Test Characters, How I made my Load Out gsheet, and World Building fun.

Creating the Test Characters made me realize the following.

1. Gdocs having Columns eats up a ton of ram. I noticed ever since I started using columns to compress my format for the Statement sized booklet got the computer so slow (even if its the Only Tab open) that I could type an entire sentence and only see it after 4-5 seconds. 
1. Broke up the Chapters into Different Gdocs. It runs much smoother BUT if you see the Test Character docs the responses are getting worse in this rather small doc. 
2. Stat Block Layout.  I need to change and adapt it. 
1. its a Damage Threshold System. We note damage against thresholds. The way we note matters this means Temporary hitpoints are confusing - its easier if I keep to modifying the Threshold. Like what would give Temp Hitpoints increase the Strength stat for calculating Wound Thresholds. 
3. I have to clear up my combat Assumptions (put it in basic concepts) since the Attack Roll is based on a Clean Hit. 
1. Ranged Attacks have a Defense, Dex (and Not Str) + Prof Mod (which is increased with Shields) is Ranged Attack Difficulty. How does Range attack change combat with a Lower Defense and easier to Make? 
2. Wording of Ranged and Melee attack. Like Ranged attack is Dex if its a Missile Weapon, if its a throwing weapon it can use Strength to Hit. 
3. Defense Margin. the margin of failure that doesn't result in getting Attackd (Costly Failure). 
4. I had to define what Armor Proficiency Does (it makes me calculate Worn Armor at 2/3 or 1/2 Weight.)
5. I have to edit the text to fix a tendency to mix up Skills and Proficiencies. Secondary Skills and proficiencies and Primary Skills and Proficiencies. 
6. Profession and Specialization need some notation of what is Basic, and which is Optional and can be gotten as the Character Level Ups (follows D&D levels, level 5 to get a boost in Proficiency bonus). 
7. Skirmisher Abilities overlap with Goblins. I have to make some abilities optional so goblin characters can get other Abilities instead (since free disengage and move is already a goblin ability). 
8. I should make Elves Int focused, allowing them to Use Int for Perception. 
9. Having Scythes, Thresher, and other Improvised weapons for the Auxiliaries (Auxiliaries have Improvised weapon damage die upgrade). 
10. Damage Advantage and Disadvantage. 
11. I should start detailing the weapons and their effects. Like
1. Warhammers - ? what mechanics can make. What are the assumptions and trade offs of using a Warhammer? 
2. That all clubs and great clubs default as having iron shedding. 
3. Crossbows. detail it. Heavier should be harder to draw. researching Tod's Workshop  for historical. Light is a hunting crossbow, Heavy maybe just a different of Bow and span and a little bit bigger. 
4. Maybe also note that Marksmen (Crossbow specialists) are really meant for sieges. 

Other things to Do.

1. Add the Equipment (using Grouping Rows) from the SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf  in the "Load-Out" checkbox generator (200413 Weapons and Armor). I wish made such a thing a long time ago instead of typing and calculating all the Equipment by hand. 
2. How this Sheet works:

1. Put all relevant equipment in a Column. Organize them so you can group them later and "hide" or compress the group. Put the relevant other attributes in the next column like Cost and Weight. I put the property in the name (like armor Value because I have a Hit Location Table). 
2. All Loadouts are their own Columns (Name, Weight, and Cost). Now I used If statement to Copy the Item from the Source Columns if the Checkbox is checked. 
3. I use Sumif to referencing the checkbox to Sum the Wt and Cost. 
4. I used Jointext with a delimiter of commas to join the Names. 

Some Fun Worldbuilding. 

Welfare Elves. In this improvised Setting, elves that are in the outskirts are given basic essentials from the Cities. With magic being practical - it is easier to create a ton of food and basics than cast a fireball, as well as more rewarding these elves are given basics and made to live closer to the other races. An elven village of 100 households can produce 1000x that of a human village (the productivity of what used to be 90% of the population is now only less than 2% and still producing more food than the Entire Population can consume).

