Intercept

I ran another game using my homebrew rules.

The Mission

Blue is the player side.

The mission is an intercept. Blue must stop the bombers.

Forces:

• Blue - 2 advanced* fighters with average pilots
• Red - 2 medium bombers and 1 advanced escort with an average pilot

* I classify fighters as poor, average, or advanced. Aircraft quality modifies maneuver rolls.

Mission Report

Blue spots the enemy and engages.

Blue 1 takes on the escort. It's shots rattle the pilot.

Blue 2 goes for the bombers and damages one.

But the escort gets on Blue 2's tail. It's shots rattle Blue 2 but he still manages to shoot down a bomber.

The escort chases Blue 2 while Blue 1 goes for the remaining bomber. Shots whizz by both planes but do no damage.

The escort damages Blue 2. Blue 1 does more damage to the bomber.

The bomber makes it to the target zone. As AA fire erupts, the fighters break off.

AA hits the bomber. It comes crashing down without releasing its payload.

 Victory for the Blue team.

GAME NOTES

I tried a different mission this time, but I don't yet have rules for bombers. I had to improvise as the game wore on. Here are some notes on these rules.

• I did not roll for bombers. Instead, I assumed they roll a 2. The upshot to this is that fighters
• don't get a shot if they roll 1-2 for maneuvering
• get a side shot if they roll 3
• get a tailing shot if they roll 4-6
• I'm thinking of modifying it so the fighters only get a side shot on a 4. This means that bombers effectively would have a 2.5 for their maneuvering roll.
• Bombers rolled for defensive fire before fighters roll an attack. They need to roll a 5-6 against tailing fighters or a 6 vs fighters taking a side shot.
• Bombers could take 3 damage.
• I rolled randomly to see how many turns it would take for the bomber to reach the target. I forget what I rolled, but for the future I'm thinking D6 + x number of turns. I haven't decided what x should be.
• Once over the target, bombers face anti-aircraft fire. In this case, I rolled a single D6. I scored a 6 so that definitely hit. I haven't decided what the target number should be but I will probably use the same rules as my bomb run game.
• Obviously, I did not have to determine how to work bombing this game. Again, I may re-use my bomb run rules.

Ground Attack

After testing Warbirds, I decided to run another scenario using my homebrew rules.

Rather than a dogfight, I decided to generate a scenario randomly. Using my campaign rules for tiny air combat, I rolled a ground attack with one plane.

Once again, Hank takes to the skies. He is an average pilot in an average plane, which means no modifiers.

On his way to the target, he crosses paths with an enemy fighter. They circle each other for some time before Hank breaks off.

Then he runs afoul of two enemy fighters. They do some damage.

Hank escapes and manages to make it to the target.

AA fire rattles him so he misses.

He tries a couple more passes before AA fire hits him. His plane is in bad shape so he heads for home.

The enemy pounces on him!

But he manages to shake them and escape home!

Sadly, he fails his mission.

NOTES

Here are some issues that cropped up.

• Dogfight turn limit - the initial dogfight went on a long time before I decided that Hank needed to focus on his mission. This experience taught me that I should add a turn limit, like Warbirds' rounds to ground rule.
• Evasion rules - what if my pilot doesn't want to dogfight? How should I handle that? I have rules for fleeing but they assume that the plane rushes back home. I may modify them to allow a plane to escape combat and resume its mission.
• Ground attack - I kind of fudged the ground attack rules. I need to formalize them.

Warbirds Play Through

Let's move on in my experiments with air combat rules. Last is Warbirds.

THE GAME

Warbirds is a roleplaying game of dueling fighter pilots in a fictional, diesel-era world.

Important Stats

Like typical RPGs, Warbirds allows you to stat out your character. 

• Player characters have rating for three attributes: Body, Mind, and Spirit. 
• 0 represents an average person.
• There is a derived attribute called Situational Awareness that plays a role in air combat. It is the sum of Body, Mind, and Spirit. PCs generally start at a +1.
• Characters also have ratings for Piloting. Gunnery, Ordnance, and Strafing skills. These typically start at 1 or 2.

The planes also have stats.

• They are rated for Performance, Armour, and Structure.
• Players outfit their planes with weapons, which have unique stats.
• Players can also buy special traits for their planes.

If you don't want to build your own warbird, the publisher offers a sourcebook for World War 2 planes.

I'll reference these stats throughout my play through.

MY PLAY THROUGH

My Pilot

Since this is a test, I'm not going to create a full character. I'll just generate the stats I'll need.

