The biggest stump is that I originally wanted to use a revised dungeon generator based on Appendix A, but modified to minimize diagonal hallways (both a pain to draw and to map) and to make use of a "throw all of the dice" mechanic (i.e. after you've done it a few times, you can just look at the pile and immediately draw the next part, save for a few niche cases). And while that did work, it's ugly and I don't like it, so I'm using Excel to put together a series of dungeon tiles to package with everything:
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| Diagonals are even more annoying here. |
Ultimately the core rules are coming in most part from two sources: either the LBB, or the other LBB (with the optional Traveller-inspired character generation), and with a few more modern things borrowed from ACKS (throw-based attacks and Fighter damage bonuses; the latter for the purpose of Supernatural Hit Dice, the former because it has been the easiest attack/armor mechanic to explain to new players).
I'll mark down here a few of the notes I've pinned down for combat:
Grabbing
I've found that a universal mechanic for grappling is a terrible idea, as evidence by the d20 system and the excessively high bonus numbers required just to give a semblance of realism. I like the Arduin grapple escape table as a way for players to get away from big monsters, and I also rule that in general, there is effectively no chance for even the strongest human Fighter to grapple an elephant or tentacle beast from hell. Which leads to the need for a grapple mechanic of people of two sides.
I tried a few things, and eventually found something that worked smoothly by drawing inspiration from a few atypical source - fighting games, and room-mates practicing BJJ. You'll see it when you read this description:
Conditions to grab: (1) Your character must get in 'close'. (2) You must give up 'first strike' if you have it - grabbing goes last in melee. (3) Your opponent must not hit you. (4) You must succeed on a normal attack throw.
You have options: grapple, pummel, throw, or take-down. Pick one. Fighters of Heroic status or better pick two. Pummeling is a normal fist/dagger attack. Throwing tosses your opponent ~5ft away. Take-down sends them to the ground. Grappling holds them.
In grappling: The PC rolls 1d6 each round. Stronger characters advance 1-3, remain 4-5, fall back on 6. If even, it's 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. If the PC is weaker, it's 1, 2-3, 4-6. Of course, as anyone who has dealt with grappling knows, strength and size mean less and experience means more on the ground - thus, a Fighter-type is considered "even on" against stronger opponents while grappling on the ground. The PC determines what "advancing" is - either trying to escape, or trying to hold.
Grappling positions: Freed, Holding, Pinning, Submitting. Holding means the stronger character may move both up to 10ft (standing) or 5ft (prone). Pinning means neither can move, though the pinning character may deliver unarmed or knife attacks to the pinned. Submission means the submitted character is helpless, and can no longer attempt to escape (submission can happen only if HP falls low enough). Freed means either escape, or turn over - the "freed" characters choice.
For a dog-pile, so long as one potential grappler isn't successfully hit, that's good enough. Each would-be grappler makes an attack throw, and only one needs to hit. For every participant beyond the first, add +1 as an adjustment to d6 throws (thus, a Hero grappled by four Orcs would roll at -4 to the 1d6 check). Super-Heroic characters can be grappled only by characters who are at least Heroic, unless below a certain HP threshold, though lesser sorts may assist a superior sort in a dog-pile.
Whips are special: You can use a whip to grab an opponent from a distance. Unlike a normal grab, a whip grab has 'first strike'; but, if you miss, your opponent gets +4 'to-hit' against you. Whips are kind of stupid but they're pretty cool.
Cleaving/Clearing
I started at one point with allowing multiple damage dice as level advanced, but never found a way that satisfied me or the table as 'sensible' for resolving total damage against one opponent, and total damage overall. It also meant a lot of dice rolling. The ACKS/Arneson mechanic of chopping (cleaving) satisfied as letting Fighters cut through a lot of enemies, and possibly a whole cluster of 0-level sorts in one go, and so I adopted that. The specific variation, in my case, being: You can attack, step forward if you want to, and keep doing it until you fail to kill someone or your kill count equals your level.
This worked well, until the classic old-school problem of 40+ goblins. A lot of dice rolling followed, and each round took far longer than I would have liked. I'm okay with long combats for a purpose, but I prefer those to just be a lot of rounds - not each round taking forever. Eventually, I was directed to a Mornard post on Gygax's solution - just roll a dice, and cut down that many (0-level sorts), no attack roll. So I crunched some numbers, based on the cleaving rule, and found that it was close enough to go with. I'll admit that I don't have play-testing results at the upper bounds, but the numbers suggest these projections to be reasonable:
Fighters of Heroic status may "clear" 1d4 HD of opponents at 1HD or less. This value rises to 1d6 at the 6th Level and 1d8 at the 8th Level, and increases by +1 per each level over the 10th. Super-heroic types add a bonus equal to the "plus" of magical weapons they wield. Fighters can optionally step forward between opponents, to get them all.
Personally, I'd also make special situational bonuses - a Fighter subject to a berserker effect, I might automatically rule as clearing the maximum possible number. But I'd rather not codify that sort of situational thing.
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