Toxn

Cool, show us whenever you want I feel that we can afford not to be too precious about our ideas here, so a bunch of approaches would be great for comparison.

People must feel free to rewrite/edit things as they see fit. My feeling is that iteration will be our friend here, so don't be shy about taking things apart and pushing out new versions. Just be sure to make your edits stand out in some fashion (a new colour for reworked text?) so we can see the problem areas.

Okay, here is what I have so far. Some preliminary thoughts: It's hella hard to keep a system simple. Damage models are really hard to make simple and realistic. I very quickly ended up putting more time into the information for GM's section than anything else. Might have to be a separate post. I really have a thing for card-based systems. General mechanics Attributes: short description attached to characters/items/objects. Applied as stated, with room for negotiation but without mechanical execution. May be agreed to have mechanical effects (eg: skills) No hitpoints: characters are taken out of the fight by injury, with death being resolved after the fight unless something spectacular occurs. No skill trees: skills are increased by adding/removing/modifying attributes on a character. Card-based items: items are represented by cards, with standard forms being used for some items (weapons, armour etc.). The cards contain a set of relevant item variables: name, type of item, range (if applicable), armour value/coverage (if applicable), special rules and an attribute description. Items can have more than one attribute. GM-driven play: the GM is responsible for rolls, with players giving actions/directions. Further, the GM is allowed to alter rules (with notice) to any extent he wants. General Combat mechanics 1 action per turn: move or attack or cast or perform misc. action. Combined roll (3xD6): hit roll, placement roll, damage roll. Floating dice can be used to simplify skill/counter rolls. It is advisable to have some way of easily separating dice or sorting them to allow for smooth play. 1 counter roll: opponent gets to choose 1 dice before roll to reroll if the score is unfavourable. This represents generic blocking/dodging/luck. Skills can be represented to changing the score on a dice, changing the score-to-exceed for a roll or forcing a reroll. Range and movement Weapons and spells (if any) can have effects at range. Range is represented by four states: melee (<10m), short range (10 – 50m), medium range (50 – 100m) and long range (>100m). Hitting involves exceeding a score, the score being dependent on the situation. GMs are allowed to tinker with to-exceed scores as the situation dictates, but must give contextual clues to players (example: "it's a rainy night and the target is moving, so it will be extremely difficult to hit" = a standard to-hit roll now has a +2 modifier to the to-exceed score.) Hitting at range against an opponent is difficult, so the base to-exceed score for actions at range increases: melee = 2, short range = 3, medium range = 4 and long range = 5. Hitting a stationary or large object is easier, of course. Base movement per turn is jogging speed (roughly 2m/s), so closing from range can take some time. Turns are represent roughly 10 seconds of time (although this varies for story and mechanical reasons), so a character can move 10-20m per turn. Weapons are used in order or range, with weapons in range getting priority. This means that at short range, the short ranged weapon will go first, followed by the long ranged weapon and medium ranged weapon. Weapons can exceed their stated range by one increment (you threw your sword), but suffer a reroll penalty to hit along with whatever the GM feels is situationally appropriate (sword now unavailable for rest of scene). Placement and damage After a successful hit roll, the placement of the shot will be determined by the placement roll. Placement is as follows:​1: legs 2: lower torso 3: upper torso 4: arms 5: head 6: player chooses ​The effect of successful hit placement determines the effect of damage, which is contextual and based on the area hit, the effect of armour and the type of weapon used (a significant wound to the legs, for instance, would result in the character not being able to move or only being able to crawl. A slashing weapon hitting the same point might even remove the leg entirely). Damage is determined by the damage roll, with the effects being as follows:​1: no damage. 2-5: a wound is inflicted. 6: a severe wound is inflicted. Characters are taken out of the fight based on wounds. A normal person, upon receiving a severe wound, generally becomes unable to continue with anything beyond finding cover or retreating. A particularly hardy or strong-willed person, on the other hand, might get multiple injuries and still carry on fighting. The number of wounds a character can withstand is determined by their attributes. Severe wounds are such that a character will be instantly out of the fight or severely impaired, with correspondingly more difficult healing and recovery. Narrative, scene, resolution and healing Events in a game can happen in one of two ways: narrative (where things are broadly resolved by the GM and players discussing things) and scene (a specific event, where mechanics are in play). GMs can include rolls as needed to represent difficulty, but are advised to only use these where an unexpected, mechanistic resolution to an issue is needed. Players may, during narrative or a scene, argue an attribute. Arguing an attribute involves making a case to the GM that the description of the attribute held by a player (in the form of a character attribute or item attribute) will allow the character to perform a certain action. This might involve ignoring or instantly passing a roll ('light touch' being used to bypass a roll to successfully pickpocket another character), or it might involve a constant effect ('veteran' adding another wound to a character). The GM has final authority on the outcome of the argument, but is advised to be reasonable and refrain from simply imposing his/her own interpretation. After a scene, it is often the case that one or more characters are out of the fight due to wounds. For the player characters, there must now be a period of healing to restore wounds. Here a skill roll, with a to-exceed score based on the number of wounds received (severe wounds count as two) can be taken every few days, with a roll of 1 adding a wound. Six wounds would thus result in the character dying at the end of the scene. Attributes would, as with all actions, be taken into account where healing is concerned. However, the GM does have some leeway to fudge things if needs be. If the game is expected to be realistic and/or difficult, then a more realistic approach to injuries can be taken. If a game is expected to be easier or more fantastic, then injuries resulting in death can be treated as more rare events. Armour, penetration and weapon types Armour allows characters to negate the effects of a successful attack beyond the counter-roll, and is item-based. Armour items have a coverage statistic (with the numbers corresponding to the parts of the body covered), as well as an attribute description describing the level of protection conferred. Penetration is generally dependent on the type of weapon being used, with slashing weapons generally having low penetration. Again, context is important when determining penetration of armour. A discussion of weapon types, armour and damage in the real world is included in the Appendices.

