Streamlining Hit Locations
Mycenean Bronze Armour. It's like a Devo hat for the whole body.
I love hit locations. Runequest was my first game and I've been a sucker for it since. But the whole combat procedure is so arduous, particularly for the GM. I often daydream in the shower about how you could more easily model it.
Something clicked when I watched this @robinswords YouTube short - Armor protects more than what it covers. (It's like 15 seconds long, you might as well watch it.)
Armor doesn't just protect what is underneath, but by extension the rest of the body. When you're unarmoured, every provocation has the potential to be a genuine threat... With every piece of armour you add, you remove, or at least mitigate one avenue of attack... When you reduce the number of viable targets your opponent has, the easier it is to split your attention between what's left.
The idea is that you can focus your defence on your unarmoured locations, directing blows to areas that are less vulnerable.
My goal here is not to get too deep in the HEMA weeds, but to use this principle to make a swiftly resolving system that allows for tactical thinking for both attackers and defenders.
Here's the idea:
The System
Rounds
Combat is divided into rounds. Each round, each combatant takes a turn in order, from combatant with the highest Stance score to lowest.
Hit Locations
Each character may be targeted on their various hit locations. Hit locations may each have light or heavy armour.
For a human, these are:
- head
- torso
- left arm
- left leg
- right arm
- right leg
Attacking
The Attacker rolls 2 dice, taking the 2nd highest. The Defender may direct the blow, choosing which location is hit.
On a double the attacker chooses the hit location.
On a triple the attacker ignores armour, too.
Smaller dice are more likely to crit, allowing targeting.
Bigger dice can do more damage, potentially bypassing armour.
- Precision attack on 2d4
- Standard attack on 2d6
- Heavy attack on 2d8 (heavy weapons only)
Gain another die by securing an advantage:
- Fight with a teammate
- Unbalance or hamper your foe
- Fight someone injured, less trained or demoralized [This could be abstracted as a difference in Stance perhaps]
Lose a die by being obstructed:
- Poor footing/visibility
- Injured fighting arm
- Opponent carries a shield [There is a strange interaction where it might be better to roll 1 die than 2, especially on Heavy attacks.]
Damage
Damage is tiered, based on the dice rolled.
TIER I: 1 = nick / knock / prick
TIER II: 2-3 = slash / clatter / poke
TIER III: 4-5 = slice / crunch / pierce
TIER IV: 6-7 = sever / crush / impale
TIER V: 8 = savage / obliterate / gore
A second instance of damage on a location will always increase the tier.
Armour
Armour may be Light or Heavy. Heavy armour is expensive; most soldiers can only afford a Heavy breastplate, and perhaps a helmet.
- Light armour: Reduce Damage Tier by 1
- Heavy armour: Reduce Damage Tier by 2.
Stance
Stance determines initiative: in each round of combat, resolve combatants' turns in descending order of Stance.
When defending: Spend Stance 1-for-1 to reduce Damage Tier.
When attacking: Spend 1 Stance to declare a lunge before rolling. Choose the higher damage die on this hit.
Retreat: Instead of attacking, fall back on the battlefield to recover Stance to maximum. This may not be possible, or may leave the character in a disadvantageous or vulnerable position.
[This requires playtesting, but Stance will be a low number - perhaps 3 for starting characters.]