trying to get each other's HP down to 0.
Each race has a specified amount of HP that they start with (you can see the list of HP values on the page I linked earlier). After that, you’ll add or subtract any HP that you might get from gifts, limitations, armor, spells, items, skills, etc.
Here’s an example of how to figure out a character’s HP.
Tane Greward is a human. The website tells us that all humans have 5hp to start with, however he picked the frail body limitation, so instead of 5hp he has 3hp to start with. He’s wearing medium armor, though, and we know from the website that medium armor gives +3hp, which brings him to a total of 6hp. He also has the armor mastery skill, which we know gives an additional +2hp while wearing medium armor, so Tane now has a total of 8hp to start with.
Are there any questions about hit points or how to figure out what your hit points are?
Damage. The next thing you want to figure out is how much damage you do each time your attacks successfully land. For mages, this is easy; the website tells you exactly how much damage each spell you have does. This never changes, unless you’ve picked a school of magic that changes it. For fighters and other physical damage dealing characters, figuring out how much damage you do becomes a more involved process.
To determine your physical damage, you basically just add: weapon size + strength bonus (if any) + any other factors that increase your physical damage such as buffs, bane materials, and poisons. The information on how much damage each weapon size does is listed on the combat page as well. As a note, there’s a damage cap of 5 now, regardless of crits, bonus damage, banes, poisons, et al.
Example of calculating damage:
Lady Auciel Orneth is wielding a plain longsword. We consider this to be a medium weapon, so we know that it deals 2 damage. Lady Orneth also has 6 strength, which means her medium weapon deals large damage instead, bringing her up to 3 damage.
Are there any questions about damage or how to figure out how much damage you do?
Ranked Rolls. While I’ll talk about when to use a ranked roll later (when I start going over how to do a scene itself), for now I’m only going to explain what they are and how you figure which to use. A ranked roll is a roll that you can use when attempting an action or attack that you can apply your character’s traits and bonuses to. Which trait you use for your roll is dependent on the kind of action that you’re rolling for. The five basic combat traits are fighting, huntsman, magic, reflexes and resolve. Sometimes the other traits come into play, but those are the five core traits. Your ranked roll is the sum of the trait you’d be using and any bonus rolls that you get toward your action.
Briefly: Fighting is for offensive physical melee attacks (like punching or swinging a sword), huntsman is for offensive physical ranged attacks (bows, slingshots, throwing knives), magic for offensive magical attacks and attempts (spells such as flame bolt, instill despair, etc), reflexes for dodging, blocking, parrying, etc anything that you can dodge, block or parry, and resolve to roll against things that can’t be avoided (such as mind magic, poisoning, etc).
Examples of figuring out a ranked roll:
Mugsy Redblade is attempting to run his sword through someone’s gut. Of course, Mugsy would like to do this a few times, but he should figure out his ranked roll first. Now he knows he has 7 fighting, but he also gets +2 to attack rolls and doesn’t know what this means. Quite simply, he would add his fighting trait and any bonus rolls he gets together to produce the ranked roll he should use. As 7 fighting + 2 to attack rolls equals 9, Mugsy would be punching R9 on the IoV Dice HUD and hopefully be on his way to watering his sword with blood. Easy.
Poor Lindy-Loo Hellshriek is the person Mugsy’s trying to sword. Of course, Lindy-Loo would like to make sure this doesn’t happen, but she should figure out her ranked roll first. Now she knows she has 8 reflexes that she’ll put toward attempting to avoid Mugsy’s attack, but she also gets +2 to reflex rolls from Cheetah’s Grace and an additional +2 to defense rolls from a buff generously provided by her friend. Adding everything together, she’d have a ranked roll of 12 and will be punching R12 on the IoV Dice HUD, hopefully avoiding Mugsy’s attack. Easy.
Are there any questions on ranked rolls or how to figure them out?
Part 2: The Battle. Now that we’ve figured out the numbers, it’s time to apply them.
