Strike! The game of Tactical Combat and Heedless Adventure

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Strike! The game of Tactical Combat and Heedless Adventure

«‹›55 »

Kojiro: Aug 11, 2003; LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

Gort posted:

So this post started as a reply to the ongoing action point conversation and turned into an effortpost about everything Strike. There's a ton of criticism but it really is one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

In my long-running Strike campaign I also found that nobody was using complications since they felt that the bonus of an action point didn't line up with the amount of trouble the complication could provide. (EG: We're sneaking into the Renraku corporate facility guarded by cyberbasilisks and Red Samurai - is an action point really worth auto-failing the stealth roll?) That may have been a symptom of how I run my games - I basically have a plan for what'll happen in the session (EG: The players told me last session that they want to break into the Renraku facility, so this session I've got an idea of how the facility's laid out, they'll come across this opposition, there'll probably be a fight against two Strikers and a Charger etc) and the players will broadly follow that plan, with off-the-rails stuff being handled by quickly-thrown-together encounters and ad-libbed skill checks. Maybe in other people's games the players are constantly invoking their complications and getting into situations based on them, but in mine they didn't feel an action point was enough payback for the trouble failing a skill check could cause.

I also found that there was pressure for the players to come up with excuses to give their "awesome points" to whoever needed an action point, not really as a reward for doing something truly awesome.

The result was that players effectively had two action points per session, so I just chucked out the awesome point mechanic and gave everyone two action points per session.

-----

While I'm being critical, I'll give some more random feedback from my campaigns - we've done two from level 1 to 10, one was a Warhammer Fantasy thing, the other was Shadowrun:

* I never found a situation that I felt Team Conflict or Chase could handle better than the basic (awesome) skills system. Both systems feel like a lot of interacting with mechanics, rather than fiction being advanced by light mechanics, which is where the skills system really shines.

* We never really interacted with the Wealth system. There's nothing to buy, with no set costs, so in both campaigns the party was just sort of assumed to have whatever they needed to use their powers and skills. I'm not saying you should make a huge list of equipment to buy with set costs or anything like that, just that characters with different levels of wealth in their backgrounds didn't play any differently in the campaigns I ran.

* I'm not a fan of monster damage increasing as you go up in levels, but player health staying almost static. It means the counterbalance to monster damage increasing is stuff like damage reduction increases (which only some characters will have) and powers that negate hits. The result is that at higher levels hitpoints become a lot less of a buffer between a character being up or down, and more of a binary thing where some characters are one bad round away from floored once their defensive powers are used up.

It might be better to have monster damage, player damage reduction, and hit-negating powers be things that are all static at level 1 and never change.

* Characters get too many feats for how many good feats there are. Characters get five feats each by level 10, and there aren't that many good ones. I saw a lot of characters with toughness and fast reactions, and every archer had melee shooter and fast archer, for example.

I was thinking it might be better if characters only had something like two feats total, but they improved with levels. So at level 1 your battle robot character might have the feat Huge, gaining 3 HP and becoming large. Then at level 3 they could be used as cover by friends. Then at level 5 they gain reach. Then at level 7 they can gain a second feat (which might be off a separate list of "advanced feats" that you can't start with), which improves a step at level 9. That way there'd be less cherry-picking of the best mechanics, and more commitment to the theme of a character.

* I'm a lazy GM, so I'd love more pre-made monsters, and especially traps, particularly ones that can be an encounter on their own, like the garbage compactor from Star Wars.

* I like treasure. It'd be cool to have some pre-made stuff like a flaming sword that gives you a fireball encounter power and an at-will firebolt or something like that. Maybe it could also be a skill, "I'm gonna roll flaming sword to cut through Shelob's webs".

-----

Hopefully that doesn't just read like a giant wave of negativity. Strike might be the best RPG I've ever played, and there are things from it I've stolen to use in other RPGs I run. Like the Zeitgeist campaign I'm running in 4e D&D, I threw out their sea combat rules and I just use the skill system from Strike instead. And stuff like combining the to-hit and damage roll into a single throw of a D6 is straight-up brilliant. There are also nice bits like being able to combine any Role or Class in a character instead of being pigeonholed into one particular class if you want that playstyle.

