Simple combat system

I’d like some advice on how to shape the combat system of the game I’m working on (Krakatoa - the lost island). Combat is very secondary in this game and I have therefore wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Now I’m asking myself if it’s too simple. Let me give you some background and maybe you can give me some advice.

First of all, this is a family game so I have wanted to keep the rules simple. The game is about exploring for valuables by flipping tokens in different territories. If the valuable on the token corresponds to your skill set you may pick it up and it will be worth victory points. The combat comes into play when you encounter beasts while exploring. You can choose to escape which will move you to an other territory and end your turn but lets you avoid combat, or you can fight for the right to stay where you are and finish your turn. If you lose however you must suffer the consequences of escaping and also discard one of your tokens. Normally it is not worth this risk, but occasionally it may be. You can fight unarmed but you will only be able to scare the beast off. If you have a weapon though, you can claim the defeated beast token for the victory points on it. All beast tokens provide money and hunting points. Money is a general valuable that all characters get points for but only a few get points for hunting.

The current combat system just says for the player to the left to take the token in one hand and hold out both hands. If you can pick the hand with the token you win combat, otherwise you lose. I have used this combat system since the first draft and I’ve liked the simplicity of it and the lack of any additional game components and the social interaction is popular when playing with kids. However, some play testers have found it a bit silly when played in an adult environment (”why not just roll a die instead?”). It is also quite limited in terms of what you can do with it. For normal encounters I feel that it is enough, most of the time you will escape, but if you want to take a 50% risk of fighting then it’s fine. However, for the characters that focus on hunting or get double points for money a lot can be at stake for this simple mechanic. The biggest beasts are worth 3/3 money/hunting which can add up to 6 or 9 points. If you only have VP-tokens that are worth much (let’s say 3 points is your cheapest token) the result of this combat will be gaining 6 or 9 points or losing 3, meaning a net value of 9 or 12 points. (The winner usually get around 30 points in a full game.) I’m feeling like with these things at stake it may require a more sophisticated combat system.

I have therefore started thinking of using a die instead. Six sided with two blank sides, 2 one bullet sides, one two bullet and one three bullet sides. The beasts would have one, two or three hearts. In order to defeat one you must get the corresponding amount of bullets or more. Some weapons may give you one extra bullet or a bullet plus a re-roll. This means that you could have an automatic defeat of the smaller beasts if you have a + 1 weapon, and highly increased chances of defeating lvl 2 or 3 beasts. Does this sound better? The thing I don’t like about it is the lack of design elegancy. Custom combat dice appear in so many games. While that testifies to their usefulness it makes me less willing to include them in my own game. Do I have a point in this or is it just dumb to limit oneself like that?

Can anyone think of a more sophisticated combat system that doesn’t use any extra game components, which is still simple enough for this type of game?