Posting attempts. Real quick though, whenever you attack, you should post your attack as an attempt. Why? Because you don’t get to decide exactly how something affects someone else’s character. You can try to push things in certain directions, but ultimately the fate of another person’s character is up to them. Likewise, whenever someone attacks your character, if it hits, you’re able to decide where, how hard, and how deep -- the only thing that is required is keeping track of HP after damage is dealt and that a character ‘loses’ when their HP hits zero. This concept of posting attempts is true whether you’re freeforming or using dice, attacking with a sword, attempting to manipulate their mind, or anything.
Are there any questions about posting attempts?
Posts, Rounds, Until Next Post etc. If it says a post, it means a post. If it says it takes 2 posts to cast, it means that at the end of the second post, the spell activates. Not on the third post but the end of the second. If it says a post round, it means the duration between your current post and your next post. If it says until next post, that’s the same as a round. Any questions?
Attacking, defending, casting, etc. We’ve finally come to the meat. While a character may attack once per post, they may defend against any number of attacks. If they’re in the middle of casting a spell, they can’t attack but they can still defend while casting. Some special attacks and spells might target more than one person, but it’s still considered one attack or one cast. There’s a whole bunch of rules regarding NPCs and stuff, but I’ll get to that later. Also, even if a character is hit by an attack, they may still make their own attack unless otherwise disabled. Any questions?
Now to attack, a player includes their character’s attempt in their post, then after they post they roll their attack. The defender(s) immediately roll to see whether that attack is successful or not. The defender’s next post would then include either taking the hit or avoiding the hit somehow. It’s always up to the defender on how, where, and how hard they got hit if they were hit, no matter what the attacker posted. They’re responsible, however, for making sure it makes sense.
This will follow the pattern:
Peon A posts and rolls their attack.
Peon B rolls their defense, includes the result of Peon A’s attack in their next post as well as their own attack, then rolls their attack.
Peon A rolls their defense, includes the result of Peon B’s attack in their next post as well as their own attack, then rolls their attack.
Etc.
An attempt is successful if the attacker’s roll is greater than the defender’s. The defender is successful in avoiding the attack if their roll is greater than the attacker’s. In the case of ties, the tie goes to the defender.
Any questions?
Taking damage, HP hitting zero. If you get hit by an attack, you lose HP unless otherwise stated. If Tane Greward (who has 8hp) and Lady Orneth hits him with her longsword for 3 damage, he has 5hp left. If Tane gets hit two more times, his HP has likely hit 0 or less, and in his next post he’ll immediately post losing, either surrendering, being rendered helpless, getting knocked out, dying (if his player wants), etc. He doesn’t get a last attack unless he decides to pick a different hp hitting zero option. I’ll talk about these later.
When taking those hits, Tane might say the first cut opens up his shoulder, the second slices open his side, and the third his side as well. He might say that he passes out from bloodloss here in order to bring the fight to a close. It’s up to him, so long as it’s clear that he’s lost.
For now, any questions?
Fairness. Don’t be a shit. This is fair warning. There’s already an inherent disbalance between characters when stats are introduced to the equation. You can take advantage of combinations and stuff to try to win, but don’t be a shit. Try to be fair and try to remember that we’re all here to have fun. Win or lose, there’s RP to be had either way. I don’t care if you have questions about this.
Part 3: Post Battle. Once someone’s won, that’s it, The end. At this point the players should contact each other about what happens next. They can also let things resolve organically, or however they want. Try to make sure everyone’s satisfied and happy with the roleplay. Disappointed is fine too, that’s part of getting into the RP.
FAQs:
First move. Who gets to attack first? The person who attacks first. It’s common etiquette to give at least a post of warning before doing an attack post. Don’t be the asshole who drops into a scene and attacks on their first post.
So-and-so did what? They said they used x move on me and now I don’t know what to do!
The website has a list of all the moves that players are allowed to take advantage of in their dice combat. It’s always a good idea to reference what they’re doing so that you understand how to react to it. If you don’t know what they’re doing, ask them in an IM. If there’s a dispute, or you find yourself still confused, contact an admin, preferably one of the combat admins.
