I just stumbled on a weird mechanic idea. The concept is to use a CRT (combat resolution table) to resolve multiple dice roll by rolling only 1 die.
For example, I wanted to use this for a unit vs unit combat resolution. Let say that I am attacking with Lizard riders which has the following abilities:
Attack
Charge
Poison
In a D&D like system, I would have to make various rolls, to check it I hit, what is the amount of damage I do and if the enemy resist my poison or not.
Since I want something that resolve fast, I had this idea. Look at the table below
Die Roll----1---2---3---4---5---6
Attack-----2---4---6---8--10--12 Dmg
Charge----------------10--14--18 Dmg
Poison--------------2---3---4---5 Level
The resolution is simple, you roll a die and it determine the strength of each attack type. Some attack types will only occur if you roll more than X value. For example, you need to roll 4+ to benefit from Charge.
Now let way you roll 5. You either do an attack at 10 dmg or a charge at 14 dmg. In this case you take the strongest value. But some units could have special abilities that negate charges (ex: pikemen: negate charge). In this case you take the other attack type. If the damage is higher than your opponent's toughness, it dies.
If your enemy survives, it also receives a level 4 poisonous attack. Your attack level must be higher than the resist level of your enemy. If it does, your enemy get's poisoned.
As you can see, it's like making many rolls with only 1 die roll.
Problems so far:
Since the higher the better, if you roll 6 and do 12 dmg with the most basic attack. Will there be an advantage to have a poison attack since the enemy will die? Or, does special abilities should use a different range of values or a different die so that you could actually have a chance to use your poison ability? Else the only situation it can be used is if your unit cannot possibly kill the enemy, at least it will poison it.
Variability of the table: An advantage and disadvantage. There are various way to build a table. Here are the parameters:
- Value range: The minimum and maximum value of the attack. Both can be high/low or 1 low and 1 high. (ex: 2-12, or 8-12)
- Die range: The minimum and maximum die value for the attack to take effect. Will the attack take effect if you roll 2-6 or 4-6.
- Incrementation pattern: How fast does the value increments. Ex: fast at the beginning, slow at the end. Stable at the beginning, fast at the end, etc.
The advantage is that it creates a lot of variety and you get more chance of not having 2 units alike. The disadvantage is that it is harder to build up the table.
Speed: The primary objective was to speed up the resolution process, but does CRT are a fast or a slow resolution method? At first glance, I think they are slow.
That's it up to now. Any comments?
I had the idea of have 2 dice rolled of different colors. Since they are rolled at the same time, it is not too bad.
The first die would represent any form of damageable attacks.
The 2nd die would represent any from of save-able attacks (ex: save or get poison, petrified, etc)
Which mean in this case, if would only be useless to have poison and petrify besides that poison level could be higher so easier to work.
--------------------------------------
One thing I did not say is that I wanted the die roll to represent tactical success of the battle. The highest roll gives you tactical success, and then you check if unit type dies. If I roll 2 dice, I could always use the sum of both dice for tactical victory, it would give better results combination.
The paragraph above also implies that it is a contested roll.
-----------------------------
I cannot use various dice rolls for different attacks since all attacks are applied not only one of the attack.
------------------------------
Another idea I had is to make the construction of the CRT more easily, maybe I should only use a low range of values, like from 1 to 5, so that there are less configuration possibilities.
-----------------------------
Sometimes, there could be a situation where you do not look at the complete CRT. For example, if I petrify you unit (instant kill) on a 5+, I first look at the save die, if it is 5+, your unit dies. Then I look at the total value of the roll to know who has tactical victory.