Successes May Have To Go...

"Success" as a concept doesn’t really fit with the other parts of the game. It’s a level of complexity that doesn’t give the return on the investment. Here’s an example for wounds from the current version of the game:

I roll to attack with my sword, and roll 7+5=12. The target rolls evade, and gets 6+3=9. I get to hit by +3, and get to add that to damage. So far, so good. I like the idea that the level of success of the attack directly impacts damage. Now, I roll for damage, getting 7 on the dice +4 (my sword’s damage rating- more on that later) +3 (the degree of success on the attack)= 14. My target rolls his armor to soak, rolling 8+2 (his armor rating) for 10.

In the current Resolute rules, this is 1 wound. His armor roll of 10 means that I only deal 1 wound between 10 and 19, 2 wounds from 20-29, etc. In short, there is no difference at all (for this particular attack) between a damage roll of 10 and a damage roll of 19. I’ve done as much as I can to nickel and dime my way to get every point I can out of my attack and damage, and in the final analysis, I needn’t have bothered for this particular attack. True, over time I will hit more often and deal more damage the larger my ratings are, but on a swing-by-swing basis, the amount of damage I do is going to ‘feel’ pretty consistent.

In play testing, my players understood that dealing 1 wound was a fair amount of damage, but never really got over the feeling that you weren’t doing anything to your foe. It may be that dealing 1 wound to a foe with 10 total wounds is the same as dealing 10 wounds to a foe with 100 wounds, but the second one provides a more fulfilling game experience. Isn’t that what I’m after?

Now, if you hit by +3, you add that to damage. If you score +7 in damage beyond your target’s soak roll, congratulations. You’ve just scored 7 points of damage. Doesn’t that feel better than 1 wound? It does to me, too!