As someone from the party Gort was DMing for, let me just add that every subsequent RPG ruleset we've played I end up mentally comparing to Strike, that is the level to which I loved it. I can't heap enough praise on the characterful simplicity of the skill system in particular! And yeah the class/roles thing is really versatile and opens up so many fun options when making a character.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 14:11

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 11, 2024 21:24

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

Kojiro posted:

As someone from the party Gort was DMing for, let me just add that every subsequent RPG ruleset we've played I end up mentally comparing to Strike, that is the level to which I loved it. I can't heap enough praise on the characterful simplicity of the skill system in particular! And yeah the class/roles thing is really versatile and opens up so many fun options when making a character.

Thanks both of you for the great feedback. That's really awesome and useful.

Could either of you talk about Costs/Conditions? Just in general how did those feel, how often were people rolling with major Conditions, etc?

# ? Aug 7, 2020 15:13

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

Jimbozig posted:

Thanks both of you for the great feedback. That's really awesome and useful.

Could either of you talk about Costs/Conditions? Just in general how did those feel, how often were people rolling with major Conditions, etc?

I mostly used Flaws when Costs came up. So if someone was trying to run a blockade in their sailing ship and rolled "Twist with a Cost", a player might get lost overboard as the Twist, and the ship gets holed on the waterline as the Cost.

I'm not sure we ever used major Conditions - and minor conditions were usually Winded and Exhausted. I'm generally not that big a fan of attrition in RPGs - one of my favourite things about Strike is that you can have a session with four combats in it, or a session with one combat in it, and you can balance them roughly the same. In 4e if players know there'll only be one fight that day, they know they can blow every daily power and healing surge on it, which changes the balance of that fight dramatically.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 15:26

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

The asymmetries between player HP/damage and monster HP/damage have always slightly bothered me, though I mostly regret it for the fact that I can't effectively use custom-made player characters as monsters or realistically have players duel each other. The idea that combat will feel increasingly rocket-taggy to players as they level makes sense.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 18:22

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

Regarding monster damage, I've humored the idea of tying limited HP growth to Roles. So like a defender gets extra +1 HP at even levels, a controller or leader gets +1 at 3, 6, 9, and striker or blaster at 5, or maybe none at all. I haven't looked into math at all nor really brainstormed the specifics though.

# ? Aug 7, 2020 18:47

Ignite Memories: Feb 27, 2005

Gort posted:

* We never really interacted with the Wealth system. There's nothing to buy, with no set costs, so in both campaigns the party was just sort of assumed to have whatever they needed to use their powers and skills. I'm not saying you should make a huge list of equipment to buy with set costs or anything like that, just that characters with different levels of wealth in their backgrounds didn't play any differently in the campaigns I ran.

This was the thing that kinda fizzled the shadowrun-strike game I tried to run, too. Having neat things to buy is an integral part of capitalism and capitalism-based stories - that's why the #1 thing I want is a gear/loot/reward supplement

# ? Aug 10, 2020 16:40

Sir Kodiak: May 14, 2007

Unless we're talking about things that feed into the combat system, which is crunchy enough that loot that's been playtested would be valuable, gear tables seem more setting-specific than I'm looking for out of Strike.

# ? Aug 10, 2020 19:12

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

Strike! does a lot of things well, but I think it just isn't going to work well for gear porn unless you piece out class or class-like powers to gear (and then rebalance stuff to account for the power jump from getting to cherry-pick synergies). The game's numbers are low and stay pretty low, so anything that touches a game "number" is a big deal. Gear that might warrant an advantage that isn't just Advantage perhaps:

-requires uncommon battle situations that the players need to create (enemies in certain formations or with certain conditions on them)
-takes time to "spin up"
-automatically gives the team strikes or conditions when used
-advances some other story-related clock
-disables existing powers (potentially for more than one encounter)
-is single-use and not easy to replace
-requires more than one player taking sub-optimal actions (e.g. not moving, or giving up a move action) to use
-has its own minigame attached (e.g. it is an artifact, and the Chase or Team Conflict rules get reflavored as the argument convincing it to Do a Thing)

# ? Aug 10, 2020 19:38

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

My off the cuff suggestion would be to make a piece of special equipment a 1/encounter power that also costs an Action Point to use. That way it's competing with Rally and your Role's Action Trigger, and in theory someone who's stockpiled the maximum of 3 AP can use each of those once in a fight while someone with fewer has to decide between unloading their bazooka and catching their second wind.