Our hero is Frank. He has

• Situational Awareness (SA) = 1
• Piloting = 2
• Gunnery = 1

He flies a Spitfire. which has

• Performance = 3
• Armor = 2
• Structure = 3
• Light machine guns (+1 damage)
• The reduced turn trait which gives +1 for Dogfight rolls.

Warbirds does not have tables to generate scenarios. Being an RPG, it is up to the GM. For today, I'll keep it simple. Frank meets an Me109, with Performance/Armor/Structure of 3/2/3. I randomly generate the pilot stats. Frank's opponent has SA = 0, Piloting and Gunnery = 1.

The Dogfight

Our combatants meet in the skies. Let's walk through their dogfight.

Round 1

• Dogfight roll - this is an opposed D6 + Performance + Piloting + SA
• Frank has the advantage over the German, Fritz, with a +7 vs. +4 modifier
• Frank wins the roll. He now has a shot at Fritz.

On Fritz's tail

• Firing - the winner rolls D6 + Weapon Accuracy + Gunnery + SA
• Frank rolls a 4 + 1 + 1 = 6
• Defense - the loser can choose a Defense. Fritz chooses a basic Break
• The Defense score for a Break is Performance + Piloting + SA.
• Fritz has a Defense of 4
• Damage - the shooter does damage = difference in rolls + Weapon Damage - Armor
• Frank scores (6 - 4) + 1 - 2 damage = 1 point
• Fritz has a Structure of 3. 
• He can take 3 points of damage before suffering effects.
• It takes 2 x Structure damage to shoot a plane down

Round 2

• Fritz wins the Dogfight roll.
• He fires with his cannons, which have an Accuracy of -1. He offsets this with his SA of 1
• Frank's Defense = 6
• Fritz cannot beat Frank's defense. Does that mean he cannot hit him?
• I had to check the rules. Fortunately for Fritz, a tie counts as a hit
• Nevertheless, Fritz misses

Final Round

The combatants spent a few rounds circling other and trading ineffective shots. Then:

• Dogfight - Frank wins
• Firing - Franks rolls a 6. Add 2 for mods = 8.
• Defense = 4
• Damage = 4 (difference) + 1 (weapon) - 2 (armor) = 3

Fritz takes a hit!

Fritz now has 4 total damage, which means he is crippled. He takes a -1 penalty to rolls and cannot dogfight. His only option is to Disengage.

• Frank make a Dogfight roll. He scores 1 + 7 (mods) = 8
• Fritz rolls to disengage. He gets +2 for using the Escape defense. 
• Fritz rolls 4 + 3 (mods) + 2 (Escape) = 9

Fritz gets away!

Dogfight 2

With his superior pilot skills, Frank did not give Fritz much of a chance. I decided to try another dogfight with a pilot of equal ability. Here comes Franz

After a few rounds, Franz gets on Frank's tail.

• Firing = 6 (roll) + 2 (Gunnery + SA) - 1 (weapon accuracy) = 7
• Defense = 6
• Damage = 1 (difference) + 3 (weapon damage) - 0 (armor)
• Cannons have 2 points of armor piercing, which means that Frank cannot deduct his Armor from damage
• Final result = 4 points = crippled.

Now it's Frank's turn!
By the way, 1 vs. 1 dogfights make for boring pictures

Fortunately, Frank was able to escape!

ANALYSIS

What do I think?

What I Like

• Defense options - when defending, you can choose from multiple options. This gives some player choice.
• For my play through, I only used Break and Escape. There is also a Stunt defense, which gives you a die roll. It's risky; roll low and you do worse than a standard break but roll high and you are better off.
• There are also a number of advanced Stunts, like Stall, Scissors, Yo-Yo, etc. Each has different effects.
• Intuitive rules - they make sense and should be easy to remember given experience.
• Scaleable - I just did a 1 on 1, but you can have a plethora of planes in combat. Warbirds offers a tracker to help you handle multiple planes.

• Not just dogfighting - I'm just scratching the surface here. Warbirds has rules for all sorts of missions, including strafing and bombing. I plan to mine it thoroughly for ideas.
• Aircraft creation - being an RPG set in a fictional world, you aren't confined to historical planes. You can design your own warbird, fitting it out as you like. This may give me some ideas when I run imagi-nation aerial combat.
• Rounds to ground - the rules assume that planes slowly lose altitude as they engage. After a number of turns (set by the GM), they must break off or crash into the ground. This means that dogfights won't drag on forever. What a great mechanic.

