Rock-Paper-Scissors Combat with Attack Predictions
The basic idea:
Here’s a diagram (If it doesn’t look at all like it does on mobile, sorry):
Light — + — Heavy
| x |
* x x *
Defend = Counter
—Evade—
Defend beats Light Attack,
Counter beats Heavy Attack,
Light Attack beats Counter,
Heavy Attack beats Defend.
Evade is an attempt to escape, create distance, or recover.
Clashing attacks fail to inflict damage while increasing the potential damage of the next successful attack.
This is the basic idea. There are a few specifics and a few more I haven’t fleshed out yet.
Turn Order:
The mechanic that rock-paper-scissors fully depends upon is that the players do not know what option the other players will choose. Similarly, in real life combat, the fighters can only try to watch and predict for what their opponent might do next. Nobody takes turns. So to translate that to RPG combat, the combatants take each round simultaneously.
It goes like this:
- The players and enemies choose their targets and (preferably privately, such as by noting it) choose their actions.
- Once everyone is prepared, each combatant makes a roll to see if they have the reflexes to predict their opponent’s move. On a success, the combatant is allowed to change their chosen action before the altercation occurs.
- The GM reveals the result of each altercation in the order of initiative. Damage is rolled or calculated. Pressure is added or reduced accordingly.
Ties and Pressure:
When two Attacks meet, it increases the Pressure on both combatants. When a Defend action succeeds (Defend vs Light Attack), the losing side does not take damage, but receives Pressure.
Pressure represents the intensity of an engagement on a combatant and the combatant’s vulnerability to a devastating attack. Thus the number of Pressure points a character has accumulated is added to the damage they receive when they are hit. Since my system is a dice pool, each point adds an extra d6 to roll for damage.
All Pressure points are expended in one hit and Pressure is reduced to 0 after that hit. Pressure can only otherwise be reduced by ending combat or performing a successful Evade action—the specifics of which I don’t have figured out yet, other than that it obviously should be decided by some kind of roll.
It occurred to me earlier today that there should be some max amount of Pressure that staggers a character, leaving them completely open to attack (think of the stagger mechanic in Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Sekiro). The reason for adding this is to avoid a player from spamming the Light Attack indefinitely as it’s the only action which, when beaten, doesn’t result in its user taking damage. So the maximum pressure on a character I think should be around 5 and likely based on a stat.
As for ties in which both fighters attempt to Defend or Counter—nothing happens. Some systems just have a chance of nothing happening. In DND, both fighters may happen to just roll under their target’s armor class. I think my system here presents something at least more narratively compelling: “You watch each other closely, waiting for the other to move first.”
—That said, I just reread some earlier notes I wrote which say that any tie should increase Pressure. Something to consider.
Combat Actions:
Light Attack - Could also be called a Normal Attack. The idea is that it is an attack that is less committed and able to be performed while maintaining a tight defense.
Heavy Attack - Could also be called a Special Attack. Any kind of attack that takes more commitment or leaves the user vulnerable to being countered. Since it comes with more risk than the Light Attack, it should have more reward—inflicting more damage, or having special effects based on the user’s skill or weapon for example.
Defend - Pretty self-explanatory. Character defends themself while holding their ground, tiring their opponent out (inflicting them with Pressure).
Counter - Also straightforward. The user takes advantage of the opening created by an opponent’s Heavy Attack. The only detail is whether a Counter’s damage is more comparable to a Light or a Heavy Attack—I think this should be heavily dependent on weapon and character.
Evade - An attempt to reduce one’s pressure. I can’t say exactly how this works yet except it involves a roll. I think also if a character fails to Evade while their opponent Attacks, the damage from Pressure should be ignored or reduced.
There is no hit dice as the rock-paper-scissors aspect determines what hits. There may be damage rolls depending on the dice system. My intent for my own system is low-numbers with a dice pool, so I’m opting for attacks doing a base amount of damage (Light Attack does 1, Heavy does 2, for example. This can be dependent on weapons) with added damage from Pressure dice and potentially from special effect dice.
There’s something fun that the system lends itself to: different effects for the different actions, all unique to your character’s weapons and skillset. I can foresee this easily getting bloated and overcomplicated, however, so I’ll have to define limits on it before moving forward.
Gaps and Potential Drawbacks
- Deciding actions privately. While I think it may overall speed up combat by just having everyone prepare at once, it may kind of remove a lot of the potential for planning and teamwork. They could likely coordinate in a lot of ways, but what action they choose (Light, Heavy, Defend, Counter) has to be kept from the GM unless the GM decides for the enemies before the players, are really good at not metagaming, or somehow roll for the enemies instead (which could increase time drastically).
- Group fighting. As it is now, I feel that if anyone faces more than one opponent at a time they’re just getting jumped (not dissimilar to real life, but not always fun). If a combatant is engaged with two enemies and tries to, let’s say, Counter—one enemy might Heavy Attack and get beat while the other does a Light Attack. And what if they both did a Heavy? What if there was a third one who also threw a Heavy? Can the one combatant really Counter all three of them simultaneously? That doesn’t seem right.
— In something like DND, armor class would take care of this. A 1 vs. 4 could look bad, but if the 1 has good enough armor they have a chance of getting out unscathed. My own system is an investigation-themed sci-fi. Player characters are expected to usually be in civilian clothing or adjacent to that, so that doesn’t really work the same way. My intent is for combat to be a payoff for finding the bad guys and an “oh shit” moment for when there’s no other choice. Hence I’m not terribly worried about characters just getting jumped when they’re outnumbered as it’s realistic and can serve the players too if they plan for it, but still.
— I’ve thought a solution might lay in the Evade action and could be about making the distance to single out enemies one-by-one rather than taking them all at once. I really should define that Evade action.
- Lots of opportunities for cool moves and special effects and such, but as I states earlier these increase complexity and make the player’s remember more things which may not even come up once a session.
- Needs more playtesting.
- Probably other things that I’m missing or forgetting. So far I’ve only worked on this while having nothing else to do at my night shift job, so it’s possible I’ll take a look back on my off days and realize none of it makes sense or something lol.
Conclusion:
At any rate. My hope for the system is that it feels engaging and feels like fighting. No more “I roll to attack. It misses.” By knowing each move you do, why you miss or why you hit or why you get hit, combat becomes a story without much flavoring necessary. Please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, questions, etc.