Test 1, fight 2 - Ambush, kerplunk (mod) vs. thorred

[Kerplunk]

It's dark, the sun disappeared behind the hills in the west a good five hours ago. The moon is the only thing that gives a bit of light. It's just enough to see where you are walking. The streets of the Uhura-quarter are deserted. The people are staying inside on this cursed hour. And who can blaim them?

You should have listened to that little voice in your head. What were you thinking to go out for a walk at this late hour? And now you are lost in the labyrinth of the Uhura-quarter.

You mumble in yourself of how stupid you have been as suddenly a man jumps in front of you from the shadows. He is dressed in a black coat that reaches to the ground. The man is hooded, but you can see his eyes. Dreadfull eyes, full of determination. Something in the hand of the man flickers in the light of the moon.

[thorred]

Name: Banus

Race: Slith

Description: About 6'1'', plenty of muscles. An ex-convict, did a few years for criminal damage and attempted robbery.

Attributes

2 EMP
2 CHR
5 ACU
4 REA
9 STR
7 CRD
4 POW
5 PUR

Qualities

0 Status
-1 Reputation
1 Wealth
1 Karma

Skills

BODY:
Swords(CRD) - 3
Axes (STR) - 2

HEART:
Bluff (CHR) - 2

MIND:
Knowledge - Criminal (REA) - 2
Siegecraft - 2
Observation (ACU)- 1

SPIRIT:
Focus (PUR) - 1
Willpower (PUR) -2

Edited: had the wrong character.

Observation check.

[Kerplunk]

Reaction of Banus : 11 < 15. The attacker goes first.

I need to know with what you are attacking, thorred.

[thorred]

Attacking with two-handed sword.

[Kerplunk]

Thief attacks first:
Thief -- 18
Banus -- 12

Critical slashing hit!

2 damage

Banus attacks:
Banus -- 15
Thief -- 14

3 damage

[thorred]

The thief makes some quick stabs at Banus, who is slow to react, but tries to dodge to the left to get out of the way of the full force of the blows. Banus is struck on the right shoulder.

He ignores the pain and thrusts his sword at the thief.
"Take that, you scoundrel!" Growls Banus.

The thief is hit in the leg, and retreats a few feet, forming his next attack.

[thorred]

Disarm with sword.

[Kerplunk]

Thief attack:

Thief -- 11
Banus -- 10

Attack succeeds

1 damage

Banus tries to disarm:

Banus -- 15
Thief -- 12

Disarming fails

If your disarmement succeeded I had to fight further with my barehands, right?

[thorred]

The thief comes at Banus fiercely, but the last blow by Banus had hit him hard. Banus sees the glint of the metal just in time to evade the blade. He is surprised the blade manages to slash his right arm. Banus reacts by taking a swipe at the thief's arm to try to disarm him, but misjudges his position and slips on a loose stone.

[Kerplunk]

Thief Focus check:

12 =< 12

Focus check succesfull.

Thief attack:

Thief -- 16
Banus -- 14

Attack succeeds

1 damage

Banus attack:

Banus -- 19 (!)
Thief -- 17

Attack succeeds

3 damage

[thorred]

As Banus tries to regain his footing, the thief charges, aiming at the slith's chest, but he misjudges the distance. Banus attempts to pass the strike, but just catches a blow on his leg.
Finding an opening, Banus takes advantage and strikes with his sword. The thief is hit hard and retreats a few steps, while Banus catches his breath.



Same attack.

[Kerplunk]

thief attack

Thief -- 18
Banus -- 8

Critical slashing hit!

2 damage

Banus attack

Banus -- 14
Thief -- 19

no hit!

Sorry man, had a couple of -very- good roles

[thorred]

The thief feints an attack at Banus' arm, Banus attempts to block it. But the thief brings the dagger below his arm, slashing across Banus' gut.
Banus takes a deep breath, striking with his sword, but he misses completely, instead slicing through thin air, as the thief gets out of the way in plenty of time.


Focus check and sword attack.

Sorry for the long delay.

[Kerplunk]

Focus check on swords, I guess?

Focus check:
13 = 13

Succes!
Swords +1

Thief attacks:
Thief -- 12
Banus -- 11

1 damage

Banus attacks:
Banus -- 17
Thief -- 15

3 damage

I would retreat now if this was a real fight

[Yaw]

Since thorred is on vacation, we've agreed that I can finish off the fight for her. No point in waiting a week to deal with what is probably a couple of rounds.

Both combatants slice with their weapons, and both hit. While the thief hits a glancing blow to Banus' forearm, Banus cuts deeply into the thief's left shoulder. The thief stumbles back from the blow, bleeding heavily.

Banus will attack with the sword. No focus check.

