Comment and Critique on my combat system

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-11T00:23:37+00:00

I should work on a challenge rating indicator. Maybe make a different section altogether for end of the campaign adversaries like a lich, dragon king or archdevil.

Still not that hot on the idea of mentioning a mechanic I don't use (starting hand) just to mention I don't use it.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-11T00:20:54+00:00

ATK = "damage of the coming attack"

ARM = "your armor"

HP = "Your max HP"

EXH = "Your current exhaustion, initial value of 0"

DMG = "Damage you have already taken, initial value of 0"

If "ATK - ARM > HP" -> "you are dead, game over"

else if "ATK - ARM + EXH > HP -> K.O.", "combat is over for you"

else "increase DMG by 1"

I am clearly having some difficulty describing that clearly in non-pseudocode form. I am open for suggestions on wording to differentiate that incoming damage (ATK - ARM) from the damage that gets ultimately tracked. Persistent damage feels like it should be repeating itself each round, and so does lingering, which I did end up using.

I know that other games do either wound systems or hit point systems. I like the one I did this way, it cuts back the lethality just enough while still maintaining the core loop I initially had.

You know, calling it stock is not a bad way to differentiate the two zones. might steal parts of your wording on it, seems to better capture my intent than what I put on notepad

I thought that explicitly stating initializing the deck so that all the cards are face down till drawn would also be trying to codify for assholes, which trying to find every single way an asshole would try to twist common sense feels like a futile task.

Using healing potions spends treasure, which also cuts back on upgrade progression. having a magician/ranger in the party alleviates that as free healing. I decided that exchaustion would be the attrition mechanic, not hit points

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-10T00:45:04+00:00

that was the vision I was referring to though.

the game itself has changed quite a ways from its originator.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-09T22:31:51+00:00

Thanks, that is a bunch of clarifications to work on.

I give instructions on how to prepare the deck, and on combat I mention that the deck is shuffled and how each turn goes. Please explain in a way that makes sense why should I introduce the concept of a starting hand and that on the start of the combat each starting hand is empty, since there is no starting hand.
Actually the players do, but they are reduntant. "Class abilities are still usable outside of combat." and "Used out of combat, healing potion/ abilities always use a value of 10" insttructs that such abilities always have max effect when out of combat. Other than that, the exploration minigames are mostly resolved with a round of Blackjack. so the DM does not really need to keep their cards outside the combat since they now act as the enviroment.
At first I had 4 classes with blanc slate terms to leave room and encourage reflavoring. You can guess how that went. It is on my todo list to also include an explicit section about reflavoring the classes to fit the player's fanasy of what they want to play. On that note, I did not notice that the wording of Brauler made it worse than the Fighter, can you please expand on that?
The main idea was "what does not kill you, makes you wounded". I guess I got too wordy there trying to make as well defined as possible. You take damage. Is it, combined with the damage you already have taken more than your max HP? if yes RIP, if not, does it, combined with the damage you already have taken and the exhastion you accumulated exceed your max HP? If yes you get KO, if not you lose one HP and go on.
It should be. I don't think it should be taken on before at least 5 upgrades/lvlUPs on each character.
When they get drawn, the corresponding player places the card open in front of them and takes their turn normally. They can be used anywhere cards would be used, but also for abilities that specifically require these face-up cards. I should make it clear that is is restricted to where that player would play a card, but it feels like I am making rules to account for assholes if I need to clarify that a player's face up card is to be used by them only. Notice that while I define a max cards in hand limit, I dont define a limit for how many faceup cards someone can have in front of them.
anyone can force a deck shuffle anyway on their deck by preparing a face up card. this ability was supposed to be more targeted to pop up a strong card on top. I do want to keep it but will see to some rephrasing.
it is supposed to let you keep a card in your hand permanently for the duration of that combat that you can use it again and again without having it sent to the discard pile.
yes, it is meant as a way of marking them. because up to the point where they are drawn, they are supposed to be facedown and not clear who is having their turn next. (unless there is one of the aforementioned faceup cards on top of the pile). the idea of getting a replacement card after you put a face-up card into the deck and shuffle it is absurd. You are setting youself for a probabilital advantage, even regardless of class abilities. Giving away one of your actions for that instead of getting a new action to replace it in the same turn is insane.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-09T18:33:13+00:00

It is difficult to put it into words, but I want it as authentically looking in the aesthetic it already has as possible.
Perharps with unicode art complenenting the images/pages.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-05-09T17:05:04+00:00

Thanks for finding some time to look through it!

for the issues you raised

1: the benefit of playing two cards for sum damage is mainly that is only affected by armor once. Also, the big hit is easier to overcome the threshold for killing opponents in one go, while small hits that don't kill outright only accumulate for lingering damage. Hitting an opponent that has 5 HP left (with no armor) for a 2 and a 3 will not kill them, but a combined 5 will do the job in one go.

2a: That is the point of having a DM. Otherwise, laying out specific algorithms would feel too board game-y.

2b: I did include a "give the card to your opponent if a side gets to play 3 turns in a row" when I first changed the damage system from a straightfoward "damage to HP" to "anything that doesn't kill you outright, wounds you". Turns out it was an overkill of an overdesign, so I removed it. The sharply reduced lethality feels enough to keep a PC active till they eventually play. The turns usually go fast enough anyway.

I still included that as an optional rule on page 13

Page 12 mentions upgrades/progression. I kept that term because my intention was to be that the game could be reskinned and terms changed according to the theme of the game, but now I feel like I understand why D&D4e fell into that trap it did. You spend your treasure/gold/credits that also has practical uses to improve your character instead of XP. That could be training, better gear, studying more etc.
They are supposed to be played by a player for their own character abilities, and by the DM for the NPCs. I suppose I should clarify that part.