NPCs in combat. NPCs can make their own attacks, defenses, etc, on the same post as their owner. This does not use up their owner’s attack. A character can only have up to 2 npcs (combat mages or fighters with Martial Skills only get 1). If the NPC is downed, they either die or are banished (if applicable) -- they don’t get to take advantage of the other HP = Zero options that I’m going to talk about soon.
Critical Hits. If an attack is made and the attacking roll is 15 or greater than the defender’s roll, the attack is considered a critical hit. A critical hit simply adds +1 damage.
Max Damage. Regardless of critical hits, bonus damage, weapon material, enchantments, etc., no attack can do more than 5 damage.
HP = Zero options. In general, once you hit 0 hp, you’re downed. There’s two options, however, one of which is that you can run and get away anyway, but your character has to take grievous damage -- loss of limb or eye, etc. You can also go into a resolve state and keep fighting, but your character could die, and their death will be enforced by the admin regardless of the character’s owner’s personal limits. Details about this is near the bottom of the combat page.
Grappling, I hate grappling. Basically, instead of attacking, a character tries to grapple instead. If they win, then the two characters are locked in grappling. Each character can still attack, but they only do one damage to each other with each attack -- unless they have natural weapons like claws or strength benefits their unarmed attacks. The defender may make an additional roll during their post to see if they can escape the grapple, rolling their strength against their opponent’s strength. When grappling, characters cannot cast or use weapons.
Cast interruption: If a mage’s shield is down, successful attacks that deal damage cause the mage to have their spell be interrupted unless they spend an additional mana or make use of the Concentration skill.
Hi guys and welcome to IoV’s combat class. Today, we’ll be going over the basics of roleplaying a combat scene and focusing on how to use our dice system with it. The class will be broken up into sections with a Q&A session at the end of each section. If you have a question, type a ! into local and I’ll let you know when to ask your question. Also, here’s a link to the IoV webpage on combat, which you can use to reference information: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html
Part 1: Pre-Battle Prep & Info. Before getting into a combat scene, there’s a few things that you’ll want to know and figure out so that you can be prepared.
The first thing that you’ll want to figure out is how many Hit Points (or HP) you have. Your HP is the amount of damage your character can take before they get knocked out, rendered helpless, downed, etc. You’ll want to know this since combat usually revolves around you and your opponent(s) trying to get each other's HP down to 0.
Each race has a specified amount of HP that they start with (you can see the list of HP values on the page I linked earlier). After that, you’ll add or subtract any HP that you might get from gifts, limitations, armor, spells, items, skills, etc.
Here’s an example of how to figure out a character’s HP.
Tane Greward is a human. The website tells us that all humans have 5hp to start with, however he picked the frail body limitation, so instead of 5hp he has 3hp to start with. He’s wearing medium armor, though, and we know from the website that medium armor gives +3hp, which brings him to a total of 6hp. He also has the armor mastery skill, which we know gives an additional +2hp while wearing medium armor, so Tane now has a total of 8hp to start with.
Are there any questions about hit points or how to figure out what your hit points are?
Damage. The next thing you want to figure out is how much damage you do each time your attacks successfully land. For mages, this is easy; the website tells you exactly how much damage each spell you have does. This never changes, unless you’ve picked a school of magic that changes it. For fighters and other physical damage dealing characters, figuring out how much damage you do becomes a more involved process.
To determine your physical damage, you basically just add: weapon size + strength bonus (if any) + any other factors that increase your physical damage such as buffs, bane materials, and poisons. The information on how much damage each weapon size does is listed on the combat page as well. As a note, there’s a damage cap of 5 now, regardless of crits, bonus damage, banes, poisons, et al.
Example of calculating damage:
Lady Auciel Orneth is wielding a plain longsword. We consider this to be a medium weapon, so we know that it deals 2 damage. Lady Orneth also has 6 strength, which means her medium weapon deals large damage instead, bringing her up to 3 damage.
