Using Tension to power special attacks, a rules idea I found

[Tubercular Ox]

Found this game today: http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/Touhou_Dan ... gi_Flowers
In defense of my sanity, I read it out of curiosity rather than desire to play.

I bring it up because of its Tension system. Has anything like this been brought up before? The way it works is, when you roll a test to do something, the closer to your target number you are, the more Tension points you earn. Then you spend Tension points to power special attacks. Breakdown: If you win the roll by less than 3 points, in addition to succeeding at what you were trying to do, you get 4 tension. Win by more than 3 points, 2 tension. Lose by less than 3 points, 2 tension. Lose by more than 3 points, 1 tension. If it's a contested roll, both sides get tension. If it's a tie, the winner is decided by rock paper scissors, then the winner gets 8 tension and the loser gets 4 tension. Rule to keep fights from becoming more and more lopsided: If you take enough damage, you get a significant Tension bonus for being in a pinch.

Side effects. Not having played the game I'm guessing here, there might be a hole in the rules somewhere that ruins this, but:

1. Two duelists tend to slug it out for a while, then one steps back and says, "Now for my secret technique!" spending all his Tension. If the victim survives, they've probably gotten a tension bonus for being pushed around, and can now launch their desperate counterattack. If the other guy survives that, they're both spent and start slugging it out again until the cycle repeats. (And because of a quirk of the rules, it's almost impossible to take someone out with just one special attack, no matter how powerful) What kind of fight does that sound like?

2. (Advanced) Chargen is point based, and you buy flaws that take away from your rolls from the same pool you buy skills that add to your rolls, because they're useful. On any given roll you can choose up to two skills (or flaws etc, the game calls all of them skills) to apply to the roll. This lets you fine tune your actual skill level in an attempt to increase tension by coming closer to a target number that would normally be pretty easy. Of course, you have to guess at how hard the task actually is first, that kind of information isn't free. The flaws tend to be things that would afflict a person in the normal course of events, but could be set aside in an emergency, such as laziness or a short attention span... when the big boss comes out, it's time to get off your ass and focus instead of watching the birds fly by, but if you're just fighting mooks, well, a little comic relief never hurt nobody, and my god would you look at that seagull? We're miles from the sea.

3. Just thought of this one. If you're the big boss and you're facing the plucky hero, even if you overpower him significantly, you may want to turn on some flaws and try to build some tension, because if the plucky hero gets his "Pinch!" bonus for you beating his ass, he may launch his special technique at you and you won't have the tension to respond with your own special technique.

The rules bend in places. It's possible to build a pretty kick ass character that ignores tension and just defeats people through sufficiently sustained aggression... but they don't get to launch any cool special attacks.

Do you think it could be adapted? OVA is one of the very few games I can convince my friends to play as a one off, and none of us have the stamina for a campaign.

(PS if you're actually interested in that game, note a significant translation error: Dodge is intellect + reflex, not insight + reflex. It's amazing how that error throws the game insanely out of balance. Personally I think the game's pretty bad, even after you account for the fan-translation.)

[Joe_Mello]

The problem is that you're proposing a crunch-flavored resource pool system for a game that already has a resource system and abhors crunch.

If you really want a combo meter, you can probably make a custom item that serves as an Endurance engine, or mess around with the Charge perk.

[Tubercular Ox]

You say combo meter like you've seen it before. Have you? What RPG are you thinking of? Is it tabletop? I'm still intrigued by the idea and wouldn't mind seeing a different implementation.

[Joe_Mello]

I'm thinking in the more in the realm of video games, especially fighters, where the players arbitrarily build up a gauge that will allow them to do super moves once its filled. Final Fantasy's Limit Breaks also come to mind. In actual tabletop RPG's Exalted has Limit/Paradox/Resonance, but that's a punishment, not a reward.

Simple examples of "tension-style" powers using the core rules only.

Perk: Super Precise - You may not be accurate, but when you hit, you hit dearly. If you miss on an attack, you may use 1 Drama Die at no cost before spending them regularly. If the attack becomes a hit, the damage multiplier is increased by 1 for each Drama die used. (+10)

Item: Mystic Sweatband - This item not only has special powers, it keeps your head dry. Whenever your roll is within two of the target number (on opposed rolls, the target is the opponent's total), even if you fail, this item gains 2 Endurance for each level the item has. The Endurance can be used by the wearer as if it was his own, but if you ever roll a value of 1, the spare Endurance is lost.

[Tubercular Ox]

Honestly since I'm in complete house rule territory anyways I was thinking of replacing the entire endurance system. Something that would encourage more shonen-like battles without it just being a gentleman's word. Getting rid of the "Didja spend that endurance on drama dice or what?" part sounds nice too.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to judge what counts as a near miss in ricochet. I mean on three dice rolling 18 is as close as it gets to rolling 15 and still succeeding. OTOH, on any number of dice rolling a 6 is very very far from rolling a 3.

Once I can figure that out I can focus on making it as natural to use as possible. Sounds like an interesting intellectual challenge.

[Oni]

I tried to do something sort of like this, though I skipped right to favoring the losing side more since I didn't like the idea of overly rewarding momentum (which is its own reward).

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2019

Other than a couple of trial combats I never got around to testing it, so I won't guarantee it actually works well.

[Tubercular Ox]

Thank you for the link. Good stuff.

I love the +1 at 0 health idea. It encourages the players to save their huge 20 endurance attacks for close to the end of the fight, so they can minimize the time the bad guys spend in +1 mode. (Or for when THEY are in +1 mode) Also, it directly contradicts the existing rules, which makes it a perfect example of an optional rule, rather than an advanced rule. And finally, it makes the players hesitate. I love that.

I'm also fond of the idea of Clay publishing genre specific optional rules, if only cuz we can cash in on an expanded playtesting base.

OTOH, I still like the idea of rewarding ties and near ties, because of the way it encourages players to take and roleplay flaws so they can get more ties.