What makes Elves interesting for me is the concept of hundreds of year lifespan with a Human Brain. Been getting into Science of Mindfulness thanks to the Late Ronald Siegel's Great Courses lecture and the Neuroscience he discusses teaches me about how memory work, as well since I'm a daily Anki User every day I have first-hand experience of memory degeneration measured.

What if you had lifetimes you've forgotten? So in Expanse (Sci Fi Setting) and various iterations of Basic Welfare its been widely accepted it is not enough to have basic. Maslows hierarchy of needs and how time can pass if everything is the same (how attention works Covered in the Science of Mindfulness) can basically create a Situation of Elves being "Forgotten" and forgetting everything.

Current events remind me of the need to connect to people and care and perform actions to care for others so that community and empathy is reinforced but it seems its we run into Diminishing Returns and Scarcity to do the charitable and compassionate thing. If I had an elven lifespan I will never find the time. To find the time is to take a risk.

It is also an Allegory of developed world surplus viewed by poorer countries and their misunderstanding of being provided the basic necessities. The idea is not to just provide but to give people the resource to be able to be made to care about others. Providing only so that "these people won't bother me anymore" is what most think of why provide basic.

Loving the OGL 

if there were no OGL I could not share this. I wish I can do this for Dungeon Fantasy but its not shareable. but with OGL I can share this. Basically, I'm making a Combat only OGL, in the theme of TFT. Constructively channeling my hangups and just having fun.

All the Links

1. 150428 GITB Gaming Ideas Repository
2. 200410 GITB Combat System Only
3. 200419 GITB Combat Only - Combat Mechanics
4. 200413 Weapons and Armor
5. Open Gaming License for D&D5E SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf
6. 200419 Test Characters

Limited Modifiers - it can be anything, just prioritize

In a TRPG you can make a character's success hinge on arbitrary things - see "For want of a nail" what's important is you Prioritize and Limit the negotiations on what MATTERS for a given roll.

If the story calls for it, the roll hinges on the Character's appearance, the color of their shirt, the alignment of the stars, etc... the exact wording and pronunciation of an incantation, etc... what matters is really the agreement and moving the story along.

In a TRPG we have PERFECT information -the reality and the Unknowns the players agree to is the fact of the world.

I love how it follows the socratic method where you ask the question and the answer reveals itself. We can ask "What matters in this roll?" "What is the biggest problem this character has for this challenge?" and in a couple of seconds we can decide - we don't need to reference a ton of rules. We reference a ton of rules to be more consistent but consistency is not the end goal.

200410 GITB Combat System Only

LImited Modifiers

A key concept of this Game system is limiting Modifiers. In Difficulty Rolls there are 3 : Relevant Stat + Proficiency Bonus + Conditions. 

Difficulty Modifiers

Difficulty Modifiers follow the same Limited Modifiers concept. The two main Modifiers are Odds + Scope.

Limiting the Modifiers is limiting the Factors at play and making the game efficient. You’re free to intensify the value of any factor what is crucial is Prioritizing and limiting the time spent negotiating these Factors. 

Odds Modifier

Odds determine the Resource or Numbers  Superiority that effects the Difficulty. If the Character has more resources 

The Players ask - What are the most relevant and important odds that affects majority of this Difficulty.   

Scope Modifier

Some things are More or Less Difficulty by the SCOPE. Trying specific Hit Location is harder because one is narrowing the available targets instead of having a Larger (and easier) target. 

Trying to make an Effect apply to More targets also affects the scope. 

Range and Speed of the moving Target all affect Scope. 

Game Design Notes - We tinker to learn and exercise on fun problems - which is what games really are - fun problems.

150428 GITB Gaming Ideas Repository
200410 GITB Combat System Only

Background

During this Lockdown, I finally had time to check all the books I bought for Christmas which was the D&D Starter Set (Mines of Phandelver), Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Set, and The Fantasy Trip (TFT) Legacy Edition.

