Had a really good playtest session of my Ars Magica hack (Wizard World) last night. This was the first session that really focused on combat (the covenant was responding to a call for aid from the local lord who believes he is their liege and it turned out that his castle was under siege).
One of the things that occurred to me after the session is that I may have been wrong to base combat on the Dungeon World model. I’m trying to recreate Ars Magica, not D&D, so granular combat is not really appropriate.
I whipped up the following moves with the intent to come up with something that would allow virtually any combat to resolve in two rolls or less. This is a very early version, but I think it gets the point across:
Enter Melee
When you enter melee combat, roll+Body.
On a 10+ you secure a decisive advantage. Unless they are seriously badass, your enemy is either fleeing or down within the first moments of the fight.
On a 7-9 you secure an advantage but it will cost you: an imbalanced humour or other resource. A skilled or disciplined foe will still be in the fight, but most enemies will be down or fleeing. The GM will let you know.
On a 6- The enemy gains the upper hand. You’ll probably suffer an imbalanced humour (and possibly worse at the GM’s discretion).
Press the attack
When you continue fighting in an ongoing melee, roll+Body.
On a 10+ you press your advantage (if you had it) or manage to turn the tables on your enemy if they had the upper hand. In either case, they’re either fleeing or down.
On a 7-9 if the enemy had the upper hand you have a hard choice: either suffer serious consequences and win or you can retreat (or yield). If the you had the advantage, you can press it now to finish them off, but it will cost you something minor (the GM will tell you what).
On a 6- If the enemy had the upper hand, you are in serious trouble: you’re either down or captured – the GM will let you know. If you had the advantage, things have taken a nasty turn, you can either yield or attempt to withdraw, but it’s going to cost you – the GM will tell you how much.
Any thoughts?