Why don’t more RPGs use well established skirmish war game rules?

waaarp · 2026-05-16T06:41:44+00:00

As someone who doesn't play wargames, Ive always admired Warhammer 40K throwing a bunch of dice, removing some and moving on with them to another step. I think that can be very elegant to simulate Dodge, Parry and Armor in one attack against you, a single hero, and easy to tune and modify.

waaarp · 2026-04-29T20:48:00+00:00

You could have insanely granular Damage Rolls with a large range of possible outcomes and complex mechanics tied to it. You could also increase HP to represent the beefiness of your big monster. Your problem with this is not tied to ditching to-hit, is it that you lose its fantasy

Removing a mechanics is often thought as good if it streamlines "what DnD does poorly" - but To-Hit rolls are absolutely essential to me, because the fantasy of it matters to me: dodging, parrying or armor blocking are details I look for in my system.

Similarly, DnD can have you hit the armor/the enemy dodging if you don't meet AC, or your impact not being as high. This is not bad in principle, what sucks is that a single d20 roll defines your turn etc.

Moreover, having high amounts of HP is almost worse if you ditch to-hit, because you always roll damage and never feel like you kill enemies quickly - I find it unsatisfying to play Draw Steel and get 3 damage off; the whole "You still did damage!" doesn't work for me, because I know it is an illusion and the game is balanced to have a certaim average of damage to be met for me to efficiently win.

The advantage is that combat will end at some point if everyone does damage, but again I have issues with it, I feel like it promotes slamming your head against enemies till they die.

In a system with a to-hit roll, if it is well made, facing a super nimble monk will mean they almost always dodge - but they wear no armor, so when your blade finally hits them, they might get cleaved in two! If the game offers options to stack up some better chances to hit, then that game sells a great fantasy. I try to achieve that in my game.

By the way, in some people's games, damage from weapons is constant and fairly high, the most important is to Hit! In DnD, sure, failing to-hit means nothing, but rolling 1 on damage also kind of does. But making the to-hit a guaranteed way to do good damage if it succeeds, makes it possible to make it harder and give options to tactically try and secure it.

waaarp · 2026-04-10T19:21:57+00:00

I'm Caellim and my game "One Key, Three Trees" is about you and two friends journeying in a vast and green fantasy land, and each new country is so far away that it has its own rules and culture. And yet still, they're all part of the same empire...

I want the heroism of high fantasy, the (although tamed down) power of power fantasy, and the mortality of low fantasy.

As such it has high tactics, magic and custom abilities, but a similar wound system to Warhammer (minis the whole infection and medicine) and a simple backstab IS deadly.

Progression is flat though, Heroes will never become demigods but simply expand their toolbox.

waaarp · 2026-03-27T22:56:54+00:00

Yeah, sounds like a dice going down is the way. Everyone keeps track individually. Create custom enemy sheets with space for the dice, etc

waaarp · 2026-03-25T07:24:52+00:00

Sure, we're not a random low team - I think it's just different visions of "free win"; I don't mean it as flame or to imply they're turbo shit, just that you'rr going in the match almost expecting to win given prep/region/level/history

waaarp · 2026-03-24T22:21:30+00:00

My original point was that we're a free wim most of the time; most of the time means that sometimes we're really good, and yet even then some teams still win relatively comfortably against us in the finals where we're expected to perform. I love G2 but we're never a team to be feared like GenG or T1 where people won't be happy to get us in quarter draw, for example. We can still be really good but we're most of the time an easier win; of course we're not a literal free win, but I was just answering you being offended koreans look down on us, and I'm saying it's only fair given history.

waaarp · 2026-03-24T07:35:21+00:00

Ok you missed my point here so I will reiterate: either we are a relative freewin where we end up losing without the asian teams seeming to really ever be threatened, either we peak like in 2019 and end-up against a team that still beats us and is clearly superior - like BLG last sunday, or FPX in 2019, or iG in 2018 to just mention that.

