Fwurg

[Elmer]

I was thinking about the proposed new combat rules and possible rules for spaceship combat.

I think it is nice to have some rules for spaceship combat, but to keep them simplified the same way how jedi combat is simplified to two scores and a single post. In fact, I think the jedi combat rules are perfectly adaptable to all kinds of combat: 1 offensive stat, 1 defensive stat and a set of modifiers.

I was thinking about giving ships something like 3 hitpoints, but I think that doesn't add anything other than requiring 3 posts to win. After all: you won the first round, so the modifiers are most likely in your favour, therefore you will probably win the second and third round as well.

If we are going to do things with smaller scale threats, like pirates, this allows the use and display of militaristic force without lengthy post drags. This also makes that we don't need an excessive amount of rules for every niche. A simpler game allows for more focus on the actual roleplay me thinks.

Since the idea of modifiers is nice, I think that we don't need a set of modifiers to pick from. Instead I propose that a player can think of modifiers for him/herself and propose it. The other players can approve/disprove the modifier. Basically the way how specialisations work in the Exalted roleplay system.

This example is fleshed out to illustrate how I envision the application of new combat rules. Since the actual rules are not yet defined, the example only works to illustrate the chain of events. The actual stats can be ignored for the discussion.

Example:
I want to have a soldier who's role it is to protect people. Therefore I propose a modifier/speciality for '+1 attack when assigned to defend a target'. Then other players can say anything in line of: 'sure, we see no problem with this', or they can say: 'maybe +1 defence' or 'this is overpowered, we don't want you to do this.'
Then, if the modifier is approved I can buy the modifier for my soldier.

What I want to achieve is that players easily can make their own unique forces, without having to spend ages on thinking and balancing a technology or skill, after which everybody buys the technology or skill since it gives benefits. By making it easy this way, players can easier say: 'I have a +1 because I am a strong cyborg.'
'Yeah and I have a +1 because I am a flying dragon.'
'And I have a +1 because my people can withstand heat.'

Any thoughts?

[Gerben]

I like the way you're going with this. It should make things easier with regards to combat, as well as offer more ways for player to be different.

[Brend]

I hope to leave spaceship combat rule-less until it is clear that we actually need rules for that. (Which, in hind-sight we should have done for OldFWURG as well..)


As to the "we don't need a set of modifiers to pick from"... I think that it is better to hold off on this until the rules are actually fleshed out with some sample combat styles. Mercury and I have put some thought into how modifiers should work with respect to information flow and posting orders and such, and have based some of our decisions on those concerns.

There's another reason not to do this too much at the indivual level, as it would somewhat undermine the "Building of the Jedi Order".

Note: I don't want to say that custom modifers will not be a thing. We know FWURG players are already very open to customly designed things, and we have made making custom proposal much simplere (by way of reducing complexity a lot), I would just suggest to leave it be for now.