I had mixed feelings about TFT and DF. It was what I wanted in some aspects: it was the right level of detail and metrics (hexes, armor, etc...) especially the 3d6 Bell-Curve RNG, which I'll tend to call Bell-Curve RNG (BCRNG), but it was clunky and inelegant. My problem is I could already predict what my players or fellow boardgame people are going to say. So I went about trying to make an easier Guide.

Lately, I've been playing Darkest Dungeon and it's been SUCKING my time. I love the simplicity of play which sparked making a basic relative position diagram but of course I want to really run this game - which made me recheck my 191202 Lost Mine of Phandelver GM notes and considered something like a theme of Party Management where there is a constant stream of Adventurers who get slaughtered - like the Premise of darkest dungeon.

Anyway that led to some game design thinking. I had to stop playing Darkest Dungeon and reviewing TFT. So I made a diagram of TFT here. This led to thinking about the problem, let's name the system "One-Side Rolls Mechanic"(OSR), I don't want a lot of Rolls or a lot of Interruptions or a lot of bonus actions - I want if its that Players TURN then we shine all that spotlight on that player.

I discovered the OSR in Dungeon World, it worked by simply giving a Costly Failure and Framing the Roll as a Conflicting within Two factors: Adversary and Proponent/Protagonist. We have the Advesary's factors and the Proponent's factors. Lets remove those "i need to roll Dice Too" biases, lets resolve it here in OSR.

Its here I had reviewed the simplicity of: Dice + Limited Modifiers (DLM) of D&D5E. That there is Proficiency + Stat Modifier and that's it. There is a way to add a bit more modifiers by giving situational changes to either Proficiency or Stat Modifiers 

Dice + Limited Modifiers + One-Side-Rolls Concepts. Why cant TFT do that. I mean imagining TFT simplifying it means taking away the armor penalties. One key concept of DLM was Advantage-Disadvantage all or none nature, let's call it Simplified Advantage (SA). Imagine instead of going through the Litany of What grants a Bonus or Penalty the Two parties discuss what this boils down to. So I added SA but using an additional d6 since we're using a BCRNG.

Now we're getting somewhere and this has gotten really interesting. BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA : What does this mean to a combat system? (I dont know and Tinkering is how I will find out).

Now I subscribe to the Working Memory limit of Juggling 2-3 things. I can't find a good source in Working-Memory-Limits right now for it but The TED on making powerpoint particularly the demo on how quickly working memory processes A lot of Modifiers and Combat Factors vs a Few. So let's keep modifiers 3. So the third is Condition. I want Death Spiral (DS)!

Death Spiral: heightens Stakes, Tension, and Relevance of Each roll. One of my main complaints in D&D5E is - why no death spiral, but death spiral is problematic to the entire game design since it affects the Encounter System of the Game. Since we only see as far as combat in a combat only game then let's have death spiral. 

BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS

How do I add DS? I can have this if I have Wound condition. Now DLM is Proficiency + Stat and Character Condition (which I call Cod for short). Keeping it Simple let's use Strength as the Threshold per level. Arbitrarily it's 0, -1, -3, -7, and -10.  Threshold works like this: if Str 10 x level is the threshold, I suffer no penalties (0) in 0-9, (-1) 10-19, (-3) 20-29, (-7) 30-39, (-10) 40-49.

Let's use Con Stat negating Cod penalties. A Con +1 negates level 2 of penalties, a Con +2 negates some penalties in level 2. So a Dwarf or Orc can take more punishment.

This is where I had another Eureka and Fun. What if Fatigue and Encumbrance was Damage and they ALL add up with regular damage. So I dont have to TRACK multiple things - what if there is a Concept of "Burden" wounds, fatigue, stress, etc... that all Add up to a Cod Threshold.

What I haven't figured out is how Encumbrance and Carrying works Alongside Fatigue. But I've accepted that Fatigue is Like Damage - it pushes the character's Cod to more difficult levels. I don't want Strength to be Linear Carrying Capacity (like in D&D) I like it Compounding. An old favorite formula of Strength progression is Carrying Capacity is 10kg * 1.2^(Strenght Modifier).

