Has anyone tried adding in conditions/resistance/other strategic elements to combat?
Has anyone tried adding in conditions/resistance/other strategic elements to combat? I love the game, but I want enemies to feel like a little more than cosmetic reskins of the five difficulty levels. I'm thinking things like the classic stun, freeze, etc. I know this can be hard to accomplish with Ironsworn's player-only moves, so I was curious if someone had figured it out. If not, I'll probably spend my free time this week taking a crack at it.
I've come up with a few I'm going to try out once our game starts (this weekend!). These all apply to enemies, to make them stronger or weaker or just different:
ReplyDeletePoison (spiders). Pay the Price deals -1 damage, but automatically causes the Wounded condition.
Volley (ranged attackers). At start of combat, everyone in target area (determined by narrative) must Face Danger. On a miss, endure 1 or 2 damage.
Fire breath / ice breath (dragons). Same as volley, but deals 2, 3, or even 4 damage on a miss.
Battle cry (raiders, berserkers). At start of combat, everyone in target area (determined by narrative) must Face Danger. On a miss, endure 1 stress.
Horror (wraiths, specters, barrow wights). Same as Battle cry, but deals 2 or 3 stress on a miss.
Formation attack (warriors or other organized troops). Pay the Price causes an additional -1 momentum.
Gear breaks / food rots (wraith, barrow wright, other nasty undead). -1 or -2 supplies at start of combat or when Paying the Price or other narratively appropriate time.
Storm / cloud burst (mystic, other magic users). Everyone in target area must Face Danger. On a miss, endure 1 harm, take -1 momentum, and lose initiative.
Webs (spiders). Everyone in target area must Face Danger. On a miss, lose 1 or 2 momentum.
Armored / tough / evasive (any enemies, as appropriate). Enemy takes -1 harm.
Weak / vulnerable. Enemy takes +1 harm.
Deadly / skilled. Enemy deals +1 damage on Pay the Price.
Weak / inexperienced. Enemy deals -1 damage on Pay the Price (minimum 1).
These are almost the enemy equivalent to Asset cards. I could easily see a bunch of official tags adding behaviors supplemented by user content, same as Assets
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, definitely. I like the idea of tags for behaviors in addition to special abilities. Something like:
ReplyDeleteRanged. -1 damage for melee combat (minimum 1). PCs must get a hit using Face Danger or Secure Advantage to close to melee range. Pay the Price means this enemy moves out of melee range, in addition to any other effects.
Other tags might be melee, berserker, formation/organized, cowardly, maneuverable/evasive, etc.
I also think it would be interesting if the Pay the Price result of a particularly deadly enemy was to Face Death. Maybe something like a Ringwraith or Medusa. I'm not sure if I'm quite that bloodthirsty as a GM though.
ReplyDelete