# ? Aug 10, 2020 19:45

Sir Kodiak: May 14, 2007

Yeah, I have gear tables for my Shadowrun game, but they pale in comparison to the original, given they don't touch the combat system. Translating gear that lets you do something new (fly, trick fingerprint scanners, etc.) is straightforward enough if you're willing to accept that the lack of numbers forces you to adjudicate more things based on your judgment, but Strike doesn't have enough mechanical levers to produce a list of twenty different distinct pistols. Which is why I run it, but there's still something lost.

# ? Aug 10, 2020 19:46

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

I frequently give players gear items, with the rule that they can't have more than 2 in combat and 2 out of combat items at a time. Almost all of mine give them an additional power, rather than a passive bonus. Here's a few examples:

Overcharged Kinetic Manipulator
---Type: Combat
---Description: A mechanical gauntlet set with red jaspers in the palm. Originally used to move heavy material in construction, the capacitors have been permanently damaged by a catastrophic mana surge, only allowing them to discharge violently in a huge blast of kinetic energy.
---Game Effect: The owner gains the Encounter Power: Force Cannon, Melee or Ranged 5, Damage 2, Effect: The target is Thrown up to 6 squares.

Feather Boa of Strangulation
Type: Combat
Description: Auntie Harbath�s feather boa is enchanted with residual ghostly imprints that give it an elegant, murderous life. While not strong enough to inflict any lasting harm, it can distract an enemy long enough to allow the wearer to flee.
Effect: As a Encounter Move Action, inflict Grabbed on an adjacent enemy, the move up to your speed.

Portable Messenger
---Type: Out-Of-Combat
---Description: A small disc of complicated and very expensive bit of artifice that can record a message, seek out the intended recipient, replay the message as a small illusion, wait for a response, and return.
---Game Effect: Grants the owner and additional Trick: they may contact a known NPC nowhere near the scene in order to procure their remote assistance.

Blightphage Stole Gecko
---Type: Out-of-Combat
---Description: A slippery little reptile that is designed to detect, devour, and neutralize most poisons and pollutants that could seriously harm sapient ravnicans. Designed to be a useful tool, a fashion statement, and a companion, it can change color to compliment its owner�s garments. Unfortunately, it turned out to be overly curious and friendly, and not particularly loyal to any one owner.
---Game Effect: The owner gains the Skill: Neutralize Poisons.

# ? Aug 10, 2020 19:46

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

fool of sound posted:

I frequently give players gear items, with the rule that they can't have more than 2 in combat and 2 out of combat items at a time. Almost all of mine give them an additional power, rather than a passive bonus. Here's a few examples:

Overcharged Kinetic Manipulator
---Type: Combat
---Description: A mechanical gauntlet set with red jaspers in the palm. Originally used to move heavy material in construction, the capacitors have been permanently damaged by a catastrophic mana surge, only allowing them to discharge violently in a huge blast of kinetic energy.
---Game Effect: The owner gains the Encounter Power: Force Cannon, Melee or Ranged 5, Damage 2, Effect: The target is Thrown up to 6 squares.

Feather Boa of Strangulation
Type: Combat
Description: Auntie Harbath�s feather boa is enchanted with residual ghostly imprints that give it an elegant, murderous life. While not strong enough to inflict any lasting harm, it can distract an enemy long enough to allow the wearer to flee.
Effect: As a Encounter Move Action, inflict Grabbed on an adjacent enemy, the move up to your speed.

Portable Messenger
---Type: Out-Of-Combat
---Description: A small disc of complicated and very expensive bit of artifice that can record a message, seek out the intended recipient, replay the message as a small illusion, wait for a response, and return.
---Game Effect: Grants the owner and additional Trick: they may contact a known NPC nowhere near the scene in order to procure their remote assistance.

Blightphage Stole Gecko
---Type: Out-of-Combat
---Description: A slippery little reptile that is designed to detect, devour, and neutralize most poisons and pollutants that could seriously harm sapient ravnicans. Designed to be a useful tool, a fashion statement, and a companion, it can change color to compliment its owner�s garments. Unfortunately, it turned out to be overly curious and friendly, and not particularly loyal to any one owner.
---Game Effect: The owner gains the Skill: Neutralize Poisons.

Those are rad, and the exact kind of thing I'd like to see as Strike treasure.

