Basic Brawl

Submitted by Jeff Moore on Fri, 2007-06-08 13:17.

I spent some time after finishing the initial work on Prometheus Blade attempting to develop a magic system for the setting. As I worked on it I opened up a myriad of new challenges for myself and honestly became a bit overwhelmed. I ended up scrapping it all and starting over... not starting over with Prometheus Blade... no, I went back to Duel Blade.

I dropped the Action Table because of the complexity it added to the game and started over. I tried to find better ways to make the game flexible enough to work as an RPG without playing too much with the basics of the mechanic. I started by ripping away the dependency Duel Blade has on Weapons and Armor. I instead recreated Duel Blade as a game of unarmed combat, "Basic Brawl."

This created some strategic freedom for the players of the game and it actually opened things up to allow me to develop a superhero RPG from the rules. This is what I really wanted. My interest as a writer/creator began with comic books and I still struggle to make the perfect Supers RPG for me. Also, I have been playing a lot of "City of Heroes" lately and I definitely have superheroes on the brain.

Inspired by Aaron's simple 2 page layout for "MACE Lite" and encouraged Errin's "One Page RPG Challenge" I developed "Basic Brawl" as a simple 2 page (one sheet) game complete with character sheet. But, Basic Brawl was still nothing more than a combat game. It was not an RPG.

I followed with Super Powers rules and an RPG supplement. Finally a Fantasy Supplement finishes things off and even adds some additional powers for the Supers version of the game that I didn't have room for. Each game supplement is designed like the first to be complete on one sheet. Although, each does build upon the work of the one before it and so expects that the player has read the previous work.

The limitations imposed by the layout forced streamlining of my rules. I feel like this game is tighter than what I had before and much better. The limitations of the layout design actually made for a better game. At it's core, Basic Brawl is literally unchanged from Duel Blade. As a Supers game the addition of the "Super Die" and specific rules addressing the different power types makes the powers in Basic Brawl much more interesting than those of my other game "HiLo Heroes" (where powers are nothing but die roll modifiers.)

I am happy with where I am going. I don't expect to retain this layout forever. A final product should be a melting pot to bring the base games and supplements all together as a cohesive whole, but I feel that in it's current form "Basic Brawl" is easily digestible and quite playable. I plan now to take this to the gaming table and see how it performs. I will let you all know.

The PDF file attachment contains all sheets for Basic Brawl.

Here is an explanation:

ABOUT BASIC BRAWL

BASIC BRAWL is a collection of 2-page (1 sheet) gaming documents.

Together they form the complete Basic Brawl RPG System.
Currently there are 4 documents in the Basic Brawl RPG family.

BB001 Basic Brawl

Basic Brawl is the foundation document that started it all. A combat system inspired by console based fighting games, Basic Brawl gives you everything you need to create a brawler and match him in hand to hand melee combat against another brawler created by a friend.

BB002 Advanced Brawl

The RPG supplement ... Advanced Brawl introduces rules for task resolution, vocations and hobbies, and healing and recovery.

BB003 Super Brawl

The Super supplement ... Super Brawl introduces super powers (and the Super Die) to Basic Brawl as well as rules for underlings, the big boss, and character advancement.

BB004 Fantasy Brawl

The Fantasy supplement ... Fantasy Brawl adds rules for weapons and armor, magic, fantasy races and monsters!

All together the Basic Brawl system comes in at only 8 pages. The modular nature of the system means that you can introduce players to the concepts of the system 1 document at a time, learning and playing each new game independently before moving on to the next.

Welcome to Basic Brawl!

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I will accept all four two-sided one pagers for the challenge

Submitted by ErrinF on Fri, 2007-06-08 20:08.

Just kidding.
It's up to you whether you want these to be entries for the challenge, or if you still want to "sit it out". I thought the challenge might end up tempting you to make a character sheet rpg.
I have just downloaded this, so I will need a day or so to fully digest Basic Brawl. One suggestion I do have right off the bat is that, besides the 4 in 1 pdf that has all versions of Basic Brawl, it might be fun to have small, individual pdfs for each of the Brawl games, be it, Basic, Advanced, Super, or Fantasy. That way, the game will be a lot more modular... with only the full 4 in 1 version, any player gets to learn the entire system right away. It might be more interesting if the GM can hand out each small pdf one at a time, starting with Basic, then progressing the game into Advanced, Super, or Fantasy as they see fit.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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I can't resist a challenge...

