Alternative DEFENSE

#1

Greetings Shieldwall!

Here’s a thought I’m kicking around for our conversion of The Sword Marches setting to ICRPG in regards to how DEFENSE, HP, and ARMOR are calculated. I’m curious to see your feedback. Here’s the change:

  1. A PC starts the game with 1 Heart + its CON Stat in Hit Points.

  2. A PC’s DEFENSE is calculated by adding 10 + the character’s DEX STAT.

  3. ARMOR reduces Damage from enemy Attacks by its ARMOR Rating or number. Total all ARMOR the PC is wearing/using and then compare the total amount of DAMAGE to that number. Subtract the ARMOR Rating from the total enemy Damage and subtract the remainder from the PC’s HIT POINTS.

If the Damage dealt from an Attack exceeds the ARMOR Rating by more than DOUBLE the amount, then the Armor’s DEF number is reduced by 1 point. If there is a reduction, the PC gets to decide which piece of ARMOR GEAR is reduced.

Discuss!!!

To ARMS!
Jagger

#2

I’m new to the game, but I love the simplicity of 1 Heart = 10 HP/Effort.

#3

  1. I’m a bit of an ICRPG purist, so I tend to keep HPs in multiples of ten.

  2. Some folks add dex to Defense, but I caution against it only because Dex is literally used for everything else: ranged attacks, stealth, balance saves, climbing, etc. This method tends to make one guy good at everything AND be hard to hit with 10+Dex defense. It’s even more pronounced in a sci-fi game.

  3. ICRPG already has a soak mechanic like this in Blood and Snow.

In any event, play the way you want to play. Lots of folks take the basic ICRPG rules and tweak them in all sorts of great (and sometimes bad) ways. Just know what you gain and what you lose when you make these types of choices.

#4

Thanks for that great feedback Alex! These will, of course, will be vigorously play tested prior to reaching our final version. .

We will take your feedback and consider it a baseline.

#5

Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but if you have “ablative armour” (armour soaks damage but is reduced on a hit) you basically get multiple HP pools:
Heart is HP
Con is HP
Armour is HP.

There’s nothing wrong with this, but perhaps a bit redundant. Personally I do as follows:

  1. Use Hit Dice for monsters and HP for PCs, no hearts, to reduce complexity.
  2. Use a separate defense stat, and limit the use of DEX in other situations. This adds complexity, but increases differentiation between areas of expertise.
  3. Use non-ablative soak for armour, just make sure that armor levels are low (approximately balanced against damage bonuses from STR or similar)

In the end, I think it is a matter of finding compromises between more and less rules that work well for the types of situations that happens most often at the table. So your solutions might be perfect in your game!

#6

Thanks for the feedback. You misread the ablative bit. Its not ‘armor soaks damage but is reduced on a hit’. It’s if the damage dealt is more than DOUBLE the Armor’s value, then it is reduced by one. Otherwise its fine. It will occur far less frequently that way.

So Armor is not HP by your reckoning. Not sure how CON is HP other than its added to 1 Heart of HP when you first make the character. Perhaps you can elaborate on that a bit so I have a better understanding of what you mean. :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Jagger

#7

Aha, cool! I like that armor is reduced on a strong hit. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

#8

No worries my friend! :grinning:

I’m working on how to determine which piece of armor or shield or helmet is getting hit and possibly reduced. Once I sort that bit out, I’ll post it here and we can all chew on it together.

#9

In a lot of the games I play, that sort of mechanic is usually player’s choice.

#10

That’s what I’m leaning on too. As a player I’d want to choose too.

#11

Sorry guys, for some reason the text I entered fully explaining the ablative armor bit if damage soaked is double or more is gone from my post. Either that, or I’m having a psychotic break…

My apologies if the post didn’t make sense, and then I replied as if it had…

To ARMS!
Jagger

#12

Well, according to the revision history, there’s been only one change to the post, about 45 minutes ago, by you.

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???

#13

It’s either SKYNET or I’m losing my mind… :slight_smile: Probably SKYNET

#14

Ha! I found it!

I knew I typed it up somewhere…it was in my World Anvil account. :slight_smile: Here’s what draft 1 looked like:

10 plus your DEX equals your total defense.

Armor soaks damage point for point. If any piece of armor or shield takes more than double its armor value, it reduces its total armor value by 1 point. When it reaches 0 points it is damaged and needs to be replaced. It can be repaired after the end of a session by paying x amount of coin to a weaponsmith if available.

If the PC has more than one piece of ARMOR GEAR compare the lowest ARM rating item first, then if that is reduced to zero, compare the next time PC is attacked and use the next lower ARM etc.