Yeah, that's pretty much impossible outside of inswinger ballistas and modern compound bows/crossbows.

Maybe not far enough East?

{whips out harmonica} Oh, Tumbler is full of shit lords, and reddit is the same! All known game forums, are full of people lacking brains! The whole of the internet, is an asylum for the insane! Because people fucking suck, and thinking is a pain!

Excellent radar reflection is a prime masculine trait.

That's why they and the Israelis are perfect for each other.

The lawn dart if a truly beautiful beast. Then again, the F-15 has a sort of butch charm. F-15E being the butchest of the lot.

With the Israelis, of course.

I definitely wasn't pointing fingers, so much as castigating all of you and then commiserating over the fact that once the trend is set there are very few ways to reverse it. And, as always, blaming your entire country for the dreck of your culture wars that inevitably washes up on our shores (Afrikaans race realist nationalist libertarians actually exist here ffs) The Left (god I wish there were better terms for this) is certainly to blame, just as the Right is. But now the game is on, and if anyone from either side moves towards reconciliation then they will be cast out from within and ridiculed from without. You're stuck, in other words. Worse, the problem with driving the debate in two directions is that both sides slowly lose the middle. Eventually there is a danger that it'll just be a tiny pool of hard-core extremists making noise at each other while something infinitely worse moves among the people at large. Edit: On Zumbo, I hope they at least let him store his rifles and shotguns somewhere before forcing him to don webbing and an over-accessorised AR-15 <this is hyperbole>

As someone who likes the aesthetics of wood and steel (M1 carbine and AKM being pretty much to my taste), I am saddened to hear that the hobby is going the way of aluminium and carbon fibre. As someone who follows politics outside of my borders reasonably frequently, I'm also kind of sad to see how cynical the circling of the wagons has gotten. I was chatting to my sister in law recently (who has, in the tradition of South African expats, become more Japanese than the Japanese) and she pretty coherently explained that the 'American disease' isn't really about a particular topic, but about how people get things done. The approach where both sides simply burn the concept of consensus to the ground in favour of fighting to win is hella bad for getting good outcomes. I'm sorry that you guys are so locking into that mode of doing things. Edit: Yeesh, I just googled Jim Zumbo. They didn't just ruin him, they forced him to recant as well.

Also had the experience of getting hit on really heavily... by a friend who came out of the closet in a big way after high school. It's really uncomfortable knowing the playbook and getting treated to the moves

Were non-scary guns hurting the cause? Or was it the people using them? Or was it simply that the market for tacticool is so much bigger? Edit: since it's hard to convey tone, I'm being completely serious here. I'm very interested in how your hobby changed, as it's something I've seen in other hobbies as well.

This makes me wonder about how many women actually go out and kill men for being male. Are we talking full-on gendercide here or... no, pretty much nobody. Dude, it is hilarious when you get worked up over things like this. I'm sort of tempted to prod you over it a bit.

Ah, but then you wouldn't have had the authentic European experience.

This highlights the point that good humour often has an element of subversion.

Engaging constructively for a moment: I think the second really was an attempt at humour, but falls completely flat because of how serious and un-contemplative it is. It really thinks that it has something to say, some message to impart to the ignorant masses. Which, of course, ruins the joke.

The third falls foul of the brevity rule somewhat, IMHO. I mean, absurdism is all well and good. But reading a novel to unpack it just leaves the punters confused.

This is funny. This is the opposite of funny. This is the forum to discuss funny, and the making thereof. In a serious fashion.

USA! USA! USA!

Sleep, come back to it later.

SA! SA! SA! Obligatory

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The dildo/bayonet attachments add a kilogram all by themselves.