Combat Playtesting AAR (After Action Report)

Going into this combat playtesting I am not using Fate Cards. Powers/spells added later. AC, Wounds, Armor Points are uniform across the adventuring party (regardless of Vitality/Agility/other stat influence) Initiative is drawn once at the start of combat and the turn order is maintained through combat. Party members draw initiative separately. One card is drawn for all the orcs' initiative, and all orcs act one after the other. They do not all operate on the same “turn”, but all their “turns” are one after the other. Below are the basic stat blocks of the combatants and how the three rounds played out. 3 Orcs will focus on the Tank, 1 Orc will attack the Martial class. If one of those two Dealers are defeated, the orcs will choose to attack whichever other party member is the biggest threat.

Adventurers 8 AC 3 Wounds 0 AP

Orcs 8AC 1 Wound 0AP

Trilogy 1

Combat 1 Initiative order Martial, Defender, Healer, ORCS, Caster Tank 2 Wounds Orcs defeated. Combat ended on Round 2, turn 3

Combat 2 Initiative order Orcs, Healer, Defender, Martial, Caster Tank 1 Wound Martial 1 Wound Orcs defeated. Combat ended Round 1, turn 5

Combat 3 Initiative order Martial, Caster, Healer, Orcs, Defender No Dealer Wounds received Orcs defeated Combat ended Round 1, turn 5

Conclusion

At this very basic level everything works well enough. There’s nothing flashy or fancy going on. Stat blocks smashing into stat blocks. The only thing notable is that it feels bad to be “top decking” (a card game term meaning to have no cards in your hand and drawing straight off the top of your card deck) the entire fight. —------- For this next set of fights I actually went two extra rounds because I really wanted to make sure that the TINY stat boosts were in fact impacting the game in a meaningful way. So I will now be adding AGL (Agility) to Initiative draws and contested “to hit” draws to everyone EXCEPT those in Heavy Armor (The Tank). The tank will receive 1 AP, and use his VIT (Vitality) in contested checks instead of his AGL. Also I will be including Suite Bonuses. 1 Orc will act as a “Sergeant”, he is not a Dealer, but WILL have Heavy Armor 1AP, +0 AGL, +1 VIT and a +3 to hit The other 3 Orcs have +0 AGL and keep the +2 to hit

Orc Sergeant and another Orc will charge the tank, the other 2 orcs fight the Martial

“Trilogy” 2

Combat 1 Initiative Order Defender, Healer, Orcs, Caster, Martial Tank lost 1 AP Martial took 2 Wounds Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 3, turn 4

Combat 2 Initiative Order Martial, Orcs, Caster, Defnder, Healer Tank lost 1 AP and took 2 wounds Martial took 1 wound Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 4,turn 5

Combat 3 Initiative Order Healer, Caster, Martial, Defnder, Orc No Dealer Wounds received Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 2, turn 2

Combat 4 Initiative Order Healer, Caster, Martial, Orcs, Defender No Dealer Wounds received Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 2, turn 2

Combat 5 Initiative Order Caster, Healer and Orcs together, Defender, Martial Tank lost 1 AP Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 2, turn 4

Conclusion Well I played an extra 2 combats this time around because the math was surprising me and I wanted to test the numbers further. As it turns out, making an Orc “Sergeant” and giving him the (small) boosted stats was significant in a very pleasing way. By that I mean his increased AC and “to hit” allowed a noticeably better performance on the side of the baddies. I had assumed things would go far more in favor of the Dealers, as their boons seemed more significant over all compared to the Orcs. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Orcs not so completely crushed as I assumed they would be.

Suite bonuses feel good to use, and easy to understand. I reported this already in the specific “Suite Bonus” issue. AGL being added to initiative only mattered for the Martial character, yet it was still impactful. It should be noted that any sort of initiative bonus will be increasingly beneficial in future versions where initiative is drawn at the start of every round. Using AGL and VIT respectively for boosting Dealer’s Contested Checks felt good . I need much more testing with a wider range of stats to get a final opinion on the Contested Checks mechanic as a whole, but it seems alright so far. —-

Alright for this next bout I am going to add an Orc Commander as an enemy Dealer. Orc Commander will have a separate deck of cards from his lackeys. Orc Sergeant will receive a demotion and just be a normal Orc again. So we have Orc x4 Orc Commander: 3 Wounds, 9 AC, 2AP, +4 to hit Special: “Get back in the fight!” - Once per round if an ally would be killed you may make a Check adding your Performance (+2) against a DC 10 to remove a single Wound from them.

In addition to the above bad guy updates, the Dealers will have full access to their Powers.

CAVEAT: I’m going to adjust some of the powers given to the Dealers, I’ll list the changes below.

Support Archetype-

Adjusting Heal so that its Major use will give a 2HP pool that can be distributed between two different targets.