Here I put slashing and piercing count DOUBLE when calculating how much Damage the character qualify as Threshold (and noted the best way to track this is noting the damage type and a Parenthesis of the damage. Its so funny that I had problems in how different Game System noted damage, when you "SUBTRACT" hit points AND also added damage. it was so confusing. Lets just make it Condition is a Threshold and Damage and Adverse effects "Add up". When we rest we Remove (minus) Adverse Effects. this way the Character sheet is organized and makes sense to anyone.

BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS (Cod + Fatigue + Enc)
Difficulty Roll (the basic roll which needs to be Differentiated from the Effects roll)

Effects Die (EFD) and Effects Roll (EFR) is adding d20 to the roll. I love how a 3d6 and d20 are best buds in this system. the Effects Roll is basically the Same as the Difficulty Roll except that: 1) the Difficulty Roll has to succeed and that It defaults as using the Modifiers of the Difficulty Roll (Prof + Stat + Cod). I also love that D&D5E normalized rolling damage with your d20 - again with players having these biases that feel like they have less when they don't take the LONG RITUAL of rolling every die - which reduces the TIME to play for ALL PARTIES involved in the game.

This did a lot it Created a Distinct Critical Success and Failure Criteria separate from Automatic Success or Fail (which is 3 and 18 in BCRNG). I can have an Auto Succ/Fail but its not a Critical event.

BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS (Cod + Fatigue + Enc) + EfD/EfR

Difficulty Modifiers are SEPERATE. The difficulty is modified by Odds and what Option. Nested under Odds is Numbers Superiority (NS). Numbers superiority is a combination of Mob Mechanics in the D&D 5E and Numbers having superiority simply modifies the Roll. Number Superiority modifies the difficulty under a Modifier Table for Difficulty. The Character facing superior numbers have a Higher Difficulty to roll against, a character with more Numbers on His side (less likely and typically is in low odds advantage) have a lower Difficulty (ONLY if the allies AID or HELP the character if the Allies do their own thing then no modifier; again One-Side Rolls). The table goes from 1 vs 1.2, 1 vs 1.5, 1 vs 2, 1 vs 3-5, 1 vs 6-7 etc... 

Also note NPC and PC differentiation. so a Mob, Mook, or Etc... they don't get their own roll. But another Player gets a Roll. This can be easily abused but I'll just point that out and discuss ACTION CREEP and action economy. which conveniently leads to Detailing Effects and how it Affects Action Economy.

Detailing Effects - what Allows Turn-based mechanics to simulate Simultaneous action

The latest Discovery is that in a One-Side-Rolls System (OSR) I cannot "Interrupt" the Other Players Roll BUT I can create Effects that they have to Deal with. Damage is an Effect everyone has to deal with On Their Turn, stunning, immobilization, etc... are also Effects they have to deal with on their turn.

Also that How I design Effects Mechanics (EM) determines the success of this as a PvP - and GMless System.

BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS (Cod + Fatigue + Enc) + EfD/EfR + EM

What did I learn after all of this?

That old gamers like me like to be able to see the Optimum Strategy. That Design has to make the Doctrine or Best Practice visible - even be Predictable. What makes Predictable FUN is when we go into the NUANCE - we allow us to tweak and create Complexity in a Structure. 

Also that the Concepts I discussed BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS (Cod + Fatigue + Enc) + EfD/EfR  + EM all can be applied to different systems. I can redesign Dungeon Fantasy to be more like this or Easily Run my Mines of Phandelver to use these rules and Character Gen than the one in the book or Run TFT with these Lessons Learned.

Systems are Transferable to other Systems - if you are system literate and you think in Game Theory (think in game models) and how each action effect the actions of other parties.

Finally Opening it with my 3-year-old. the Xmass gift my wife let me buy for myself. this getting shipped to the Philippines with Dungeon Fantasy boxed set all cost about 300usd - thanks to the Xmass Sale.

I wish I can run this with the Tweaks (BCRNG + OSR + DLM + SA + DS (Cod + Fatigue + Enc) + EfD/EfR  + EM) and fit sessions into 3-4 hours and prep in 30mins. 