# ? Aug 10, 2020 20:07

Ferrinus: Jun 19, 2003; i'm finding this quite easy, i guess in part because i'm a fast type but also because i have a coherent mental model of the world

Today I discovered that Strike defines "Bloodied" as "less than half HP", which means default player characters are Bloodied at 4 rather than 5. Deeply disorienting.

# ? Aug 19, 2020 03:31

gnapo: Mar 8, 2014

Speaking of magic items, I made a thing!

A long while ago, I ran a strike campaign based on single use magical items.
I have now gotten around to compiling them into a readable google doc for your perusal.

# ? Aug 19, 2020 19:08

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

Something I've noted as a concern is how quickly simple damage classes could do spike damage to players and just take them down with a handful of good rolls.

As such I made some basic changes to the sniper archetype - the gunslinger, who would deal the snipers extra damage as an effect to another player within range and line of sight instead of the initial target, or the soldier, whose effect was to upgrade his attack into a blast.

This helped spread the damage round rather than obliterate one player. Just a thought for anyone running it.

# ? Aug 22, 2020 01:27

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

ShineDog posted:

Something I've noted as a concern is how quickly simple damage classes could do spike damage to players and just take them down with a handful of good rolls.

As such I made some basic changes to the sniper archetype - the gunslinger, who would deal the snipers extra damage as an effect to another player within range and line of sight instead of the initial target, or the soldier, whose effect was to upgrade his attack into a blast.

This helped spread the damage round rather than obliterate one player. Just a thought for anyone running it.

Yeah, high level snipers and other enemies that do very high damage are to be used sparingly. A whole group of high level snipers against a group of high level PCs is just rocket tag. But one high level sniper in a strong tactical position? That's something that defines a fight. Obviously taking out the sniper has to be a priority because one lucky roll will blow up a squishier PC and necessitate the use of some very limited powers, and even decent rolls will make a serious dent. But getting into a position to take it out reliably might require traversing dangerous ground or giving other baddies opportunities to mess with you and show off their powers.

But still, making variations that spread out the damage is a really good idea! That lets you use them more often and in larger numbers. I very much approve.

# ? Aug 22, 2020 06:22

CHIMlord: Jul 1, 2012

Is it okay to use the additional Roles found in the Vehicles Expansion with Classes in the regular Tactical Combat system, or are they tuned for the Tactical Vehicular Combat system and its particular rules tweaks?

# ? Dec 21, 2020 18:22

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

CHIMlord posted:

Is it okay to use the additional Roles found in the Vehicles Expansion with Classes in the regular Tactical Combat system, or are they tuned for the Tactical Vehicular Combat system and its particular rules tweaks?

Yes, absolutely, except for the interceptor. Using the interceptor in an environment where many of the enemies are melee-focused or have good melee options will feel bad for them. "Oh great, my special power is to go up next to a dude who will just pummel me and I have less health recovery than a normal defender... why did I not just pick Defender?"

But if most enemies are ranged attackers and lack melee options, the interceptor works fine and their unique ability allows them to really mess with those ranged enemies. Also, if you use normal rules for Opportunities, give the interceptor some extra opportunity damage against marked enemies or something. Or do like the document says and get rid of opportunities except against marked enemies for everyone BUT the interceptor.

Scout is a leader/controller mashup with a focus on mobility.

Specialist can go several ways depending on their choices. They could be a striker/healer or a controller with terrain powers, etc.

The Heavy gets stuck in and starts taking hits and dealing them back. They get damage reduction and extra damage.

All of those work fine in regular combat.

Jimbozig fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Dec 23, 2020

# ? Dec 23, 2020 03:54

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

On the topic of Strike and vehicles, one idea I still want to do someday is a sci-fi game centered around spaceship combat where each player is the captain of their own ship, basically something that came into mind after playing a lot of the game Dreadnought and realizing not only is space combat fairly underrepresented in RPG's, it also tends to almost always be focused on either small fighter craft/mecha or on everyone being the crew of a singular larger ship, so I figure having the PC's be a literal fleet of ships would be something more interesting and unique

# ? Dec 23, 2020 14:11

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

drrockso20 posted:

On the topic of Strike and vehicles, one idea I still want to do someday is a sci-fi game centered around spaceship combat where each player is the captain of their own ship, basically something that came into mind after playing a lot of the game Dreadnought and realizing not only is space combat fairly underrepresented in RPG's, it also tends to almost always be focused on either small fighter craft/mecha or on everyone being the crew of a singular larger ship, so I figure having the PC's be a literal fleet of ships would be something more interesting and unique

That's interesting, my particular group tends to be the opposite - the further away from a person the thing they're controlling is, the less interested in the game they are. Like an infantryman is more interesting than a single-seat fighter jet or mech, which is more interesting than a tank crew, which is more interesting than a star destroyer.

