I’ll be brief: Gloucester and I did an extensive set of (medieval fantasy) combat tests, including one fighter versus a unit of lesser opponents (a “unit” being defined as several fighters with the same combat stats working together), one fighter versus a pair of lesser opponents (working as a unit) and one fairly powerful opponent (fighting two enemy “units” simultaneously), and one fighter versus an equally powerful opponent. This gave me a great deal of practical information about the system that I didn’t have before.

First, the new system does have the menace and edge of the original Tarafore system does. Only one of the fights was remotely close, but I was on the edge of my seat, hoping the PC would make it. He ended up winning without even being wounded, but things were close a couple of times, and knowing how bad the wound spiral is in this system, it was very worrying.

That particular fight (a fast, tricky fighter versus a pair of orcs and an orc lieutenant) did raise a few issues. First, having to fight multiple opponents (not just one “unit”, but multiple opponents, meaning multiple combat tests per turn) is tough, because the outnumbered character ends up running out of Stunts. A Stunt only works for one test, and a character can only “hit back” once per turn. That means the rest of the tests can drain Stunts and hurt the outnumbered character, but the lone character can only harm one opponent (or one “unit”) per turn, and must choose before the tests are rolled. This means it’s often better to take out a weaker opponent first, so you can focus all your attention on the nastier one.

Secondly, in a one-on-one (or one vs. one unit) fight, the only good strategy is to stunt with your highest rated stunt in the first turn, and work your way down. Basically, hit him with everything you have at the beginning. I’m not entirely sure this is a good thing. On the one hand, I didn’t intend for this to be a tactical exercise (that’s more gamist, and my goals are more simulationist), but I do want things to feel more realistic, that not every fight has to happen the same way every time. Again, that’s something else to consider.

I think this system creates a steeper death spiral than the Tarafore system. Because the system is more thick-grained, a penalty of -1 is like a penalty of -3 in the Tarafore system, meaning that a “lesser” wound is more dangerous than before. Also, there’s not a lot of “missing” in this system, at least not if the sides are even in number (mention grouping equivalent mooks into “units”), so combat goes faster. As I said, a -1 penalty here requires only a Basic success to inflict, but carries as much weight as a -3 penalty in the Tarafore system, where a Special Success is required to inflict that penalty.

I may want to change this in the current (compressed) system, because this is basically starting to look like Shadowrun: the first one to get wounded should just run away, because it’s all downhill from there. In the Tarafore system, a wounded (basic wound, at least) character who wasn’t Stunned or Knocked Out could stay in the fight with a minor penalty (-1, which doesn’t even register in the compressed system) – in other words, he was still dangerous.

Without a doubt, this new (and as yet, nameless) system works, and Gloucester and I had a blast testing it out. But I’m still not 100% sure whether I like the direction it’s going. It was easy enough to find believable stunts, but I’m just not sure if it “feels” right. My next goal is to run a full-fledged (short-term) game in it, with multiple players and everything (i.e., not a play test), and see how it goes. I think a lot of it is just going to be a matter of “feel” and experience.