COMBAT DICE by Jörg Hansen
Uploaded by
H V CCOMBAT DICE by Jörg Hansen
Uploaded by
H V CCOMBAT DICE by Jörg Hansen
Combat Dice (CD's) are a very comfortable and easy way to resolve battles in any game systemon
any detail level. Lots of our self developed games use CD's, and even our favouritewarpspawn
games like Artifact or the Warp Skirmish System can be varied with CD's if youfeel the need for
a change.
CD's are 6-sided dice with two sides called 'hits' (5 and 6 on a common die) and one side
called 'Oops' (the 1). The remaining sides have no meaning. And here's how to use them on
different levels of detail:
1. level - keep it simple, stupid
Each combatant has a certain strength. Both sides throw as many CD's as their strength says,and
the fighter who has more hits wins. The loser might be killed or lose as many hitpoinsas the
difference between the amounts of hits.
2. level - fast skirmish
Each player might have a defending power as well. The attacker throws as many CD's as hisattack
value says, the defender corresponding to his defending power. If the attacker scoresmore hits
than the defender, the target loses (life, 1 hitpoint, the difference between theamounts of
hits). The attacker may not lose this turn.
3. level - different character traits
Each player might have different character traits that can be rolled out against each other.For
example: Gunnery vs. ship size, if hit then weapon power vs. defense shields etc. You can
design this in any detail level you like (some details suck and tend to slow down thegameplay,
so do some playtesting).
4. level - modifiers (tabletop gaming etc.)
You can use this in combination with any level - just give modifiers under certain
circumstances. Let weapons add a number of CD's to your strength, let a distance to thefire
target determine if the attacker has to reduce his gunnery (half of the CD's oranything), let
your character double a defensive power if he's taking cover etc. Another way of modifying might
be the adding/subtracting of CD's, maybe when doingcombined attacks etc. You get the idea - let
your imagination flow :)
Critical hit/miss
If your CD roll delivers only "Hits", this might be declared as critical hit, which can
lead to any consequences you like - target destroyed, secret roll revealed, extra attack etc.If
your CD roll delivers more "Oops" than "Hits", this might be declared as
critical miss, which can lead to any consequences you like - weapon jam / out of
ammo, self-inflicted wound, loss of all further action points this round etc.
RPG with CD's
We even play some RPG's with CD's - it's easy. Just let the character traits determine
thenumber of CD's to be rolled, and give the challenges/obstacles a certain power that
a) has tobe reached with hits, or b) determines the number of CD's that can be rolled
against theplayer's roll.
Designer's note
CD's are not our invention. Lots of games use some kind of CD's (for just
one example seeUniversal Game Systems / Rules of War). But since we made
our own cool-looking set of CD's,
we discovered that lots of games easily can be adapted to them, which
often spices up even long-sellers. We learned that a lot of "realism" can
be added with CD's without the usual disadvantage of getting the gameplay
too complicated. The advantage for game designing is the fact, that the
designer only has to deal about the different character traits and their
balance- and even the level of detail can be varied very easily. The
advantage for the gamers is the simplicity of use and result. If you have
any comments/critic/suggestions/ideas, we're eager tohear from you at
j_hansen@web.de.