Duel: The core rules in a Pocketmod

Sooo ... I am still working on my rules for my 15 minute skirmisher "Duel" 

 

Right now, I have cracked down the core rules into a format, that makes them easily portable: The "pocketmod" format! A pocketmod is a single site you can fold down into a booklet by adding a cut in the centre. (Read more at pocketmod.com for details - or in the instructions in the PDF 🙂 ) 

You may get a sneak peak at the current pocketmod rulebook here: 

http://cloud.catzeyes.de/index.php/s/QAbiHQ9sFRAqxKg

If you are interested in the full rules, you may download them here: www.catzeyes.de/Duel  

My question to you now is: what do you think about those pocketmod rules? Are they easily understandable? What would you add or kick out?  

Duel: How to improve upon the rulebook

 Asking the proper guys, and receive wisdom!

Here are the replies I got upon asking, how to improve on the rulebook:

Use a serif typeface for your body copy. Check FontSquirrel.com for some neat fonts.

Look up Smart Quotes. Seeing the double quote on the baseline is unnerving.

If you have two or more sentences one after an other, put a tab space in front of the 2nd and later ones to break up the 'wall of text'. If just a line of text don't add the tab.

The headers (Action, Terrain) could be larger and maybe overlap the border.

For graphics to spice up the text? Cow skull, wagon wheel, cactus, cowboy hat, etc. Gives a western feel. Even monotone or silhouette graphics are OK.

Regarding the "Smart Quotes" I found this article:

https://typographyforlawyers.com/straight-and-curly-quotes.html

That's a great article on quote marks.

Correct, start the headers outside the border. Or make them bigger.

The cover blurb at the bottom. Don't be afraid to put it in the shadow of the man's back (to make it easier to read).

On fonts, here is a link to dafont for free western style fonts. Use them for headers. Unless it is easy to read, I wouldn't use them as body copy. So, here is a link for free eroded style fonts that might be good for body copy. (Yeah, I'm overthinking it.)

Using photos of miniatures, unless you made the miniatures someone else owns the copyright on them. You might find free western photos at Pixabay, Freepik, or other public domain or royalty free art sites.

Checking your rulebook again, I see that you used Microsoft PowerPoint. While it works, it isn't the best program to make a rulebook. If you can, try Word, OpenOffice/Writer (free), InDesign ($/mth), Affinity Publisher ($), Scribus (free).

I've offered it before, here it is again: Board Game Creation on BoardGameGeek. You'll find a LOT of information on making games there. Registration is free. They also have a large database of games. You can search for them on the top right.

Hi! I would definitely add some photo/picture of the setup and the main actions. As a plus I'd add some cool cowboy hanging around the text. I would divide the text in two columns so it is easier to read, maybe highlight the main words

This actually looks better than I thought it was going to based on your description. That said, I do have a couple thoughts. Yes, I went meta with this comment and incorporated my own advice in.

My Suggestions

Typographic hierarchies

The basic idea is to have a couple levels of font size/weight for headers going from broadest category to narrowest. You don't need to overdo it - in fact you've got the framework for it already with your page headers at the top and your bolded section headers. I would consider putting the page headers actually in the body of the page - I didn't even notice them the first time around. You can maybe keep a small version in the footer of the page as well to let people know what section they're in. Numbering also helps, ex: 1. Requirements & Setup, 2. Game Turn, etc. You can then add those headers to your table of contents to help people find what they're looking for even faster.

Bullet Points / Lists

You have several places where there are basically lists of short sentences. Lean into that - people love checklists, and they help focus on what is important. It may help to start a section with a short sentence or paragraph explaining what the list is, for example "Here's what you'll need to play" followed by each of the requirements in a list. That way people also know when the list is over.

Bold

Emphasize keywords by bolding them rather than putting them in quotes. It's a simple change but it's amazing how impactful it can be when scanning the page to find something. If you do decide to use bold for keywords, try to avoid using it for anything else - people will develop an understanding that bold = keyword and then be confused if another bolded word isn't a keyword.

Example:

If you end your „Move“ or „Interact“ action drawing a line of sight to an opposing model, you immediately start shooting at it.

could instead be

If you end your Move or Interact action drawing a line of sight to an opposing model, you immediately start shooting at it.

Tables

I know there's a few minds around tables, and I'm not suggesting adding in some crazy lookup tables, but your page 7 has several examples that would be perfect for a short table which would increase comprehension drastically.

Example:

Terrain	Walk Through	See Through	Provides Cover
Field of wheat	Yes	Yes	Yes
Any open space	Yes	Yes	No
Dense Forest	Yes	No	Yes
A fence	No	Yes	Yes
Open fireplace	No	Yes	No
A wall	No	No	Yes

Images

Finally, if you just can't get around lots of text, you can break up the flow of things simply by adding some flavor images. They don't even have to be related - they could just be there to break up the flow a bit. And when in doubt, use more whitespace.