Adjusting Shield so that it’s Minor gives +2 AC and Major gives +3 AC distributed between two targets (neither target can receive more than +2 AC). Either of these effects last until the end of Support's next turn.

Martial Archetype- Swapping out Step of The Wind as I am not using a grid for this combat. In its place I’m creating a power and calling it “Parry/Riposte” Also swapping “Attack, Sweep” for another ability I made called “Who’s Next?”. This change was made to lean into that melee damage dealer playstyle.

Parry/Riposte (major): You may use this power whenever a creature makes a Contested Check to attack you. Increase your Contested Check draw by your primary stat. If the attacking creature fails the Contested Check, you hit them instead. If you kill a creature in this way, your AC is increased by your primary skill until the start of your next turn.

Who’s Next? (Minor): Reduce your AC -1 until you kill a creature. After you kill one creature your Attack Draws are increased by +1 until the end of combat. This power stacks.

Caster Archetype: Because there is no grid, swapping both powers for

Burst of Light: Up to 3 designated creatures must make a Contested Check against you using their VIT. If they fail, they make Contested Checks at a -2 until the end of your next turn.

Combustion (Major): Target creature must make a Contested Check against you using their VIT Upon failing they are afflicted by ‘Burning’, and take a wound (regardless of AP).

New status effect ‘Burning’: Target takes damage whenever they take an action (other than to ‘Stanch’) or at the end of their turn. This damage applies to wounds and does not affect AP. Damage from this effect may only be applied once per round.

New action ‘Stanch’: Make VIT Draw vs. DC 9 to get rid of the ‘Burning’ status effect. Taking this action on successive turns adds a +4 to the VIT Draw.

Defender Archetype- Replacing Shield to not double dip with Support. Replacing Momentum because, say it with me, no grid! New powers are

Get Down! (Minor): Whenever an ally would take a wound, you take it instead (This bypsses your AP). (When we plan for a grid in the future this will need to have a fixed range)

Come At Me! (Major): Target up to three creatures. The target(s) Attack Draws against anyone other than you are made with the Lower Hand (name pending). Additionally, your AC is increased by the number of creatures targeted. These effects last until the end of your next turn.

Combat 1 Initiative order Healer, Defender, Martial, Orcs, Caster, Orc Chief Martial took a total of 3 wounds, but was healed before going unconscious Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 4, turn 5.

Combat 2 Initiative order Martial, Healer, Orcs, Orc Boss, Caster, Defender Defender took 2 wounds and lost 1 AP Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 4, turn 5

Combat 3 Initiative Order Martial, Healer, Orcs, Orc Boss, Caster, Defender Defender took 1 Wound and lost 1 AP Martial took 2 Wounds, was healed 2 Orcs Defeated Combat ended on Round 6, turn 1

FINAL Conclusion-

The last combat trilogy was certainly the most complex, and in a good way. The powers feel nice and there are some combos that can be coordinated. Having only 3 power points is a bit of a tease, but at level 1 I think that’s perfectly fine. The combats go for 2 rounds more (Combat 3 was an interesting one where everyone just kept drawing low) than in the other tests, and that’s fine. The combat length could probably go until about round 10 before I would consider it a “long” combat. Quite different from DnD 5e huh? This encounter in the final 3 combats you might consider a “Medium Difficulty” encounter. You are definitely going to use some resources to get through the fight without anyone going unconscious, but otherwise a TPK is HIGHLY unlikely.

Okay the biggest issue I still have with the system is that “top-decking” just does not feel good. This is something “Fate Cards” couldn’t fix alone. Like when I play Magic The Gathering or Hearthstone, drawing cards off the top of your deck and those cards not being ones you need just feels annoying and out of your control. Yes a dice landing on whatever number is out of your control too, but with a deck of cards the odds are fixed. Which brings me to another big issue, the fixed odds. You can draw an Ace of Spades once. You could roll a natural 20 twice in a row. Not even speaking in extremes - You could roll a 10,14,16,18 and you are still just as likely to land above a 10 as you are to land below a 10 on the next roll, REGARDLESS of those previous rolls. This same concept is not true of a deck of cards. You draw an 8,10, Queen, Ace and now you are actually much more likely to draw below an 8. That feeling sucks. To feel the odds being stacked against you for just playing the game sucks, and no there isn’t a good feeling for this situation in reverse. Why? Because drawing those low cards to get to the better cards feels like a waste of time. We joke about rolling low in DnD and saying “Getting those out of the way early!”, well that joke is a reality in this game… and that just feels too meta,weird, and like you are just kinda there until you draw something good.. Anyhow… that’s me thoughts. There’s potential here, but a couple of glaring issues are staring us right in the face

DeckofAdventures / TheGame

Combat Playtesting AAR (After Action Report) #21