| More than you meant, but I thought it was awesome. I know some people who get squeamish about confrontation and so the detailed description you provided may put them off. But they like a good comic book story where the hero and henchmen/villain tussle and the hero effects range from battered to outright death depending on risk and cleverness in approach. As a player I enjoyed the use of descriptive elements to elaborate on the effect of a dice roll. I had a scifi character where it was a running gag to be gutshot, leading to cyberware etc. I wouldn't have every nick and cut possibly develop into life threatening infection or complications; most RPGs are not based in an E.R... And I'd probably skip the kobold knife attack lingering effects UNLESS that battle was a real highlight of the story at that time. Maybe make it more a mental thing than physiological. To use D&D, the idea a level 20 fighter looks clean and shiny, almost fresh off the boat, is disappointing. My view is more "don't bet on the knight in shining armour. They haven't used it." But it all depends on the setting and the level of woowoo magic/scifi-nanotech-forcefields and - most of all - the people you're playing with. Maybe the magic potion really DOES erase the bad wounds as though they never happened. Your card based play is interesting. It represents - and forces - the choice in action. Captain America can punch or throw the shield again - but he doesn't "roll to attack... and do 4 damage". I have concerns that the card based play would be hard to balance and would be huge if it has to contend with all the creatures and equipment variations. And then to make it not so huge you end up simplifying it. Unless the cognitive automation agents (they are not AI) can help you out here with descriptions, perhaps on the fly with a quick GM review-and-approve stamp. Maybe you could card-enhance current playstyles.[snipped my rambling thoughts when...] ... a websearch has revealed such things as The GameMasters Apprentice. [0] What you describe however seems very much more combat focused. [0]
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/475920/the-gamemaste... I should stop here too. |
I should playtest some of this and see if I can knock it into more of an actual shape.
Thanks for listening :)
Edit: no, I couldn't leave it there ;)
Kinda the point of the kobold thing is that it's those meaningless fights that weren't important or significant that can leave you with a permanent injury. Combat is dangerous!
Agree completely about the lvl 20 shiny. What was he doing to get all that xp? Because it wasn't combat for sure.
I think a possible side-effect of making combat more "real" is that players stop wanting to do it so much, because it's more risky. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing.