Playtest #4 - Enter Doc Stalwart, Stage Left

The Mighty Doc Stalwart
Legendary Hero (D12/6[3]); Hits 24; Move 30’; Hero Points 8
Might D16 (8); Mind D12 (6); Power D6 (3); Reflex D8 (4)

Invulnerable; Leaping; Flight (jet pack 60’)

Brawl (+1); Popularity (+1); Profession (Science +2); Stalwart (+2)

Goonsquad Brawler

Normal Thug (D6/3[1]); Hits 12

Might D6 (3); Mind D4 (2); Power D4 (2); Reflex D6 (3)

Machine Pistol (D8); Kendo Stick (D8)

Gila the Monster

Paragon Villain (D8/4[2]); Hits 18; Move 30’; Villain Points 4

Might D10 (5); Mind D4 (2); Power D6 (3); Reflex D6 (3)

Amphibious; Invulnerable (5); Weapon, Claws (D12)

Brawl (+1); Popularity (+2; lizards/amphibians only); Sneak (+2)

Limitation: -1 shift if he is out of water for more than 24 hours.

I moved Doc up to D16 might - (in Eddie Murphy Gumby voice) because he’s Doc Stalwart, dammit! Also, I want to roll D16s. Because they are my preciousssss….

I decide that the ninjas were not replaced (those are not cheap), but four goonsquad bouncers are now standing watch in the warehouse when Doc arrives. He knocks on the front door, and then rips it off the hinges (I rolled a 2 on the first try, so he breaks the door handle; then I rolled a natural 16). “Guess you all didn’t hear me knocking. No problem. I’ll just let myself in.”

He doesn’t bother rolling initiative. He lets the brawlers each fire their auto pistols at him. Two of them hit, rolling 4 and 1, but all of these bullets just bounce off of his skin. He strolls in among them and starts swinging. He rolls 4, 8, 2, 6, 6, 5. These become 5, 9, 3, 7, 7, 6. He hits six times. He deals (rolling D12 six times): 8, 6, 5, 4, 7, 1. He drops the first with the 8 and 6, drops the second with the 5 and 7. He uses the 4 and 1 on a third, breaking his arm and forcing him to drop the pistol. They both fail their morale check (decided that will be DT 6; added that to the core rules draft).

He descends the stairs (seeing the blood from the ninjas) and enters the sewers. Gila uses 1 action to gather a found weapon (just added those to the rules as well). He has a chunk of concrete and rebar that he smacks against Doc’s back. He hits for 5 damage, but the entire thing just crumbles against Doc’s back. Doc turns and hits him with 3, 11, and 5 (which are 4, 12, and 6 after his brawling bonus). He hits three times, dealing 4, 13, and 9. Gila soaks 5 from each, so suffers 8 and 4, for 12 damage. He’s at 6. 

Gila claws twice, (I just realized I was letting Zealot take 5 attacks when his max is 4… oops. Not that it did him much good - he still got thumped good). He hits with a 6 (misses with a 2). However, the claw only deals 6, so Doc is able to soak the whole thing. Doc punches him with a natural 12. I rule that this is critical damage (see below). Doc rolls 16 for damage, and puts Gila 6” into the concrete wall. He then uses an attack action to finish him. He carries Gila’s limp body (not dead, but hurting like crazy) towards the lair of Sudoku. Trouble awaits…

Analysis

• Doc barely worked up a sweat; this makes sense. Captain Marvel is not going to have much trouble with Killer Croc; Thor is going to rip through the Lizard. These are not comparable foes, so it makes sense that the fight would be one-sided. I’d hope so. If Doc was taking on the entirety of Zealots’ rogue’s gallery (oooh. Maybe he’ll do that next!) it would be different. We’ll see.

• I started thinking about critical hits during the fight. It doesn’t make sense to have a max roll be a critical hit, because a D4 would crit 25% of the time, while a D20 would only crit 5% of the time. That makes no sense. I could see crits happening if your attack exceeds the dice rating of your foe; so Doc would score critical damage (+1 die shift) if he rolls an attack of 9 or better against Gila (since Gila has a D8 dice value). You can’t land crits against foes in the same tier (unless you have a bonus to hit) or higher, and the greater the difference between you and a foe, the more likely you are to crit. This makes a lot of sense. 

