FrankTrollman wrote:The basic flow of a battle is something like this:
- Oh noes! Orcs are on the march!
- Assess the Orcish army strength. Assess the opposing army strength. Realize that the Orcs have an advantage.
- Players decide how they are going to want to interact with this fact (attempt to gain more army strength for the good guys, attempt to weaken the orc army, or whatever).
- Do a regular personal level encounter.
- Invoke standing battle affecting abilities and or resources on each players' character sheets.
- Determine the effects that the players have had on the battle.
- Determine the results of the battle.
Now of that, I have bolded one of the steps, because it's literally the only part of D&D that actually has rules and procedures. Now in a just universe, most of the rest of the steps should be handled quite quickly. But without there being a set of rules that take us through each of those steps the action scene is pretty much completely unmoored from the progress of the story.
-Username17
The overally narrative and the simplified 'battle' mechanic from "Gnomes 100 - Dragons 0" approaches a lot of the unbolded text.
[*] Assess the Orcish army strength. Assess the opposing army strength. Realize that the Orcs have an advantage.
"G100-D0" compresses this down to aspects of an army simply granting Offensive # and/or Defensive #.
When the gamebook starts the Dragon Army has Offensive # of:
-Draconians (Aurak 17+ Baaz 13+ Bozak 15+ Kapak 14+ Sivak 16) = 75
-Dragons (Blue 30+ Black 18+ Green 20+ Red 40+ Shadow 15 + White 17) = 140
-Humanoids (Humans 12+ Ogres 15) = 27
=242 Offensive #
While having a Defensive # of:
-Draconians (14+11+12+11+13) = 61
-Dragons (18+15+16+20+13+14) = 82
-Humanoids (11+14) = 25
=168 Defensive #
Comparing a Dragonarmy Offensive # of 242 and a Defensive # of 168; with the Gnome's Offensive # of +10 and Defensive # of +10 (i.e. the Gnomish War Machine adds +10 after all other considerations); the Gnomes are sort of screwed. Which is what prompted the adventure in the first place.
Additional note: the Gnomish War Machine has 100 health points; while the Dragon Army has 200.
[*] Players decide how they are going to want to interact with this fact (attempt to gain more army strength for the good guys, attempt to weaken the orc army, or whatever).
In "G100-D0", the player has to find items that:
-Grant Offensive # (max of 78; 15 items)
-Grant Defensive # (max of 51; 10 items)
-Grant Offensive # & Defensive # (max of 10 & 10; one item)
-Eliminate one type of enemy (some are specific, like "Eliminates Ogres" or "Eliminates Kapak Draconians"; others are general such as "Eliminates Choice of Dragon"; 26 seperate entries)
-Screw the player over (i.e. there are several Imp Illusions that
double the Offense/Defense #'s for Red, White & Shadow dragons; 4 entries)
-Make the player auto-lose the end-game battle (at least one item; also am Imp illusion)
Bonus: Hope that the Gnomes didn't break the items that contribute the most O/D #'s; nor "boosted" items that contribute the least to final O/D #'s.
Which is a combination of: "Bolstering friendly army strength"; "weakening enemy army strength". As well as "screw up and benefit the enemy by mistake".
[*]
Do a regular personal level encounter.
Most of "G100-D0" is this, attempting to improve the odds for the final resolution of the franken-machine the Gnomes create out of your finds.
What it doesn't have are detailed rules for:
[*] Invoke standing battle affecting abilities and or resources on each players' character sheets.
[*] Determine the effects that the players have had on the battle.
However, these could be resolved by making PCs/Heroes simply grant a bonus to their armies to Offensive # & Defensive #
Relevant excerpts from "Gnomes 100-Dragons 0"
The Final Battle Weapons Table shows all the items
that could be found while you adventured through
Mount Nevermind to prepare for the final battle, and
their value in the battle. As you get ready to face the
dragons and their evil hordes, inspect each of the things
you have brought to the battle using the Gnomish
Inspection Table below. This tells you what has happened
to each device between the time you found it and
the battle.
To use the table, generate a number from 1 to 12 and
the result tells you how to mark the list of devices.
Though the list has all the items possible in the mound,
you should only use the ones you found for the battle.