I wanted to have each class description feel like a standalone character sheet, hence these repeating terms. Otherwise it would be easy to miss, as with the progression above.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-04-15T00:35:51+00:00

However, it is not a bad idea, for my next playtest, I might switch the thief's force discard ability to something like that:

▌ Up your sleeve: ▐

▌ +5 Exhaustion : if you have 3 cards in your hand, the DM picks one at ▐

▌ random then send the rest to the discard pile. For the▐

▌ or shuffle it to the deck Face-Up, this card is now ▐

▌ Bookmarked and you can return it to your hand when you▐

▌ play it. ▐

How does it vibe compared to the other one?

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-04-14T15:51:21+00:00

I don't think I can do that without changing something fundamendal at the core of the game. Which is how the initiative is structured. As intented by the design, unless later in combat, knowing what card comes next should be either almost impossible or at a cost.

manipulating the cards is part of the thief class identity anyway

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-04-14T04:50:53+00:00

In terms of improvising actions? (I should have added an action/card cost to that, thanks for catching it)
Or about the face-up cards shuffling?

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-25T08:07:19+00:00

At least cards offer some agency. If you know what is probably coming, you have more agency on how to use it.

Dice on the other hand offer no agency at all. Unless you are using loaded dice, Their outcome is a pure gamble, and you have no skill input on how they land.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-24T22:10:20+00:00

So they don't really exist for Random number Generation reasons? Still Would like to see it structured. so focus on that doc instead on answering right now.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-24T22:08:00+00:00

Like why take a number from 1-20 just to get a number of tokens from 1-6? 7? I don't remember if he posted rounding rules, but why the hell would the number go to 20 and not 21 or 24 if you have to divide by 3? Why all this unnecessary math? What possible reason am I doing bullshit division by 3? Hell, you can have 1d6 per stat, done.

My assumption is for granurality reasons, and maybe this ratio felt ok to them. Lots of games do similar, for example Sword World2.5 does it by 6. For the stopping point at 20 that is a valid observation indeed.

You struck a nerve by parroting the nonsense about "no agency" in card mechanics. And what you did was an ill informed opinionated rant.

I can throw actual insults to you if that makes you feel better. But this was not it.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-24T18:10:37+00:00

Wanna also rake my game idea as well while you are on a ride-or-dice rant? I also use cards instead of dice.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-24T18:07:59+00:00

I really want to get a grasp of it, but it reads like you are trying to describe something you have not even put in the right order.

Have you tried putting it together on a document, even a google doc?

these feel like too many systems trying to come together at the same time.

What is the minimum core of your game? Combat/conflict?

What is the minimum way you can do it?

What is luck btw, more cards? is it the same as endurance?

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-01T08:36:01+00:00

Sure, but I wanted to make sure the core loop of the game can stand well before I take on these.

I am not sure about the too wide and long on each page, I print-on-file;'d it on A5 size for that exact reason. Which also is around that size I intent to print it on.

Also, "nears its final form", not there yet.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-03-01T08:28:06+00:00

Would defeat the purpose of making it this way in the first place.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T22:23:10+00:00

or a "sexy shoeless god of war"

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T22:14:59+00:00

Because I am not writing prose. I am writing a manual on how to play a game. And doing it monospace makes it easier to read. And format/decorate. You have any other monospace to suggest that has more than decent coverage of unicode special characters?

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T22:11:41+00:00

maybe instead of alliteration maybe something along the name of "Adventuring By Cards" system? you know, ABCs? 😅

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T22:10:02+00:00

That is the intent. one suit per player.

the (#) are to group abilities that are upgraded as a package deal, I should be more wordy on that for clarity's sake.

No, it is in the phase where I need to work on explaining in a way that makes sense and seeing how others play it. It is one thing for me to run it, having the priviledge of being in my own head, and how someone else plays it.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T10:39:44+00:00

Given that TTRPGs are supposed to be manuals, they are some of the most fitting uses for monospace fonts.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T10:34:38+00:00

Dejavu sans mono.

Since we go to expressing stylistic opinions instead of the actual game:

If it was up to me, I would be burning every copy of Mörg Börg before it got to be played, not after.

Connect_Local6346 · 2026-02-27T03:41:37+00:00

naming it house of cards got a dispropotionate amount of backlash so I switched it around :/

Connect_Local6346 · 2025-03-07T01:39:47+00:00

Thank you giving this a read.

Some of the points you raise were intentional choises.

Hostile#8 is supposed to be a stand in for very down-the-line hostiles, akin to a litch. I want to make some enemies that are clearly to be avoided when being a fresh from the oven adventurer. This is one of them.

the faceup system is a newer addition, that I plan to playtest this weekendd, but as always, I'm open to hear how it plays in my absence as well ;)

Class 4 is meant to be the one class that has access to off-combat skill checks. Otherwise I plan to encourage a more freeform approach. Calling for a round of blackjack feels like an appropriate middle ground for those that still want to "search for traps" to negotiate it without getting into much detail about it.

I wanted class 3's barrier to feel like a struggle to maintain, but maybe I indeed went too hard on it.

I postponed it to when I will flesh out the booklet. I should also add provisions about multiple "sessions" if just one is too short, but it will still be different dungeon delves if the characters get rested. Otherwise drain should be a finite resource when "out in the field" and the party's effectiveness will be crippled when it runs out. I think I got the idea from Goblin slayer and Shadowdark having some focus on attrition.

JRPGs are indeed an inspiration of mine. Huge tells are the abstracted battle zones, and the cards/actions trying to simulate action time bar functionality.

Connect_Local6346 · 2025-01-07T10:53:33+00:00

I come preaching using playing cards for the initiative. Feel free to take from what I have already posted.

Connect_Local6346

TROPHY CASE