# ? Dec 23, 2020 15:53

ShineDog: May 21, 2007; It is inevitable!

drrockso20 posted:

Spaceship stuff

There's a system on the way specifically about this, called lancer: battlegroup. You may want to check it out.

# ? Dec 26, 2020 19:40

KPC_Mammon: Jan 23, 2004; Ready for the fashy circle jerk

Gort posted:

That's interesting, my particular group tends to be the opposite - the further away from a person the thing they're controlling is, the less interested in the game they are. Like an infantryman is more interesting than a single-seat fighter jet or mech, which is more interesting than a tank crew, which is more interesting than a star destroyer.

The obvious solution is that everyone plays as The Culture style spacecraft.

# ? Dec 26, 2020 23:57

CHIMlord: Jul 1, 2012

Thanks so much for the advice, Jimbozig. Now I can finally make an SSC Swallowtail frame in Strike! (Warlord/Scout, for the record).

# ? Dec 27, 2020 14:19

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

A friend of mine has been working on a Foundry mod for Strike!, and he was recently able to get it in a state where he feels comfortable sharing it publicly. Current features:

- Full character sheets with separate pages for tactical and non-combat information:

- Non-automated macros you can either put on your hotbar or activate from your character sheet.

- In-game glossary with descriptions of all major terms and status, which you can access by mousing over or clicking any relevant term.

- A few other bits I can't remember off the top of my head.

If you can please try it out, either for running a game/one-shot or just to poke around on your own, we'd love any feedback. The main thing missing is automated macro support, specifically automatically assigning damage/status changes to tokens based on your rolls. This is pretty difficult in Strike due to the amount of post-roll decision making in some cases, the most obvious instances being things like rolling a 3 and needing to choose damage or effect, but also things like whether to slide/slow from Control Boost and a bunch of other powers. But we have some ideas so hopefully in the future it'll be working!

If you have a Foundry account you can try it yourself by just going to "Game Systems" and clicking "Install System", then pasting this link:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gulbanana/fmmua/master/src/system.json

You can also find the github here: https://github.com/gulbanana/fmmua/

# ? Dec 30, 2020 01:20

ObMeiste: Oct 7, 2003; The Boss doesn't like you. Get out now or you'll have some real trouble.

Countblanc posted:

Strike! In foundry

Hey this is really cool! I've been running a one shot sci-fi with this and it's working mostly well.

Biggest problem has been the inability to edit power descriptions and stuff, at least normally; have to edit the text box's source code to change it.

# ? Jan 20, 2021 11:57

Nettle Soup: Jan 30, 2010; Oh, and Jones was there too.

That's pretty amazing! Would use it if we used Foundry... Maybe we can switch! :v:

# ? Jan 20, 2021 16:04

Ignite Memories: Feb 27, 2005

Does anyone know if the Summoner's Red Cap encounter power detonation is intended to proc around the red cap or around the enemy target?

# ? Jan 25, 2021 00:21

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

Ignite Memories posted:

Does anyone know if the Summoner's Red Cap encounter power detonation is intended to proc around the red cap or around the enemy target?

Lol, even I don't remember. I'd guess adjacent to the red cap.

# ? Jan 27, 2021 05:25

ZearothK: Aug 25, 2008; I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021

Jimbozig posted:

And here's the link to the updated expansion classes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqc4jie56xdjj4r/StrikeExpansionPlaytestMaterial.pdf?dl=0

Sorry I don't have a changelog in there. I didn't keep it up and it's been ages anyway, so I'm not concerned about someone still playing the same character needing to find what changed. Lots of little wording tweaks.

Anyone reading it, please check out the two versions of Battle Trance Berseker and let me know your thoughts.

Hey, is there an updated version of the expansion playtest? I will be doing the session 0 for a Strike! campaign next weekend and I am wondering if I should expand my players' selection with stuff from there, since we've had a couple of one-shots and they're already familiar with some of the core classes.