Zealot Playtest #3

Zealot
Paragon Hero (D8/4[2]); Hits 16; Move 30’; HP 4

Might D8 (4); Mind D8 (4); Power D4 (2); Reflex D10 (5)

Armor (4); Jump (swingline 120’) Melee Weapon (battle staves D10)

Brawl (+2); Infiltration (+1); Stealth (+1)

Gila the Monster

Paragon Villain (D8/4[2]); Hits 18; Move 30’; Villain Points 4

Might D10 (5); Mind D4 (2); Power D6 (3); Reflex D6 (3)

Amphibious; Invulnerable (5); Weapon, Claws (D12)

Brawl (+1); Popularity (+2; lizards/amphibians only); Sneak (+2)

Limitation: -1 shift if he is out of water for more than 24 hours.

I reworked the stat blocks for Zealot and Gila a little bit (just tweaks here and there), and changed the picture for Gila (mirror imaging it) so that he and Zealot aren’t in the same pose. I must really like that pose - I used it twice without realizing it. At least they now look like they’re going at each other.

I’m on a kick at the moment of building street-level villains for Zealot, so I’ll just keep doing that and build a little Rogue’s Gallery for him. I’ve already decided how Sudoku fits in to his ‘story’ a bit, so putting together a few more Batman-level foes (i.e. directly swiped from Batman the Animated Series) is on the priority list.

Anyway, Zealot has defeated three goons and two ninjas, and now is on to the basement. An open sewer grate in the boiler room has muddy tracks leading towards it, with clear claw marks. Zealot recognizes it immediately as Gila the Monster. He drops into the sewer tunnel and calls out for Gila, who emerges from the shadows. “Been waiting for this a long time, Zealot”. He cracks his knuckles and charges…

Round 1: Gila wins (8 vs. 1) and attempts two claw attacks. He misses with a 1 and 3. He spends 1 villain point to bump that 3 (+1 from brawling, +1 from villain point) to a 5. He hits and swipes at Zealot’s head. He deals 12 damage (dang!). Zealot’s armor soaks 4, and this leaves Zealot at -2. He is felled. His head smacks against a pipe, and he crumbles into the thick water. He spits out blood.

Round 2: Zealot rolls a 5, and stands back up, now at 8 hits and on his first recovery. He clicks his sticks together. “You’ve been practicing.” Gila wins initiative again, and hits with a 6+1=7. He deals 6 damage, and Zealot’s armor soaks 4, leaving him at 2. Zealot attacks with a flurry of five attacks, getting 6, 6, 5, 4, 2. With his bonus, these are 8, 8, 7, 6, 4. These all hit. Gila has such low reflex that it still makes sense to go for the extras (since he will hit with a roll of 2 or better). We’ll see about damage… he rolls five times for damage, and gets VERY lucky… 8, 8, 8, 7, 1. The one gets totally soaked, but after invulnerability he deals 3, 3, 3, 2 - so 11 points. Gila is at 7. 

Round 3: Gila hits twice (8+1=9 and 4+1=5). These deal 5 and 6 damage respectively. This drops Zealot for a second time. He tries to stand back up, but rolls a 1. He collapses in the water. Gila laughs as he drags the fallen hero into the lair of the one paying him all that money - Sudoku.

Analysis:

• Well, Zealot lost. I’m not entirely surprised. This would be a tough fight for him at full strength, and he walked into the battle already licking his wounds. It’s okay, because my D16’s just arrived (yay!) so now I’m going to playtest Doc Stalwart. That should be fun. This gives reason for Doc to go in search of Zealot, since Sudoku will now have him in a classic deathtrap. That’s fun.

