Greetings folks. Here are two optional game mechanics I thought up to add some more variety to combat:
Greetings folks. Here are two optional game mechanics I thought up to add some more variety to combat:
Trading Blows
As an option for the Strike and Clash moves, you can elect to toss caution to the wind to dish out more harm to your opponent. You must score a strong or weak hit to trade blows. When you trade blows, you deal +1 harm in exchange for half of the harm the opponent would deal to you (rounded up).
You must announce your intention to trade blows before you make your roll.
New Asset: Master at Trading Blows
• Regardless of the opponent’s rank, the opponent deals 1 less harm to you when trading blows (minimum of 1).
• When you trade blows, you also gain +1 momentum.
• When you make a Suffer Harm move roll from trading blows, gain a +1 bonus to your roll.
Risky Strike
As an option, if you score a strong hit on a Strike move, you can elect to re-roll one or both of your challenge dice. Alternatively, if you score a weak hit on a Strike move, you can elect to re-roll the challenge die that your action die beat.
Upon doing so, you forgo your previous result and take the new result. Each challenge die you re-roll gives you a +1 harm bonus. If, on the re-roll, you score a miss, you do not get any harm bonus to damage.
You can only use the Risky Strike option once per move.
You must announce your intention to perform a risky strike before you make your roll.
New Asset: Risky Striker
• When you re-roll both challenge dice on a Risky Strike, increase your action die result by 1.
• Regardless of the re-roll result of a Risky Strike, you gain +1 momentum.
• Take -1 Spirit to ignore a re-rolled challenge die (-2 Spirit if you want to ignore both re-rolled challenge dice).
Trading Blows
As an option for the Strike and Clash moves, you can elect to toss caution to the wind to dish out more harm to your opponent. You must score a strong or weak hit to trade blows. When you trade blows, you deal +1 harm in exchange for half of the harm the opponent would deal to you (rounded up).
You must announce your intention to trade blows before you make your roll.
New Asset: Master at Trading Blows
• Regardless of the opponent’s rank, the opponent deals 1 less harm to you when trading blows (minimum of 1).
• When you trade blows, you also gain +1 momentum.
• When you make a Suffer Harm move roll from trading blows, gain a +1 bonus to your roll.
Risky Strike
As an option, if you score a strong hit on a Strike move, you can elect to re-roll one or both of your challenge dice. Alternatively, if you score a weak hit on a Strike move, you can elect to re-roll the challenge die that your action die beat.
Upon doing so, you forgo your previous result and take the new result. Each challenge die you re-roll gives you a +1 harm bonus. If, on the re-roll, you score a miss, you do not get any harm bonus to damage.
You can only use the Risky Strike option once per move.
You must announce your intention to perform a risky strike before you make your roll.
New Asset: Risky Striker
• When you re-roll both challenge dice on a Risky Strike, increase your action die result by 1.
• Regardless of the re-roll result of a Risky Strike, you gain +1 momentum.
• Take -1 Spirit to ignore a re-rolled challenge die (-2 Spirit if you want to ignore both re-rolled challenge dice).
Neat stuff, Ronwise Gamgee!
ReplyDeleteLet me make sure I'm clear on Trading Blows ... If my foe is extreme (inflicts 4 harm), does this mean I'd inflict +1 harm and my foe would inflict 6 harm? It reminds me a bit of the Dungeon World Hack and Slash option to inflict more harm at the cost of taking harm. I believe I had something similar somewhere in Ironsworn's history, though now it's kind of baked into the Clash/Face Danger choice.
I like risk/reward mechanics alot, and I tried to include some of that in the assets. For your Risky Striker, it might be nice to make it slightly more risky. If I have an action score of 9, I'm probably going to make the re-roll since it's a pretty safe bet. Perhaps each challenge die also subtracts from your original harm if it comes up as a miss?
In any case, good inspiration for assets and I am yoinking for my clip folder.
Shawn Tomkin If you trade blows with an extreme foe (normally inflicts 4 harm), you'd inflict +1 harm and your foe inflicts 2 harm (half of his original value).
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify on the assets, each bullet point is a mechanic that you unlock with XP, just like any other asset.
As for your concerns with Risky Strike, this is just something that I thought about as I was going for a walk. If you score a miss (both challenge dice are equal to or greater than your action die result), then you deal no harm and pay the price, as per the rules for Strike and Clash. Try it out for a session or two. Using Risky Strike when you have a high action die result is the smart way to use it; that was intentional. If, after trying it out as is written, you find it way too cheesy, perhaps add a momentum cost to use it as well (-1 momentum per re-rolled challenge die). Last but not least, let us know of your impressions after trying it out.