Are there any questions about damage or how to figure out how much damage you do?
Ranked Rolls. While I’ll talk about when to use a ranked roll later (when I start going over how to do a scene itself), for now I’m only going to explain what they are and how you figure which to use. A ranked roll is a roll that you can use when attempting an action or attack that you can apply your character’s traits and bonuses to. Which trait you use for your roll is dependent on the kind of action that you’re rolling for. The five basic combat traits are fighting, huntsman, magic, reflexes and resolve. Sometimes the other traits come into play, but those are the five core traits. Your ranked roll is the sum of the trait you’d be using and any bonus rolls that you get toward your action.
Briefly: Fighting is for offensive physical melee attacks (like punching or swinging a sword), huntsman is for offensive physical ranged attacks (bows, slingshots, throwing knives), magic for offensive magical attacks and attempts (spells such as flame bolt, instill despair, etc), reflexes for dodging, blocking, parrying, etc anything that you can dodge, block or parry, and resolve to roll against things that can’t be avoided (such as mind magic, poisoning, etc).
Examples of figuring out a ranked roll:
Mugsy Redblade is attempting to run his sword through someone’s gut. Of course, Mugsy would like to do this a few times, but he should figure out his ranked roll first. Now he knows he has 7 fighting, but he also gets +2 to attack rolls and doesn’t know what this means. Quite simply, he would add his fighting trait and any bonus rolls he gets together to produce the ranked roll he should use. As 7 fighting + 2 to attack rolls equals 9, Mugsy would be punching R9 on the IoV Dice HUD and hopefully be on his way to watering his sword with blood. Easy.
Poor Lindy-Loo Hellshriek is the person Mugsy’s trying to sword. Of course, Lindy-Loo would like to make sure this doesn’t happen, but she should figure out her ranked roll first. Now she knows she has 8 reflexes that she’ll put toward attempting to avoid Mugsy’s attack, but she also gets +2 to reflex rolls from Cheetah’s Grace and an additional +2 to defense rolls from a buff generously provided by her friend. Adding everything together, she’d have a ranked roll of 12 and will be punching R12 on the IoV Dice HUD, hopefully avoiding Mugsy’s attack. Easy.
Are there any questions on ranked rolls or how to figure them out?
Part 2: The Battle. Now that we’ve figured out the numbers, it’s time to apply them.
Posting attempts. Real quick though, whenever you attack, you should post your attack as an attempt. Why? Because you don’t get to decide exactly how something affects someone else’s character. You can try to push things in certain directions, but ultimately the fate of another person’s character is up to them. Likewise, whenever someone attacks your character, if it hits, you’re able to decide where, how hard, and how deep -- the only thing that is required is keeping track of HP after damage is dealt and that a character ‘loses’ when their HP hits zero. This concept of posting attempts is true whether you’re freeforming or using dice, attacking with a sword, attempting to manipulate their mind, or anything.
Are there any questions about posting attempts?
Posts, Rounds, Until Next Post etc. If it says a post, it means a post. If it says it takes 2 posts to cast, it means that at the end of the second post, the spell activates. Not on the third post but the end of the second. If it says a post round, it means the duration between your current post and your next post. If it says until next post, that’s the same as a round. Any questions?
Attacking, defending, casting, etc. We’ve finally come to the meat. While a character may attack once per post, they may defend against any number of attacks. If they’re in the middle of casting a spell, they can’t attack but they can still defend while casting. Some special attacks and spells might target more than one person, but it’s still considered one attack or one cast. There’s a whole bunch of rules regarding NPCs and stuff, but I’ll get to that later. Also, even if a character is hit by an attack, they may still make their own attack unless otherwise disabled. Any questions?
Now to attack, a player includes their character’s attempt in their post, then after they post they roll their attack. The defender(s) immediately roll to see whether that attack is successful or not. The defender’s next post would then include either taking the hit or avoiding the hit somehow. It’s always up to the defender on how, where, and how hard they got hit if they were hit, no matter what the attacker posted. They’re responsible, however, for making sure it makes sense.
