Friday, November 22, 2019

Proposal: Controlled Burn

unpopular 2-2 failed by card

Adminned at 24 Nov 2019 19:14:32 UTC

Reword the effect of the “Fire” Battle Action from “Reduce the Monster’s HP and the Vanguard’s HP by X, where X is a random value between 1 and 50 inclusive. Reduce every other Adventurer’s HP by half the value of X (rounded down); reduce the Cathedral’s HP by double the value of X.” to:-

Reduce the Monster’s HP and the Vanguard’s HP by 25. Reduce every other Adventurer’s HP by 12; reduce the Cathedral’s HP by 50.

Straw poll for whether the random die roll that’s ended up dominating the game is exciting or frustrating - it could end up deciding the game for a particularly lucky or unlucky player. This proposal replaces the die roll with its average value every time.

posted by Kevan at 22 Nov 2019 14:38:00 UTC Comments (8)

Comments

Madrid:

22-11-2019 14:47:37 UTC

My ballot is that it’s fun, for me as a spectator.

Madrid:

22-11-2019 14:50:12 UTC

(I’ll still just DEF or abstain from voting as usual, though)

Kevan: he/him

22-11-2019 15:01:05 UTC

Agreed that it’s dramatic to watch, and agonising when (as happened in the last battle) someone makes repeatedly unlucky rolls. It can just feel a bit cheap when the whole game ends up pivoting on one final die roll, and any past planning and mistakes are subsumed by a lucky 50 or an unfortunate 1.

The Duke of Waltham: he/him

22-11-2019 15:25:07 UTC

Considering that Fire has developed into the Battle Action of choice for several Adventurers, I wonder whether it wouldn’t be better to simply remove it entirely, or perhaps adjust the other actions so that they’re more attractive – say, 15 HP for the neglected Slash instead of 10? Using Fire over and over again would have already become boring were it not for its randomness, and I’m hesitant to make it completely predictable.

Besides, luck is only part of it. As long as other options exist, it’s a tactical decision to use Fire at all, rather than a more reliable Battle Action.

card:

22-11-2019 15:43:22 UTC

for this is okay with me

The Duke of Waltham: he/him

22-11-2019 15:47:14 UTC

Of course it is. You Monster. :)

against

TyGuy6:

22-11-2019 18:52:15 UTC

against I like a healthy helping of randomness in my diet, and it seems well enough balanced to me. My unlucky rolls were balanced by several lucky ones, and by the fact that both sides received proportional damage.

TyGuy6:

22-11-2019 18:54:06 UTC

A calculable result to a battle seems rather boring. I prefer probabilistic conclusions.