One thing to consider /u/CatZeyeS_Kai is if you're going to have a PDF version of your rules, you may want to provide links within to other parts of the document. The table of contents, for sure, but also anywhere there's something that relates to another part of the document, or may be explained in more detail. That's the only real use-case I can see for underlines in this context.

The rulebook should be frontloaded with the minimum information someone needs to play, with any further material positioned after that. Even if it's just a two sentence introduction about where you got the idea.

The first page should have a very brief description of the setting and the object of the game. For example:

Duel is a short and simple skirmish game set in the old west. Take on the role of a gunfighter as you try to outgun and outsmart your opponent. The race is on to grab the treasure and make it out alive.

Instead of wordy descriptions of what players can use for components, let the illustrations speak for you.

"use anything you like as terrain, for example:" (then have a photo of nice miniatures and custom terrain pieces, and another photo of plain meeples standing on a zippo.)

Be brief. Use illustrations. Have examples of the rules in action. Put additional material at the back. Cut out most of the exclamation points.

You start with "At the beginning of 2022 in the Facebook Group...". That's not necessary info for learning the game, so I'd move it to the back of the book if not just cut it altogether.

1, 2, 3 - A simple D6 RPG system

1 - 2 - 3 is a D6 system - no other dice are required!

A Hero has 3 attributes:

Physical, Mental, Social

Distribute 6 points among the attributes so each attribute has a stat from 1-3.

On top of that, Heroes start with 10 skill points to distribute among skills. Skill descriptions can be as broad as "melee combat" or as narrow as "heart surgery in zero gravity" - this depends on player's choice and GM's agreement. A skill's maximum stat is 3!

There are active and passive skills. Active skills require a skill roll to work, passive skills are "always on". Skill rolls work with a number of successes rolled and the number of successes rolled determine the grade of success achieved. For passive skills the player has to work out in cooperation with the GM, how the skill works. As skills depend on attributes, the attribute linked to a skill is a good measure, how strong a passive skill's effect on a Hero is.

When performing a skill roll, roll a number of dice equal to the linked attribute's stat. Each die's result is compared against a difficulty number: 4,5,6 for easy tasks, 5,6, for average tasks, 6 for hard tasks. You receive a number of rerolls equal to your skill's stat to reroll dice that did not end up as a success.

Tools supporting the task at hand give you a +1 per die for a task.

Performing supernatural skills (Magic Spells, Prayers, Psi effects) always is hard! However, you may aquire a "focus" skill, which is an active skill that, too, is always hard, but gives you a +1 per success on each die rolled for the supernatural skill!

Opponents come in 3 levels: Goon (lvl1), Average (lvl2), Boss (lvl3) They use their level as a stat for everything: attribute stat, skill stat, number of actions, armour stat. (Yes, Bosses are pretty nasty and should be used rarely only!)

The opponent's level also indicates, how many hits they can take:

Lvl1 are out of action permanently after the 1st hit.

Lvl2 are out of action for the moment, but may recover just like Heroes (see below). On the 2nd hit they are out permanently. 

Lvl3 shrug off the 1st hit each turn without any consequences. The next hit on a turn, however, takes them out of action for the moment. They may recover just like Heroes (see below). On the 3rd hit (or on the 2nd, if they already are out of action) in a turn they are out permanently.

Combat is extremely deadly: every Hero can only take 2 hits! Take one hit and you are out of action with a chance to recover, take 2 (or more) hits and you are out of action for the remainder of the adventure at the very least!

The armour is a measurement, how easy it is to hit a Hero / an opponent: Armour has got two stats: The first one, called Armour Value, tells you, how easy/hard it is to hurt you, the second, called Action Allowance, tells you the number of actions you have got per turn. (An action can be: move 4", attack once, use a device, use a skill, unlock a door, and so on ..) There is light armour (AV1/AA3), medium armour (AV2/AA2) and heavy armour (AV3/AA1).

In combat each participant PICKS his initiative on a D6 (!) in secret. The GM may opt to roll for Goons and Average opponents but should go for picking the initiative for a Boss!

When everybody has set his initiative, reveal! Order of acting goes from lowest initiative to highest!

As opposed to skill rolls, you don't get an automatic +1 for using a "tool" (rather: a weapon). Instead you get to add your picked initiative to each die rolled. Pick a low initiative to attack first with a chance to miss, pick a high initiative for a better chance to hit but with a chance to get hit first (and thus being taken out of action before you can hit), too. On each die rolled a final result of 6+Target's Armour Value or more is a hit!