What I Don't Like

• Lots of modifiers - characters have 5 different stats that apply to aerial combat. This makes sense for an RPG, but is too much for my quick-play skirmishes.
• RPG setting - some people like it but I think their setting is silly. Of course, I'm not using their setting so I can ignore this section of the rules. The problem is that it pads the number of pages. As a result, the PDF is quite large. I wish they would publish a stand-alone set of aerial combat rules.
• Hard to hit - I found it difficult to score hits, especially with an inferior pilot. Partially this is because I roll poorly, but even with Fritz, I needed to roll a 6 to hit. This probably works pretty well for an RPG, but could make combat drag.

Final Analysis

Warbirds has a lot of great ideas. As an RPG, it probably has more chrome than I need. Therefore, I doubt I will play it as is. Nevertheless, I plan to borrow from it liberally.

Aces Up Play Through

Up next in my air combat game play throughs is Aces Up.

THE GAME

Aces Up is a World War I air combat game from Two Hour Wargames.

In the game, you are a fighter pilot dogfighting the enemy.

MY PLAY THROUGH

My Pilot

In Aces Up, each player has a personal pilot. Kind of like your own player character.

I rolled randomly to determine his aircraft. My pilot, let's call him Hank, flies a SPAD VII.

He starts with a reputation (REP) of 4. This is a crucial stat as it is the target for most rolls in the game. You need to roll equal or under REP to pass a roll.

The Mission

I start with the first mission of the campaign. Hank flies solo on a line patrol. His objective is to shoot down or drive off all enemy planes.

I randomly determine the enemies. There are 3 PEFs (potential enemy forces) on the campaign map.

The PEFs could be enemy aircraft, or they could be nothing.

Encounters

Hank first scouts sector 5. I test vs. an enemy REP of 4. I get 1 pass on 2 dice. This equates to empty skies on the encounter table.

In sector 2, Hank spots an enemy aircraft. It's a sole Albatross with REP of 4.

The Dogfight

We now go to combat.

Round 1

Each round features multiple steps, each generally requiring rolls on various tables.

Note - AU includes random event cards, which you draw prior to combat. I ignored them in this play through.

• Match Up - roll to determine which planes match up vs. each other. This does not really apply in a 1 vs 1 dogfight.
• Dogfight roll - each plane makes a test using 2 dice + any bonus dice
• 1 choose to use 2 of Hank's 4 bonus dice
• I roll to determine how many bonus dice the German uses. He uses 3
• Each side rolls vs. REP.
• Hank passes 2 and the Albatross passes 1. Hank wins!

Hank now has the drop on the German. Can he line up for a shot?

• Take Control roll - each plane makes a test like the Dogfight roll
• This means determining bonus dice then rolling the dice pools
• This time, the Albatross passes more than Hank. Hank cannot get a shot.

Rounds 2-3

These rounds are similar to round 1. One of the planes wins the dogfight roll but cannot take control.

Round 4

This time, Hank wins the dogfight and takes control. He's ready to shoot.

• Burst roll - roll randomly to determine the length of the burst. Hank gets in a Long burst.
• Fire roll - determine if the attacker hits the target
• Your target number depends on the length of your burst and your plane's Barrels. Hank has a 2, which means he needs a 1-2 to pass
• Hank gets 2 passes! This does 1 point of damage to the Albatross, which can take 5 hits.
• Continue On - this is essentially a non-player plane morale roll.
• Roll vs. REP - Damage
• The Albatross fails so it breaks off
• Heading Home - determines what happens to a plane that breaks off
• The Albatross passes, so it escapes safely

Hank was involved in one dogfight and drove off the enemy

Completing the Mission

Hank scouts sector 1 but there is nothing.

He returns home, having succeeded in his mission.

ANALYSIS

What do I think about Aces Up?

What I Like

• Small space - The game fits into a small space. As such, it is one of the inspirations for my current project. I want a game that can fit on a lap desk. AU fits that bill.
• Relative movement - This is why I'm experimenting with AU. It's hard to fit aircraft maneuvers on small board. Having aircraft move relative to one another solves the space problem.
• Bonus dice - one issue with relative movement is the lack of decision-making, given that games usually determine it with opposed dice rolls or card draws. AU mitigates the lack of decision-making by giving you bonus dice. You have to decide how to spend this resource.
• QRS - Two Hour Wargames regularly feature all the tables in the back. This makes reference much easier.

