Orklord’s Haven

Last week, I was reading the game theory discussion Ron Edwards placed at the end of his book Sorceror and found his breakdown of the type of conflict resolution a very interesting explanation of how games work.

The next morning, I woke up with ideas for D-Com mechanics that has really excited me about the game again.

At this point, there are two base stats.  Once I get them firmed up, I may add more fiddly bits to play with, but for now, only two. 

Core:

The first stat is called Core.  Core covers all physical actions that a Battlebot can do: move, shoot, hack into systems, follow orders, process sensory input, make tactical decisions in the field, pretty much anything and everythgin that a corporation would create a Battlebot to do. 

• Core is a base number, not a die value.  You cannot “roll” Core.  To perform an action, you compare Core to the difficulty of the task. 
• Core begins at a 10.  The highest possible Difficulty for an action is 11 (that’s right, my game goes to 11).  Therefore,  at start, a Battlebot can do pretty much anything (they’re the best there is at what they do)
• As play progresses, the Core stat decreases (reflecting the degradation of the Battlebot as systems fail).  This means Battlebots will face failure for easier tasks as the game progresses.
• Fear not!  One fiddly bit is that a player can choose to “stress the system” and push their PC to accomplish higher difficulty tasks by taking immediate drops in their Core equal to the difference between their current Core and the difficulty (EX: Battlebot is at 6 Core and wants to attempt Difficulty 7 action to save a comrade; the player can choose to “stress the system”, meaning their PC saves the comrade, but the PC’s Core drops to 5 immediately (7 Diff – 6 Core equals 1 drop in Core); this means a player can still do fantastic deeds with their PC, but at a cost of hastening their demise.
• But wait… there’s more: there’s yet another way for players to beat the odds – check the next stat

“Spirit” 

The second stat is currently called “Spirit” but it is only a placeholder name.  Spirit is the reflection of that bit of soul that sets a PC apart from its fellow Battlebots.  While an average Battlebot only exists to serve the Tech Masters for the good of The Corporation.  Spirit is also the reason for the Battlebot’s upcoming demise, because it is what drove the unit to rebel and flee the Compound.

Spirit is used when a Battlebot does something outside its programming: talking to humans, making decisions off the battlefield, moral or ethical decisions, performing “illogical” actions or anything the play group agrees would be outside a Battlebots programming.

• Spirit is represented by a die type and a roll of the die.  Spirit begins as a d4, but grows over the course of the game
• Department Manager sets the difficulty of the “spirit” action and player rolls their die attemptign to meet or exceed the difficulty
• Spirit is increased when a player fails a roll.  This represents the learning computer within the Battlebot.
• Spirit is normally used for actions outside a Battlebot’s programming, but if the player describes how their Spirit gives a boost to an action that is within Battlebot programs, the player can roll Spirit and add it to the Core total to compare against the difficulty of the action