Inspecting your gnomish war machine, you discover
many things have changed from the way you left them.
Roll on the GNOMISH INSPECTION CHART to determine
what the gnomes did to each item. Special Note:
Any item that merely eliminates an enemy type can’t be
doubled in strength, it just continues to do what it does.
GNOMISH INSPECTION CHART
Roll of 1-2 Turn to Bad News Section
Roll of 3-10 Turn to Okay News Section
Roll of 11-12 Turn to Amazing News Section
Bad News: The gnomes look very sad when they tell you
that they accidentally broke this device while trying to
improve it. You cannot use it in the battle.
Okay News: The gnomes look sad to say that no matter
what they did, they just couldn’t improve on this device
so they just added it to the machine. You use this device
normally in the battle.
Amazing News: The gnomes look happy and say they
were able to double the effectiveness of this device. You
use this machine at double the points listed for it.
Special Note: For the Okay and Amazing News sections,
if the thing discussed is a living creature or magic item, it
is changed because of the things the gnomes added to it
and not because the gnomes changed it.
Now turn to 85 to learn scoring during the final battle
FINAL BATTLE SCORING
Your gnomish army has a total of 100 life points for
this battle. Your Gnomish War Machine hits on rolls of 8
or less. The dragonarmy has a total of 200 life points, but
because its generals can’t figure out your battle plan, or
even what you are using against them, they hit on rolls of
7 or less.
Using the Final Battle Weapons Table, total the offensive
numbers (only for those items you obtained and
which survived the Gnomish Inspection Chart), and add
10 points to the total. This is your offensive score. Also
total the defensive numbers (only for the items you
obtained), and add 10 points. This gives you your defensive
score.
Using the Dragon Arrival Table, cross out all the creature
types (and their offensive and defensive numbers)
that your gnomish devices, equipment, and allies eliminate.
Add up the remaining offensive numbers for an
offensive score, and the remaining defensive numbers
for a defensive score to be used in combat.
Generate a number from 1 to 12 every time you or
your enemies attack. If the dragonarmy hits your army,
subtract your defensive score from the dragonarmy’s
offensive score. This is the amount of damage done.
Subtract it from your army’s life points. If your defensive
score is greater than the dragonarmy’s offensive score,
you automatically win the war. Turn to 118I.
If you hit the dragonarmy, subtract its defensive score
from your offensive score. This is the amount of damage
you do. Subtract it from the dragonarmy’s life points. If
the dragonarmy’s defensive score is more than your
offensive score, you automatically lose the war. Turn to 86J.
The Battle Begins
Your war machine moves out onto the field and the
dragons can’t believe their eyes. You take advantage of
this by successfully striking once with your war machine
before the dragons can even prepare. From then on, you
take a turn and the dragons take a turn in the battle until
one or the other side wins. Good Luck!
What it doesn't have is any sort of concept of 'positional' aspects to conflicts; the simplest abstraction I've seen for such is from Dragon Dice.
In DD, the war is divided among each sides "Home" territories (defended by the owner's Home army, and attacked by their opponents Horde army); and "Frontier" territories (contested by each sides Campaign army).
The goal of DD is to "control" two territories (i.e. maneuver an army successfully several times to change it's "Distance of engagement" to the point where they control the territory).
One final location that a player can place their units is in the "Reserves"; from which they can retreat units to (from enemy/own Home, or Frontier, territories); or advance units from (towards enemy/own Home, or Frontier territories).
Dragon Dice's turn order:
1 - Beginning Phase
◦ Spell and effect expiration (Beginning of turn expiration)
◦ Racial Abilities
◦ 8th Face Special Abilities
2 - Dragon Attack Phase
◦ Dragon Attack - If an army is present at the terrain, the dragon(s) attack the
current player's army, even if they summoned the dragon.
3 - Army Phase
◦ First March
1. Maneuver
2. Action
◦ Second March (different army)
1. Maneuver
2. Action
4 - End Phase
◦ Reinforce - Move any or all of your units from your Reserves to any or all of
the Terrains.
◦ Retreat - Move any or all of your units from any or all Terrains to Reserves.
◦ Spell and effect expiration (End of turn expiration)