Combat equipment in your hands can be:

2 handed melee weapon (giving a +1 on each die rolled)

1 handed melee weapon

1 handed ranged weapon (range: 8", reload on 6+)

2 handed ranged weapon (range: 16", reload on 5+)

Shield (only in combination with a 1 handed weapon; adds +1 to Armor Value for attacks from the Hero's front arc while keeping the Action Allowance)

When attacking with ranged weapons, roll a separate "Reload" die along to the attack to see, whether the weapon needs to reload. Reload a 1 handed weapon for 1 action and a 2 handed weapon for 2 actions. A weapon (or any other piece of equipment you've got) can have a special ability to do more than just damage one enemy. (A flamer, for example, might affect all enemies witin a circle of 2", an acid grenade may attack it's target turn after turn accumulating an additional +1 on each die per turn, and whatever the GM deems appropriate.) In that case add +1 to the dieroll when checking for reload! Also, the weapon needs +1 action to reload!

Supernatural skills can attack opponents, up to 24" away, too. A supernatural skill always has to "reload" on a 5+, no matter what! Then, however, the Hero needs a whole night (at least 8 hours) of rest to "reload" the skill.

A combatant having taken 1 hit is out of action for the moment but can still recover. Recovering uses up all of his actions. Roll 2 dice: on a 5 or more on any one of the dice the combatant recovers and can act regularly at the beginning of the next turn. If the combatant has not been attacked during the previous turn, he recovers on a 4 or more on one die.

A Hero with a medical / healing skill may use this skill to have the combatant out of action recover. The difficulty for this is average at best, hard, if the combatant out of action or the healer is under attack.

After taking a 2nd hit, you are out and at the very least prolonged and advanced medical care is necessary to get you back up. (Read: you don't get to participate in the current adventure any more!)

You get experience for fulfilling tasks rather than for killing opponents: 

You need 100XP to buy the first skill point in a new skill, 200XP to buy the 2nd skill point and 300XP for the 3rd skill point.

Killing a goon gives you 1XP, an average opponent 2XP and a boss 3XP.

Fulfilling main missions gives you 50-100XP (GM's discretion), fulfilling sidequests gives you 10-50XP (GM's discretion). Aiding in fulfilling missions but not surviving until the end gives half XP (but still full XP, if you go down during the final battle!)

Duel - Digital Rules updated

 Hi Guys,

long time no hear!

I've worked on "Duel": Some rules have been adjusted, others have been added.

The most notable change: Heroes. 

You can now ramp up your game to a full blown gang warfare skirmisher by promoting your regular duelists to  Heros who not only are fiercer combatants but also comes with ressources such as more life, followers or nasty skills making them superior to other fighters.

Go and check out the new rules here:

https://www.catzeyes.de/Duel

Enjoy!

Duel - A Cyborg Sniper vs. "La Famiglia"

 Once again I used my system for Duel

This time the optional rules for Heroes have been used and I pitted one Hero versus another one - both very different from another:

The Cyborg "56". His ressource points went into:

Fast, so he can move twice per turn. Precision shot, so he can take out his targets without effort. Volley, so he can stand his ground against multiple opponents. The remaining 3 points went into 3 points of toughness (=additional wounds). Also he wears light armour and is a "gunslinger", so he gets a bonus of +2 on each die rolled. Also, everyone rolling dice against him receives a +1, too, or a +3 when in melee combat.

Roberto, the halfling mafiosi with his band of 5 followers (1 ressource each). His remaining resource went into the skill "coordinate", so he can act with all 5 of them at once!

The starting setup: Roberto starts on the left side and has to leave via the right border. The cyborg starts on the right side and has to prevent Roberto from reaching his goal.

The game starts with both Heroes entering the playing area. Roberto moves in his 4" ...

56 is fast, so he runs 8" along the street. None of the combatants can see each other yet.

The next turn takes Roberto and his ragtags closer to the corner ...

56 takes moves into position into his "crow's nest" ...

Initiative. (Note: Even though I have seen 56 rolled a 3, Roberto a 5 AND even though I placed both numbers at the corresponding teams for this shot, I swapped the numbers around the moment I removed the dice from the table. This is why now Roberto gets to act first and THEN 56 acts.)

Roberto opts for bloodshed: He moves 3 gangers into a position from where they can take on 56. As he cannot move the other 2 into a position where they can draw line of sight to 56, he send them around the corner, so they can open fire the next turn.

Here we can see his devious plan: counting on 56 to act somewhat slower due to having to return fire, one ganger goes for a duel score of 3, 56 goes for 4, the remaining 2 gangers go for a 6 each so for each of them 2 hits are safe (then again, chances are one of them gets slain before he can even act! A sacrifice for "la famiglia"!)

