Talk:Scratch

simplified healing

What if we simplified the healing rule so that characters can only be healed once per encounter, but healing always restored the character to healthy (stamina +1)? (I realize that there currently is no limit on healing, but a more complex healing limit than what I have proposed here is may soon be incoming.)--BFGalbraith 18:04, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

altered states

Players have suggested using a coin to keep track of whether you are delayed.

We could put a checkbox on the character sheet to remind players of states they may need to keep track of:

• delayed
• panicked
• engage-d (-2 defense)
• take cover-ed (+2 defense)
• initiative

shared initiative

In The Dark Woods and some other games, all characters controlled by the same player should have the same initiative. But in GM-ed games like Squawk, the GM will sometimes control groups of enemies that should have different initiative.

We should implement this by saying that each player has an initiative group and the characters the player controls are in his initiative group. This makes it easy for us to add multiple initiative groups for GMs in optional rules. For example:

Each person controlling characters has an initiative group. The initiative group contains the characters that person controls.

Initiative groups take turns during encounters. At the beginning of each encounter, roll a twenty-sided die for each initiative group to determine the order of their turns. This is the group's initiative roll. Groups take turns in order from the highest initiative to the lowest. If two groups have the same initiative, break the tie by rolling another die for both groups until one of them rolls higher. That group goes before the other.

Each character has a turn during each turn of their initiative group. The player controlling the group chooses the order of the turns of the characters in the group.

The above is good group terminology & rules. --BFGalbraith 16:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

How should individual stealth and detection levels affect an initiative group's initiative roll?

• lowest stealth bonus + highest detection bonus?
  • example: in a group of three characters, one has 2 stealth, one has 3 stealth, and one has 4 detection, so the bonus would be 2 x 2 + 4 x 10 = 44
• sum of all initiative bonuses?
  • example: in a group of three characters, one has 2 stealth, one has 3 stealth, and one has 4 detection, so the bonus would be 2 x 2 + 3 x 2 + 4 x 10 = 50

IMHO this is a far more simple question that suggested above. Group initiative is based either on your weakest link (because his clumbsiness gives away group location,) or it is based on your most proficient member (because he's your most effective scout.) --BFGalbraith 16:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

• the highest initiative bonus of any character in the group?
  • example: in a group of three characters, one has 2 stealth, one has 3 stealth, and one has 4 detection, so the bonus would be 40.
  • Might be tricky to describe the rule
    • Not by comparison to the rules above.
  • Balance issues with stealth and detection become more sensitive
    • I don't think balance between initiative abilities justifies the complexity of the other group initiative rule proposals, nor do I think that complexity will adequately address those issues anyways. --BFGalbraith 16:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

holding the person who is holding you

Add "A character who is delayed can try to hold the enemy who held him." to the end of the hold action in the Basic Actions section.

The big risk of getting someone in a hold in real-life is that they can also grab you, immobilizing you as well, even if they have an inferior hold.

This wouldn't just immobilize the attacker, it would delay them. This significantly increases the risk of holding someone. Is it still worth the risk? --SerpLord 14:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Also, now that wrestling holds do damage, this would allow a delayed character to do damage. --SerpLord 14:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

But this is a rule outside of the wrestling rules, and is not referring to the "healthy wrestling attack." It sounds like we are going to have to make a distinction between the HWA and other holds. --BFGalbraith 17:02, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Should you be able to do this whenever you are delayed or only when you are delayed by a hold?

You should always be able to attempt a hold on someone holding you, even when delayed (but being delayed should not give you some kind of special opportunity to hold, when you are not being held.)--BFGalbraith 17:26, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

taking cover while reloading

It makes sense for someone to be using the same cover they had before, even if their projectile weapon has a lot of kick or takes a while to reload. So should you be able to take cover when you are delayed by your own shooting or blasting attack, or should you only be able to STAY in cover when you are delayed by your own shooting or blasting attack?

You should be able to take cover when you do the attack, and you stay in the cover until your next attack. --BFGalbraith 00:01, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

You can also evade, heal or do nothing between attacks. Currently take cover is described as something you do before a long range attack. Can you take cover and evade, take cover and heal, take cover and do nothing? --SerpLord 15:02, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

That sounds perfect to me. --BFGalbraith 17:03, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

grid movement when you are delayed by your own moves

• Being delayed by your own knockout, shooting or blasting shouldn't keep you from moving.
• Getting delayed by a hold action should keep you from moving.
• Should being delayed by a distract action keep you from moving?
• Should we distinguish delayed vs. delayed + immobilized with technical terms?

balance between abilities

Here's how I estimate the approximate value of each ability on a scale where 1 level of an attack ability is worth 1. It's not exactly the same as the CP scale.

command levels may be the most valuable

At command level 10 you can have two 5 CP minions with 1 attack ability level and 4 toughness. These are probably the optimum attack-oriented minions, or close to it. They have above-average, normal-for-PCs toughness. They let you attack three times as often, tripling your success rate.

