Bravo Combat

A bravo fights with honor.

A bravo fights with panache.

A bravo lives to fight.

You have some number of six-sided Fight Dice (FD). So does your opponent. The more FD you have, the better of a fighter you are.

Your position, stance, and focus are represented by your Poise. If you have time to stretch and warm up before a combat, your Poise starts at 6. Otherwise, roll all your FD. The highest value is your initial Poise.

The combatant with the lowest Poise acts first.

Each round, choose to press, retreat, or strike.

• Press: get them off balance
• Roll some or all of your FD
• Can't roll more than your current Poise
• For each die that shows a value LOWER than or EQUAL to your maximum FD, your opponent's Poise decreases by 1
• Retreat: find more advantageous ground
• Roll all your FD
• If the highest value is greater than your current Poise, your Poise becomes that value
• If you roll a 6, you may immediately press
• Strike: make your move
• Roll one die
• If the result is HIGHER than your opponent's Poise, they lose one FD
• If not, your Poise decreases by 1

When a combatant loses their last FD, they are defeated. Their opponent decides whether to kill, knock out, or humiliate them.

Bravo Combat is MOSAIC-strict.

hi-ya!

Thoughts

One of my oldest Design Dreams is a combat system that CANNOT devolve into a stand-still slugfest. I want combatants jumping around, swinging from the chandelier, climbing ladders and kicking benches at their opponents. I want Pirates of the Caribbean; I want Jackie Chan. This is a first attempt.

The problem with this ruleset as it stands is twofold: first, it's fiddly and abstract. I can see a game slowing down and players being pushed out of the shared fiction as they calculate whether it's better to retreat or press this round. Heck, I'm not even sure how this would generalize to anything bigger than 1-on-1 combat. 

The other risk is that things get boring, with only three options. Even if that's true, we're still doing better than systems where the barbarian's only option is "attack!" But still. What this really needs is a set of special "moves" to draw from, each one an interaction with the environment or a spectacular stunt. Chuck a Flowerpot, Swing from the Chandelier, that kind of thing. Make them into Magic-style cards, with in-fiction triggers and/or metagame requirements to get a bonus or one-off special ability. Heck, print actual physical cards! Maybe I'll publish a deck someday.

Don't think you've seen the last of this...

-V