What I Don't Like

• Too many dice rolls - AU just has too many steps. Just to get a shot, you have to win a Dogfight roll and a Take Control roll. If you win both, you then roll to determine the length of your burst. Then you finally get to see if you hit. The process can be streamlined - Maneuver, Attack, Damage.
• Dice pools - Two Hour Wargames has a standard mechanic featuring dice pools. I dislike dice pools because it slows down the game for me. For example, in Hank's combats I would collect Hank's dice pool, roll, and count successes. Then I'd gather the opponent's dice pool, roll, and count successes. I find it easier to roll 1 die per plane. I can roll for multiple planes simultaneously (I use different colored dice to keep track).
• Bonus dice - while I like the use of bonus dice to add decision-making, I hate having to track them for the non-player planes. It was clunky with just one enemy. I can't imagine having 2 or 3!
• Lack of aircraft - AU only has stats for half a dozen fighters and no reconnaissance planes or bombers. 

Final Analysis

AU is a bit slower than I like. I doubt I'll play it as written.

Nevertheless, it has some good ideas that I want to steal. For example, I think I'll use bonus dice, but for the player side only. The game also has some good campaign ideas.

By the way, Kaptain Kobold has a good play through if you'd like to see the game played with multiple planes per side.

Eindekker Play Through

While reading through various air combat rules, I decided to try some out. Over the next few days I'll post my experiences.

THE GAME

First up is Eindekker from Minden Games. It recreates German fighter missions over France in 1915.

MY PLAY THROUGH

Set Up

Instead of using one of the famous aces, I decided to bring back an old character. Karl von Schmutzer featured in an aborted Eindekker campaign from 2013. He completed 3 missions then I abandoned the campaign. Von Schmutzer is an ace with the initiative and gunner abilities.

Normally you can choose which mission to undertake but I rolled randomly. The result was Combat Patrol, which involves patrolling friendly territory.

The Mission

Here is the progress of his mission, by turn.

Turn 1

• Random Event - I roll a 44 on D66, This event only applies if there was a dogfight in the prior turn. In this situation, nothing happens.
• Movement - Karl can move one area or one altitude level (there are 2 levels - Low or High). He chooses to climb to High altitude.
• Victory Points - Karl gets 1 VP for every turn patrolling at High Altitude in the Friendly Territory (FT) Zone. He's still in the Friendly Bases (FB) zone so he gets 0 VPs.

The mission map

Turn 2

• Random Event - Roll = 55. It only applies over the Trench line or in enemy territory, so nothing happens.
• Movement - Karl moves to Friendly Territory (FT)
• Victory Points - Karl is in FT at high altitude so he gets 1 VP.

Turn 3

• Random Event - Another 44 so no event.
• Movement - Karl continues to patrol the FT zone at high altitude
• Victory Points - Another 1 VP

Turn 4

• Random Event - Roll = 53. It only applies to planes over the trench lines, so no event.
• Movement - Stay in FT at high
• Victory Points - Another 1 VP

Turn 5

• Random Event - Roll = 21, enemy fighters. I roll 3 with no special skills
• COMBAT! Now we resolve the encounter
• Round 1 - fight the first plane only.
• For each plane, roll D6 + plane's Combat Strength + mods - damage
• The enemy rolls a 5 + CS of 3 = 8
• Karl rolls 1 + CS of 4 + 1 Ace mod = 6
• But, Karl has the Initiative skill so he can roll again in the first turn. His revised score is 3 + 4 + 1 = 8
• They tie, so nothing happens
• Round 2 - The second plane joins in.
• Start with the first plane.
• Karl rolls 2+4+1=7 vs. 1+3=4
• Karl wins so he rolls on the Damage table to determine the result.
• Roll 2D6. He rolls a 2
• Cross reference against the gun's weapon type and the roll differential.
• The differential is 3 but Karl's Gunner skill bumps that up by 2.
• The result = a moment of triumph. The first enemy goes down.