• I like the synergy between evade and invulnerability. Some foes are easy to hit and hard to damage; others are hard to hit and hard to damage. I think that heroes will need either high evade or high invulnerability for optimal survival. Spidey and Flash will be okay because they have such high reflex. The Thing and Power Man are okay because they have the high invulnerability. Captain America has solid but unremarkable ratings in both, so he can manage. Characters like Magneto and the Invisible Woman are going to need to project force fields to offset the fact that they have no other way to evade or reduce damage. This also feels comic-accurate.

Stalwart RPG Playtest #2

Here we go with playtest #2...

Zealot

Paragon Hero (D8/4[2]); Hits 16; Move 30’; Hero Points 4

Might D8 (4); Mind D6 (3); Power D6 (3); Reflex D10 (5)

Armor (4); Jump (swingline 120’) Melee Weapon (battle staves D10)

Brawl (+2); Infiltration (+1); Stealth (+1)

Crimson Blade Ninja

Paragon Villain (D8/4[2]); Hits 14

Might D6 (3); Mind D6 (3); Power D6 (2); Reflex D8 (5)

Weapon (blade D8)

Dodge (+1); Infiltration (+1); Stealth (+2)

In Play:

Zealot enters a stairwell that circles downward into a cellar/boiler room. The heat and steam are coming up the stairs that descend on a square - 8 steps then landing, then 8 steps in opposite direction. He descends to the second tier and comes to where two Crimson Blade Ninjas hide in the dark. Both ninjas make their sneak roll, and surprise Zealot. They win initiative.

The first attacks twice, getting 8 and 2. The 8 hits, and he deals 7; Zealot’s armor soaks 4 and he is down to 13 hits. The second strikes twice and gets 1 and 4, missing twice as Zealot gets his staves up and parries away the attacks. Zealot strikes twice, getting 7+2=9 and a natural 1. He hits once, dealing 3. The second ninja is at 11. He’s going to change over to four attacks and take the penalty.

The ninjas each attack twice, getting 7, 7, 6, 7. Ouch. Zealot is hit four times, as the two ninjas close on him and overwhelm him with flashing blades. They deal 8, 3, 6, and 7. This is reduced to 4, 0, 2, and 3. He is at 4 hits. He takes four attacks now (going into a bit of a battle frenzy), getting 5, 3, 5, 4, which become 7, 5, 7, and 6 after his +2 from brawling. Against their reflex of 5, he still hits all four times! He deals 4, 5, 8, and 3 damage. He drops this ninja after the third attack, but decides to use his last attack to boot the ninja over the railing of the stairs. It falls 30’ and breaks its neck. His face bloodied, he turns to the other ninja and motions for him to attack.

The remaining ninja attacks twice, getting 5 and 3. Zealot uses one of his hero points to parry away the 5 at the last second and then spins at the ninja. He hits with 3, 3, 5, 5 (so 5, 5, 7, 7). He deals 5, 5, 8, 7 damage. Again, he drops the ninja after 3 hits, and uses the last hit to turn the ninja’s blade against itself, and the ninja dies.

Zealot looks around, ensures there are no other ninjas, and continues onward. He slowly descends, recovering to 6 hits. He has 3 hero points remaining for his battle with Sudoku.

Takeaways:

• His name is Zealot. He’s a bit violent for a superhero. This feels like gritty superhero action; because it is. I’ll be interested to see how this translates to a more four-color hero like Doc. Also, Zealot is more street level (he’s obviously my Daredevil stand-in), so there are much higher power levels to explore.

• The dice and abilities and hits are all pretty well balanced. He's suffering and dealing damage at rates that feel appropriate.

• I added a ‘finish him’ option in play here. If you want to use an attack against a fallen foe, you should be able to ensure they don’t get up again. That’s also aligned with the source material - stopping to land one more attack to make sure your foe doesn’t get up. That’s a pretty common action motif. I added this to the core rules.

• I like that he walks into the final battle battered and bruised a little bit. It makes it feel like the stakes for the final encounter are higher. Sudoku awaits. 