Having to reroll due to 56's cover, the first ganger botches his shot: 3+1 = 4, 3+2 = 5. Even when adding the additional +1 he would get for 56 being light armoured, none of the results would be 7 or more! So, not a single hit from this ganger.

Now 56 returns fire: 3 hits (4+1+2 = 7, 4+4+2 = 10 twice) are more than enough to remove one of the "Duel Score 6" gangers.

The remaining "Duel Score 6" ganger fires back: with a 3 and a 5 (6+3 = 9, 6+5 = 11) he scores 2 hits, both counting against 56's toughness. 1 toughness remaining - if that point gets lost, the next hit causes 56 to go down!

56 is a skilled mercenary relying on his abilities to take out opponents even under pressure. He does not move but instead releases a "volley" on the two remaining gangers. He selects a Duel Score of 2, the gangers opt for being slower (3 and 5 ... poor fellows ...)

With results of 3,4 and 5 even after rerolling one hit for the ganger in cover, 56 scores 3 results >7 (as he gets a +2 per die rolled - remember?) That's enough to take out one of the gangers entirely and to have the other one go down.

Mess with the best - die like the rest! End of turn 3.

Initiative. 1 for Roberto, 4 for 56.

Upkeep. Rolling a 6 on one of the dice, the ganger gets back up again.

Roberto orders the ganger on the street closer to the building, so he has at least some cover. The remaining gangers are ordered into a position where 56 cannot draw line of sight to. He himself goes into hiding in the alley, too.

Having only one target to react to, 56 takes his time, just to play it safe. The ganger however plays it safe in the same way, so both combatants open fire at the same time (Duel Score 4).

56 rolls 3 hits, the ganger rolls 1 hit (1 and 4) - 56's toughness has been used up, the ganger is wasted, too.

56 moves into a position, where he can draw line of sight to at least one of the gangers. The ganger opens fire with a Duel Score of 2. His rolls of 1 and 4 after having to reroll 1 result that was a hit initially, are not sufficient any more to hit even once. 56 rolls 2 hits (2 and 5) and 1 miss. The 2 hits, however, are enough to take out the ganger.

Another one bites the dust. End of turn 4.

Initiative: 3 for Roberto, 6 for 56.

The ganger backs away, Roberto himself hides behind the terminal. For 56 this is not going as intended. He's a sniper! His actual job is to sit still and to shoot sitting (or running) ducks. Not to hunt actively ... Yet, if the wants to prevent Roberto from reaching his goal, he has to hunt that coward down, apparently.

End of turn 5.

Initiative: 4 for 56, 5 for Roberto.

56 cannod afford facing multiple opponents anymore, as this would be his demise: One of the opponents would bite the bullet while the other one takes him down. He has to catch the remaining fighers flat footed and one by one. So he rushes down the street, hoping to catch the other fighters as intended. Roberto and his remaining ganger move down the back alleys of the buildings.

End of Turn 6. 

Initiative: 3 for Roberto, 5 for 56.

The ganger moves behind the .. well .. whatever this is, ready to rumble. However upon returning fire, 56 takes out the ganger with a Duel Score of 1 and rolling two 6es even after rerolling one of the hits due to the ganger's cover.

So, apparently Roberto has to take things into his own hands now. He moves around the corner and goes for a Duel Score of 5. 56 tries to repeat the stunt he has just pulled off - and fails miserably. Of the 3 dice he has got, not a single one scores a hit!

Roberto shoots - and lands 3 hits. More than enough to finish off 56.

End of turn 7 - and end of the game ...

Having been stripped of every single one of his bodyguards, Roberto can leave this area safely. He writes a mental note so he remembers calling the major later that day and discuss renaming this street to "bullet road" or "via sanguina" or something ...

Soooo ...

What a close game!

If it hadn't been for the fumble in his final turn, 56 could actually have stopped Roberto from crossing this place. Alas he failed. 

However, the battle he delivered to his opponent was epic and pulse driving! Taking down 5 gangers before biting the dust - that's something you still have to imitate!

Did you like that battle report?

Are you curious about the game?

Then go for the rules here: Download Duel - they are entirely free!

And if there are ever any questions, here on the right of this blog you can find the ways to contact me!

Thanks for reading!

Kind regards,

Kai

PowerPoint Wargame - the wargame you can play at work

 I wanted to have a wargame that:

- could be played solitaire

- was sci fi

- could be played at work

After some tinkering I figured, I could use Microsoft's PowerPoint for everything:

To generate a backdrop, to host the hexmap, to move counters from A to B. 

Now all I needed were some tried and true combat mechanics as well as the time to jot everything down.

Well, what shall I say? Here I am, playing the PowerPoint Wargame. And as I want to share my joys, I'd like to share the game with you folks:

If you want it - come and get it´

Here an ingame screenshot of a possible starting setup: