Dev DIARY #4 - CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON…NOT SO FAST!

Kick action black and white - by Steven Wu

Early on it a seemingly benign creative decision appeared in front of me that needed to be addressed. There is no drama here, no big story or revolutionary approach, but rather a small choice that vastly changes the game and the way it is played. Its sole purpose was to shut down or at least deter meta-gaming.

META IS BETTA’!

Meta-gaming is a thing. For those not in the know, meta-gaming refers to players looking at stats (damage, hit probability, area of effect, fiend stats) and choosing their actions based on min/maxing the stats in order to win. Whether we like it or not, or are guilty of it or not ::raises hand (I can’t help it numbers don’t lie!), you cannot get away from the fact that in most RPGs, at least the ones that I have played, some weapons do more damage than others, and this matches reality. A Ji (dagger-ax) will do more damage than a knife, so why would you ever use a knife??? More on this later, but for now…different unarmed attacks do different damage as well. A punch does not carry the same force as a kick even though a punch has knockout power as well.

If we look at the Mantis Boxer style as an example, when creating the character the player chooses 2 strikes and 2 kicks. All strikes do 1 damage and all kicks do 2 damage. What’s the difference? Some strikes only attack the head, or body, or groin for example, and produce different CRITS when an enemy is BROKEN. The same goes for kicks. So the obvious choice in combat aside from someone roleplaying flavor, would be to kick all of the time. How do you prevent a player from spamming the same move over and over?

Dice’D carrots.

The first method I chose to use to combat meta-gaming, to stop people (like me) from gaming the system (I still think this is perfectly fine) is to use dice. Dice, or probability is a good way to randomize anything and leave it to chance. We can stack that chance in our favor by adding more dice, or changing the measure of success with a wider range, but ultimately the game of chance is introduced into the equation. So rather than players during character creation always choosing the techniques that do the most damage, I chose to randomize this which accomplishes more than one thing.

The second benefit of rolling for fighting techniques is, it introduces players to new techniques each time they make a character, and it gives each boxer they create a unique feel. It was a better outcome than I had anticipated when I initially made the decision, but it still did not solve the second problem caused by pesky meta gamers (I really don’t mind them) — SPAM!!!

Each character starts with 4 fighting techniques. Some styles have throws and submissions, which can do up to 3 damage. So why would a player choose to use anything other than their highest damage dealing technique in combat? It makes no sense outside of role-playing. Fists & Fiends is a low hit point game, meaning each character has very little in the way of damage they can sustain before being BROKEN (CRITS happen here), and this applies to the fiends as well. Some of the initial encounters in the main campaign have raiders with only 3 health. If a player has a move that can do 3 damage then this is an obvious choice on what move to pull off in order to survive and defeated that fiend. But there is a bit more to this…

First, the players do not know how much health the fiends have and a GM should hide this from them. This doesn’t stop the simple fact that maybe they played this mission before, or they have the GM’s Guidebook and know the stats. This is where the carrot comes in. At the end of each mission/game session we have the XP Checklist. Here each player is awarded experience points to give their character, which are used later in the XP Economy to buy new techniques, raise skills or acquire new skills, level up their boxing style, and more.

One of the questions during this phase is — “Did you mix up your fighting techniques?” If the player answers ‘yes’ to this question they get 1 XP (10 is the max for each mission) - a carrot vs a stick —> a GM trying to enforce some draconian rule to force players to stop meta-gaming. Instead the player can choose for themselves if spamming a technique is worth the slower progression of their character, or if they like carrots and want to vary their fighting techniques in combat.

DIVING DEEPER

Polearms pencil drawing - by Randy Brown. Right to left - Reclining Moon Blade, Wide-Bladed Great Blade, Tiger Tooth Blade, Dagger-Ax, Slicing Blade, Spear, Iron Staff, Staff.

When I played D&D back in high school, it made no sense to me why a player would give their character certain weapons over others. For example, why have a fighter use a short sword which only does 1D6 damage vs Small/Medium opponents and 1D8 vs Large, when they can use a long sword that does 1D8 damage vs Small/Medium and D12(!) vs Large enemies??? The stats don’t lie, aside from pure flavor and roleplaying it is asinine to take a lower damage dealing weapon when facing monsters bent on destroying our character. The same problem came up when designing the weapons tables for Fists & Fiends.

The Chinese have a myriad of weapons they have developed over a few millennia. It is quite impressive but many of them are similar in size, shape, and sharp edgy pointy parts. So how and why is there any benefit to using a different weapon?

When laying out the weapons, since players will undoubtedly encounter armed foes, and after defeating said foes will want to keep their shiny toys. The meta game of choosing the most powerful weapon is negated due to the fact that post-cataclysm the characters do not have access to an armory full of weaponry to choose from. THEY are the WEAPONS!

However, I did choose to leave out some of the weapons that were still common in the late Qing dynasty. This was due strictly to a particular weapon offering no discernible difference from another weapon e.g., length (range), 2 Hand vs 1 Hand, speed, weight of the weapon (encumbrance), or coordination required.

The fun part though, was devising ways in which the weapons have their own individual identity. Why use a dagger for example over a saber? The saber clearly does more damage.

WEAPON IDENTITY

Let me start by saying Fists & Fiends is a martial arts combat game focused on unarmed combat. Hand-to-Hand combat is the appetizer, the bread and butter, and the main course of the game. It is super fun and full of variation, but…the weapons are the dessert. Everyone likes picking up a weapon and swinging it at a fiend. Weapons fascinate us. As a young boy I was enthralled with the amazing weapons depicted in AD&D’s Oriental Adventures. They take on an almost magical aura; until you have to clean them, polish them, and keep the rust from overtaking them. Once maintenance enters the formula they lose some of their allure.

Back to the topic at hand. Defining advantages and uniqueness to each and every blade, pole weapon, or flex weapon was challenging, fun, and exciting. This is accomplished through Weapon Features. Some examples of features are: LONG, V-LONG (very long), FAST, AGILE, ENSNARE, SHATTER, etc. Each of these added to a weapon creates an individual purpose and strategy to using it. V-LONG for example is for long polearms. An NPC with a club attacking a character wielding a weapon with this the V-Long feature, for example a dagger-ax, must have 2 extra successes on their roll in order to succeed at bridging the distance and not getting stabbed in the process.

Attacks with FAST weapons such as a dagger use a Fast Action instead of a Slow Action. On a players turn they get 2 actions: 1 Slow and 1 Fast, or 2 Fast. Attacks are Slow, so a FAST weapon can attack twice in one round. AGILE weapons such a all Flexible Weapons (chain whips, 3-section staff, rope dart, meteor hammer) all require the wielder to have a minimum skill level in Agility or they hurt themselves using the weapons. An advantage to these weapons though, is the ENSNARE feature. This allows the attacker to ensnare the enemy after a successful attack, forcing them to have to escape in order to attack again. SHATTER is not common, but there were weapons designed explicitly to break other weapons. One such weapon is a tie jian (swordbreaker).

There are several more features I did not list here. Combining these creates variation as well as a weapon being one-handed versus two-handed. All of these factors make someone choosing a weapon strictly for its damage rating superficial.

Coming Up Next…

Analysis Paralysis. Minor ways we can help prevent players from becoming paralyzed trying to decide what to do on their turn.