Yes, I know that's not an Eindekker, but it's what I have. ;)

• Now Karl fight the second plane.
• Karl rolls 6+4+1=11 vs. 2+3=5.
• However, Karl already attacked this turn; he cannot attack twice. This means plane 2 tried to attack but Karl outmaneuvered him.
• Round 3 - the third plane joins.
• Karl squares off vs. plane 2.
• Scores are 1+4+1=6 vs. 4+3=7
• Damage roll = 11, engine. Bullets rip into Karl's engine. It begins to sputter.
• Plane 3 attacks
• Karl scores 6+4+1 and subtract 1 for the engine hit = 10
• Note: the rules say add 1 for damage but that does not seem correct. I subtracted 1 instead 
• Plane 3 scores 3+3=6.
• Again, Karl already engaged so he cannot attack this round.
• Karl does not like his chances with a damaged engine so he decides to flee. The enemy gets one parting attack against him.
• Karl's modified roll is greater than the enemy so he escapes without further damage
• Movement - the dogfight leaves Karl at low altitude
• Victory Points - He gets 10 VP for destroying an enemy aircraft

Turn 6

• Random Event - Another 55, which does not apply
• Movement - Karl moves into the Friendly Base (FB) zone. Because he is at low altitude, he can land. His mission is over
• Victory Points - 0 VP for this turn

Post Mission Actions

• Tally up his VPs for the mission. He gets 13. This essentially equates to a draw for the mission.
• Tally up total VPs for the game. He previously had 62 so now goes up to 75.
• Repair damage. Karl needs a 3 or better on a D6 to repair the engine hit. He rolls a 1. Fail!

On to Mission 5

I can choose to fly the mission with a damaged plane or wait for repairs. I choose to wait but again roll too low to fix the engine!

The Decision

Should Karl try more repairs or fly damaged? He needs 5 more for a draw or 25 more for a win. 25 VPs in one mission is a stretch so he leans towards flying. But you'll have to wait and see what happens next.

ANALYSIS

What I Like

• Fits into a small space
• The mechanics are simple and easy to grasp. 
• Game play is not too long.
• It delivers tension and suspense.

What I Don't Like

• Organization - While the rules are simple, they are scattered throughout the book. I found myself "flipping" around a lot, which is especially hard to do with a PDF! Eindekker could really use a quick reference sheet.
• Narrow focus - You fly an Eindekker. That's your only option. 
• No differentiation between enemy aircraft - Along the same lines, the rules clump enemy planes into 2 broad categories - fighters and bombers/recon planes. There is no differentiation. Now, I am a fan of clumping. I think most games go overboard in making fine distinctions that don't matter much. But this is a bit extreme even for me.
• Use of differences in combat - The combat result depends on the differential between rolls. This means you need to add up all applicable modifiers for every roll. Often, I will roll and only add modifiers if the result is close. If one side rolls a 6 and the other a 1, I don't need to do all the math. But this approach doesn't work if the differential matters.
• Use of damage table - You roll on a table for damage results. Furthermore, the results are not the same across columns. For example, a roll of 10 is an engine hit in column B5, a miss in column B6, and 2 structure hits in column B7. I prefer simple tables I can memorize, but in this situation I have to refer to the table every single time.
• Lack of tactical thought in dogfights - you just roll dice to see if you outmaneuver the enemy. There are no decisions to make. All of Eindekker's decisions focus on resource management., such as 
• How long do I stay in combat? 
• Do I head home once I take damage or do I stick it out?

Final Analysis

it's not a bad game. I can see myself playing it now and then. However, it is not exactly what I'm looking for. I may steal ideas from it, but I'm going to continue to experiment with different systems.

Thank You, Veterans

 Thank you, veterans. God bless you for your service to our nation.

Fast Play MicroSkies

It's officially a project. I'm getting into fast play dogfights.

Objective

My goal with this project is to create a set of rules that allow quick dogfights in a small space for solo play.

Method

As I mentioned last time, I think I need to eschew traditional movement mechanisms used in air combat games. Instead, I'll need to make movement relative. positioning planes in relation to each other depending on how well they maneuver in each turn.

Inspirations

I've been gleaning ideas from a few games that take a similar approach. Rather than move models on a board, they determine position with dice rolls or cards.

• Aces Up - I briefly mentioned this game from Two Hour Wargames last time. I'll do a more thorough overview in a separate post.
• Warbirds - An RPG featuring pulp-style air combat, it features a simple dogfighting system. More info on this one at a later date.
• Eindekker - A solo WW1 air combat game from Minden Games. I reviewed it way back in the early days of my blog. I played it a bit then shelved it.
• Down in Flames - Another game I reviewed in the olden days. I played some test games a few years later.

Next Steps

Expect to see more experiments using the basic MicroBattle mechanics and tests of some of the above rules.

To the Skies!

After my latest bombing mission, I've gone on an air combat craze. But now I want to play out dogfights.

Over the years, I've experimented with many air combat rules and have found some I liked. But now, I want a game that fits on a small board. To make a small board work, I think I need to eschew moving planes around a board. Instead, movement should be relative.