More Play Testing of Ant Stuff

Playtest time! I’ve decided to make three experienced ants (put them at level 3) and see how they do with a challenging mission…

Gus - Fun-loving Ant Infantry 3 

A3 Lance Corporal; Grit 10; Clout 40

Body 2 | Mind 2 | Reflex 2

Medic 1; Small Arms 1; Transport 1

AM-16 (Ct. 12; dmg. 4) 5 Aid Kits (10); 6 grenades (18)

Mort - Serious Ant Recon 3 

A4 Corporal; Grit 12; Clout 45

Body 3 | Mind 2 | Reflex 1

Heavy Weapons 1; Hunting 1; Stealth 1

AM-3Z (dmg. 6; Ct. 30); Camouflage Fatigues (6); 3 grenades (9)

Rocko - Reckless Ant Heavy Weapons 3 

A3 Lance Corporal; Grit 14; Clout 40  

Body 3 | Mind 1 | Reflex 2

Heavy Weapons 2; Toughness 1

AM-3Z (dmg 6; Ct. 30); Camouflage Fatigues (6); 2 Aid Kits (4)

Let’s Play!

My ants are on a mission to sneak up on a hidden bee facility where they are manufacturing a prototype helicopter. They are to sneak in, steal the helicopter, and escape with it. The facility has 12 bees and a hornet (as the overseer). The roof requires 3 rounds to retract once the button is hit to open it. There is an anti-aircraft gun positioned on the roof (dmg. 10). Once an alarm is raised, another helicopter will arrive in 1 minute to engage. 

The ants try to sneak up towards the back of the facility, moving through thick grass. Gus rolls 2 dice, Mort rolls 3, and Rocko rolls 3. The watchman has Mind 1, so they each need only 1 success. Gus gets 2, Mort gets 3, and Rocko gets 4. They are super sneaky, getting to the back wall of the complex. The back door is locked, and the windows appear to be sealed shut. None of them has security, but they can try to pick the lock anyway; this is a straight up Mind roll, but with DT 4 (so good luck, boys). Um. Okay. Mort gets double 6s (4 successes), with no extra successes on the second roll, but he didn’t need them. Wow. Okay. He gets the door open.

There are a few bees milling about. They can try to sneak to the helicopter, but odds are not good. They need 4 successes to cross without being detected… they decide to create a distraction… and maybe take out a few bees in the process. The idea is to throw a grenade to the far end of the area, draw attention, and use that to sprint to the helicopter. If all goes well, the stealth check will be vs. DT 2. They are no longer outside, so nobody gets a bonus from camouflage fatigues; all are rolling 2D to use stealth. Rocko will throw a stun grenade that he gets from Gus. Gus will prepare to sneak towards the helicopter, and Mort will sneak towards the button to open the roof.

Not loving this plan. But whatever.

It goes sideways quickly. Rocko failed his check to throw the grenade; it bounces back towards the helicopter and goes off next to it. One bee is nearby, and gets caught in the blast. He fails his BODY check, and is stunned for 4 rounds. All of the other bees and the wasp are suddenly at attention. The ants seek cover. It’s initiative.

The ants win with double 6s. Nice. Gus runs to the chopper, and Mort runs to the button. Rocko will lay down support fire. Mort is successful (no check required), and the roof begins to open. It will be open in three rounds. It is possible that the helicopter is open. Nope. Door is closed. It is likely that the door is unlocked; Nope. The helicopter doors are locked. Well darn. Rocko fires at one bee; only 2 successes on 5 dice is a little disappointing, but it’s still a hit for 6 damage, which deals 4 to the bee, leaving it at 4. He fires again, this time getting 6 successes, which is 10 damage and shreds the first bee. One is dead and one is stunned.

The bees go. Three will attack each ant. Then I’ll decide on the hornet…

One hits Gus for 3; his Body soaks 2, so he suffers 1 damage. The second misses, and the third hits him for 3, so he suffers 1 more damage, down to 8.

Mort gets peppered; he’s hit three times, for 3, 4, and 6 points respectively. His Body 3 soaks a good chunk of this, but he suffers 1 and 3, down to 8.

Rocko is hit twice, but his Body absorbs all of it. 

The hornet is smart (gets 2 successes on his MIND roll) and knows they are trying to steal the helicopter. He flies to Gus to stop him. He orders the bees to focus on the other two. 