# ? Feb 18, 2021 13:22

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

ZearothK posted:

Hey, is there an updated version of the expansion playtest? I will be doing the session 0 for a Strike! campaign next weekend and I am wondering if I should expand my players' selection with stuff from there, since we've had a couple of one-shots and they're already familiar with some of the core classes.

No update. Go for it and use those. Tell me what people choose and how they like it.

I've gotten back into playing and testing, but it's other stuff instead of those classes. I felt like I was just mentally stuck and unable to get myself to write the main Strike expansion, but I've been able to get going on Kazzam, which now has 8 (soon to be 10) classes statted up for level 1, all compatible with Strike!, and revised Roles that will probably be backported to Strike when I do a second edition. I'm hoping to carry my momentum from Kazzam into finishing the expansion stuff to put out with a revised 2nd edition or into working on UFO Strike! I don't have as much writing time as I used to or as I'd like, but at least I am writing seriously again and making steady progress.

# ? Feb 18, 2021 20:38

Griddle of Love: May 14, 2020

Big fan of Strike! and love introducing people to it.

Does anyone have an idea how to take the Basic Attacks out of the system without breaking anything? I find it stops new players from engaging with the tools and options they have at their disposal, just as it did in D&D 4e, I'm convinced Strike! would be a better new player experience without them.

# ? Feb 20, 2021 16:51

ZearothK: Aug 25, 2008; I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021

Jimbozig posted:

No update. Go for it and use those. Tell me what people choose and how they like it.

I've gotten back into playing and testing, but it's other stuff instead of those classes. I felt like I was just mentally stuck and unable to get myself to write the main Strike expansion, but I've been able to get going on Kazzam, which now has 8 (soon to be 10) classes statted up for level 1, all compatible with Strike!, and revised Roles that will probably be backported to Strike when I do a second edition. I'm hoping to carry my momentum from Kazzam into finishing the expansion stuff to put out with a revised 2nd edition or into working on UFO Strike! I don't have as much writing time as I used to or as I'd like, but at least I am writing seriously again and making steady progress.

Cool, thanks for the reply!

What is Kazzam, by the way?

# ? Feb 20, 2021 17:13

fool of sound: Oct 10, 2012

Griddle of Love posted:

Big fan of Strike! and love introducing people to it.

Does anyone have an idea how to take the Basic Attacks out of the system without breaking anything? I find it stops new players from engaging with the tools and options they have at their disposal, just as it did in D&D 4e, I'm convinced Strike! would be a better new player experience without them.

Just tell them that there's no reason for then to use their basic attacks rather than at-wills most of the time. At-wills are frequently a flat upgrade.

# ? Feb 20, 2021 17:17

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

Griddle of Love posted:

Big fan of Strike! and love introducing people to it.

Does anyone have an idea how to take the Basic Attacks out of the system without breaking anything? I find it stops new players from engaging with the tools and options they have at their disposal, just as it did in D&D 4e, I'm convinced Strike! would be a better new player experience without them.

The Warlord can grant basic attacks. The Duelist's Change Focus power wording involves a basic attack but could be reworded. And of course the Martial Artist and Rogue (mini-expansion) are built around them. The statuses Frenzied, Panicked, and Disarmed (in the Rogue mini-expansion) can limit you to basic attacks in one way or another. Charging is worded as involving a basic attack but could be reworded. There will be a few other mentions that are more-or-less inconsequential. Also I might be forgetting something - this is off the top of my head.

Those are the places you would need to implement changes. If you don't have anyone playing those classes and if you avoid giving enemies attacks that inflict those statuses, then you don't need basic attacks.

I'll also suggest power cards as a good solution. If you give your players power cards for their class powers but not for basic attacks, having those in front of them and using them should encourage better play. Unfortunately I don't have a full set of power cards, but I do have a partial set of powers I can post for anyone who wants em, along with templates to make your own to match.

# ? Feb 20, 2021 17:21

Griddle of Love: May 14, 2020

fool of sound posted:

Just tell them that there's no reason for then to use their basic attacks rather than at-wills most of the time. At-wills are frequently a flat upgrade.

I do realize that (which is why I'm asking in the first place), I just find it frustrating, having to figuratively wag my finger at new players and tell them they are wrong, in so many words.

