From: jliukkon@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Juha-Matti Liukkonen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.misc
Subject: net.rpg: combat stuff (success/damage/locations/aim)
Keywords: net.rpg, combat
Date: 15 Nov 92 21:22:50 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Here's a slightly more comprehensible description about the combat idea
I had the other night.

This mechanism would throw the success, hit location, and damage rolls
down to a single roll, allowing several levels of detail and quite
reasonable aiming procedure. It would also clearly separate the fatality
of an eye blow, for example, from a simple chest hit.

Hit Zones and Locations
-----------------------
Creatures are split into hit zones.  A hit zone is the area of the
target which the attacker is able to hit from where he stands.  Humanoid
creatures would be split into four zones: upper/left, upper/right,
upper/thrust and lower.  These zones are the general areas the hit will
land, depending on the position of the attacker and the direction of the
swing (ie.  you are not able to hit another creature of similar size to
the head *or* to the foot with high left swing, but the head or the
chest are likely alternatives.)

The hit zones are futher divided into hit locations. These could be
either specific (ie. finger, palm, calf, eye, ...) or general (ie. arm,
head, leg, abdomen, ...) or a mix of both, as desired. Every location
has a fatality factor: the more vital a spot, the bigger the fatality.
Each location has also a targeting difficulty, which is in relation to
the locations's size compared to the hit zone area.

Weapon Damage and Attack Procedure
----------------------------------
The weapons would also have a fixed damage factor, perhaps augmented by
the Strength (or appropriate equivalent) of the wielder.

When attacking, the attacker claims either a swing to a general hit
zone, or an aimed swing to a specific hit location.  The defender
defends in some manner I don't care about at this moment (but perhaps
reducing the attacker's success amount [blow glanced], or even
deflecting the whole blow.) Let's say the attacker succeeded by X. 

NB: Determining the angle of the incoming hit can be both easy and quite
fun. We sometimes need to personally act the most complicated attack
sessions to get a plain view whether this or that type of maneuver would
be possible from this position.

Aimed Hit
---------
If X is greater than, or equal to the targeting difficulty of the spot
aimed at, he hits the spot doing damage. The damage is weapon damage
factor * location fatality factor * (targeting difficulty / X), where
the last component is always considered to be >= 1 (ie. very good
success multiplies the damage done.)

If X is less than the targeting difficulty of the spot aimed at, the
swing hits the nearest hit location which the success amount is entitled
to hit. The damage is weapon damage factor * location fatality factor (*
1/2 perhaps?) This means that the attack hit a less fatal spot in the
vicinity doing lessened damage, as the weapon was directed for maximum
damage at a different spot, landing at a not-perfect angle for this
particular location.

Unaimed Hit
-----------
If the attacker doesn't claim an aimed shot, the hit is considered to
hit the largest location in the zone. Damage is weapon damage factor *
location fatality factor * (targeting difficulty / X), where the last
component is always considered to be >= 1 (ie. very good success
multiplies the damage done, as above.) This attack might not be as
effective as an aimed shot, because the largest locations usually have a
low fatality factor, even though the high success amount might double,
triple, or quadruple the damage.

Detail Levels
-------------
This hit zone/location approach would enable several levels of detail in
the combat reality. For simple approach, one would perhaps only use the
zones per se (possibly allowing maimed limbs.) A bit more complicated
approach would allow arms, chest, abdomen, head, and legs as separate
hit locations under appropriate zones. With full detail level, these
might be divided into separate fingers, eyes, nose, mouth, and so on.

The detail levels would also be possible to mix: if the GM needs to use
a creature (s)he doesn't have the hit location tables ready for, (s)he
might call the simpler limb, or even zone approach - if the GM doesn't
know about the fatal spots of a creature, then probably neither do the
characters, and thus can't aim at them.

Comments, ideas, further discussion welcomed.


-- 
               Juha Liukkonen, aka jliukkon@cc.helsinki.fi
       University of Helsinki, Dept. of Paranormal Investigations
           "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." - Sledge Hammer
Newsgroups: rec.games.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games