Dinosaur Cowboys skirmish game

[bosky]

Wait wouldn't tracking "steps" of dice be the same as tracking plain, static numbered Hitpoints? It seems like without reducing Movement, Armor, etc. due to hits there isn't a point in the first place to use Grit over Hitpoints, since the main benefit is realistically degrading performance as a person gets hit. Or are you saying the Grit gets reduced AND they still checkmark off a stat (like Movement to represent Legs being hit)? I think I'm a bit confused at what you're suggesting...

[Onix]

The idea behind Grit, if I don't have it wrong, is that you get to save vs damage. If the average cowboy has a D6 of Grit but they also have Hit Points. The idea is to combine the two concepts into one mechanic.

A cowboy shot by a revolver has to roll equal to or over the damage of 5. His grit is D6 and he rolls a 4 thus failing the save and taking damage. Instead of removing hit points, he is reduced to a grit of D4. Now he can only resist up to 4 points of damage if he fails another save he's dead.

A Dino has a Grit of D12. It can resist up to 12 points of damage (although more normally around 6). If it passes it's Grit it takes no damage. If it fails, it drops to a D8.

This actually could also represent armor also. An armored cowboy might have a +1 step to Grit and therefore a D8 Grit. A ankylosaurus might have a D20 for grit and therefore has a good chance of resisting around 10 points of damage and even up to 20 points.

Each time the defender is wounded (but they are only wounded if they fail to defend) they drop a die size until they have no die sizes left.

[bosky]

My main reason for getting away from Hitpoints was that there is no effect in losing them. Someone at 2/12 HP fights the same as someone at full strength of 12/12 HP. The original idea of Grit where statistics are checked off and reduced helped alleviate this. But in the example you gave it seems like flat HP is replaced by a scaling die type, so that instead of taking 5 damage you take 1 die type. Do you like that more or see a benefit over just reducing a number?

Just to be clear the original Grit Save idea is it replaces Hitpoints entirely, and when they take damage they make a Grit Save (Grit die roll > damage = save). If they pass nothing happens, if they fail they must basically reduce a statistic (Movement, Ranged/Melee Miss Chance, Armor) by 1. When they have reduced those 4 statistics (aka been hit in every location) they are dead.

Armor currently modifies the chance to be hit, but a variant reduces incoming damage by the Armor value. I don't know if Armor moving up a Grit die type would be thematic...I guess "Grit" is maybe too vague a term in this case though?

Anyways I'm floating back towards leaving it as is with Hitpoints and using these new mechanics and ideas in a later game. I think I'm at the point where I'm just adding and tweaking rules for the fun of it, instead of for a good reason. I guess that's what happens when a person keeps a project around for too long: they keep coming up with ideas and wanting to implement them somewhere. I appreciate the feedback and brainstorming though!

[Onix]

I had missed that damage was altering other stats. My reading has been rushed lately . . . sorry

It would have one effect other than acting like hit points. It would make the defender less resistant to damage as they get hurt. This makes sense to me because once a person is wounded once they're not as tough, and armor that has been penetrated now has a big hole in it.

You could have grit reduce a die and reduce another stat on top of it with the death condition being either or one or the other. So that's up to you if it's interesting to you.

[bosky]

It was probably my bad explaining, when I'm brainstorming I kind of write in one rolling sentence without much thought for helping others visualize the idea.

Either way thanks for the idea! I'll try playtesting both Grit Saves that I had mentioned and decreasing Grit die types as you had mentioned and see if either strike my fancy.

I'm hoping to wrap the rules up by October 10th so my window is narrowing, but at least then one way or the other will be set in stone.

----
And to change gears slightly again, I've implemented a bunch of changes and tried adding some more formatting and some images to the rulebook. If anyone wants to take a quick look and give me feedback on how the images look I'd appreciate it, since right now I'm on the fence at whether including them was a good idea:
http://dinosaurcowboys.files.wordpress. ... 0-91p1.pdf

[Rob Lang]

This game is nuts. I love it. Really tired right now but I'm going to read the hell out of it this weekend!

[misterecho]

Dinosaur+Cowboys. How can this fail?

I've been planning a Victorian Science fiction game set in a Lost World of Dinosaurs. This sounds so much cooler!

[Onix]

When he's to a reasonably stable version Rob has to review it. I'd play this for sure.

I'd review it too but I have about 4 readers, one of which is in my gaming group so he'd be playing anyway. Still I could review it anyway and you might get a hit or two out of it.

[Rob Lang]

I read your blog, Onix. Totally!

[Onix]

Okay, then I know three of my readers