Stalwart RPG Playtest #1

 

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

Zealot enters the warehouse where he believes Sudoku has been holed up. He is immediately approached by three goonsquad brawlers. Zealot offers not to break their arms and legs if they will let him go see Sudoku. They clearly decline. Initiative.
 
Zealot rolls 5; thugs roll 5; Zealot gets win for higher tier. He attacks four times at D6 in a quick barrage of his battle staves. He gets 6, 6, 5, 5 (which are 8, 8, 7, 7 with his brawler tag). Wow. Hits four times. He deals 4, 1, 6, 1. One of the thugs suffers 12 hits and falls. The other two draw their sticks and attack. They attack with 5 and 3. The 5 hits, and he deals 1. This bounces off of Zealot’s armor.
 
Round 2: Zealot turns to the one who just hit him (unsuccessfully) and unleashes a flurry of hits with his two staves. He rolls 6, 5, 4, 1 (8, 7, 6, 3).  The three would hit, but I think by rule a 1 always should fail. Going to add that. Zealot hits three times. He deals 8 and 6, dropping the second, and another 8, knocking the third backward. That one shakes his head and pulls out his pistol, unleashing a burst of small arms fire. He misses, and Zealot spins away and behind some crates. The first tries to struggle to his feet, and gets 3. He fails.
 
Round 3: Zealot throws one of his staves, hitting with 6+2=8. He deals 8, knocking that thug backwards and the pistol from his hand. The first thug rolls a 3, and fails again to rise. The second gets a 5, and stumbles to his feet at 6 hits.
 
Round 4: Zealot spins at him, hitting with 8+2=10. He deals 5 hits. He kicks up the staff that was thrown, smacking the thug in the chin. He barely hits (2+4=6) and deals 8 points, knocking that guy out. The others two get up and run away.
 
Zealot squares his armor chest plate, cracks his neck, and moves towards the doorway that leads into the basement…
 
Analysis:
-        Well THAT was pretty cinematic. Yes, a big part is how I’m interpreting the dice, but since he was facing relatively weak foes, Zealot was comfortable taking the -1 die shift to get lots of extra attacks. The dice and the way they fell felt accurate for this sort of encounter.
-        I immediately re-worked armor on the fly when I realized that even a mook is going to soak 2 or 3 points, and you are going to roll 2 or 3 for damage pretty regularly. Armored foes are going to be much harder to deal damage to and will require him to start burning hero points. I changed it so that ‘endure’ (linked to might) is now the resistant ability for areas of effect and indirect attacks (which makes sense), I’ll just have to re-work some powers so that’s how they operate. It should be simple enough to make the change (even if I have to add a few AOE-specific powers to the options to give this some value).
-        I absolutely love the rules for being felled and getting back up. THIS is the part of superhero fights that I’ve always been missing; you get knocked down but you get up again was philosophically there, but never this directly mechanically supported. It’s pretty awesome; that was the piece that made this encounter feel like a genuine fight sequence. He can knock a foe down pretty quick, and then as he fights, those he has already knocked down get back up again. As tier D6 characters, they can only do this once, so that makes a lot of sense.
-        I officially like this game.