Re: To Dice or Not to Dice...

On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Pretty for January wrote:

> I don't know anything about recent diceless game systems (been too
busy
> with RL to keep up) but the old WarpWar from decades back had a
diceless
> combat system (I'm not going to say it was the first, but it was one
of
> the few; the only one I knew of back then, anyway) that worked fairly
well.
> It was based on your current speed, your opponent's current speed,
your
> combat tactic (attack, dodge, retreat) and your opponent's combat
tactic.

Note that there _is_ a 'random' element in this - namely the fact that 
you don't know what combat tactic your opponent will use!

In fact, the few diceless combat game systems I've seen have all had
this 
factor instead - sort of an advanced 'paper-rock-scissors' game, with 
combat modifiers. It only gets predictable if you have a massive 
advantage yourself (in which case it'd be predictable even with dice),
or 
if you can predict what option your opponent will use.

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson

"Father, what is wrong?"
"My shoes are too tight. But it does not matter, because
 I have forgotten how to dance."
- Londo Mollari