Friday, November 9, 2012

My action system manifesto

It took me longer then I wanted to recover from Halloween weekend. I've been making notes about Fists of the Four Isles as they occur to me but this is the first time I've had to sit down and work.
The current topic fermenting in my brain is action. I want action to be fast, furious, and fun. In pursuit of this goal I've created a little manifesto that encapsulates my vision for a roleplaying action system. Really they are common sense things that players and GMs just do without thinking about it. But I want an action system that is built with these elements as a foundation.

There are no meaningless conflicts

Or fights for fight's sake. There is built in tension because every action scene is important and there is something tangible at stake. Win or lose, the conflict will matter to the course of the story. The sides of the conflict will be working towards goals other than just fighting. A fight is not an interruption of the game, it is a continuation of it.

There are no meaningless actions

Action shall never devolve into an endless repetition of attacks and blocks. Actions other than attacking are important. There are consequences for every failure, and there is always a tangible benefit if you succeed. Tangible meaning something more than "you are one hit point closer to beating them." Tangible benefit meaning something you can use to draw closer to you goal for the conflict.

It is interesting and dynamic

There is no need for players and GMs to try to come up with interesting tactics. Or waste actions trying things of questionable value because the interesting shall be built in. There will be, at least, help for the GM to introduce interesting complications and unexpected events into a conflict. Possibly this will even be automatic.

It is cinematic and fluid

You never feel like your character is swimming though mud, or standing around with a dumb look on his face waiting for his next action. You never feel like you have to choose between maneuvering and attacking. There is no cop out assumption that, "your character does a lot more in a round then you roll for."

It is fast and easy to adjudicate

One conflict doesn't take all night. You don't dread adjudicating a fight. Players fear conflict because of the consequences of losing, not because of it they won't be able to participate.

There are no unimportant characters

Each character can bring their unique abilities to a conflict because each ability is valuable towards reaching the goal of the conflict. There are multiple ways to achieve a goal and various strategies can be pursued in a conflict.