Armor and damage

One of the toughest elements in making a good RPG is how armor is handled. The classic D&D chart cross reference is a direct carry over from the game's roots in war games. The better your armor the harder you are to hit. Makes sense but you have to cross reference a chart or remember THACO. Recently it's flipped, so the armor protection is the base number you must roll higher than to hit...after modifiers.

Contrast that with the Melee/ Wizard where it protects, and subtracts from damage done from a successful hit. While I like that idea, eventually it makes some weapons worthless as the armor subtracts more damage then some weapons can do! In addition the type of armor worn directly effects a character's ability in combat. Heavy armor lowers your ability to hit and slows you down. So I guy in plate with a DX of 14, after modifiers, has a base DX of 9 and hits about 40% of the time. This cat is protected yes, but ineffective in combat.

So I have played around with a couple mishmashes and ended up with a kind of hybrid.

Your target number to hit is based on your ST (melee) or DX (ranged) in combat. You roll 3d6 and total them. Then you add your opponent's Defense Value (DV) to the sum. If the total is less than or equal to your target number you hit. If not you miss.

I am trying to keep all modifiers in the game as an addition, never a subtraction. So an eagle eyed archer adds their bonus to their target number, and then rolls for success. Attacking the heavily armored Orc, means adding his DV to your die roll. Picking an exceptionally difficult lock means adding a modifier to your die roll. In play-test this seems to be an easy concept to pick up quickly. If it benefits me I add to my target number, if it is something difficult it adds to my die roll. Clean and easy.

In the meantime I have also fiddled with character sheets. Originally it was the basic half page size. Not overwhelming or anything, just quick an easy. Then I made some that are about the size of a note card. Compact and easy to distribute-not threatening at all to newbies. Well I took that idea one step further...maybe too far? Now I have the character sheets sized as book markers. Your character sheet is about 2 inches wide and 9 inches long. At the top of each is a little character image and then all the usual stats and info boxes below. What's interesting is sitting down with folks who are not RPGers. You hand them a book mark and they say, "that's it?" Yup! Same thing with grizzled vets,"that's it?"

Now it does mean a certain amount of neatness and small penmanship is necessary, but It also speaks to the quick easy manner in which a character can be created and how easy the game is to play. There is not a huge amount of info required to start playing and the unique format removes some of the trepidation new folks feel in trying an RPG. That's part of my goal, from making the rule book a pocket paperback size, making the modules compact and one evening's worth of fun, to making a character sheet uniquely small. The whole effect is to make it look as easy and simple to play as it actually is to play.

I think RPG's have gone the wrong direction in "bigger is better" and "It must be hard back, full color pages, and multiple 200+ page volumes." For hard core cats who already play, groovy, rock on brother.

For the average cat who wants to play now and then or who wants to get some new folks to try it, I 'd rather go back to what got me playing in the first place: A nice small rule book that helped me to create worlds and adventures rather than codifying the event in multiple tome legalese.

...@...