An example of this type of mechanic is Two Hour Wargames' Aces Up.

I need to learn those rules. In the interim, I experimented with some homebrew rules inspired by Aces Up.

Some Quick Experiments

In my first mission, I ran one fighter (blue). He encountered 3 enemy fighters. He destroyed one but then...

Let's try another mission. This time I have two fighters.

First, they run into a lone enemy. It doesn't last long.

Then they encounter 2 enemy fighters. One goes down.

Then they press the advantage against the remaining enemy.

But he turns the tide.

End result: 1 friendly plane damaged and one lost with 2 enemies destroyed.

Assessment

This was actually more fun than I expected. I have also thought that an air game needed maneuvering to be enjoyable. Just rolling dice would get boring.

In this case, I didn't mind. I kept dice rolls to a minimum so the game ran quickly. You may notice that the planes did move around on the board. It was all very free form and based on relative dice rolls. Nevertheless, I had the enjoyment of moving the planes around.

My biggest concern is with lethality. I was shooting (pun intended) for quick combat resolution so I did succeed in that respect. However, the player planes did not last long.

I would like to create a pulp-y feel. The enemy falls in droves but the heroes take a licking and still keep on ticking. I think I'll need to add some hero mechanic to allow them to shrug off damage.

Goodbye, Alice

It was time for a game for Thomasina. I was not in the mood for a battle or a dungeon crawl, so I decided on a bombing run.

In July I posted about some fast play homebrew bombing rules. I played a few games then put it aside. Now I've returned to the skies.

This is a brief account of my second run from last week.

The Squadron
For this mission, my squadron comprises:

• Alice with Malice

• Bouncing Betty

• Charming Charlotte

All are experienced crews.

The Objective
The squadron receives a medium length mission.

The Mission
At first all goes smoothly. They reach the target zone with minimal opposition.

Charlotte shoots down one attacker.

Flak over the target is heavy. As a result, bombing accuracy is low.

On the way home, the opposition stiffens. At first, the squadron sees them off.

But things get hairy. Alice takes some damage.

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the mission, but it got worse. Alice takes very heavy damage and Charlotte is not much better.

Alice cracks up while landing. She is beyond repair and most of the crew are lost.

Game Notes
I was working with hastily scribbled notes but managed to put a somewhat coherent set of rules together.

As you can see, I made a special board for the game. I place the bombers in the central box. There are six arcs surrounding the bomber box. This makes it very easy to determine where the fighters come from.

I also added zones to the missions. Targets can either be close (1 zone), medium (2 zones), or far (3 zones). Each zone can feature multiple waves.

Currently, I'm working out campaign rules. I want to allow the crews gain experience. But heavy damage can reduce experience, representing loss of crew members.

Anyway, more to come!

Fast Play MicroQuest

Back in August, I acquired some fantasy meeples for some fast play dungeon crawls. I only recently managed to use them.

I did not have formalized rules during the game. I just winged it, although I essentially used a variant of MicroBattle.

Since then, I have been working on the rules. Here is what I have so far.

Characters

Each character has the following statistics.

• Class - basically fighters, rogues, or sages
• Level - measure of the character's skill in the class
• Armor Class - none, light, medium, or heavy armor, ranging from 0 to 3 points
• Hit Points - characters start with 2-3 hit points
• Special Abilities - working on these for each class. They'll be short and sweet.

I don't bother with ability scores. I assume that fighters are strong, sages are intelligent, and rogues are dexterous. This simplifies the stats and allows me to keep a party's stats on one index card.

Combat

Combat essentially follows the MicroBattle rules. The player needs to roll a 4 or better for a character to succeed in an action. Advantages add 1 or 2 to the roll while disadvantages subtract 1 or 2.

I determine which side has advantage in the combat by comparing levels. The PCs have an advantage if they are higher level or have a disadvantage if they are lower.

Combat is "player-facing," which means that the PCs always roll. The monsters never do. When the monsters attack, the PCs roll defense.

Damage

In order to reduce hit point tracking, I made a modification to damage. When a hit occurs, roll a D6, with the following results.

• 4-6 - take 1 hit point of damage
• 1-3 - the character is stunned

I'm still working out what a stun does. In my test game, stunned characters had to spend a turn recovering, essentially losing an attack. To speed things up, I may just give stunned characters a disadvantage.

And the Rest

I still need to work out the rest of the rules. But I feel I have a decent start.

Stay tuned for more!