Round 2

Gus tries to pick the lock with his first action (which is going to be very, very difficult). 1 success. Nope. He takes his rifle and tries to break the lock open. I’m going to argue this is part of his small arms training (use the butt of the weapon as a hammer), and he rolls 3 dice… and gets no successes. Yeah. He needs the key. Which is around the neck of the Hornet…

Mort and Rocko decide that he’s the biggest threat, and both fire at him as he flies (they won’t be able to once he’s in melee with Gus).

Mort opens fire, getting 3 and 2 successes. He hits once for 6 damage; the hornet soaks 3, so suffers 3 and is at 17. The 2 misses.

Rocko also fires, getting 3 and 8 successes. He hits twice; once for 6 and once for 11!. The hornet soaks 3 from each, so suffers 3 and 8… the hornet is down to 6 Grit remaining. Wow. That helps a lot.

4 Bees attack Mort. They get 0/2/1/2 successes. This is hits for 4, 3, and 4. Mort’s Body soaks 3 from each, so he suffers 2 and is at Grit 6 remaining. He’s hurt, suffering a 1 die penalty.

4 Bees attack Rocko. They get 1/3/1/4 successes. These are hits for 4 and 5 hits; his Body soaks 3 from each, so he suffers 3 damage total, leaving him at Grit 11.

The Hornet attacks twice as it lands in front of Gus. It gets 5 successes on its first shot, and 5 on its second; each attack deals 10 hits; Gus’ Body soaks 2 from each, so he suffers 16 damage! Wow. Gus is very dead. The hornet is going to try to get inside the copter before it is killed. It is using Gus’ body as cover (+1) as it tries to get the lock open.

Mort unloads on the hornet, but only gets 2 and 3 successes; he misses both times (but peppers Gus’ body a little bid for good measure).

Rocko does the same. He gets 1 and 2 successes. Well fudge. He misses twice.

The hornet gets into the helicopter, slams the door, and fires up the engines. That’s not good.

4 bees attack each ant.

Against Mort, they get 0/3/2/4 successes and 3/1/1/4 successes. I have been forgetting to let the bees attack twice each round. Uh oh. This is hits for (after accounting for his BODY soaking 3) 2, 1, 3, 2, and 2 damage. He suffers a total of 10 and is at -4, and is dead. Drat.

 

Against Rocko, they get 3, 1, 1, 2 and then 2, 4, 4 and 1. Five of these hit, for a total of 1, 2, and 2 damage (Body soaks quite a bit). He suffers 5 damage, and is down to 6. He’s now suffering a penalty of +1 to DTs because he’s hurt. 

The roof is open (thanks to the ants), and the hornet is about to escape. Rocko has one round to try and do something about it. He checks MIND (DT 4 because of his penalty) to come up with something clever, but he gets 1 success. That’s a hard nope.

The only thing he can do is try to shoot down the helicopter, which is very, very unlikely in one round, but what the heck. The hornet is piloting, so it’s his REFLEX as the defense (+1 because Rocko is hurt); Rocko fires twice, getting 4 and 5 successes. He hits twice, once for 6 and once for 7 damage. The helicopter has armor of 4 and GRIT of 15… he deals 5 hits, which definitely punches some holes in the side of the helicopter, but it’s not enough to stop it. The hornet lifts off, ordering the incoming combat helicopter to destroy the building; it has served its purpose.

Rocko steps out into the middle of the room, emptying his belt at the bees who swarm at him as rockets set the entire building ablaze.

Debrief:

Well, that was… interesting. It ended up feeling like the first ten minutes of an action movie, setting up the big bad (the hornet) and probably killing the older brother of the real star of the movie. Like, it was Rocko’s younger brother who was supposed to be on the mission, but Rocko stepped in at the last minute and took his place… so now he has guilt, and needs revenge, and all of it. Anyhow…

The game is deadly, which is should be because A) It’s about Army Ants and B) it’s an old-school game. A total party kill should not be that exceptional.

They would have died quicker if I remembered that the bees get two actions per round. I was only giving them one per round for a little while there.

