Hey everyone,
I started making my own board game, and the goal is to make an adventure + building game in the fantasy-setting that's easy enough for my mom (literally) but still interesting enough for myself to play. I'll introduce the setting of the game as brief as possible.
The combat mechanics I use are based on those in Runebound, i.e. monsters have a threshold and an attack value, such that only a single dice roll is required per combat round. A big difference is that a monster attacks in only one of three schools (ranged or melee) rather than both (in Runebound there are magic attacks too, but we only have spell casting), whereas the hero has to choose which school to attack with. Both the Monster and the Hero might have a Defense value (which is not school-specific). A big difference with Runebound is that in Runebound every character has an attack value in each school, whereas in our game the Hero has to equip either a Ranged or Melee weapon. Logically he equips a weapon in which he has a higher bonus (but I want players to be able to choose).
To decide if attack occurs, we roll dice. If the roll is higher than the threshold the Hero can attack but if it is lower the Monster can attack. To make it slightly more complex (but similar to Runebound) the Hero might have a bonus in both schools, thus is better to defend and attack in specific schools.
It is also possible to face a Monster with several players. A single player throws with 3 dice and for every additional player we add 1 die. That way you get stronger but not over-powered.
Now the problem, there is no actual difference between ranged and melee combat. Whilst monsters do damage in a certain school, these are interchangeable (Hero with 2 Ranged and 1 Melee vs Monster with 2 Ranged is similar to a Hero with 1 Ranged and 2 Melee vs Monster with 2 Melee). So I am looking for a cool way to differentiate between Ranged and Melee combat I thought of different implementations:
1. Ranged attacks have an extra attack at the beginning of the fight (because the Melee isn't near yet). To balance, we could give Melee characters more hitpoints. PROBLEM: when a Melee character equips a Ranged weapon he becomes overpowered.
2. Ranged attacks have an extra attack. To balance, Ranged attacks do less damage (e.g. 2) than Melee attacks (e.g. 3). This is OK if characters have e.g. 5 health, because it means everyone can die in minimally 3 rounds (except Melee vs Melee). PROBLEM: as soon as Defense/Armour is involved, Ranged attacks are penalised enormously (if characters get 1 Armour, it takes a Ranged attack 5 turns to kill, and only 3 turns for Melee).
3. Ranged attackers get an extra attack, the threshold of Ranged Monsters is higher but their attack value is lower. This makes Ranged Monsters more difficult to be attacked by Melee Heroes/Heroes without a bonus in Ranged, but once the Melee hits he hits harder. Heroes with Ranged find it easier to attack Melee Monsters because the threshold of the latter is lower, and even easier to attack Ranged Monsters because of the Hero's bonus, but their weapons do less damage than Melee weapons. PROBLEM: I don't see any, partly because I just came up with this system. It might be tricky to balance this.
Lore-wise I think the third system makes sense too. A Ranged Monster sees the hero coming and can try and attack, and has an advantage (translater in the high threshold) but doesn't do so much damage. Every round the ranger can try and back away to attack from range again, but if the Hero rolls high, the Hero can get in range and do damage (which is higher because its Melee).
I would like to hear your thoughts on this combat system. Is it too complex already and should I skip differences between Ranged and Melee damage? What other possibilities between combat schools could I incorporate?
Thanks Kos, that sounds like a good idea. I was a bit reluctant to incorporating extra attacks because that's something the player has to keep in mind. Rather I'd have the mechanics of the game fix it.
Weapons are cards of 4 x 6 cm so it would be no problem to include a bonus to Ranged Threshold on Ranged weapons. Then any Hero equipping a Melee weapon has difficulty fighting Ranged Monsters due to the high Threshold, but their weapons would do more Damage so once they succeed attacking they do more damage. Heroes equipping Ranged weapons get a bonus to Ranged Threshold, making it easier to fight Ranged heroes.
If I do it this way, the initial Bonuses of the Heroes (e.g. a Warrior gets 2 in Melee and a Ranger gets 2 in Ranged) are less influential. That's what I like to aim for anyway: there will be initial differences among Heroes, but any Hero can specialise in anything (as in The Elder Scrolls video games).