Small question to help me design a beat-em-up combat system

[RangerWickett]

Can I ask you a random game design question?

I am brainstorming a beat em up video game style fighting system. Think Double Dragon or Streets of Rage.

As opposed to the normal RPG combat which has you declaring an action, rolling a die to see if you succeed, and then having the result, here your character sheet has like six different abilities that have different die values assigned to them. Maybe basic maneuvers like grab and dash cost a 1-die. A light attack requires any die of 2+. A heavy attack is 4+. A super move is 6+.

You roll a handful of dice, and throughout the turn you spend dice to just do abilities. If you have a six, you can do an ability that costs a six, and it automatically succeeds.

What I need to decide very early on is whether I would rather have it so every character has a discreet turn, rolls their dice when their turn starts, and takes multiple actions all at once; or if everyone rolls their dice at the start of the round, and then the turn goes back and forth between the different sides of the fight, with each person spending one die at a time.

The former is far easier to keep track of. The latter is maybe more energetic, but could also slow down play if PCs try to plan out what order people should go in, or could lead to arguments among players. And it definitely is harder to do with multiple factions active at once, or if someone switches sides.

Which would you prefer? If I do discrete turns, should I have some mechanic for, like, 'team-ups'? Like if I spend a 5-die, and my buddy also has a 5-die, he can spend it and take an action at the same time, getting a little tempo boost . . . but at some cost so it's not always the easy choice to do it?

 

[Tonguez]

Team ups, multiattack AoEs and Combos should all be factored in.
I assume you enemies will include multiple waves of mooks? In that case I like the first option of each character taking multiple turns at once, utilising a dynamic 4 actions economy or a way to time different attacks so a 6-pt special attack takes long than a basic 1-pt jab

 

[RangerWickett]

I hadn't considered time for actions. Hm, I'm not sure how to fit that into this idea, unless it's like, spend an action this turn to get a Charge, then spend the Charge next turn?

 

[GMMichael]

What I need to decide very early on is whether I would rather have it so every character has a discreet turn, rolls their dice when their turn starts, and takes multiple actions all at once; or if everyone rolls their dice at the start of the round, and then the turn goes back and forth between the different sides of the fight, with each person spending one die at a time. . .

Which would you prefer? If I do discrete turns, should I have some mechanic for, like, 'team-ups'? Like if I spend a 5-die, and my buddy also has a 5-die, he can spend it and take an action at the same time, getting a little tempo boost . . . but at some cost so it's not always the easy choice to do it?

Discrete turns can lead to weird situations, especially if "team-ups" are involved. "Wait, why would my PC not be able to move away when they're clearly trying to double-team (-dragon) me?" See also:
You might try a (my) flexible turn-system that gives each character a budget of actions and lets them happen throughout the round, like this: https://modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com/wikis/extended-conflict-module

You might also check out this thread suggested by the forum: Page Of Rage: A FREE One-Page System For Creating "Beat 'Em Up" Games In TTRPG Form!

 

[Umbran]

What I need to decide very early on is whether I would rather have it so every character has a discreet turn, rolls their dice when their turn starts, and takes multiple actions all at once; or if everyone rolls their dice at the start of the round, and then the turn goes back and forth between the different sides of the fight, with each person spending one die at a time.

The former is far easier to keep track of. The latter is maybe more energetic, but could also slow down play if PCs try to plan out what order people should go in, or could lead to arguments among players. And it definitely is harder to do with multiple factions active at once, or if someone switches sides.

Don't do spend all at once, but have an initiative order?
Maybe make "initiative" an ability, so you spend from the pool to determine when you go in the order?

Which would you prefer? If I do discrete turns, should I have some mechanic for, like, 'team-ups'? Like if I spend a 5-die, and my buddy also has a 5-die, he can spend it and take an action at the same time, getting a little tempo boost . . . but at some cost so it's not always the easy choice to do it?

Have certain abilities that require team ups...?

 

[hawkeyefan]

Can I ask you a random game design question?

I am brainstorming a beat em up video game style fighting system. Think Double Dragon or Streets of Rage.

As opposed to the normal RPG combat which has you declaring an action, rolling a die to see if you succeed, and then having the result, here your character sheet has like six different abilities that have different die values assigned to them. Maybe basic maneuvers like grab and dash cost a 1-die. A light attack requires any die of 2+. A heavy attack is 4+. A super move is 6+.

You roll a handful of dice, and throughout the turn you spend dice to just do abilities. If you have a six, you can do an ability that costs a six, and it automatically succeeds.

What I need to decide very early on is whether I would rather have it so every character has a discreet turn, rolls their dice when their turn starts, and takes multiple actions all at once; or if everyone rolls their dice at the start of the round, and then the turn goes back and forth between the different sides of the fight, with each person spending one die at a time.

The former is far easier to keep track of. The latter is maybe more energetic, but could also slow down play if PCs try to plan out what order people should go in, or could lead to arguments among players. And it definitely is harder to do with multiple factions active at once, or if someone switches sides.

Which would you prefer? If I do discrete turns, should I have some mechanic for, like, 'team-ups'? Like if I spend a 5-die, and my buddy also has a 5-die, he can spend it and take an action at the same time, getting a little tempo boost . . . but at some cost so it's not always the easy choice to do it?

I would suggest a few things.

First, have everyone roll at the start of the round. Then they can place their dice in front of them for all to see. This’ll create lots of potential choices to be made as they watch what dice remain on board for their opponents.

Second, have initiative cost a die. Let them choose when they go by deciding how high a roll they want to spend on that. Maybe start everyone off with a bonus die they roll for the initiative.

Three, maybe give each PC some kind of team up attack that costs 10 or more. So they can spend their 6 and a fellow PC could spend a 4 and it allows them to do the powerful team up attack.

Four, maybe allow for chaining combos in some way, allowing a player to spend multiple dice on their turn as a sequence of attacks. Maybe these would require that the dice be consecutive; like you can combo a 1-2-3 or a 3-4-5 but not a 1-4-6.

Just some thoughts.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hm. I originally figured I'd let people just ad hoc combos, but the idea of having pre-designed combos is kinda interesting. Harder to just record stuff on your own sheet, but it might encourage me to be creative in designing PC abilities with an expectation that combinations should do interesting stuff.

As for initiative, I'm using an element of the Fantasy Flight Games version of Legend of the Five Rings RPG, where you have both stamina (resisting physical damage) and composure (resisting mental/emotional strife). You'll be able to take 1 strife to combine two d6s and use the total value to trigger a more expensive ability. And some attacks can inflict strife. If your strife reaches your composure, you cannot combine dice anymore and cannot take reactions (like parries, dodges, and opportunity attacks).

Initiative will start with everyone bidding strife in secret (from 0 to 9, using a d10), and then they roll 1d6 + their level (which just goes from 1 to 5) and add that to their bid, with the highest result going first. So if you really want to go first, you can take a lot of strife, but you might then lose your cool before your opponent who wasn't in such a rush.

 

[aco175]

You have 6 abilities, you roll a die and add your modifier. This gives you a line of 6 dice in front of you for each ability. You have your powers that take away points from the dice based on some combo you want to play. There is also a 7th die that adds to one ability pool of your choosing. Maybe if you roll the highest on the die you add to two pools.

I can see some sort of reaction to counter or block an attack, maybe this takes from one of the ability pools incentivizing you to add to that pool.

There should also be something tied to levels and items that add to something.