Coda 3.0

[Landorl]

I love the basic mechanics of the CODA system, but there are a few things that don't work for me. First of all the combat system isn't all that great. I also am tweaking the magic system, and working on a system for clerical magic.

I am posting my combat system. I have done away with hit points and went with a wound system. In playtesting it made the game a little more bloody, and combat could be very frightening. Using your courage points could make a huge difference. One thing that I really liked was that combat between two people of roughly equal skills came down to a good roll or the use of Courage or special abilities.

When fighting lower skilled foes, combat was easier, but a lucky roll from an opponent could still be quite dangerous.

Also, because of the changes to combat, it changes a lot of other items, which I have been working on.

[Feanorgil]

I love the basic mechanics of the CODA system, but there are a few things that don't work for me. First of all the combat system isn't all that great. I also am tweaking the magic system, and working on a system for clerical magic.

I am posting my combat system. I have done away with hit points and went with a wound system. In playtesting it made the game a little more bloody, and combat could be very frightening. Using your courage points could make a huge difference. One thing that I really liked was that combat between two people of roughly equal skills came down to a good roll or the use of Courage or special abilities.

When fighting lower skilled foes, combat was easier, but a lucky roll from an opponent could still be quite dangerous.

Also, because of the changes to combat, it changes a lot of other items, which I have been working on.

It could be an answer to what is gripped about the most other than the Decipher implode.

[Nolmir]

Eh... I'm always leery of 'critical' systems and anything with a lot of tables. To me, the simplest way to make combat more dangerous to reduce the number of hit points and/or wound levels.

[Landorl]

A critical system generally does make a game more hazardous for characters, so not everyone will like that type of system.

A simpler fix for the combat system that I used for the stock game was to half the Health in each injury level. We also used a rule for shock. If you loose more than 2 wound levels from a single blow, then you have to make a Stamina Test. The basic TN is 8 and is modified by the wound penalties. A failure means that you are stunned for the next round and can only defend yourself. A critical failure means that you pass out.

[GandalfOfBorg]

See the CODA BSR at my website for some examples of fixes to the combat system and extensions in the form of additional/alternate rules.