As a design exercise, I've been messing around with a tabletop RPG of Skyrim. It's been really productive to get away from my preferences (d20, a few good rules, story-focused) into stranger design territory (d100, no attributes, many skills).
Along the way, I got thinking about a rule for Armor—
Armor Pool
- You have a pool of HP and a pool of Armor. When you take damage, you lose Armor. If your Armor is 0, you lose HP.
- Some damage— like critical hits, fire, and magic— bypass your Armor and you lose HP directly.
- During a rest, you can recover HP. But your Armor can only be repaired in a settlement.
I like this because it's piecemeal, degrades, and dead simple to track. It also gives Players another reason to leave the dungeon (or wilderness) and visit town.
That's it. It's a new idea to me, but I'm sure systems already use it. Let me know below.
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