this seems pretty neat I'm glad our algorithm overlords showed me your video. I started with the combat example you had at the end then watched the rest. it helped give context to the explanations.

I know you already have a system you were happy with but something you could have done to make your first system better would be to crib from ad&ds notes a little. In that game each character declares what they are doing in the round (first the GM declares in secret, then the PCs declare), each action has a speed that determines when in the round it will occur (lower speed numbers are unfortunately faster, because you count up from zero, So a speed speed 1 attack with a knife out paced a speed 15 attack with a sword. And then you just acted on the map as it then exists. Ad&d had a rule where if a caster took damage in the middle of casting a spell it just fizzled which gave characters a good reason to keep a fast but weak weapon in then for mages, and ment that the faster but weaker lower level spells retained value because they were harder to outspeed

It's very clear that you've only played D&D, and not something like say Shadowrun 4th or 5th edition.

It seems to me that counting in 1.5 is something that both wotc and paizo considered before deciding to do their “second diagonal counts double” method. Incidentally, i dont know anyone who actually plays that way. The playerbase of both dnd 5e and pathfinder 2e (which make up the vast vast vast majority of all ttrpg players) have pretty much universally rejected the 1.5 diagonal conversion. - Do you believe that changing the presentation to 1.5 rather than alternating 1 and 2 to be the secret to getting people to accept this system?

I am a bit confused about the Pierce and Thrust attacks. A thrusting attack results in a pierce, no? I think renaming pierce to "Exact" would help here and it would describe your quick and precise strike well enough.

This is really good! You deserve so much more views!

I would be really interested to know what online services like roll20 do for gridded distance actually, Id expect they calculate it exactly and round up to the nearest 5 but not sure

Is it too controversial for me to suggest 5/7 for 5ft squares, it works easily in 5ft resolution, if anything better than the 1.5x rule because you are keeping it in whole units and its like 2% error

🥳🫂👍🏿

You should take a look at Panic at the Dojo, I think you'll find a pretty good execution of what you're trying to do here and more

Interesting design story thanks for sharing fyi 1/2 second is the rough length of time for consciousness and instant if you will.

Nice, I’m currently refining my own combat system for a solo TTRPG that is more abstract and theater of the mind. So it’s cool to see how someone else approaches designing it.

Imo I think its a better idea to count in 2s for orthogonal movement and 3s for diagonal. leaves out half numbers for players when they are counting on a grid.

10:10 "something about simultaneous combat." Look no further than OSRIC. Here's how combat works. Each round of combat has 2 phases, a declaration phase, and a resolution phase. In the declaration phase, every player declares what they're doing. In the resolution phase, all dice are rolled, and the GM describes the results of all actions in one smooth narration. Done.

This is such a sick world building idea!

Many great ideas, mate. I wonder which stat governs perception in your system. Is it Spirit, Intelligence or Dexterity?

for the brave/default idea: you have to keep in mind that an issue that can arise is that interruptions feel 'better' in a charge setup rather than a point per action skipped setup. you can also use it as a GM to warn players that a specific action is coming as a part of rule rather than fluff. Especially since you could still have the time it takes to charge up spells be affected by you INT just like how you have flow gained 2+INT

interesting thing about the 1 action per turn short turns thing that might be a reference point: GURPS uses 1 second turns with you only getting a single action, even with the option of only activating everything at round end, but it has an interesting idea as a recommendation to keep the game flowing: unless you have a specific advantage* you each get 10 seconds (some people give less time) to figure out what you want to do during your turn, otherwise your character is said to have combat paralysis and your character does nothing, some have said it can be punishing, but truth be told in my experience at least it has lead to players being much more engaged with the game, as they are encouraged to actually pay attention during other peoples turns, rather than the system basically giving them permission to "switch off" when it's not their turn. *think feats in D&D, but this is a point based system rather than a class&level one

Do this system have a book or PDF? learning only in video is weird for me.

Sad that this has only gotten 73 views by the time of this comment. Nice presentation and neat worldbuilding. The algorythm randomly recommended your latest video and I felt the series deserved a watch from the beginning.

Hi whats the game you mentioned grandeer or something. I cant find anything about it on google (probably because i dunno how its spelled) I've always loved the idea of simultaneous turn based games but they're so hard to find. Another good game in the genre is Atlas Reactor (RIP). Also not sure its a good idea to make int responsible for both action economy and turn order. Maybe int only affects initial flow, not wait flow gain? Int shouldn't be a requirement for martials like barbarians (does int-1 mean your wait only gives you 1 flow point?). Right now it seems like casters only need 1 or 2 stats but martials need all 4 or at least 3,,, or maybe im misunderstanding. if str-1 means your carry weight is unusably small and dex-1 means you go prone everytime you get hit casters would need them in the same way martials are gonna need int now. Very thought provoking video nonetheless, Good Luck with your system <3

Super cool and love the insight! Definitely subscribing to see more, keep it up!

