Ulisses North America

Hello,

I have made a little project .... rules modifications for having more tactical fights in the TDE.

For me the TDE system is not used at his plain potential ... it offers very good possibilities to make combat more interesting without being too much complicated.

Here is my idea (please excuse the english language of a french player )

Rule 1 : Keeping almost of the original TDE combat rules untouched ...
Rule 2 : Keeping the possibility to use correctly the combat focus rules of the supplements with the modifications made.

Major modification 1 : Parry score calculation is modified. It's calculated exactly like the Attack score (so it will be combat technique score + 1/every 3 points beyond 8 in the CT attribute). By the fact, Parry score is no more "lowered" in comparison with Attack score.

Major modification 2 :
Attack and Parry check are now treated like "Compared Check". When you make AT or PA check you first determine a QL like this :
Every "3 points" starting at your adjusted AT/PA score, the dice give you 1 QL
(if you have an AT of 14 with your weapon, 14 to 12 = 1QL, 11 to 9 = 2QL, 8 to 6 = 3QL etc ...)

You compare AT and PA QLs of the two opponents :
AT QLs = PA QLs -----> Attack is stopped, no more effect

AT QLs > PA QLS ------> The AT is a success and ... if X is the difference of QLs between AT and PA, the attacker will have a bonus of X for his next attack with two conditions : He attacks the same opponent, and makes this next attack the same round or the next round.

AT QLs < PA QLs-----> The PA is a success ...if X is the difference of QLs between AT and PA, the defender will have a bonus of X for his next attack with two conditions : He attacks the opponent whose attack was parried, and makes this next attack the same round or the next round.


I hope you will understand my idea .... if you want to clarify my english description it could be cool

Major Modification 3 : Shields have no more the x2 to the PA bonus when making a parry. They just keep the original score (+1/+2/+3)

Precision : This rules don't apply for dodge or non humanoids creatures defense score. If the defender don't use parry against an attack, just keep the original rule.

That's my little idea

With this rules, an opponent can gain an advantage against the other the first round, and then a must make a clever use of his AT bonus.
For example a can take profit of this "advantage" bonus to use a special combat capacity.
Also, Feint or Full defense are more interesting this way. Fighting can be done with some tactical reflexions

To me it sounds less tactical and more luck based than the original as the actual die roll becomes more important than my tactical decisions

bluedragon7 wrote:To me it sounds less tactical and more luck based than the original as the actual die roll becomes more important than my tactical decisions

Its a good point ....

In my idea the original system is just a question of relative chance on AT check. The PA check are very low (less than 50% chance). So if the AT succeed the chances to parry it are very limited.

In my system, the more good you are, and the best AT modifier you gain (surprise, favorable condition) .. the more chances you have to hit your opponent. Then with the advantage bonus youre chance to succeed a special maneuver is less up to chance ... you can work for the best chance to succeed.
For PA the very chance based check of the original rules is replaced by a more « talent based » check I think

Dany40 wrote:

bluedragon7 wrote:To me it sounds less tactical and more luck based than the original as the actual die roll becomes more important than my tactical decisions

Its a good point ....

In my idea the original system is just a question of relative chance on AT check. The PA check are very low (less than 50% chance). So if the AT succeed the chances to parry it are very limited.

In my system, the more good you are, and the best AT modifier you gain (surprise, favorable condition) .. the more chances you have to hit your opponent. Then with the advantage bonus youre chance to succeed a special maneuver is less up to chance ... you can work for the best chance to succeed.
For PA the very chance based check of the original rules is replaced by a more « talent based » check I think

Well there is a reason why PA was lowered in comparison to the last edition. It made combat take forever. Plus your system devalues shields enormously

I agree... lowered PA is made for avoiding everlasting fights ... but the price is a PA check that have almost nothing to do with a warrior skills. Using Combat Technique /2 reduce strongly the impact of skill, making PA much more « chance based ».
Resolving AT and PA as compared check is very effective against everlasting fights. Le PA check reduction become useless I think.
The only way to have a « no effet » situation is to have the same QLs on the two checks. All the other cases impose an evolution of the confrontation (bonus / malus ...).

For the shield ... in a compared check every +1 is important. A typical shield will give +2 to PA, in the same time the only way to have a +2 for the AT check is « favorable conditions ».

Important precision about this rule, maybe I was not clear :
A PA with less QLs than the AT is always a fail ...

For example if a hero makes an AT with 2 QLs and the opponent make a PA check with 1 QL ... the PA fail, damages are calculated AND the hero will have a + 1 AT for his next attack against this opponent.

My version off « augmented » combat System is ready to be tested

I followed the advices : the « advantage » bonus is Now cumulative round after round with a +6 maximum.

I made a little modification of my rules ... inspired by a great idea coming from an RPG I love : Eclipse Phase.

It's a new way to calcultate the QLs of an AT or PA test.

Now ... the QL will be calculated more easily, just with the dice reading. The score on the dice is the margin of success for QLs calculation.

So ... if you have AT 14 with your weapon and you make 11 on the dice, your magic of success is directly 11. Reading the QLs table on the character sheet you know you have 4 QLs.

2 good points with this method :

- Easy calculation and reading for keeping a dynamic pace in combat.
- The more High is you're AT score, the more QLs you can have ... it's direct and clear.

I'm going to test my new mechanics this summer .... my players are very interested ... I will make a report here

That is a bit counterintuitive as a lower roll is in general considered better across TDE
You could make it that a 1 always is QL6