Submitted by Jeff Moore on Sat, 2007-06-09 22:22.

Certainly, I intended all 4 Basic Brawl entries to become part of the fantastic 1 Page RPG challenge. I put the title pages in between each document, because I didn't want to loose the modular feel of Basic Brawl. I figure a referee can print out the 2 page docs one at a time, copy them front and back and hand them out to the group.

I am thinking about writing an adventure module for Basic Brawl... that starts the players out as simple Street Fighters (hand out doc 1,) then takes them to their home life (so the players can learn a little role-play ... hand out doc 2.) Then something spectacular happens to give these simple Street Fighters super powers (introduce doc 3.) And, the newly empowered supers discover that they must travel back in time to stop an ancient evil in order to save the present (introduce doc 4.)

I haven't begun working on it yet ... but that's the idea I am bouncing around in my head for evolving Basic Brawl into a full blown commercial product ... it would be a super hero genre adventure module that allows the players to role-play their super hero origins and learn to play the game all at the same time ... anyway right now that's what's bouncing in my head.

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

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I have read Brawl . . .

Submitted by Relentless96 on Fri, 2007-06-08 20:03.

. . . and I think it is brilliant. I sat down, played around with the mechanics in my head, and tried to develop some constructive criticism for the game (in return for the great ones you gave me). The more I read it, the more I was sold by the idea.
I found it interesting that comic books were your inspiration, as I think that the core of many fights in these comic books was overlooked (which was the bare knuckle fighting). Some super heroes used weapons, but even the likes of Batman got down and dirty with his hands and feet. Normally in super hero style RPG's the fighting gets overshadowed by the powers, so I immediately found myself drawn to your concept.
But you didn't limit yourself to that idea. The premise of your system is compatible with so many other concepts and themes. Combining both fantasy and superhero genres demonstrates how easy it is to convert Brawl to any theme a GM or player wanted. I think that the vanilla flavour of the system will help take it a long way, I myself am already contemplating adding a supplement of my own (with your permission of course).
As far as the system is concerned, I think you took the best parts from Duel Blade and left the worst. I will be the first to say (and I hate to be honest about this) that I was not as excited for Prometheus Blade as I was for Duel Blade. I cannot explain why, but I think it was the simplicity and the feel of Duel Blade that drew me in the most. I liked the concept story of Prometheus Blade, but I asked myself "Self, could I get other people interested in playing?". I wasn't sure if I could, only because of how specific the setting was. With Brawl, its a neat combat mechanic that can be packaged into anything the players are interested in. I am happy you have taken your system in this direction, I feel that it is for the best (plus I can imagine how happy you are with your finished product).
I like how you integrated Vocation and Hobby. I have been toying with a similar idea for MACE (the Life Skills), so I am happy to see it so polished and simple for Brawl. I like the random roll tables, sometimes its fun to put creation to the wind and come up with a totally random character (which was another nicely added element for new players). Plus, the combination of these with Body Checks covers all possible tasks without adding complexity to the game. I only hope that I can develop somthing as simple and good as your system for MACE!
When it comes to Combat, I love the way you have managed to phase weapons out, but then phase them in with the Fantasy rules. Body types seems extremely logical, plus I like the Head/Chest dynamic in that one is harder to hit but the other is tougher. As an example, assigning a 2 to Chest is still viable, as though it is easier to hit, with a higher Toughness the hit could just as easily be redirected elsewhere. The beauty of Brawl is that despite all of the random rolls, the key to victory is your choice of what Body Parts to hit and what ones to deflect Hits to. The critical failures and successes add a lot of excitement to the game, I could imagine an amazing die roll turning defeat into victory, and vice-versa.

I know that this is a long winded response, and I might be general in many of my points, but the purpose of my rant is to let you know you are on to somthing special. Games like this don't come around every day. I might have some bias due to my fondness for all things fighting, but I think that Brawl is so distinct that it deserves its own webpage with multiple supplements and links to fansites (I will be one of them!). I hope the above is enough to inspire you to take Brawl further :)

Thanks for reading, Aaron

http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm

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I think I am on to something ...