Hobby - writing out systems no one will play lolz. Its really Prototying Mental Models

I realize I am able to create very good mental models when I create new categories and able to group certain ideas together better by fixing up their characteristics. Its basically an exercise of prototyping and holding ideas in my head long enough that more sophisticated models arise.

Brokedown Professions into two parts: Profession and Specialization. 

Profession = Work (a series of duties and responsibilities the character carries out that allows them to earn a living). While Specialization is their function in the work (saying which actions they excel at). You can have Guardsman/Legionnaire/Mercenary/Auxiliary/Raider + Archers/Heavy Infantryman/ Shock Troop/Scout/Skirmisher/Bodyguard/Killer.

This has been a problem for a while since I was trying to create background systems - not every merchant is into Retail, not every Noble is into Management, not every soldier is a Heavy Infantryman. Its in this playing around did I have a prototype.

Another Fun part was differentiating Roles. Again its about whats fun within my comfort levels.

• Differentiated the roles served by Medium and Light Infantry as : Skirmishing (engaging and disengaging, skilled in mobile combat or running battles) vs Shock Troops (shock and awe tactics). 
• Differentiated Shock Troops and Heavy Infantry. 
• Differentiated Scouts as more stealth-based and a softer target as compared to skirmishers. 
• Archers are more "artillery" as they are better positioned then left to shoot to kill. Still Scouts and Skirmishers can use ranged weapons. 

Defined Game Balance

My definition of Game Balance is to keep things interesting not to represent the game. It's not meant to "represent the real world or model a living world" that can be easily pursued by just creating the System that makes certain classes weaker than others perpetually. Since this is a game I want that people would want to play and try out different Race + Profession + Specialization + specific player tactics. I have to make a trade-off to having suckier equipment and that seems to be "talents" that make the character better under certain circumstances.

Example Guardsmen have the best equipment, while Auxiliary and Raiders have the worst. Poorer Professions have more interesting talents like Standard Bearer, Night Harrier (because I have a bunch of different night time advantages), Versatile, etc...

Having some fun, I decided to create a specialization called Killers - based on Bron and many of the Thugs in GOT and how some writers point out that some characters are just Killers. I don't want to use "Assassin" which is done to death and really should be done with a Scout or more indirect specialization.

Game balance Considerations are like

• how am I going to abilities for Specializations, not just Weapon proficiencies? Abilities that make sense when I rewrite it for an TRPG?  
• Bodyguard Abilities/Mechanics? 
• What if Auxiliaries get weapon advantages with sickles and other mixed-use implements? 
• Raider Killer/Shock Troop to be a very complimentary combo. Shock troops have some Raider Talents. 
• Pros and Cons Guardsman Killer and Bodyguard. 
• Mercenary and Legionnaire heavy infantry, and archery 
• A weird combination like Auxiliary, legionnaire, or raider bodyguard. 
• Some opportunity for Nuance for how each profession differs in their Scouts, with guardsmen and mercenaries being more like spies (Procopius History of Wars). 

Predictions

1. People will be bored with Arena Combat after 2-3 bouts. Especially veteran players who can do the Doctrine in their heads. 
1. Random Character combinations of Race + Profession + Specialization will become a challenge for the bored. They will want to measure handicap.  
2. Wilderness Combat would be more popular with the Veterans Players if done in a way that allows Strategy. The strategy being Actions done at the start of the game that builds up over the late game. 
1. Like no armor or shields. 
2. Choosing ropes and certain equipment, vs weapons. 
3. Ability to Coordinate in the wilderness, especially beyond the line-of-site. 
3. Mounted Combat will scaled up combat. HOrse archery and Medium Cavalary will be deferred. 

Keeping the System simple and not

Keeping it Dice + Modifiers (Stat + Proficiency + Condition). Condition is the character's condition. Allowing for Death spiral in the system. As well as making it Dice bloated with a roll being made up of 3d6 + damage die + 1d20. (success die, damage die, and effects die). 