Jimbozig posted:

I'll also suggest power cards as a good solution. If you give your players power cards for their class powers but not for basic attacks, having those in front of them and using them should encourage better play.

Yeah, omitting Basics from the material (sheets, cards) of non-martial artists/rogues sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the list.

# ? Feb 21, 2021 01:11

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

ZearothK posted:

Cool, thanks for the reply!

What is Kazzam, by the way?

Kazzam is the next thing I'm going to publish. It's based on Strike! Kazzam is a wizarding sport that works like Strike! combat, but with some extra "sport" elements taken from video games. There is a capture the flag element that lets you score points without having to beat up your opponents and really rewards mobility. There are neutral monsters that are also worth points, so you can "go creeping" like in a MOBA. There is no player elimination - when you get taken out, you go to the dungeon. You can spend a turn leaving the dungeon and rejoining your team, but there's also valuable stuff to do there, so you're really not out of the match even while you're there, and strategically getting yourself sent there could absolutely be a thing to try. Like in Strike!, you choose a Role and a Class. The roles are reworked versions of Strike!'s roles and will probably replace Strike!'s roles when I do a 2nd edition. There are also some specialist roles that deal specifically with Kazzam rules and wouldn't necessarily work as well for general tactical combat. There are 10 all-new classes, which are compatible with Strike!

I'm writing it up along with a setting called Tailfeathers. You could sum it up as "Harry Potter minus the TERF shitlib BS". Tailfeathers School is the name of the school the characters attend. It's not the only school. There is also Fellbarrow Mausoleum, the school of necromancy, and I have plans for more (e.g. Elementalism). Tentatively, the plan is for each school to be a book, and each school/book will have a different set of skills and spells and different Kazzam classes. Tailfeathers teaches students Enchantments and Charms and Divination, but Fellbarrow teaches them Reanimation and Flesh Shaping and Spirit Binding.

Like anything Strike!, Kazzam could also be reskinned into other settings - I think it would work well for a kind of Xcrawl setting.

I've been playtesting it weekly since December, and it's going great so far. A bunch of fun emergent stuff has been happening and it feels like a sport. It's still early enough that there's new stuff that needs clarification and/or tightening up every week, but it overall feels really good. In another few weeks I'll probably have it in good enough shape to share with external playtesters, so if anyone wants to try it out, let me know.

# ? Feb 22, 2021 02:34

Gort: Aug 18, 2003; Good day what ho cup of tea

I've no real interest in Harry Potter stuff but 2nd Edition of Strike sounds extremely my poo poo. I'm interested in how the roles have changed in particular.

Maybe I could reskin Kazzam into something similar to Pyre (minor, high-level video game spoilers teams of condemned criminals are banished to another dimension and compete in fantasy basketball to escape)

One thing I always thought Strike 1e was lacking in was pre-written opposition - sure, you can make your own from the templates and enemy build advice but it's just not as effortless as "level 5 berserker, go". It's probably boring as hell to write that stuff but it certainly makes GMing easier.

Gort fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Feb 22, 2021

# ? Feb 22, 2021 12:32

Whybird: Aug 2, 2009; Phaiston have long avoided the tightly competetive defence sector, but the IRDA Act 2052 has given us the freedom we need to bring out something really special.

https://team-robostar.itch.io/robostar; Nap Ghost

Jimbozig posted:

Kazzam is the next thing I'm going to publish. It's based on Strike! Kazzam is a wizarding sport that works like Strike! combat, but with some extra "sport" elements taken from video games.

Is there mechanical support for all the off-field hijinks you can get up to, like kidnapping the star player's pet rat so they can't concentrate during the game, or having your striker unexpectedly fall in love with the enemy goalkeeper?

# ? Feb 22, 2021 14:42

ZearothK: Aug 25, 2008; I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021

Jimbozig posted:

Kazzam is the next thing I'm going to publish. It's based on Strike! Kazzam is a wizarding sport that works like Strike! combat, but with some extra "sport" elements taken from video games.

Sounds like fun! Do let us know when you can share more details on how matches of Kazzam work.

# ? Feb 22, 2021 18:13

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 11, 2024 21:24

Ignite Memories: Feb 27, 2005

Let me know if you need any help with 2nd edition, that's the thing i really crave right now.

# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Strike! The game of Tactical Combat and Heedless Adventure

«‹›55 »