Lately I have been perusing various skirmish rules systems for ideas. I recently picked up Galactic Heroes and have gleaned some ideas from it. Interestingly, I originally shied away from it because it uses card activation (which I dislike). However, I now see that one could easily dispense with the cards and still play the combat system. I have also been reviewing old Osprey sets that I have picked up over the years. I really have an addiction to their rules - the price is right - even if I rarely end up playing the games.
Which brings me to In Her Majesty's Name (I told you I'd get there). This is one of those Osprey rules sets I have on my e-reader. I picked it up years ago because I have an interest in Victorian science fiction (which you can probably tell from my retrospective on Space 1889).
I never bothered to play it, for a variety of reasons. I didn't have any figures and was reluctant to start up a new project. Furthermore, the rules themselves use a D10 and I am firmly in the D6 camp. Thus, it ended up in my archive - until recently.
As I mentioned, I have been perusing various skirmish sets. I took another look at IHMN and was rather surprised by what I read. Despite using a D10, there were quite a few similarities between IHMN and the skirmish rules I have been developing. Both sets give each figure a Shoot (ranged combat) and Fight (melee) values, which get added to a die roll to hit. Any figure that gets hit must then roll to determine the impact - there is a possibility that the hit will do no damage.
One difference, though, is the damage resolution. In my rules, the damage roll results in 0-2 wounds, which get marked off the figure's hit points. Most grunts only have 1-2 hp, so tracking is not too onerous. Nevertheless, I still need to track.
In contrast, IHMN features a Pluck roll. If a figure is hit, it must roll greater than the pluck roll to shake off the hit; rolling under means that the figure is out of the action. At first, this concerned me as it seems that any figure, including a hero, only has 1 hit point. But I just noticed that the Pluck values vary; heroes will have a better Pluck, allowing them to shake off more hits.
Let me illustrate. A typical goon might have a Pluck of 6+, giving the goon a 50% chance of surviving a hit. On average, it will take about 2 hits to take down a goon. A hero with a Pluck of 2+ will require an average of about 10 hits before being out of action. I realized that this system essentially provides differing hit points without having to track wounds!
There is still the problem of a lucky hit offing a hero in one shot. I think this can be addressed by giving the player a pool of hero points that can offset a failed Pluck roll. In fact, I think I read that Thud & Blunder, a fantasy rules set by the authors of IHMN, uses a similar system.
Long story short, I am very intrigued by the possibilities of a Pluck role and am thinking of experimenting with it for my skirmish rules.
