V&V and 13th Age

V&V Combat

Giving thought to modifying the V&V combat system to make use of some 13th age mechanics.

1: the dice rolls are all low better, 1 is the best roll, modifiers effect your target number and not the die.
- This is super useful in 13th age, where the number on the d20 drives the mechanic.

2: The attack vs. defense chart. I love how it contains super hero physics, and sticks with the idea of changing the target number rather than applying bonuses.
- I do need to update it a bit to make the ‘attack types’ more transparent; there are issues currently where Ice Powers is statted both as blasts of cold and masses of ice, which interact with defenses in very different ways.
- I also need to update how unarmed melee combat works on the chart.
- Any complaints about the time spent on the chart in combat can be discarded because it’s a PBEM and we have tons of time.

3: I love some parts of the HP and Power Score dynamic (how Power so effectively models slowing down when it comes to being able to roll with damage or set up evasions; how rolling with damage increases your effective toughness against attacks you can see coming).
- The system desperately needs to introduce character asymmetry, because the rules are too onerous to track for every mook in a mass battle, and sometimes even for the individual villains.

4: V&V has, to me, just the right grounding in realism. Your attributes drive the effectiveness of your powers; your carrying capacity factors in your weight and endurance and there's a clear point where you stop being 'human'. Likewise your movement rate breaks out into real world numbers. All of it, especially moment, is a little granular, but most of it works.

1: Movement so math intensive no one uses it as written – it’s completely math driven and is a third resource pool that refreshes per round, but the pool size is huge and few powers pull from it in an explicit way. I don't know if it was meant to be map tactical, but..
- Taken in those terms it might be salvageable, but a lot more powers need to run off of it.
- I need to separate the 'non-attack effects in combat' from 'how fast can you move out of combat' before anything can work off of it.

2: there are no good midway rules for stunning someone; In fact, there are no good Condition rules at all
- The only entangle roles are in ice Powers and they are clumsy
- The mind control and emotion control effects are super expensive in play, devastating to combat and boring for players.
- The stunning effects don't have enough granulation - Devitalization of Power Score has too many spill over effects, stun or paralysis have too low a chance to 'wake up'.

3: The damage and accuracy for HTH combat is skewed and I need a way to balance out the options of “I suck in a fight”, “I’m a good fighter as backup to my powers”, and “conventional combat is my offense”.
- I know this needs a change in accuracy, but possibly also damage. HTH damage in V&V scales up in a way that other powers don't, in part because it is balanced by the low chance to hit. But that means either you have PCs who are bored with very seldom hitting or super-strength skilled fighters are optimized. Now, that latter does capture the comics, but....