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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

OHSW Task system, thoughts?

Non-combat tasks are cropping up in my One Hour Skirmish Wargames, and I need a fast way to resolve them.  Some may be defined in the scenarios and some may need to be worked out on the fly.  here are some proposed rules, what do you think?  


One Hour Skirmish Wargames

Task System


This quick resolution system is designed for figures performing any non-combat task or

covering anything that crops up during a game that is not defined in the scenario. 

Resolving a task uses action points just like other actions and ends a figure’s turn just like firing. 

Skill levels, task difficulty, and consequences may be defined as part of the scenario.


The most important rule is be a good sport and if you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong!


To resolve any non-combat task, agree with your opponent:

  1. How difficult is the task? (Easy, Medium, Hard)

  2. Unless the figure is specified by the scenario to have this skill, how competent is the figure

            at the task? (Novice, Ok, Expert)
        3. What is the consequence if the task fails? (None, Down, Instantly Killed, Something else…)


Now draw to resolve the action.  The player performing the action draws the number of cards indicated

below based on their skill:


Skill Level

Cards Drawn

Low

1

Medium

2

Expert

3


The opposing player draws the number of cards indicated below based on the task difficulty.


Difficulty

Cards Drawn

Easy

1

Moderate

2

Hard

3


Compare the highest card for each:

  • If the active player performing the task beats the opposing player, the task succeeds

  • Otherwise the task fails and the figure immediately sufferers the agreed upon consequence

  • If either player draws a Joker, the task is not attempted and the turn ends as usual.

Examples:

Diffuse a bomb

Ralph and Bob are trying to rescue some hostages from the bad guys / freedom fighters, but there is a

bomb that must be defused first. 


In the scenario, the following has been defined:

  • Bob is an EOD expert

  • The bomb has been rated a medium difficulty.  

  • If the task succeeds the bomb is defused.  

  • If the task fails, look at the highest card drawn for the attempt for the active player.  If Red, then

            the bomb explodes as a grenade from the rules.  If black then the bomb does not explode and it
            can be attempted again.


Bob attempts to diffuse the bomb. As he is an expert he draws 3 cards: 3 , 7, K.

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J , 6

As Bob’s Kbeats the opponent’s J, the bomb is diffused!


Now if Ralph tried to diffuse the bomb, he would only draw a single card, as he does not have any EOD

skill.  Ralph draws a 3

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J , 6

As Ralph does not beat his opponent's high card, he fails.  As his own card is Red, the bomb explodes!

Batter down a door

Olaf is pillaging a Saxon village with his Viking buddies.  He wants to batter down the door of a cottage

in order to plunder it and capture the farmers cowering inside.  There is nothing in the scenario

specifying how to batter a door down, so the two players quickly decide:

  • The door is pretty stout, so it is a moderate difficulty.

  • Olaf is a healthy viking, but not larger than average, and has a sword and not an axe, so he is

            rated as having medium skill. (If he had a two handed axe, you might rate him expert)
  • There is no consequence if he fails, other than standing there using up action points.  He may

            try again at any time.

Olaf draws: J , 6

His opponent draws: 7, K

Olaf may try again using more AP this turn or wait until the next one.


7 comments:

  1. your ideas are fast, easy,intuitive, make sense, and don't require a bunch of record keeping or chart resolution and give realistic results. What's not to like?

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I may be drifting into RPG-Lite territory eventually, but I think the mechanism is sound. I will give it a whirl and see how it works in practice.

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  2. Your difficulty and skill approach works well. Would you consider draw the difficulty cards first and allow the person doing the task to pull out? It would still cost them an action and they would have to wait until their next turn. For example, with defusing the bomb they may decide take more time (another action).

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    Replies
    1. That might be good, add to the tension and give the player another meaningful decision. I will try it both ways.

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  3. I think these are great ideas. OK if I copy them?

    ReplyDelete
  4. For prolonged tasks, like cracking a safe or loading cargo onto a lorry, I would suggest setting a target number of successes (say 3), and every card for the active player that beats all the cards drawn by the opponent counts as 1 success (so an Expert with an Easy task could draw up to 3 successes in 1 action)

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    Replies
    1. Oooo, I like that! I am headed off on vacation, but am taking a deck of cards and my notebook, I'll draft some updates to post when I get back.

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