Armour, my beloved
Alas, a second entry on my series for the game called 'something something conquistadors'. I'll decide later. Nevertheless, today I want to discuss combat.
An oddlike combat system
The combat systems follows most of the core combat principles of an oddlike combat. To summarize a few key ideas:
- Auto damage - All attacks automatically deal damage. Typical weapon dice range from 1d6 to 1d10.
- Impairment & Enhancement - Situational disadvantages and advantages change the size of the die rolled. Impairment might reduce your damage die to a d4, while enhancement could bump it up to a d12.
- Low HP - Most characters can only take a hit or two before going down.
If you’re observant, you may have noticed I left out armour. That’s because my approach to it is a little different.
Armour as situational disadvantage
In most ODDlike systems, armour reduces incoming damage, usually subtracting 1 or 2 points per hit. In this game, armour works differently:
Attacking an armoured target impairs your attack. Easy, elegant, and brutally effective.
Why?
Because historically, armour worked. Accounts abound of a handful of steel-armoured fighters cutting through much larger groups of unarmored opponents. Spanish conquistadors, for example, often faced Bronze Age-equipped foes and came out virtually unscathed. Steel armour kept you alive.
How to deal with an armoured opponent?
In my proposed system, you can negate an impairment with an enhancement. So if you have the high ground, but are also standing on a muddy hill. You will do normal attacks. The mud will effectively undo the high-ground advantage.
In most situations, you will need to think outside the box to deal with an armoured opponent or have far superior numbers.
So if you're going toe-to-toe with someone in full plate, you’d better find a way to even the odds. That could mean:
- Using terrain: narrow passages, mud, or other movement-restricting features
- Playing mind games: bait them into overextending or exposing themselves
- Grappling and wrestling: techniques that bypass armor entirely In the end, you will rely on tactics instead of brute force.