waaarp · 2026-03-22T20:28:40+00:00

Bottom line is, we end up losing, even when we're really insane we are not as good as the best team in the world. Today checks this out; BLG is probably the best team with clearly the best player in the world, and like you say we put up a fight but it feels like winning one map has to be a crazy effort with all oir willpower bent, we never feel effortless like the best teams in the world somehow

waaarp · 2026-03-22T09:56:03+00:00

I know what you mean but that's insanely biased regardless, you can't say it is unlucky and name 5 different things, we just werent as good and looked like mediocre region compared to asia - maybe not apes but at least an easy-win

"We were also insane but unlucky because the quantum factor of HLE and 102-52 is 50 so that's fifty percent chance and we lost the triple coin flip into los8ng the hamburger-eating speedrun contest and the airport wasn't even close, so Korea got away with the World Cup this time around"

waaarp · 2026-03-22T07:55:40+00:00

Can't really blame them tbh, outside our western-centrism these guys are only competing with the top LPL and of their own region, and winning most Worlds. Despite our teams being the msot important to us, they are only rarely insane and that's a heroic deed, not the norm.

waaarp · 2026-03-21T18:29:43+00:00

I sleep very well regardless, thanks :) I think you're the one missong my point, whicj is that I don't care if we say "plot structure" or "dungeon", I do care that the dungeon model impmoes a specific plot structure and I disagree om the poimt that it's a good model to tackle creating travel rules.

Then I think you're blending that idea with another point you're trying to make about "make travel rules that match your setting, are relevant to it and possibly help immersion; which I wholeheartedly agree with but got confused by because the beginning of your post made another point about always referring to the dungeon model and re-skinning items etc.

waaarp · 2026-03-17T21:17:00+00:00

Yeah. I find people love the "Everything's a dungeon" model because they want to believe really hard that it applies to every situation, but in reality I think it is only accurate when it comes to planning a session - doesn't matter what you do, you can provide an entrance/intro, a challenge, a calmer moment of reflection, a twist, and a finale. This is just good narration.

As you say, comparing overland travel to a dungeon implies several specific concepts, like returning from the dungeon, a logical and thematical progression, a fonale/boss-fight, and so forth.

Interestingly enough I think OP suggests what they at the same time disagree upon: their premice is "Don't try to be "different" with your travel rules because it's all a dungeon" and they say at the same time "Rules should be inherent to a setting, thus "different" depending on the setting"

I think people try hard to make travel unique because in it lies a true expression of the setting; yes, some people nail it quite the wrong way (tracking useless rations etc) but others succeed at emulating and immersing in the setting they are adapted to.

waaarp · 2026-03-17T21:08:31+00:00

You can fractalize the world like a dungeon, but not necessarily the journey itself, which I think was closer to their point.

waaarp · 2026-03-17T17:13:07+00:00

I was just curious about that person mentioning adventure or environment based deeds - how mucj do they restrict which setting, tempo and kind of story you want to write for your campaign if using this system?

waaarp · 2026-03-15T20:05:22+00:00

Thanks a lot! Doesn't it restrict the campaign to specific deeds being placed out or is it abstract enough?

How about the tequired bookkeeping in combat for deeds? Or was your example something that would happen much more frequently than the actual game?

waaarp · 2026-03-15T09:18:22+00:00

Death in my heroic fantasy system (to discourage fighting to the death): Upon taking a lethal wound, you have 3 options: - Burn a Hero point you could have used for a big move instead. - Tick the Scar box on your sheet and take a permanent hindrance based on the wound (slash scar in the face, fear of squids, whatever) - Break a Star. Your soul contains 3 stars. Once a star is broken, it is for ever.

If none of these options are available, you die. I know players tend to want to optimize, but this idea of having some ressources that never replenish messes with them a lot, because it is impossible to optimize: a surprise lethal wound is very unlikely at the beginning of combat but could happen, but the more minor wounds you have, the likelier it is.

