Integrating Combat System and Roleplay

[Chet]

I've always found the idea of a terrain system as an addendum to a combat system an interesting concept. Dungeons and Dragons has systems that point in this direction, and there's always the use of the custom-built terrain fortification or feature in a game like Warhammer. If you could code a series of terrain features, IC objectives, fortifications, building aspects, and weather conditions alongside a combat system, you'd have made a huge leap in the modern MUSH combat system concept.

[Bobotron]

@Chet
Yeah, none of that is difficult, just time consuming. We have had object-based stuff like that in a couple of Transformers and Beast Wars games, and you could code all that as a variety of buffs/debuffs/modifiers within a combat system, even leaving it open for STs/GMs to modify on the fly 'the missile opened up a crater' type situation.

[Tempest]

The SW Saga edition games tend to have this +map system that I always thought was fucking AMAZING. You can make a grid in the MU and put markers on it to represent trees or walls and leave a spot open to mark a doorway, etc, and then players can put their chip on it to represent their character and move it around/etc.

It's been a while since I've messed with it, so I don't remember all the details, but I remember falling in love with it.

[Chet]

As a veteran of Megaman MUSH, I'd say that that system would be particularly delightful for the Megaman theme. (Disappearing platforms, anyone?)

[Lotherio]

http://freecode.com/screenshots/c7/65/c765cc01f49a6ca7a91303d2f9e0133a_medium.jpg?1237057142

Ye olde Battletech mux map. The code is out there ...

It was one of about 5 to 7 displays used for battletech battles, the old games that utilized spawn windows because of the overwhelming info used during battles.

[SparklesTheClown]

@Chet Holy shit you're alive.

[Chet]

@HelloProject I'm pretty banged up, but I'm here.

[Bobotron]

@Chet
Now I wonder who you are/were at M3, being an old alum from there myself.

ETA: Something on topic: I was a big fan of some of the additions that 2k5 did to their combat system, like offensive/neutral/defensive stances, giving some choices to how the character approaches a fight (and it's one thing I'm shunting into HotB's combat system).

[Chet]

Mini-Peebo was my nickname back in the day, I'm the first Serges, under Peebo as Sigma and Derek as Vile. I was also involved in the theme writing and TP administration for Peebo's little spinoff, M3:DP.

[Bobotron]

@Chet
Oh wow, long time. This is Luna/Rock/etc. as noted in my play list. Good days, those times were.

[Chet]

Agreed. I've been scarce, I caused 'an incident' a few years ago when I was being forcibly medicated by the Massachusetts mental health system (I appeared in a saucy video online in 2005, it was filmed in a residential zone, and in 2011-ish, I did this or that to offend some state politician. - selective prosecution). I've been causing 'the incident' on and off since kindergarten, I'll live.

[Tempest]

You could probably get way more detailed with this than I did here. This was after not using the system for 2 years, fumbling around the helpfile for 5 minutes.

[Bobotron]

@Tempest
That's actually pretty boss. Would be super useful for any D&D-based game, or anything that wants non-abstracted distances and movement.

[Chet]

I had actually thought about something that wasn't map based, that was more like a locker of IC mechanic variables that interacted with your stats that you could deploy into a scene at the beginning of RP, customizable to your interests.

[Tempest]

So like, actual mechanics to replace the usual "ST decides circumstantial bonuses"? IE have coded weather and if it's raining, you get -2 to all perception-related stuff?

[Chet]

That would be a basic one. How about, if it's raining, the amount with which you succeed a dodge roll, affects your aim negatively on the next roll? And then, you could add, if you have a high endurance stat, a wide dodge effects it more negatively, but if you have a higher damage stat, a slimmer dodge effects it more negatively. You either are so heavy that a wide dodge makes you slip, or you 'gyroscope' your weight improperly, so your next attack is less likely to strike because you're fighting in the rain. Ideally, you'd make it complex, so it would be more important to the RP of the scene, rather than simple statistics.

[Lithium]

@Tempest I love that code, would have loved something like that for a couple of the games I was building.

[Tempest]

@Lithium

@Ashen-Shugar would be the person to talk to, I think. Not 100% sure on that.

[Chet]

I have a semi-competitive code for a game I'm working on right now, that's essentially the Dishonored basic mathematical structure, with skills for competitive rolls for conflict resolution. I've eschewed a traditional combat system, in exchange for a happy medium between a comic book MU and a sci-fi MU.

[bored]

I've played on an SW game using that map code (or something equivalent), and while it's able to do a lot, it quickly raises the question:

At this point, why am I not using roll20, maptools, or some other proper VTT solution?

Because while you can make all the terrain, and make your dudes move around, it (like all things MUSH) is a ton of command line shit to do it. It adds massive overhead to GMing, a learning curve to any player who wants to use combat, as well as increasing turn time for the players to sort through all that stuff every round.

I think any MU system should be cognizant of the technology and design itself appropriately. MUers are familiar, for instance, with places as a concept of space, so maybe a combat system that used those would be sensible. But trying to build full grid systems in seems like trying to reinvent the wheel... out of non-wheel appropriate materials. Alternately, we need to up our technology game (presumably, one could make an interactive map in a browser window and have it send information to the game, in Evennia or similar).