Reminiscing our Airsoft Wilderness Hunting games allowing Raiders and Auxiliaries who are Skirmishers and Scouts to excel.

As well as wondering Just a simple mechanic where PCs skip the wading through monsters/mooks/ to fight the big bad boss in poor or worse condition.

I end up making one of these when I read a system and I get the urge to tweak it constantly.

Favorite Take Away So far

The Effects Die (EFD) or the D20 I roll alongside the 3d6. Its like the Confirming Die in D&D 3.5 but much more. It works like the confirming die, that it has to also beat the Difficulty and the Success Roll (3d6 plus modifiers) has to succeed first. Adding the Same Modifiers to the EFD.

• It allows me to Simplify the Margin of Failure and Success so that it Takes on the Job of measuring or determining other effects. 
• Used for how many Additional attacks Hit in Numerically Superior Adversaries. 
• Rapid Shot (for Archers). You need to hit in the 3d6 and you need to hit in the Effects die. 
• Allows me to Differentiate Critical Success and Automatic Success as well as Automatica Fail and Critical Fail. 
• 3d6 has Automatic Fail and success at 3 and 18. 
• failing and succeeding with the Effects Die along with the 3 or 18 determines if its a Critical Success or Fail. 

Ghibly Art (wish but unlikely)

if this is like playable, criteria I have to define I'm going to use my Ipad 6 and apple pen 1 and the Pinterest of Tales of Earthsea and Ghibly to make art for this. Basically, the Races, Professions, and Specializations. 2" x 4" at 600dpi portraits should be easy enough I cannot make excuses. All the Equipment on a Nausicaa-like  Heroine, Tough old lady Dola (Castle in the Sky), Old Mercenary, and young male hero. I guess to save effort 3-5 items per Portrait.
The aesthetic would be 6C Rome with some anachronisms prevalent crossbows, the economic wealth of high middle-age Italian City-States.

200410 GITB Combat System Only

So Size 8 Arial is "Readable"

Tried to print out a Statement Sized Gdoc with my default Arial 11. With Lorem ipsum to check how it looks and various font sizes. This is set to be 0.5" but it seems to be still shrunk. I just eyeballed it to which was closer. My near-sight has been getting worse.

1. Gdoc and my printer problems. I can't seem to Print out Gdoc statement properly with my 5275 HP printer. I need to use Word to print it out close to its actual size. 
1. This gave me a problem, ideally what ever I use should be print-friendly. I don't know how to make sure it prints well without trial and error during the Enhanced Community Quarantine where I cannot get my hand on more paper and ink.  
2. I have a cautious relationship with WORD. I prefer using Writer (Libreoffice) but that means calibrating my settings to writer which I haven't done in a while. 
2. What is readable small print? The Fantasy Trip is equal to Size 8 Arial font, roughly 2mm. I don't know the TFT font or size but I just wanted to check what is a readable size of font.
1. Font was relative in size to each other. Size 8 seems to be 2mm, the next size is less than 2.5mm, and it seems to be 2.5 in Size 10, and about size 3mm at size 12. 
2. I wanted to do some Quick Game Systems during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (whats its legally called here in the Philippines; lockdown up to April 30, extended last week April 6)
3. No option to save as a template. Had to Create a 200410 GITB Statement Template, in the free Google account, there is no option to save Templates. 
1. Made the normal font Size 8 Arial. 
2. Removed the extra space above and below the paragraphs. 
3. Moved my docs little by little to my Game in the Brain suites. 
4. Gaming Ideas Log in Game in the Brain

Comfort in a system. Dice + 2-3 modifiers, or Adj-Stat + 2-3 Modifiers.

last 2019 Xmas I bought a The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition, Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Starter Set, Essentials Kit and the D&D5E starter set. So it was pretty obvious I was trying to fill a void left by trying to fix the family business and self-improvement and trying to be a good family man.