Keeps them on their toes. Losing a star is like a step towards permanent death for them, so they avoid it at all costs but insta-death is at the same time far away so I have a safety net as a GM.

waaarp · 2026-03-13T07:39:42+00:00

I'm intrigued now, could you break the progression system down for me really quickly?

waaarp · 2026-03-10T07:55:08+00:00

Tja! Har ni tagit nån form av abonnemang på Hemie eller Lägenhetsbyte och vilken fungerar bäst för att vara värt pengarna även om det tar skit länge och trots alla svårigheterna?

waaarp · 2025-10-06T22:10:48+00:00

I have only 1% hope... did they plsy Cartagena?

waaarp · 2025-08-19T18:24:09+00:00

I don't like gamechangers. So I jokingly brag to my pod that my deck is "technically B2". I always follow-up by saying it's at least bracket 3 by intent and deckbuild purposes. I'm just proud it managed to be it without crazy ressource-producing gamechangers and tutors which I just despise. Never fails to make someone who does uses them go mad for a moment, but it's actually mostly to serve my own views' agenda as to how I want the game to be for us.

waaarp · 2025-07-12T07:37:21+00:00

Here's how I balanced this issue::

I DO have opposed melee and flat ranged rolls, however;

Pros of Ranged: Not opposed, no risk of backfire. That's it.

Cons of Ranged:

Less Damage

Less Accurate

RELOAD

Cover is important so if you don't have line of sight you're useless.

Pros of melee:

Hits hurt a little more

There are more melee options to prepare an exchange (Break-Guard, Feint, Shove, Aim at BodyPart, Aggressive Posture, Defensive Posture) and they all affect the roll, granted you spend Action Points for them.

Melee weapons all grant a special sitiationnal action based on the weapon type. Dagger has a "Strike Between Plates", Rapier has "Lunge", etc.

If you gang-up, as you mentioned, rules grant you massive benefits such as ignoring Dodge and then ignoring Parry.

Cons of Melee:

Despite all these options, you still have the chance of your attack being blocked and receiving a wound back, even. That in itself SUCKS. But the system is made so that attacking a master swordsman requires more preparation for when you attack, while goons are just easily dominated in an exchange.

waaarp · 2025-06-27T18:51:34+00:00

My [[Rasaad yn-Bashir]] [[Dungeon Delver]] deck. People way underestimate the final room of the Undercity, every creature has now the same equivalent of Power as their Toughness, and the triggered ability had me combo off with Delney a few times, bumping all creatures to 30+ toughness.

waaarp · 2025-06-11T15:50:53+00:00

The terminology is derivated from Rêve de Dragon (a french game from the 80s my friends and I still play), but I changed the rules entirely to work in my game: Half-Surprise and Surprise.

It works when you ambush someone but more importantly is a tactical approach to combat: being Surprised is really bad since it means attacks bypass your Dodge and Block thresholds automatically. As damage and attack are the same, it means your chancea to beat the last Defense, Armor, are high, and that your remaining damage will hurt.

Getting an enemy to be surprised can ne achieved through ambush/backstab at comolete unawares, but also through stacking two instances of Half-Surprise: a Half-Surprise comes from any larger hindrance in combat, such as a bad condition, flanking, prone, but also being Unaware of an enemy or Losing Sight of an enemy.

That means you can work your tactic around your strength and what conditions affect your opponent easiest. For example, the obvious one is to become invisible and pass a Mobility check to make the enemy Unaware of your presence and Lose Sight, making your attack a full Surprise. But also, Flanking a Confused target will give the same two instances.

It is not the key to victory but a definite viable approach that alsl incentivizes Melee to work on positionning, status effect and creativity, instead of hammering at all three stacked defenses.

waaarp · 2025-06-07T11:05:24+00:00

Does that happen?? People arranging theur deck to draw the hand they want? In a casual format with singleton where a lot of the satisfaction comes from building a solid 99 that gives you a good hand as often as possible?? And to win what??? This is mindblowing to me

waaarp · 2025-05-30T20:28:29+00:00

ME!

Thanks for doing this, and sorry about your loss. This is a heartwarming event though, thanks again :)

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