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.    

[Game Rules] Potion making vs playing the game

 Once again , as I breathe in all the internet wafts in my direction, I took this scent..

When Designing games, do players want to actually DO stuff, like making potions? If they don't why do they expect unique outcomes?

I think its pretty straight forward, If you give players 3 ingredients (and order is important), and 3 variant instructions, resulting in 120 variances, and only 1 will result in a healing potion, 80% of them will quit and say its too hard, and look online for the other 20%s answers.

The desired outcome here, is that players can enjoy searching for potion ingredients. the relevant character brews them up into the desired potion, or if the rolls fail, into a random sludge or possible poison.

As my goal for this game, players with no previous experience should take some time figuring out the possible combinations, we should not take away the players experimentation, just to speed along the story. But, once players have discovered enough, or have no interest in this, the rules should obfuscate away the complexity, in favour of narrative flow.

One consideration is varied side effects, and possible 'less than ideal' results.

Lets consider the following. There are 8 possible 'good enough' solutions to the healing potion, 3 of which have lesser effects, crossed over with 4 being cheaper and 2 being expensive, based on dosage of certain herbs, 5 have a mild poisonous effect, 2 have a major poisonous effect. 

If the GM counts all 8 of these as failures, as per a die roll, the players never get to experience unknown flawed play. In which characters go through their world with less than ideal potions, and deal withy it as best as they can.

The Scenario: Our group has experimented with the 3 ingredients, in varied amounts, and finally a potion is tested on a goblin victim, who not only survives, but appears to heal quickly from wounds. The group test it on themselves.

The potion costs 3 gold worth of ingredients, much better than the shops assumed 50 gold price tag (they have yet to buy one to try out), though yes, it did cost 500 gold to set up, and test ingredients, but after 11 potions, they'll break even.

Next, the potion heals 4 HP over 2 rounds and has a +10% healing rate for the next 2 days, but has a side effect, the character is also slowed, sluggish and has a -1 to their reflexes & initiative for those 2 days.. its not such a major effect, so the group feels like its a cost they can bear.

The spend the next 3 years of their adventuring life, adding a side quest to pick up the ingredients needed, to each mission, in order to save on those expensive healing potions.

Interestingly, the GM has not told them, that the potions second side effect is to make them smell as delicious for the rock sharks, which has resulted in a +10% wandering monster as a rock shark for all hilly and mountain regions.. the players just thought this area of the world has a lot of rock sharks, and have taken precautions over the years.

This one little aspect, this one failure to produce the 'correct' results on their potionsmith roll, but instead from player exploration, has led to a backstory to this group, that makes it so much more interesting.

Moreso, when they, as players, meet other players, in the same game region, with a different potion recipe, swapping stories.. the second group having never encountered a rock shark, begins to ask questions about them, making the first group suspicious..  then in a group encounter, the 2nd group, doesn't want to spend their expensive healing potions, is aghast that the first just quaffs them down, so easily, asks: How do you guys afford so many Healing Potions? 

"We make them ourselves, not so expensive that way"
" But, we also make them ourselves, the ingrediant cost alone is in the hundreds, and none of us are good enough to be raiding phoenix nests for feathers, yes its 47gold vs the shops 50, but having 6 days of improved healing is worth it, vs the shops 5 days.."
" 6 days? we only get two.. but pheonix feathers? - Harold, we don't use pheonix feathers, whats going on?"

turns out, the 2nd group has also failed their rolls & gone ahead with the overly expensive, but slightly more powerful variety.. between the two of them.. they may yet discover that even the shops version is not the most efficient.

This way also, GMs can have a variety of cheaper vs expensive items in shops, lower quality, vs higher quality..

p.s. Bunglmans Burp Potion, has instant heal of 7, +25% per day, cumulative, for 3 days, costs 180 GP of ingrediants, but.. you will burp, from both ends, halving your base stealth, and -6 from ongoing stench, you'll be practically unable to perform any delicate skill, the character sheet has a -7 from day 1, reducing(improving) by 1 per day over 7 days. Its a rare potion, most people who 'discover' it, don't think its worth making, ever, but, as healing potions go, its so powerful, any adventuring party should own at least 1 bottle of the stuff. the nearest equivalent potion, Harthwarks Healer at +6, +20% for 4 days, with a 10% poisonous effect for 1 pt, at a whopping 800 GP, is the cloests equivalent for high powered healing.