I look at these books and I'm not happy. I have many complaints, which I don't mind home-brewing to correct. Its hard to be objective - its really about personal tastes and my tastes are unreasonable. But then I bought these books hoping I don't have to homebrew, that I can just rely on the books. There is no perfect system - there are very good systems - D&D5E's attempts to simplify creating a simple Dice + 2-3 modifiers vs DC as compared to The Fantasy Trips or GURPS Dice + >5 modifiers to Track. Mental Bandwidth I used for System-Mechanics Processing I migrated to Storytelling and Sandbox-Simulation.   At 41 I am too old to have a list of Unstructured Modifiers in my Head, I would rather Dice + 2-3 modifiers. I'm too old for unstructured data when everyday I use ANKI and cannibalize old mental artifacts for javascript, mandarin, pmbok, ERPnext, Biz process mgt, etc...

I want a system to make sense and it makes sense whether I'm dealing with traditional fiipino organizational behavior, best practices of the developed world, or emerging practices of bleeding edge organizations. The way I can talk about Finance, Inventory systems and Management science - but still talk about it in Narrative - like when funding for an Expedition, the Complexities of a Fief's stocks and inventory and how thieves game the systems, or how Feudalism is alive in Patronage Systems in modern times. the Knowledge to run immersive games are alive here in the present - the way 19C propaganda is used in Social Media.

When Ancient Concepts evoke Fantasy and History: When the narrative in social media paralleled the Friars Propaganda in 19C Philippines it felt like someone using Dark and Ancient magics of a forgotten age.  When racist slurs of old were used - if felt like acolytes and cultists evoking times of lynching - and calling forth their dark gods. 

Some Fantasy Trip Notes

1. Core Mechanic: Determine Adjusted-Dexterity (AdjDex)
1. Melee page 10.  
2. Succeed if you roll 3d6 Equal or Less-than (<)AdjDex
3. AdjDex = Dexterity + Modifiers
2. Key Category of Modifiers. It would be simpler to just describe the modifiers in 3 categories. 
1. (Character) Condition. From -1 to -6. Check the character’s condition. 
1. Equipment: Armor and Shields give penalties 
2. Battle-Condition: taking 5 or more damage gives a -2 penalty. 
3. Training. 
2. (Character) Position. From +2 to -4. GM can simplify by asking “How is the Character’s Position?”
1. Braced. This is when the character has traded mobility to be in a better position to attack.
2. Range. Missile and Thrown Range penalties. 
3. Cover.  
4. Footing.
3. (Character) Target or Objective. Various bonuses and Penalties.
1. Attacking an angle the Target cannot defend effectively against. Attacking the Rear or Odd-Angles/Flanks grant. 
2. Attacking specific areas on the Enemy is harder than whatever is available to strike.
3. Hand to Hand Rules in page 18. 
1. Defender rolls a d6 when attacked (by the wording, even if its an unsuccessful attack)
2. Relative Strength determined Damage in Barehands attacks. Stronger vs Weaker. 
4. Engaged and Disengaging is Confusing.  Page 19.
1. The use of “may” in the wording. Disengaged is not an Option, it is the process you have to perform if you want to move away from a Threat. 

Abstract Combat based on Adaptive Cycles

Basically, this is my idea of how abstract combat can work. This focuses a lot on storytelling and working towards a "minimum viable product" or the negotiation we typically have with an End User when we do the Requirements Analysis. 

As I get older, and having the disillusion regarding the Law, and Certainty, and how its this Feedback loop with people that really makes small wins snowball into big changes I find myself streamlining my mental models into these kinds of concepts. 

I realize there is a STRONG similarity between the Ideation of a Minimum-Viable-Product (MVP) or Agile Output/Deliverable and the Feedback loop of Players before a Roll. In Good-Faith we settle on an Outcome - having negotiated Trade-offs given the Circumstance, so much like what has happened in an Agile Project - we work out an MVP. If a GM or Player (in a GMless Game) can harness this you can have a very "Light" but satisfying system.

I'll try to make it "Qualitative" So that its more "Any Game System". 

200329 FASTER Combat 16.5" x 11.7"