I'm really interested in your take on combat! I have some questions in mind: From the GM's perspective, isn't it hard to keep track of flow points when you have to run multiple monsters in a combat? I sometimes find it difficult just keeping track of 5+ monsters' HP. Secondly, I don't understand "when" players declare their actions. For example, if two players both want to make a melee attack as the first thing when combat starts, what happens first? Or if a PC and a monster both want to hit each other as their first action and they both deal fatal damage, what happens first, and who declares their attack first, do both die at the same time? I like the idea behind the system, but I'm uncertain how this would play.

Long video, long comment ... what you gonna do 3:23-3:50: I like the goal of aiming for comparable strengths of fighters and magic users, but that is hard to do if using magic can make you a better fighter. So if you can use magic to give an advantage that can carry over into the melee combat you're about to engage in (like a witcher preparing himself with alchemy) or if it can be used simultaneously or quickly in between strikes. Let's say if play a "sword master" class that cannot use magic. Would the sword master be a better at his sword fighting skills, if he could also use magic ? That can only be prevented if magic effects don't linger and if using magic requires physical activity (which you said it does with the hand motions and concentration) 6:30: Alternative defensive option for pierce to use "deflect/redirect" (to impact the the enemy weapon in a way that makes it miss its target, not to throw back the attack like a mirror) for the quicker attack option of pierce and thrust, since it might be harder to dodge the quicker attack. 15:20-17:50: I lost the timestamp on where you said it, but i currently handle combat in a similar way, but with longer rounds and the action results being applied immediately. I handle ranged attacks by splitting them into 3 different stages each with different costs.(1. attack preparation , 2. aiming, 3.firing) It allows you to take your arrow out of your quiver and on to your string /drawing your crossbow with a lever, then raise your weapon, prepare to aim and fire. If the intended target moves between your aim and fire action, because you couldn't complete both in the same round, you can either keep your target for a set number of moments (in case someone jumped into cover), change to a different target in a 30° angle without extra cost or just retake the aim action onto another target and fire onto that target. I know it's quite cumbersome, but as you said, the sync problem with turn based combat is a tricky one to solve and always requires some sort of compromise somewhere. 18:37-19:30: If considered saving action points or actions for the next turn in the past, but this always had the undesired effect of punishing the proactive character in a melee standoff. Two characters standing 20m apart. First one uses his actions to close the gap, the other one waits and saves his actions. Once character 1 arrives he looses the duel, bc the waiting character beats him with his saved up actions. 23:30-25:50 Giving action points(flow) for moving solves this from a game design or balance perspective (and i still thinks its a very cool system), but it hurts the timeline feel of the combat that you were referring to earlier, since you do not have more time to do things when moving, than when attacking. When i interact with a lock for 5 rounds (-10), hear someone charging at me, turn around (would that cost flow in your system ?) and draw my weapon (-2) then i am not prepared enough to attack for two rounds (given i did not have any flow saved up after picking the lock). Also just realized that the 20m apart characters example still works if the defending character uses the move action to move from the other person. The second character probably is required to dash to close the gap (if character 2 doesn't have a higher DEX level), which leaves character 1 with more flow points at the time of engagement. You could explain this with the second character being exhausted by the sprint, but that should be represented in a temporary debuff or disadvantage on his actions, not by not being able to attack as often as his opponent. If for example flow points were replaced by "energy points" or "exhaustion points" it would make sense that you have to catch your breath once you run out of "exhaustion points" or that you get a temporary debuff until you get to a positive exhaustion level again. There would probably a max. exhaustion level of -25 or something that prohibits you from taking any actions, but until then even when out of exhaustion points, you're still able to take an action of your liking every round but with a weakened effect. (Run a shorter distance, hit with less strength, react slower on a dodge) The problem here is that you would loose the whole elegance of the flow system managing both energy and turn execution at once, but well ... :D Another issue is the possibility to save up flow by hiding, waiting or even running away to perform 3 ranged attacks (or spell casts) in 3 rounds (3 seconds). I think the ranged attack has to be priced higher, but even that doesn't solve the issue of being able to quick-cast multiple actions in a very short time frame, that would have to take much longer. Is it correct that reactions do not consume flow ? And if not why not ? I think the idea of having to decide whether to attack or to defend on low flow points would be a cool choice to have instead of just defaulting to attack whenever you can and always defending when you get attacked automatically. I don't remember if you mentioned something about chases or fleeing in another video, but with the current version one character using the retreat action (+2) running away from another way faster character (like a wolf or some creature) can always keep running, since the following character that might overtake him or catch up to him easily can never attack before the first character starts running again or was there an opportunity attack style system in place and that's why you removed the "retreat" movement option ? (if there is an opportunity attack system, does an opportunity attack consume flow if defensive reactive actions outside of your turn do not ?) 26:20: While a very quick foe like an elf in the tolkin universe or some magical creature could get more flow or consume less flow because of their speed, it would feel weird if more cumbersome and sluggish creatures like trolls, giants or big enemies could attack more often. This very much depends on which creatures exist in the verve universe, but i feel like for your "strong enemy attack often"-solution to work it would either need to be very fast, or have ways of attacking simultaneously like a hydra or a kraken. Thanks for reading, feel free to numerate your responses haha

