After a long hiatus I'm back into working on my Conan hack. Tell me if I can do this and what problems you may foresee:
Light Armor 1-armor
Heavy Armor 2-armor
Shield +1-armor
Grappling 1-harm
Knives, Daggers, Arrows 2-harm
Swords, Axes, Spears 3-harm
Two-handed weapons 4-harm
(will have tags for different weapons and armor of course)
When you Wade into Battle, roll+ Wrath. On a hit, exchange harm. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10+, you get all 3.
- Break their defense (deal +1 harm)
- Parry and evade (Enemy deals -1 harm)
- Seize something important (their position, weapon, courage, etc.)
(exchange harm: PC's do not subtract their armor from NPC's harm. However they do subtract NPC's armor from PC harm. A Gang's Armor does not increase with size difference).
When you Suffer Harm roll+ Armor (0 to +3). On a 10+ your armor, or luck, negates all harm and saves you. On a 7-9, your armor negates 1 harm and the MC chooses 1:
-You miss something important
-You drop something important (weapon, shield, piece of armor)
-You stumble, fall, or became dazed
-Your fatigued, take -1 ongoing until you can recover
I was thinking of giving characters Harm Wheels (countdown clocks) of four 'pie slices' instead of 6. Gangs still have 6 levels to their Harm Wheels, but their armor does not increase with each size difference. Combined with these new moves I think it will make combat results more granular than vanilla AW.
Perhaps my new 'Seize' move should only grant a 'pick 2' on a 10+ instead of getting all 3?
The potential wrinkle that comes to my mind is gangs. If PCs aren't subtracting their armor from a gang's harm, that could be messy. But 10+ for my Suffer Harm move negates all harm inflicted. Still, maybe I shouldn't do this or do something different with Gangs.
I imagine unarmed combat being more of a series of defying danger, seizing limbs, or seizing throats then seizing breath. Or seizing a body and slamming it into something (+harm).
Anyways, I really prefer a player-facing 'roll+armor' move. I saw another poster's roll+armor move but they cut out damage ratings entirely and it was a little too abstract for me.