In retrospect, this mission was a little overly-hard for them. If they had pulled off the stealth pieces of it, they might have been okay, but in a straight up firefight, they had very little chance. I figured that the presence of the helicopter, and the possibility that they could commandeer it quickly, was playing in my imagination as the balance. If they get control of the helicopter quickly and can get someone in the pilot’s seat, this whole thing changes dramatically. A failed grenade toss and the 1 in 6 chance it was locked that happened to end up with a 1 did them in.

I like the game a lot, and I like the balance of the characters. If you want to deal a lot of damage and be tough, be heavy weapons. You are hard to kill, and you dish out lots of damage. However, the other two characters had a little bit more flexibility in what they could do outside of combat, so that seems to mitigate things quite a bit. 

I didn’t get a chance to check the rules for applying aid kits in a fight (because things were very chaotic), but I do think that these are going to be valuable; changing bugs back from hurt to not hurt (for example) can be a significant event. For Gus to give up actions to apply aid kits makes sense; he’s dealing the lowest damage, so putting him in a support role as infantry is workable. I don’t know if restoring 2 hits is enough for an aid kit; I think I’m going to bump this up to 4, which Medic +1 would put at 4. That’s a bit more reasonable to me. I might even want to have medic grant more; for example, maybe have each rank of medic grant +2 to GRIT restored (so Medic +3 makes an aid kit restore 10 Grit - that is not that outrageous considering the amount of damage they were taking). 

I've found that I'm escalating things as I go to try to offset other things... I increased weapon damage to bypass BODY better, then increased GRIT to offset the increase in damage... now I'm increasing first aid to account for the great Grit and damage that are going on.

None of this is BAD, but it's a slow, steady escalation of numbers in what was smaller a week ago. BODY is the culprit. It's a bit overpowered as a stat (I assumed REFLEX would be, but it's BODY). BODY double dips on your health; you reduce damage because of BODY, but you also have greater GRIT because of BODY. If I take BODY out of the equation for soaking most damage, I can scale the numbers way back to where they were... Reflex can prevent you from being hit (or minimize damage when you are), but then your BODY increases the total amount of damage you can sustain. I'd keep BODY checks in the game for areas of effect (you still soak grenade damage with BODY, for example).

If I go back to GRIT being BODY + Level, a level 1 ant has 2 to 4 GRIT... if a weapon deals 2, that can kill a bug. However, if I roll 4 successes against a REFLEX of 1, I'm dealing a base 3 damage, and adding that to a weapon 2 deals 5 damage... which is a LOT. I need GRIT to stay a bit higher, and (BODY + Level) x2 is not bad. Scale back weapon damage by 2, and that will account for the average BODY 2 soak. I think that balances enough.

I'm going to take a break and do a little more play testing. The good news is that I am in no particular rush to release the game, and I want it to be very, very solid before I do.

Eli's Mission, Session 1

It's playtest time for the newest MTDAA RPG I'm working on.

I’m going to go with a solo ant 1. I’ll make him infantry, so that he has the most flexibility (I think that’s going to be important as a solo character). I have a lot of skills I’d love for him to have, but for level 1, the ability to hit with his weapon is going to be paramount. I’ll go with small arms, even though something that gives him more flexibility (like speed) would be good, too. I rolled no successes on his MIND check, so he’s a private straight out of boot camp. He is going to spend his 10 clout on an AM-15 rifle (6) and 2 aid kits (2 each). 

Eli, Dutiful Ant Infantry 1 (E1; Hits 3)

BODY 2; MIND 2; REF 2

Small Arms (1)

Standard Kit; AM-15 Rifle (dmg. 2); 2 aid kits

Eli shakes his head, waking up. The copter landed on its side. He looks around. The three others didn’t get into the harness in time, and the pilot was in the line of the rocket. Eli is the only survivor. Snot. He searches through the wreckage. 

It is likely he finds something he can salvage from one of the other ants. I roll 3. He does. I decide it is grenades. 

