I wrote a fair bit about the dice-based combat system I’m using in my Zomblobs! game last time, but I wanted to add this smaller coda about criticals and what I see as an “underdog” mechanic within my system.
Variety is the spice of life
Many games use the idea of “critical” strikes (sometimes called “crits”) to spice up combat a little. As the theory goes, these critical strikes do some extra bit of damage or cause some bonus, representing the “lucky strike” of hitting a foe’s funny bone or artery. The WoWPedia has a good definition of how criticals work in World of Warcraft for a little more detail, noting that each game does things a little differently.
If variable damage and hit accuracy rates are the salt that makes games a bit more interesting by dodging perfectly deterministic combat resolution, criticals are the cayenne pepper that makes the occasional bite something really special. In practical terms, they not only serve the purpose of instilling variety, but they also give game designers another handle to tweak as they fiddle around with balance and even the game’s flavor/feel. They give players more chances to have memorable “lucky rolls” that turn the tide of an otherwise unwinnable game… or more reasons to curse their luck.
This balance between luck and tactical decisions can be a tricky one. I really want Zomblobs! to have a very strong tactical element, and for luck to be minimal, though I see some gameplay value in dice rolling and simulating the chaos of combat that actually does wind up being somewhat less than perfectly controlled. The core dice rolling system of “successes” on attack and defense cover most of what I want to do with randomness. Each point of attack or defense has a 2/3 chance of succeeding, which is enough to make attack decisions somewhat risky without being too crazily uncontrolled. (It might actually be too big of a chance of failure, but 5/6 chance of success might be too small a chance of failure, and I’m trying to stick with common six-sided dice. As ever, playtesting will be crucial to nailing down the right feel.)
Criticals are layered on top of this thusly:
Criticals in Zomblobs! happen when all of the dice you roll show the same number. If that happens, you are considered to have rolled an extra successful die for the combat. This means one more attack point added to your attack total, or one more defense point added to your defense total. This also means rolling all 1s or all 2s, which would otherwise leave you with a 0 attack or defense total, will actually give you a total of 1 for attack or defense. Consider this the “lucky unlucky strike”.
Most curiously, these criticals are easier to score the fewer dice you roll. Weaker attacks have greater potential to hit a little bigger. This particular “crit” design is therefore more of an “underdog” mechanism, rather than a “win more” mechanism. Instead of harder hits probably hitting even harder, it’s the weak hits that are most likely to slip in a little extra punch. It’s not quite the “slow blade” that can win a Dune-flavored shield knife fight, but it’s another tactical consideration that should keep someone from always just using their biggest attacks.
At least, that’s the theory. Playtesting will hammer this all out, and the design may need to change. Still, for now, I like the core combat chances, and I think criticals will add the occasional spike of fun, while boosting the “underdog” attacks ever so slightly. This should also have the effect of speeding up the game a little bit, as the lower attack value Actions (which usually are also faster, with a lower Time Tick cost, meaning units who use them will act more frequently) gain a little extra potential punch.
It should also make some tactical decisions more interesting: do you go for the 3-Power attack and hope you roll well for the basic successes or go for the 2-Power attack and hope for doubles? This sort of decision, where there’s a good statistical case to be made, but it’s beyond casual calculation, is an opportunity for players to play “by their gut” or do some number crunching on the side and really min-max their game… or maybe just bring some lucky dice.
Whatever the case, it’s an implementation of criticals that seems unique to me, so I want to see it work. Designing Zomblobs! is itself a bit of a game, or at least a puzzle. That’s the fun of game design in my book. Wiring all the variables together into an enjoyable machine is great fun.
Speaking of multiple dice, have you considered using two dice for the hit rolls? That way you can have 9/12 and below as hit. That would give something between the 2/3 and 5/6 of a single die. Though it sounds like attacks already use multiple dice, so this might turn into too much rolling.
I like the idea of the “lower average, higher burst”, if I’m understanding the math properly. Facing someone at low health, I might try to just knock them out, particularly if I have some to spare if I don’t win right then. Or if I think I’m on the verge of defeat, throw safety to the wind!
Two dice definitely *would* give better ratios, but that would mean rolling two dice *per point* of each attack, and with some attacks up in the 6 point range, that’s not only a lot of dice, but a lot of keeping track. I’m using a system that’s sort of like the WoW Minis game, as I described in greater detail last time I wrote about this (a while ago), where each point of attack or defense power is defined by the roll of a single die and compared to the roll of the other player. I’m trying to keep it fast and simple so the dice rolling part is secondary to the tactics.
I’ve consciously avoided the “roll to hit, then roll to damage” system used in Warhammer and WarMachine. That system does give more statistical precision and gives more ways to tweak accuracy, mitigation and such, but I wanted a single roll per player per Action so players don’t get slowed as much by the dice.
It seems to work well in the WoW minis game to keep things moving. Maybe it’s not as *hardcore* as a Warhammer variant, but that’s OK, I’m not really aiming at the hardcore players. I’d love it if they liked the game, certainly, but I want it to be at a simpler place on the tabletop gaming curve. This, for a few reasons: One, that’s where I’m at personally, so I understand it better; two, I don’t want to directly compete commercially with WH or WM, and three, I want to offer the game to complete newbies to tabletop tactics and have them enjoy it.
Oh, and yes, “lower average, higher burst” is a good way to frame it, at least if you’re looking at damage/use ratios of Actions. Technically, bigger attacks might be considered to be bigger “burst” (over time) damage as they hit harder but less frequently, in spikes over the course of the game… but the smaller attacks with greater crit potential mean their damage/use ratio does wind up as “lower average, higher burst”. …does that make sense?
I’d consider having a limmit on the number of crits a player can get per game (it’s legacy design to simply assume they have to be unlimmited), and make them statistically siginficant instead of a little boost.
Further I don’t think much of crits in the long time. If a crit gives you an extra 20 damage 5% of the time, that’s just +1 damage each attack, really. Also if weaker attacks are really just weaker when you add an averaged out crit bonus, then they are just weaker attacks. Perhaps if the attacks applied some sort of debuff on a crit, one that lasts for quite some time, it’d be worth it.
At best crits seem to be choices made when not even playing the game, but instead planning out builds prior to playing. To me, they easily slip into non play. Ie, you don’t make any choice, and in terms of gambling, if the extra damage is just a little boost, then there is no big gamble element. So neither choice, nor gamble = non play.
I’m not a huge fan of them, even though I like something to happen on a nat 20! (funnily enough I’m playing in an AD&D game at the moment where the rules choice is that there are no crits – probably to make the PC’s more survivable)
[...] friend Tesh has a good example with critical hits in Zomblobs! (under development): Criticals in Zomblobs! happen when all of the dice you roll show the same [...]