Quote from: Omega;808856Actually, its worked often enough. It is a system used in various board games.
Most RPGs have a straightforward attack roll. AD&D and currently 5e for example. But add in the damage roll. This gives things a bit more of a dynamic feel without sacrificing speed of play.

Another game to have a look at is Guncrawl, its currently free PNP and has an interesting system. It though divides combat into an attack roll, a defense roll if an attack hits. There is also a recovery roll at the end of the round to see if any downed figured survive since if you are hit you go down.

There is also Space Hulks fantasy counterpart. Warhammer Quest.
One roll to attack and one for damage.

Um, Guncrawl actually sounds as it really is three rolls from your description, they are just named and defined differently?

The idea seems to mainly be used when combat is or seem secondary compared to theme or other things.
In Space Hulk, combat is at the forefront, but one may easily claim it is secondary to strategy.
In Warhammer Quest, it is secondary to the dungeouncrawl concept.

However, I claim that the combat is still the primary part, but I also like the combats to be fast and speedily resolved, because it is either constant, imminent, or lurking around the corner.

In Guncrawl its 2, the 3rd comes after the combat rolls at the end of the round.

Here is an example of Cardmasters system.

A Warrior(fighter) rolls d10s. One per level. They hit on a roll of 7 to 10. Each hit is damage.
Monsters roll a d8, one per HD, and hits on a 6 to 8.
Spells work the same. A first level spell uses a d6, a 4th level spell uses a d12.
A roll of 1-3 did no damage, a 4-7 did 1 damage, an 8-11 did 2 damage. One table and just one column to cover the whole thing. Healing spells worked much the same way, but healed 2x what a damage spell does.

FiveCore (Wargame Vault download for a couple of groats) designed by the chap who made Fast and Dirty.  The combat system is very simple - perhaps too simple - but here it is:

1D6 for your side's initiative - on a 2-5 you move your side as normal, on a 1 or a 6 you get extra moves or pinned in place.

Each weapon has a number of shock and kill dice.  Roll a 1 or a 6 and something happens, any other result is a miss.  Shock results deal with morale, kill results with wounding.

Three tables, each with three results, to run an entire combat system.  VERY nifty.  The game handles armour as a separate save, but you could add dice for skill, or make some of the results an armour hit that negates a positive result on another dice.

Too Fat Lardies games (yes, really).  Simple D6 results table with miss-shock-kill outcomes.  See Dux Britanniarum and Sharpe Practice especially.  Dux Brit has different tables for different armour/troop experience, Sharpe Practice has a single table.

Roll dice pool equal to number of attackers, modified for relative skill of attackers vs defenders, shock taken, type of weapon or tactics.  You could fit armour mods in here too.

Reduce defenders by number of kills, when the unit shock score > the number of defenders, they run away.

Change attackers to "combat dice", shock to stun/morale and a kill result to a wound and you have a simple personal combat system.

Heck with this suggestion and the one above, but some blank dice and some sheets of adhesive printer transparency and make your own game dice with the results right there on the table.