He recovers 3 fragmentation grenades from the harness of the patrol leader. Making sure he has enough ammunition and food, he decides to set out and complete the mission. He knows the orders: radio silence, neutralize the radio relay tower, report in. The helicopter is a total loss, and the Wasp Empire is likely to send a recovery team to check the wreckage. He can hear the sound of their propellers now; he beats a hasty retreat to the east, moving towards the radio relay station.

They were going to set down one click out but ended up at just beyond 3 clicks. He has 3 meters to cover over difficult terrain, but he knows the direction and general terrain features. I’ll see if he remembers anything from the intelligence briefing; he gets 1 success on his MIND check, so yes. He knows that there is a small chameleon that wanders this region. He’ll keep his eyes out for that.

In the first meter of travel through the difficult terrain, he is likely to have an encounter. Yes. Is it the chameleon? No. Is it a patrol of enemy insects? Yes. Is it gnats? Yes. Three gnats are coming this way. They saw the helicopter go down, and plan to scour the scene after the wasps depart to see if there’s anything they can salvage. Eli fails his MIND check to notice them, but they make their MIND check to notice him. He is moving through the foliage (crossing into a patch of moss), when they attack. 

Small arms fire erupts from the north. Three gnats have taken position near a leaf at 8 cm away. All three miss. Eli uses 1 action to get some light cover (no better cover is nearby) and uses his second action to attack. He gets 2 successes, which is enough to kill a gnat. In round 2, the two remaining gnats fire at him, but the 2 successes the first gnat gets are not enough to hit him behind the cover. He hits a gnat for 2 damage with his first attack, which is enough to kill it. He hits the final gnat for 2, which again kills it. He goes over to examine them, but they have nothing of particular value. He continues on.

He has another encounter. He again fails his MIND check, and the chameleon is upon him, having been attracted by the sounds of combat. SNOT! He honestly has almost no chance against this… I’m going to say that each round, it is possible that an ant gunship is out patrolling to see if there are any survivors of the helicopter crash, and that these can kill the chameleon. That’s about his only chance.

In round 1, the chameleon attempts to strike him with its tongue; it hits him, and he has to make a BODY check 3 to resist being pulled in for a bit. That’s a BIG ask.. He succeeds with a 6 and a 4! Wow. He twists out of the stickiness of the tongue, turning to his right and opening fire. He hits with his first attack for 2 hits, which is not nearly enough to penetrate its thick hide. His second attack misses. No help arrives.

In round 2, the chameleon again tries to hit him with its tongue; It hits; this time, Eli fails his BODY check, and is pulled towards the chameleon, which chomps down on him with a 5D attack. Ugh. It gets 3 successes (which is not as bad as it could have been), dealing a total of 4 hits damage. Eli’s BODY soaks 2, and he suffers 2, leaving him at 1 hit. He now takes a penalty of +1 to all DTs. That stinks. He’s going to try and toss a fragmentation grenade into the chameleon’s mouth to drive it away; He gets 3 successes on the roll! Even with a +1 to the DT from being hurt, and considering it would have been DT 2 to pull this off, he is successful. The grenade pops into the mouth and explodes. The chameleon cannot absorb damage from inside, so it suffers the full 3 hits. It’s down to 5, but more importantly has to check morale. I’m going to say it is likely that this is enough to drive the chameleon away; it is! The chameleon drops the ant it was trying to snack on and scurries away to fight again another day.

Um. He literally survived that fight without me cheating! That was… surprising. I’m going to rule that he can rest for three minutes to recover without incident, and he can finish crossing this first meter without further problems. 

Analysis:

• No doubt this is already the best iteration of an Army Ants RPG I’ve created. The fact that battle with a predator actually, you know, works and is balanced and is fully supported is already beyond the pale. Scaling the game to make predators feel like predators without making them unbeatable forces of nature has always been a challenge, but this system just allows it. I’m really happy with that.

• The game runs fast and loose, which is what I want. The combat with the gnats and the combat with the chameleon were both fast, but they felt different, and had different mechanical things happening. There were strategic choices that mattered in each battle (do I use an action to get to cover, or do I keep fighting from where I am? Do I keep firing with my rifle, or run away, or try to lob a grenade into the thing’s mouth?)