Reply To: Can RPGs learn from Wargaming?

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 1]

@limburger why not dodging bullets? Superhero games, cyberpunk games with augmented reflexes etc. There are many reasons why dodging bullets might be possible in an RPG. But even discounting those situations, if you have dodge as an action/reaction in a game and you can use that action against a ranged attack then you are in fact dodging bullets.  The narrative of how you dodge those bullets is entirely up to you to explain.

I don’t really think there’s any one size fits all solution to how that mechanic should be implemented, it only needs to be consistent with the rest of the game and you kind of have to just accept that it’s not intended to simulate real life, it’s an abstraction intended to give you a non-deterministic means of deciding whether an action occurs or not.  You can break each scenario down into as many or as few dice rolls as you like.   So in the example of an attack you could break it down into a single roll – attacker rolls a dice and the attack either succeeds or fails with no input from the defender, any defences the defender has are factored into the attack roll – this is essentially like D&D. Or you can make it so that the attacker rolls to hit, then the defender can roll for defences such as armour or dodge or both – this is more like Dark Heresy. Which you prefer is entirely down to you, neither is right or wrong however in both cases the narrative should be identical.  It should work something like this:

1. Attacker declares an attack
2. Rolls are made, whatever they happen to be
3. Outcome is determined
4. GM describes how the events unfold

The same steps are followed regardless of the specific mechanics or how many dice are rolled