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Boardgame design: Sewerscum of Sanzibar

Started by Moracai, April 07, 2018, 04:21:03 AM

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Moracai

I recently got an idea for a boardgame, and I got to cram all kinds of little things I've come up with during many years into it. There's quite a lot of similarity to other roleplaying games, boardgames and wargames, but I hope that I have managed to create something uniqueish. I'll post first two pages of the material intended for playtester reading here, and hope that it is in understandable enough form. I have ideas for campaign play where the changing of the seasons affects the scenarios that will be played.

So, here it is. Hoping for feedback :)


Quote
Sewerscum of Sanzibar

Aboveground is the vast and decadent human city of Sanzibar. Its' hedonistic luxuries far beyond your reach, for you are its' servants. You are the goblin scum that are tasked with the upkeep and maintenance of its' colossal and ancient sewer system. It is a hard and thankless job, for the city has been rebuilt upon the ruins of another city for countless of times. The humans give you good food and sometimes even coin for the trophies you bring from down below. But who knows. If you could catch the eye of an influential human who could rise you above your lowborn status, it would be worth more than all the gold in the sewers combined. You are the sewerscum of Sanzibar. Welcome to your first day at work!

Basic Mechanic
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Sewerscum of Sanzibar uses traditional six-sided dice. The number of dice to be rolled are shown on character sheets. Just grab the needed amount of dice and roll them. All that come up as 5 or 6 are successes. The basic attributes that most inhabitants of Under-Sanzibar possess are: Movement, Combat Skill, Ballistic Skill, Brawn, Grit, Wounds, Agility, Perception, Willpower and Defense.

Encounters
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When the characters approach a location that has hostiles in it, the game time changes to one second at a time mode, and the following takes place.

Determine Surprise
If the hostiles are actively trying to ambush the characters, roll a Perception  check. The character that is closest to the nearest hostile rolls against the hostile in question. If the character succeeds, proceed to the next phase. If not, the hostiles get to go on the first second.

Determine Initiative
All combatants roll dice equal to their Agility score. The combatant with the highest result gets to act on the first second, the next highest will act on second second and so on. Those with tied results act simultaneously. However, if a combatant that has not acted yet takes damage, it may act on the immediate following second.

Action

Movement
Each second, the first thing a combatant does is to decide whether to move or not. There are three modes of movement. Normal, running and sprinting. These numbers are indicated on the character sheet, and note the number of squares that the combatant may move during one second period. Normal movement does not incur any action penalties. Running is good when hitting at things, but bad when shooting at things. Sprinting combatants may not take other actions.

If two combatant end their movement next to each other, the one with longer reach attacks first, immediately followed by the other. One exception to this rule are weapons with long reach. Any combatant that has a long weapon may attack others with one square between them. If both combatants reaches are the same, they attack simultaneously, unless one of them is clearly the aggressor and the other one is not, in which case the aggressor goes first.


Close Combat
In order to make an attack, the attacker rolls its Combat Skill and the defender rolls its Defense. If the attacker rolls equal or better, it hits. The amount of damage to targets Wounds is equal to the weapons base damage plus any points that the attacker managed to beat the defenders' Defense roll by.

There are a few factors that modify the number of dice during a melee attack. They are:
attacker running +1, attacker gang up +1 per ally (max. +4), attacker wounded -?, attacking flank +2, attacking rear +3, target prone +3.

Example: goblin mercenary attacks a giant rats' flank while running, so it gets 7 dice instead of normal 4. Goblin rolls 2 successes, while the giant rat rolls only one success. Goblins' swords' base damage is 5, and it managed to beat the rats' roll by one, so it inflicts 6 points of damage.

Ranged Combat
Alternatively, the acting combatant may decide to make a ranged attack, provided that it is able to do so. To make a ranged attack the attacker must defeat the defender in an opposed check. The attacker rolls a number of dice equal to its Ballistic Skill, and the defender rolls a number of dice equal to its Defense score. Calculate damage total as described in close combat section.

Like in close combat, there are factors at work during a ranged attack. They are:
Attacker running -2, attacker in melee -3, attacker wounded -?, target in cover -2, target in melee -1, short range +1, long range -1.

Damage and Injuries
For every five Wound points inflicted to a target, it gets a cumulative -1 penalty to all its' die pools. Anytime a character takes dice penalty to its actions, it may be knocked out (K.O.). When it happens, it must immediately make a Grit check. If no successes are gained, it falls prone and may not take any actions until it is revived or the battle ends.

Death, K.O. and reviving
A character begins to die as soon as its Wounds become zero or less. The time between dropping down to zero Wounds and death is equal to combatants' Grit times five, in seconds.

To revive a combatant, another one that has the Medic talent, must move adjacent to it and make its' magic happen. This action has a Cooldown period of 6 seconds, and the combatant may not perform other actions, including movement, during that time. After that period, the dying combatant is stabilised, and regains consciousness after the combat.

If a combatant has lost consciousness due to a failed K.O. check, it becomes conscious after the Cooldown period of the Medic. Standing up from prone position takes 1 second.

Cooldown
All attacks and some other actions, such as spellcasting and skill checks, have a Cooldown number. This indicates the number of seconds the attacker must wait before making another attack. Some actions, such as Medic talent for example, require that the combatant does not move during the Cooldown period. It is possible to switch weapons on cooldown period, such as dropping a ranged weapon and drawing a melee weapon, for example. Such a switch takes 1 second to make.

So far I have 5 characters available for players, all goblins. Mercenary, watchman, guttersnipe, plague doctor and witch. All characters have a unique talent, and are able to make progress by completing scenarios. Not that it matters much at this point, but I am trying to give it a somewhat Persian style feel in a fantasy not-Jerusalem. I'm hoping that the flanking and rear attacks would be truly dangerous, because I would like to give the players a hard choice between skirmishing and formation fighting.