[Kerplunk]

Can I do multiple focus checks? If so then focus check

Focus check:
7 < 13

Thief attack:
Thief -- 14
Banus -- 11

Attack success!

1 damaga

Banus attack:
Banus -- 14
Thief -- 19

Attack fails!

Phew

[Yaw]

Yes, you can. At least for now...

The thief manages another successful slash, nicking the front of Banus' chest. Banus' strike flails wildly, missing the thief.

Focus check, then attack with the sword.

[Kerplunk]

Focus check
11 < 13

Focus fails

Thief attacks:
Thief -- 12
Banus -- 17

Attack fails.

Banus attacks:
Banus -- 16
Thief -- 14

Attack succeeds!

3 damage

Willpower check:
13 < 16

Battle is over.

[Kerplunk]

Stats for Thief:

4 EMP, 5 CHR
6 REA, 5 ACU
4 STR, 6 CRD
3 POW, 4 PUR

Body:
knives (CRD): 3
evasion (CRD): 3
stealth (CRD): 2

Heart:
bluff (CHR): 2
intuition (EMP): 1

Mind:
kn. of crime (REA): 1
observation (ACU?): 2

Spirit:
focus (PUR): 1


Attack- and defendpoints without the 10-dice:

Thief attackpoint: 9
Banus defendpoints: 7

Banus attackpoints: 10
Thief defendpoints: 9

[Yaw]

The thief makes a half-hearted attempt to slash at Banus, but is too far wounded. He is dispatched by a sword thrust through the chest.

Thanks for the modding and character sheet, Kerplunk. I'll try to run the full numbers for tests 2 and 3 today.

By the way, I'd like to come up with a probability for each test of a given character winning the battle. I know there's a lot of variables due to focus checks, changing weapons, etc. that would be excessively annoying to take into account in the calculation. Even for a simple battle (no tricks, one weapon) the calculations seem involved from what little I've thought of it. Ideas on how to approach this problem, or actually running the calcs based on the numbers for test 1, would be appreciated. (The idea here is to see at a glance of a single number how balanced each fight was.)

[Kerplunk]

I will think about it. So what you want is that you have character A and character B and see how great the chance is that character a wins from B and vice versa. The most balanced is then ofcourse 50/50. So, the deviation from 50% is how (un-)balanced the fight is.

[Yaw]

Right. Naturally, very few combats are going to be 50-50. Nor should they be. This would give a way to evaluate relative combat strengths of different characters when pitted against one another, though, which could be useful. The big point here is that this number starts to involve the idea of the Hit Points (STR+CRD), which aren't in the other "round-based" probabilities. I expect this will show that combat is slanted heavily towards the combat-optimized characters, both because they have more chance of hitting during a round, and because they have more chances to hit by virtue of having more HP (they take longer to kill, meaning they'll be around for more combat rounds). It's this second idea I'd like to see taken into account -- by how much do high HP totals affect combat?

[Yaw]

The numbers:

Reaction checks:
Probability of Banus getting initiative when attacked: 20%

Were this a duel:
Probability of Thief initiative: 59.3%
Probability of Banus initiative: 40.7%

Quite the difference there.

Thief's attacks:
Probability of hitting: 63%
Probability of critical hit: 19%

Probability of hitting when Focus check successful: 72%
Probability of Focus check success: 30%
Probability of hitting and Focus check success in round: 21.6%

Probability of critical hit when Focus check successful: 19%
Probability of critical hit and Focus check success in round: 5.7%

Banus' attacks:
Probability of hitting: 55%
Probability of critical hit: 10%

Probability of hitting when Focus check successful: 64%
Probability of Focus check success: 40%
Probability of hitting and Focus check success in round: 25.6%

Probability of critical hit when Focus check successful: 14%
Probability of critical hit and Focus check success in round: 5.6%

This one looks more balanced than test 1. The battle, as it was run, was turned by the choice of weapons. The thief hit more often, but didn't hit nearly as hard as Banus (light weapon vs. heavy). I suspect the HP would have come into play (10 vs. 16 in favour of Banus) were the weapon choice more equitable.

That's a mistake, though, due to a character creation and strategy flaw on the part of Banus. A two-handed sword would be an STR weapon -- you aren't going to swing something that big with much finesse to put it into the CRD category. Had Banus' swords skill been assigned to STR, he would have had a 12-9 advantage on the attack, rather than 10-9. Even choosing an ax to fight with would have given an 11-9 advantage. Banus really should have been hitting as often or more often than the thief.

[Kerplunk]

What's the advantage for the thief carrying a light weapon like a knife? He will move more flexible and how will that work in numbers in the RPG? That's also something to think about. Else everyone will walk around with heavy weapons.