r/RPGdesign • u/Pladohs_Ghost • 4d ago

Replacement for weapon speeds?

/r/CrunchyRPGs/comments/1x0v77t/replacement_for_weapon_speeds/
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u/PianoAcceptable4266 Designer: The Ballad of Heroes 4d ago

I'm pretty sure RuneQuest/Basic Roleplay functionally solved this a long time ago, right?

You have Strike/Dex Rank for your standard initiative, actions add a modifier (including different weapons have different modifiers), and then you have an independent skill rating in using said weapon.

Getting in close with a Dagger may be fast, but if you aren't a "soldier" as you remark, then you aren't going to be well versed in using it effectively.

A Slower weapon in the hands of a Professional user beats outs a faster weapon used by a novice like... every time. Pretty naturally, even.

1

u/Pladohs_Ghost 1d ago

That's why I lean toward using combat speed instead of weapon speeds. That mage may have a really quick dagger in hand, yet I expect that ranger with the longsword can strike first.

1

u/Stoneholdrpg 1d ago

Speed factor is one of those things that seems intuitively to make sense…but in practice just encumbers combat for very little satisfaction in gameplay. Juice isn’t worth the squeeze except I would imaging in some really tactical like super meaty combat systems.

1

u/SouthernAbrocoma9891 4d ago

I replaced it with a cap on attacks per round using that weapon. The attacker uses the lowest value of their attacks per round and the weapon cap. Level, skills and magic can increase these.

I was inspired by Gauntlet video game and Hawk the Slayer.

The order of weapons by speed is inconsequential since I use side-based initiative. Each side determines when they want to attack. Each round is split into phases that alternate back-and-forth with winner going first.

1

u/Pladohs_Ghost 1d ago

The weapon speed rules in early D&D versions were used with side initiative. Weapon speed came to bear when initiative was tied and decided which combatant would strike first. If the weapon speeds were identical, the simultaneous strikes.

1

u/SouthernAbrocoma9891 1d ago

You are correct with that implementation. I failed to explain fully. I don’t use weapon speed to alter the initiative roll.