The Broken Drum [OOC]

There's a nice little dice addon I can add that allows you to post different types of dice and once a "roll" has been posted it stays the same no matter how many times the post is edited. The only thing I don't like about it (I've tried it on a test forum) is the current dice image (which are only for the d6 as is) so I'd have to sort out some images for it.

Could have some fun with it: someone gets hit in the face - roll a d6. 1 = a black eye, 2 = you lose some teeth, 3 = your opponent misses completely, 4 = broken nose, 5 = you just stand there and smile at your opponent who now realises that last punch may have been a serious mistake, 6 = you're seeing stars/birdies (your preference!). Just an example. What do people think of this as an idea? As Pred notes: these types of RPs can get out of hand pretty quickly if handled wrongly...

So... I've been mulling this over; mainly on how much to rely on dice rolls versus how much to leave to creativity, but also on a couple of other things.

I like the idea of rolling dice to see what type of damage (or not) a participant receives from a hit - as in the example from my previous post. Taking that slightly further, we could roll a second die (not necessarily a d6) to determine how bad the damage is.

As an example: a player rolls a d6 and gets a 2 (loses some teeth). The player then rolls another die (a d4 maybe) to determine how many teeth they're gonna lose.

The example deals only with a blow to the face. There are other parts of the body that would need different rolls.

You could, if you think it would help prevent people getting too aggressive with their fighting, have a die roll for where a participant would try to hit. For example, 1. face, 2. stomach, 3. groin, etc...

Of course, you don't want it to become TOO bogged down with the dice but they DO offer possibilities.

Another thing I was thinking about was the DMing. To keep things "fresh" and "exciting" I was thinking that once the first brawl has run its course someone else could then take over the DM duties for the next one. Once theirs was done and dusted, someone else could take over for another round. Each DM could tweak some of the rules to suit their style (e.g. one DM may like the idea of controlling more of the fight with dice rolls - as in the examples above - where another may prefer to leave more of those decisions to their players).

The third thing is weapons. Personally, I'm not averse to the odd blunt weapon (cudgel, knuckle-duster, rolling pin!) but I think we should steer clear of things with pointed or slicey edges... we should tap-dance rather carefully where magic is concerned too. I wouldn't want to ban a wizard or a cleric from a brawl but I think we'll need to have a tight reign on what spells and stuff are allowed.

Nothing above is written in stone and some of it is just being thrown out there for inspiration and ideas. And if there's anything else you can think of, let us know here.

Ha, I remember Lena! I was in a campaign at the Dusty Rose, run by Cloak. That was a fun one.

I will be playing a bard! Yes, a bard who fights well. And will sing over your limp, broken body to add insult to injury.

Also, I'm volunteering to DM some nights. But my style will be by the book. The core book.

Yay!  It was  fun.

I remember Bek from a brief rp set in Baulder's Gate I think, and wasn't he the original owner of the Inn in the Woods?  He was fun.

Whatever you guys figure out will be fine.  Lena is polishing up her cudgel and insetting some little chips of sharpened stone, invisible to the eye of course.  (Think primitive razor blades.  Muwahahahaha!)

Ha! Lena's cudgel ruled the Dusty Rose. She figures the Broken Drum is just another such dump. No offense to Bek. I seem to remember he was rather offensive himself.

So I've produce a quick floor plan of the Broken Drum, just for an idea of the layout (it's VERY rough). I'll be producing a more detailed description to go along with it.

I'm also toying with the idea (only an idea at the moment, I'm not really sure about it to be honest) of using hit points with successful hits removing some. The idea would be that players would be out for the count once they reached zero HP and the last "man" standing would win and the "brawl" would then be over. This would at least provide a natural terminus point for the fight. On the negative, once a player is "out" they'll have to wait for the fight to be over and for the next one to start. That would probably be my biggest concern about it, especially if someone were to be unlucky enough to get knocked out too early...

If we went down that path (at least for the first fight) then we'd have to decide whether everybody starts off with the same HP or we align the HP with how it's worked out in the core books (ie a mage would have less than a fighter, etc...).

Any thoughts?