Pocketmod Gunslinging

I've just had an idea for an alternate Pocketmod game following the genre conventions of the wild west. A game of this type would need to change the current combat system in Ghost City Raiders to a more projectile oriented system. That is, gunslinging.

The way things currently stand, the system is designed to handle melee and close contact combat. Firearms is a separate skill. I could change Ghost City Raiders to a more firearm oriented system, but that doesn't fit the genre conventions of that setting.

I'm thinking that the changes to make a gunslinging game wouldn't be much, especially if we kept the idea that a combat stance opens certain attack slots and blocks off defended slots.

In close quarters combat, a melee attack would work using the current system (with each undefended opening allowing the chance to inflict damage on a target). A gunshot at close range might work in much the same way, where an attacker sees the openings provided by their victim...the more openings available, the more opportunities there are for the attacker to shoot them (there might be only one shot taken but the more openings available, the better that single shot will be).

A gunshot at medium range (shooting into the next location) reduces the number of openings by 1. If there's only one opening, then you can't shoot them at medium range. If there are two openings, then you can choose which of these body parts is hit, but you don't gain the bonus damage from having two or more openings. If there are three or more openings, then you can choose any of thee to hit and the bonus damage for having multiple locations available once again becomes available.

A gunshot at long range (shooting at a target two locations away) reduces the number of openings by 2. If there's only one or two openings, then you can't shoot the target at long range. If there are three openings, then you can choose which of these body parts is hit, but you don't gain the bonus damage from having two or more openings. If there are four or more openings, then you can choose any of thee to hit and the bonus damage for having multiple locations available once again becomes available.

This whole system makes it possible but harder to hit things at long range, in this set-up we might include abilities like "sniper" which reduce the impact of ranged penalties.

Just some thoughts at this stage...I might get some playtesting on the ideas later (probably next year).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Guide to Geomorphs (Part 7)