This will follow the pattern:
Peon A posts and rolls their attack.
Peon B rolls their defense, includes the result of Peon A’s attack in their next post as well as their own attack, then rolls their attack.
Peon A rolls their defense, includes the result of Peon B’s attack in their next post as well as their own attack, then rolls their attack.
Etc.
An attempt is successful if the attacker’s roll is greater than the defender’s. The defender is successful in avoiding the attack if their roll is greater than the attacker’s. In the case of ties, the tie goes to the defender.
Any questions?
Taking damage, HP hitting zero. If you get hit by an attack, you lose HP unless otherwise stated. If Tane Greward (who has 8hp) and Lady Orneth hits him with her longsword for 3 damage, he has 5hp left. If Tane gets hit two more times, his HP has likely hit 0 or less, and in his next post he’ll immediately post losing, either surrendering, being rendered helpless, getting knocked out, dying (if his player wants), etc. He doesn’t get a last attack unless he decides to pick a different hp hitting zero option. I’ll talk about these later.
When taking those hits, Tane might say the first cut opens up his shoulder, the second slices open his side, and the third his side as well. He might say that he passes out from bloodloss here in order to bring the fight to a close. It’s up to him, so long as it’s clear that he’s lost.
For now, any questions?
Fairness. Don’t be a shit. This is fair warning. There’s already an inherent disbalance between characters when stats are introduced to the equation. You can take advantage of combinations and stuff to try to win, but don’t be a shit. Try to be fair and try to remember that we’re all here to have fun. Win or lose, there’s RP to be had either way. I don’t care if you have questions about this.
Part 3: Post Battle. Once someone’s won, that’s it, The end. At this point the players should contact each other about what happens next. They can also let things resolve organically, or however they want. Try to make sure everyone’s satisfied and happy with the roleplay. Disappointed is fine too, that’s part of getting into the RP.
FAQs:
First move. Who gets to attack first? The person who attacks first. It’s common etiquette to give at least a post of warning before doing an attack post. Don’t be the asshole who drops into a scene and attacks on their first post.
So-and-so did what? They said they used x move on me and now I don’t know what to do!
The website has a list of all the moves that players are allowed to take advantage of in their dice combat. It’s always a good idea to reference what they’re doing so that you understand how to react to it. If you don’t know what they’re doing, ask them in an IM. If there’s a dispute, or you find yourself still confused, contact an admin, preferably one of the combat admins.
NPCs in combat. NPCs can make their own attacks, defenses, etc, on the same post as their owner. This does not use up their owner’s attack. A character can only have up to 2 npcs (combat mages or fighters with Martial Skills only get 1). If the NPC is downed, they either die or are banished (if applicable) -- they don’t get to take advantage of the other HP = Zero options that I’m going to talk about soon.
Critical Hits. If an attack is made and the attacking roll is 15 or greater than the defender’s roll, the attack is considered a critical hit. A critical hit simply adds +1 damage.
Max Damage. Regardless of critical hits, bonus damage, weapon material, enchantments, etc., no attack can do more than 5 damage.
HP = Zero options. In general, once you hit 0 hp, you’re downed. There’s two options, however, one of which is that you can run and get away anyway, but your character has to take grievous damage -- loss of limb or eye, etc. You can also go into a resolve state and keep fighting, but your character could die, and their death will be enforced by the admin regardless of the character’s owner’s personal limits. Details about this is near the bottom of the combat page.
Grappling, I hate grappling. Basically, instead of attacking, a character tries to grapple instead. If they win, then the two characters are locked in grappling. Each character can still attack, but they only do one damage to each other with each attack -- unless they have natural weapons like claws or strength benefits their unarmed attacks. The defender may make an additional roll during their post to see if they can escape the grapple, rolling their strength against their opponent’s strength. When grappling, characters cannot cast or use weapons.
Cast interruption: If a mage’s shield is down, successful attacks that deal damage cause the mage to have their spell be interrupted unless they spend an additional mana or make use of the Concentration skill.