Being able to attack twice as often might be worth up to 10 attack ability levels, so being able to attack three times as often might be worth 20, which would make command ability levels twice as valuable as attack ability levels.

This is probably an over-estimation of the value of command ability. Command ability minions cannot be healed, and they can be injured more easily than a powerful PC (the sort that would have 10 command ability.)

toughness is more valuable at levels 4 through 7

Toughness is especially valuable at low levels when you have a high risk of getting injured or incapacitated by each attack. None of the other abilities are useful when you are incapacitated, and attack abilities are less useful when you are injured.

• 1 toughness is worth -15 because you can be killed so easily
• 2 toughness is worth -5 because you can survive twice as long
• 3 toughness is worth 0 because you can survive 50% longer
• 4 toughness is worth 3 because you can survive 33% longer
• 5 toughness is worth 5 because you can survive 25% longer
• 6 toughness is worth 7 because you can survive 20% longer
• 7 toughness is worth 9 because you can survive 17% longer
• 8 toughness is worth 10 because you can survive 14% longer
• 9 toughness is worth 11 because you can survive 13% longer
• 10 toughness is worth 12 because you can survive 11% longer

swimming levels are less valuable

the value of each swimming level is strength + frequency of water terrain type × (swimming bonus to agility and attack + distract + hold + evade).

• Strength is worth less than half of an attack ability level. Also the swimming bonus to strength is only valuable if your swimming is greater than your wrestling and your toughness - 3.
• The swimming bonus to agility is worth about ¾ (a bit less than an attack ability bonus)
• The swimming bonus to close range attacks is worth about 1 (assuming you have close range attacks.)
• distract + hold + evade is worth less than half of an attack ability level.
• The frequency of water terrain type is less than 20%.

So the value of each swimming level is less than ½ + 0.2 × (¾ + 1 + ½) = 1. In other words swimming levels are only worth as much as other abilities if you make overly optimistic assumptions about the value of strength, close range attacks, distract, hold and evade.

other ability levels have similar value

All of the other ability levels are well-balanced. Increasing stalking ability, movement ability, craftsmanship or healing from level 1 to level 2 is worth about the same increasing an attack ability from level 1 to level 2.

level 1 abilities have very different values

Having at least 1 level of certain abilities or types of abilities may add extra value.

• +5 for your first attack ability because it doubles attack power when healthy
• +5 for healing (potentially heals several points of damage.)
• +5 for flying because non-flying characters can't hit you with close range attacks when you evade or use a long range attack
• +1 for craftsmanship versatility?
• +1 for your first stalking ability (surprise action)
• +½ for command ability (intimidate action)
• +½ for swimming because non-swimmers and long-range attacks can't hit you when you use swimming to evade
• +0 for other movement abilities

more realistic healing options

games without healing ability (dinosaurs and prehistoric animals)

hardcore

• HP never goes up during combat
  • damage always represents injuries that take a long time to heal.
  • It never represents physical or psychic pain, suffocation or stunning effects that people can recover from during combat. (This could make the rule incompatible with some settings or other optional rules like skills.)
• healing still used in combat with death rules?
  • does first aid remove the healer from combat?
    • NO, either you can use healing as a combat action or you don't use healing until hostilities stop. This is all about how you interpret the duration of combat.
      • If you insist on a very quick flow of combat without pauses for maneuvering and orientation (combat takes seconds), then there is not time in a battle to treat multiple injured allies, and it is not necessary or even appropriate to treat injured allies during combat.
      • If combat turns are more like camera shots in an action movie and clashes in a real fight, which are interrupted by pauses and maneuvers that vary in duration (combat takes minutes), there is time in a battle to treat multiple injured allies or treat an ally and then return fire at an enemy.

milder

• you can only be healed from being incapacitated once per battle. We could give this state a name, like convalescent or wounded.
• we could also limit each healer to healing one character form injured to healthy once per battle.

healing between battles

• everybody heals to stamina + 1 between battles (balance and stability - game designers know you will have most of your HP when you enter a battle.)
• make toughness roll to heal yourself to full HP
• make healing roll for each ally to heal them to full HP

healing skills

• special healing skills might be able to heal you when normal healing actions cannot.
• special toughness skills might allow you to be healed more often.
• toughness skills that help you be healed?

optional death rules

realistic or brutal games like Resilience might have death rules that add dramatic tension and character expendability.