Combat Stances

 When I started making these rules, I watched a LOT of combat movies, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris, and the like. Then I went to some combat schools and asked to take notes. One thing I always thought that looked cool was stances

How Combat Stances work in DD12.

When you 'fight' in DD12 and you're still a low level character, you just do what you want and don't care about how you are perceived, but as time goes on, you need to be able to have an edge over your opponent to ensure you continue to win.

One way to do this, is to study their 'stance' or 'style' by spending a few round, letting your opponent attack you and focusing instead on defending, each 'round' your opponent attacks and you defend, you can take the difference as XP in a extremely specialized skill named "opponent style- <name of opponent> The maximum XP you can gain is governed by how much they fail by, divided by your 'study opponent' skill modifier (which divides by 2 for each +1 you have)

Since this follows the skill progression rules, a mere 15 XP will give you a score of 5, which denotes as a +1 against your opponent. this divide by 5 can also be improved by improving your 'study opponent' score. Yet it also reduced each +1 you gain, so a 'score' of 9 is +2, then 12 is a +3, 14 becomes a +4 and each score above this is a further +1. maxing out at 20 (when rolls are no longer needed/allowed) for a +10.

a +3 is more than enough for any character to be able to best the opponent, applied to attack or defense, armour bypass or damage, the character can specialize the skill further into attacks, defenses, damage resistances or damage blocks, allowing a quicker bonus against that opponent.

So. How does one defend against this? well, by evening the scores, studying your opponent in return, determining how their blows land, how they attack, and building up your own knowledge against it. Once your +3 counters their +3, you've gone back to matched battle. 

Then there are obfuscated Moves. Each attack you make, can take a small negative, but is done in such a way, that your opponents ability to understand your attacks will be reduced or nullified, your opponent will not only be unable to properly study your moves, they'll be lead to a false sense of what your scores are, and improperly defend against them, when you stop obfuscating. (and, they'll not know which is which)

But the ultimate defense, is to be trained in one of the many 'stances' that schools train their students.

Stances

Stances usually have a modifier, based on their position, how you hold yourself and present yourself, you might leave yourself open (-3 def), but have quick attacks(+2 att, -1 Init) with penetrative damage(+2 dam p), or vice versa, slow to the uptake (-3 Init, -2 att) but superior blocking skills (+3 def +3 block)    

But the most devastating, is when you learn two stances.. your opponent builds up an understanding of your basic stance, they build their study-opponent up, spending four to eight rounds of combat, allowing you to do the same, then when you're ready, you swap stance. the opponent doesn't understand whats going on, their expectations of your fighting style is completely false and they make moves that leave themselves wide open.

You apply all the first stances positive modifiers to your opponent as negative modifiers, and for each 'study opponent score' you apply your new stance positive modifiers again to your own.

Jackie is fighting Chuck, with Striking Fist Style. Its a simple -2 Initiative, +1 Att, +1 Dam style, -2 Def. Chuck is using his fists of fury style, +1 Att, +2 Dam, -1 Def, over the course of 3 rounds, chuck builds up a score of 12, and Jackie builds up a 9, Jackie can feel that chuck has the advantage, and chuck, thinking this too decides to really start laying some blows. He's right, Jackie takes some incredible hits, and while he gets in one of his own, its barely worth it, so he decides to switch styles. Now, he takes on Drunken Master Style. While he gains no obfuscation bonus, nor damage reduction bonus from the alcohol, he does get the stance modifiers -1 Att, -1 Dam, +4 Def and +2 Resist.

Chuck attempts to attack, and finds his opponent is now longer fighting with fists, instead slapping away his hands, being coy, silly and confusing, none of his hits land, his confidence is shattered, this guy can counter every move.

Jackie's modifiers were as follows, Chuck had a +3, so Jacking Drunken style was not the quick att+dam style, so Chucks readiness for a speedy attack were leaving him open, His Attack was reduced by 1 and damage by 1 (Striking fist reversed) then when he went to attack this quick style, he instead got a fluid drunk, flowing around him, dodging every move Jackie got chucks +3 x +4 Def = +12, and 3x +2 Resist, for +6. in effect negating chucks attack by 19 points. furthermore, Jackies own study opponent was still +2, he could focus his into attack, and or damage.

Chuck was smart enough to see this was not going to work, and backed down, vowing to return.    

Weapon, Armour and Equipment progression and upgrades

 There are two varieties of game that I cannot stand, they make no sense for an RPG, (yet maybe for a board game) and bog down play for both players and GMs. Lets deep dive into

Equipment, Weapons, Armour and your characters progression 

Abstracted Levelling

First, lets clarify, intentions were good, in some old computer games, when players start out at level 1, they need some kind of tiered system to upgrade weapons, before including too much magic. So many games added some kind of 'level' requirement to weapons, wooden dagger? lvl 1, iron dagger? lvl 3, steel dagger? lvl 5, mithril dagger? lvl 7.. etc

This made no 'real' sense, abstracting the 'better metals' behind a level wall, was purely a CRPG tactic to spread out the game, make it simple for players to understand, which item do I buy, steel or iron? Instead of some complex system for the play to go through to ensure they 'could' use the weapon at the right point in the game, they just abstracted it behind levels.

