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As a part of the miniatures/live action game based in my goblin world, I've got four ways of inflicting penalties on a target:

Injury (Based on Bones) - A physical form of penalty
Dishonour (Based on Bugs) - A social form of penalty
Scourge (Based on Cogs) - A spiritual/psychic form of penalty
Panic (Based on Tools) - A mental form of penalty

If a goblin suffers a point of penalty, all actions within that spehere suffer a minor impairment.

If a goblin suffers a second point in the same form of penalty, all actions within that sphere suffer a major impairment.

If a goblin suffers a third point in the same form of penalty, they are removed from play for the remainder of the turn.

At the end of the turn there is a chance that a goblin will reduce their current penalties, but the more penalzed they become, the harder it is for them to shake off the issues that afflict them.

The whole point here is that a goblin can drive off their foes by doing various types of harm, whether physically injuring them, scaring them off or using psychologcal warfare and simply bamboozling them.

The game is meant to be quick; no complicated formulas, no table references, in much the same way that combat between opponents is quick in Magic the Gathering (or most other collectible card games). A quick comparison of numbers determines the winner and inflicts penalties on the loser.

The issue I'm facing here is that the ability to cause "Injury" can easily be modified to accomodate for an attacker's bonuses due to weapons, or a defenders bonuses due to armour.

What would modify the ability to cause "dishonour" or "panic" in a similar fashion?

It's something I'll be thinking about more once the Goblin Tarot project has run it's course. After all, the goblin tarot deck () will be the core driving mechanism for the game....but more about that later.

Dishonour for me would be losing face.

Gobbo 1: "You wet the bed when you were young."
Gobbo 2: "You still do."

By losing face, you lose social standing and therefore are less credulous. When you try and discredit someone else, your ability to do so is less because people think little of you.

For panic, I would say that injury would cause the character to be less able to lead others through stressful situations, such as losing the initiative in a fight.

I think the problem you might encounter is forcing a system around a central idea. If it doesn't come naturally then it is probably not correct. I am not saying that you should not progress but just be mindful that if your rules become convoluted it might be wise to revisit the core idea and mechanic.

Since your goblins are these kind of dark Froud-ish things I really like the idea of being able to bamboozle your enemies. The problem comes from us thinking the weapons are physical things and that a confusing song or trick is an ephemeral thing, so we shouldn't rate them the same way.

But maybe a weapon requires training to use.

Maybe a song requires a certain instrument to perform.

Maybe a trick or trap requires certain props and equipment.

Maybe a truly damning insult requires an effigy, or banners or hats or some sign of one's superior social standing.

Oh!: are you sure having all these penalty tracks won't be too much record keeping for a miniatures game?

That's some interesting insight SheikhJahbooty.

Maybe I'm just looking at over-complicating things, while there is already elegance in the system.

As for the various penalty tracks, I actually took this idea from an existing miniatures game. Freebooter's Fate from Freebooter miniatures. It seems to work really well as a system and adds a versatility to miniatures combat that I haven't seen in many other games. It actually provides a better flavour for combat than most "heavy crunch" RPGs I've played, while keeping combat actions down to a minimum of time and effort.