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Horsing around with mechanics

Started by LoA, August 21, 2012, 02:40:37 PM

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LoA

Ok incredibly lame pun aside i am struggling (in the good way) to figure out how fighting mechanics work in my world of E&E. It's basically a world populated by mythological sentient horse creatures (shut up). But when you think about it a fighting system based around four legged creatures is a lot different than bipedal combat. And to counteract all of the logical issues of not having hands,all of the horse races have an innate psionic-like ability to just leviate and pick up things with their minds.

First thought:
Carrying weapons.

I've been thinking about this one alot. Even with telekinises it seems kind of stupid to wave swords around. I like the idea of Lanced armor being the primary weapons for my setting.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Charging combat as apposed to hand to hand combat.

I can also envision a style of charging combat instead of head on face to face style sword play. Hence why lances and stuff are so popular.

The problem is I don't even know where to begin on selecting feats for all of this. Help please?

Seraph

I think part of the problem is that you are tying yourself to the d20 system, which I have serious doubts will be able to deal with the kind of play you are looking for.  Not every setting will fit under the mantle of D&D.  I would suggest taking a serious look at some other systems that are around.  Something like FATE might be suitable, as it is a very freeform and adaptable system.  Keep an open mind.
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LoA

Yeah you're probably right Seraphine. I need to recrack those fate pdfs.

Lmns Crn

My short list of games to check out, in terms of borrowing new mechanics, goes like this:

- FATE (most of which is free online)
- Lady Blackbird (all of which is free online)
- Wushu (all of which is free online)
- Apocalypse World (only a little of which is free online, but it's a good buy anyway)

I pick these three because they're all very different from each other (to open your brain in different directions), all very simple, all cleverly executed (in my opinion), and all very adaptable to different types of games and settings.

Your problem with D&D/D20 is the same as many people's problem with D20/D20: it's built to do one specific kind of thing, and it has so much structure that it's hard to adapt. It keeps track of too many small, fiddly details, so if you want to change it significantly, you have to account for a ton of stuff. Unless you really want things like a class/level system, or tactical movement within a grid, you're probably better off starting with a system that's closer to where you want to end up, before you start making your changes.

If I felt led to make a "jousting mythical horsemonsters" game, and I wanted it to be sort of mechanics-light and lighthearted, I'd probably just use straight-up Wushu, right out of the box.
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LoA

Thanks Luminous Crayon!

I'm really liking Wushu and its anti-realism spirit!

So yeah I'm definitely needing to get into Fate and it's kin.