From a board game perspective, this makes more sense, because board games need to be more self contained. You have a restriction of parts cost, shipping costs for weight, shelf space and price point for the consumer. So items were simpler, often in only a plain, silver and gold standard.

Yet even that is slowly changing, as in the last few years (2014-2021) consumers are spending more on board games than ever, paying $400 for a box of cards where the materials to make the weapons have cards too, would have seemed unreasonable in 2008, and outrageous before then, but with over 100 games, all-in, priced at $250+, having a core game for the more elite game at $400 isn't too far of a stretch.

Roleplay games always had the advantage that the equipment list is merely what's written on your character sheet. No need for cards, art, specialty dice (i.e. per weapon) but they also, and often, had a skill set matching it.. 

Locked in Play

This one comes down to how you kind of need to choose what kind of character you're going to be from the start. Some archaic feature from Victorian education and the industrial age, that we have yet to shake off in society.

In real life, we haven't a clue how our lives will turn out in 40 years, what skills we will have gained, used, and be proficient at. Why would we think in the game world our characters are any different.

The idea that as a 'rogue' you've learned all the arts of the dagger, and you are a skilled dagger wielder, and that if you wanted to change weapons, you've be starting from scratch, and forgoing the chance at being a better dagger-smith..

To clarify, lets consider three characters, the Rogue, the Warrior and the multi-class rogue warrior.

at level 4, the rogue has taken 4 levels in dagger, giving a +4 to dagger usage.

at level 4, the Warrior has taken 4 levels in swords, giving them a +4 to sword usage.

The Multi Class has taken 2 level in dagger & sword each. giving a +2 to each.

At lower levels, the difference between a +2 and a +4 isn't game breaking, if its a d20 system, its barely 10% of hits, the advantage the multiclass has is, when a magical weapon comes in the quests treasure, he has 2 chances of getting something useful, instead of one.. IF the GM uses random treasure tables.. and if the GM doesn't, then the multi class is going to get a choice, maybe.

A few levels later, level 8, our pure rogue/warrior has a +8 in the specialty, while the multiclass a +4. this is now rather pronounced, 20% difference for a d20 system. 3 characters, all with similar skills, levels, progressions, but the multi-class character is half the skill of his counterparts.

As a result

Players are limited by, and locked into, specific 'classes' of skills, and items which level up, as they do. taking away players agency, choice and in many ways, fun.

But, how do we benefit players who choose to focus their skill, vs those that choose a broader range? yet not penalize characters?

DD12

Sure, I'm going to, once again explain how, once I saw such a problem, I solved it.

Instead of Abstract levelling;

Players can at 1st level choose any weapon, any style, any material, as long as they've saved up the cash requirements to buy it, the only 'restriction' is based on real life issues, such as weigh of the weapon, or complexity of use. 

as an example, a heavy axe, has an "initiative" cost of 15, this value counts also as a minimal DEX or STR requirement to use, and for each point difference, the character has a -1 to use, where DEX cost is a minus to attack, and STR cost is a minus to damage. Players can, through continued practice, improve their personal skill with the weapon, decrease the INITIATIVE of the weapon, to offset this 'cost' and or, increase their personal ATT or DAM for that weapon, and over time, as they improve their STR or DEX, or through acquisition of better 'heavy axes' with lower I cost, will result in them being even more powerful with the upgraded items. 

As to combat skills for multi class; 

Players have their stats broken up into layers, Their Attack stat at the base of things is their generic ability to attack, if its a melee attack, they add that bonus, then their sword / dagger skill will add to the result, and finally, they can specialise in a specific weapon.

As players progress their characters, they can boost the greater skill, at the cost of the lesser skill, resulting in the same final result, but with a broader range.

The Rogue, Warrior and lets call the multi-class guy a Pirate at 1st level, all have an attack of 10, a melee of 4 and their sword/dagger bonus at 1.

By 4th level, they have had the choice, but would similarly have gained 2 points in attack, 2 in melee, and likely 1 more in their chosen weapon, yet the Pirate, wanting to be as good in both weapons, may have only taken 1 in melee, to have an extra point in the 2nd weapon, again, like our d20 counterpart, maybe a 5-10% difference.

But, by 8th level, the major difference is, As the rogue gains levels, instead of getting more and more +1's, it would be in their advantage to specialise in their weapon, dropping the disadvantage roll, gaining an advantage attack, maybe a specialty bonus, the Warrior, might have gone for a sword & shield combat, unlocking some bonus maneuvers, while our pirate, trying to match the base combat scores, has not had the points to unlock any specialties.

The result being, All three characters have an attack of 14, a melee of 8 and their respective weapons at +4, giving them a very nice combat attack of 26, yet the pirate, having spent their extra 4 points in the 2nd weapon, the Rogue and Warrior have 4 specialized bonuses.

So, while they'll never be as good with any given weapon, the Pirate can unlock multi weapon specialty bonuses, using the sword as a dagger, or the dagger like a sword, distracting their opponent with a -2 defence.. or using some of their own clever specialties for dual weapons.

To be Clear

Players might see or hear this rule set and understand the system to be complex, but instead, its just a matter of doing minor calculation at the time of purchase, dropping their 'familiarity' stat bonus, writing their new stats on their charactersheet, and they are ready to go. players should not be calculating or changing any values, mid combat.