Excellent video, love the content!

This is honestly amazing, never thought of 1.5 being the solution.

The whole video i thought "but you said art wasn't your strong suit" until you mentioned that it wasn't yo drawing it :D (well done btw) - How does the weakspot detection is supposed to work ? Is it supposed to work of the brains signals and sense insecurities or known vulnerabilities that the target is aware of, or is it supposed to scan the whole body ? The first way would struggle with targets that might not know all of their own weaknesses, the second one would require the evaluation/processing of an insane amount of information about the targets physical form. If the second way was a thing, this very much opens the opportunity for physicians and treating wounds or monitoring the health of people in power. Follow up qeustions: - How exactly do nerves emmit verves ? - What's the suggested distance from which the sensing of the brain cell/nerve verves would be possible ? - Do esthesians have to put themselves in a receiver state to sense the verves of this magnitude or is it a task that can be done, while walking or while fighting ? - If they can sense brain cells verves, this would suggest that they have true sight without light, because normal movement and bigger body parts would create way more noticeable signals.

For folks interested in a bit more of a deep dive, some of the other rules for combat will be coming out in a bit as well as an unscripted video discussing the development process for the system which should interesting.

How do you manage skills like: - Puzzle solving - Logic - Memory - Subtle Lie etc ? Does that not impair the autonomy of the player roleplaying the lie or solving the puzzle presented to him? I always disliked dnd-ish systems that let you roll deduction or insight and then being presented the solution to a situation. I personally decided against any attributes that interfere on the roleplay of a character, but i am not final on a system that motivates or forces a player to accept or face self-harming choices, that are based on some mental factors like being uncomfortable or fear.

Is it correct that a character dies by either running out of stamina points or by gathering enough wounds ? If a wound is only applied when the exceedance is > 6, this means that 3 Wounds do a minimum of 18 dmg ? I really like the idea of being able to tank a lot of small hits unless you don't get wounded barely! Flow is also an amazing idea! Most original and interesting combat system i've seen in a while!

I would suggest renamingthe dash action to "sprint" or "run". I already disliked it in DnD, bc it isnt that descriptive

oh look, a new videogame! i wonder how it'll work, and hope it's unique :D

This is the exact type of information I need when world building.

This showed up on my recommended page, and I didn't realize this was meant to be magical worldbuilding until you mentioned the floating islands. This is incredibly clever and well thought out!

Cool idea. Nice video. Looking forward to watching more!

As someone who’s always been obsessed with the physics of magic, I love it so much! It’s so difficult- it always gets down to a point where things are either weird or arbritrary and/or paradoxical, but the same could be said for regular physics past a point

This is sooo cool! Worldbuilding from the physics up!

The point about combat is a little more subtle than either system. In real life combat over short distances initiative plays a huge part, but it's not the be all end all. Reflexes are also very important. For example say you're facing off with an enemy. You're both looking for an opening, but you're also both wary of the other's potential strikes. If their attention drops for even a second you can spring in and get the first hit. If you're not fast enough or their reflexes are really good they may be able to defend or counter. Over long distances it's much less of a concern. If you charge across some distance towards someone then they're likely notice and either back off or get ready.

The dance would have to be twerking. Since to generate a wave you have to vibrate back and forth.

Thanks for watching! If you have any questions let me know as these will help me with future video topics. Also if you have any feedback about the video, animations, sound etc. that would be super helpful. Thanks :)