Submitted by Jeff Moore on Sat, 2007-06-09 22:07.

Thanks, Aaron! Really, your encouragement is really appreciated. I feel like I might be on to something special with Basic Brawl ... like I might have a game here worth taking all the way ... developing it into something that I think most of us dream about sometimes ... about making it a commercial RPG.

I have some polished works on 1km1kt.net both A+ Fantasy and HiLo Heros are pretty looking ... but I don't think either of these has as much potential as I see in Brawl. This being said, I, like you, have only been able to imagine how the game might play. I have not yet had opportunity to play test it. I might get that chance tomorrow. If I do I will post a report and let you know how it went.

Thanks again.

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

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Tweaking Brawl

Submitted by Relentless96 on Sun, 2007-06-10 20:42.

I was just looking at Brawl, and I was studying the MOA (Method of Attack, I know you know, for others reading ^_^). I was thinking to myself that if there was any way to take the game further it would be to introduce more MOA's.
In some ways, I am loathe to suggest it, as I can see the way that you have provided a level with probability by using this setup. But I felt it was maybe the one area that could be developed to give players more options in combat.

Then again, I thought about the above suggestion and I realised that you don't want to introduce more MOA's, but maybe MOD's (Method of Defense). You kind of have this already in the form of body types, but maybe you could add +1 bonuses either to Toughness or Evasion, depending on what MOD (Block or Dodge) the player takes. Its rough, I know, but its an idea to get the ball rolling.

Another bit of juicy brainmatter is in regards to what the next supplement you could do for Brawl. This is an idea that I have tossed up for later on in MACE, but looking at it now I think that its perfect for Brawl. Its a Kung Fu supplement.
I know what your thinking (and I thought it too), the game half accomodates for it with the Super Die system. However, the idea I had was that instead of MOA's (or even MOD's), players would select Stances they would use each turn. Each stance would grant bonuses or negatives to Accuracy, Power, Evasion or Toughness. Also, there would be special Stances that didn't give many bonuses, but special effects similar to the Super Die. To make things interesting, a player could never use the same Stance twice in a row.
This would create a sort of "rock-paper-scissor" dynamic as players try and choose a Stance that would counter the strengths of the opponents Stance each turn. It would also allow for a variety of "fighting styles" for players without introducing messy modifiers or manuevers.

What do you think? I like the premise, but you have a better grasp of the dice mechanic in Brawl and its balance, so I thought you might like to chew on the idea.

Hope it helps, thanks!

http://www.1km1kt.net/Aaron-White.htm

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Just now printed out these

Submitted by ravensron on Fri, 2007-06-08 14:32.

Just now printed out these rules. First time I've seen an effects-based rules system I really, really liked. We'd discussed how/why you used deflection-of-damage-to-another-body-part in Duel Blade/Prometheus Blade; I'd have the same criticism here for the same reason that it just isn't how defending in a fight works, but you've got a good reason for it and the flow of the game trumps reality ("Reality, we don' got to show you no steeekin' reality"). Only other quibble is that loss of a body part is a knockout. Clearly that's not accurate (E.g. an arm that goes numb, even broken, you're still conscious and could defend yourself albeit with reduced effectiveness); is that simply a game construct? Could just as easily continue to subtract attack/defense chances for minus numbers on arm/leg hits and so odds are the injured fighter would soon be knocked out because the other would then have a greatly improved chance of head/chest hits on him. But, these are quibbles. What I see her is you've seamlessly integrated hand-to-hand (technically just boxing, but can see how you could easily apply it to other forms of striking), melee weapons, superpowers, and magic. Good show!!!

Was greatly amused by putting lawyers into the category of needing health and charisma rather than intellect!

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Thanks for the feed back...

Submitted by Jeff Moore on Fri, 2007-06-08 17:54.

Yeah, we've debated the combat damage mechanic before. I still like it the way it is and am willing to sacrifice a measure of realism to have things work well. I am hoping that things do work well. I plan to try to bully some of my friends into play testing this for me. I hope I can find some takers. It's awesome that despite your misgivings about the damage system you still say, "First time I've seen an effects-based rules system I really, really liked." ... thanks!!

Jeff Moore
http://www.1km1kt.net/Jeff-Moore.htm

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