me: i am considering using an abstracted location systemn
me: where you have zones
me: so describe to me a battlefield, first one that comes to mind
me: very quick description
"Renegade": ok, just off the top of my head, it's a grassland location with a few hills and slopes
"Renegade": a few trees and bushes strewn about the area as well
"Renegade": and a couple of really big rocks
me: that works
me: so a character can be:
me: a. on a hilltop
me: b. in a valley
me: c. on the grassland, in open terrain
me: you can move to a valley, up a hill, or to one of the listed obstacles
"Renegade": hmm, that sounds good so far
me: so one zone is the grassland
me: approaching a character is harder here, because it is more spread out
me: you have cover from those in the valley, and are exposed against those on the hill, and vice versa
me: cover prevents attacks from working, being exposed boosts ranged attack accuracy
me: you can gain cover from others in all zones by moving to an obstacle
me: or you can negate someone's cover by moving into a position that exposes them
"Renegade": does cover help with melee-based attacks?
"Renegade": particularly ambushing
"Renegade": theoretically, someone could sneak out of a valley and strike you from behind
me: well, melee only works if you are in the same zone
"Renegade": ah, true
me: so you have to enter the grasslands
"Renegade": yeah, since you have to be right next to them
me: these are big zones
me: so movement is as much a transport thing as it is a status effect changer
me: like you move into a position to attack someone in melee or eliminate their cover
me: similarly, you can attack obstacles, and though it isn't usually effective, you still have all the advantage of the position you are in, which could give you cover and be hard to approach, like a sniper's nest
me: so maybe i could treat the battlefield as in flux
me: so if you moved so that you have cover against a guy on one round, he is assumed to be somewhere else on the next, and you don't have cover against him unless you move again
me: this way the player doesn't have to keep track of every char's location and relationships
me: everyone stays in one zone unless they are told to move out of it with a move action
me: so you just lose temporary effects other than melee when a turn ends
me: ok, yeah! this is where a few of my ideas come in!
me: mobility, threat, range, velocity
me: your threat score is how much you threaten nearby characters with frequent attacks
me: if they slip up (they miss really badly or they try to move out of melee)
me: they suffer an immediate attack from you, with power based off your threat score
me: generally nothing too bad, but some characters have really high threat
me: mobility is good to counter them
me: mobility gives you a bonus when you try to move away from enemies or get to cover
me: (you can get to cover as a means of defense even when it isn't your turn, assuming you have some amount of movement left and there is cover in the area)
me: velocity determines your amount of movement, and lets you move to other zones in a certain amount of turns
me: range is a property of attacks, not characters, but it determines how effective you are at firing into other zones and how effective your attack is if the target doesn't get cover, and instead runs
me: ok so threat boosts defense if they approach you and grants an attack if they move away from a melee with you, mobility boosts defense when you move to cover and defense when you are attacked for moving (like from threat), velocity boosts defense when you run and boosts attack when you approach, range boosts attack when they run and defense when they approach you.
me: easy enough :-)
"Renegade": yup :D
me: so now jim here is in the grasslands, sticking close to a rock, and he is being attacked by kate, who has a submachine gun and is on a valleytop
me: jim is unarmed, but uses earth and fire powers
me: not lava though
me: coal
"Renegade": makes sense
me: he can burn an object down to coals, then use those to form small, short-lived weapons
me: so he can shape coal into clubs and daggers, not anything much larger
me: but he can throw them, and he can send elemental attacks that way
me: coal grenades
me: ok, so kate's turn
me: kate enters a stance, Fire When Ready, that lets her get one free ranged attack when someone in a zone of her choosing doesn't have cover
me: but jim has cover right now, and can't be attacked very easily
me: so he uses a generate coal ability, using up his turn
me: kate's turn is wasted, and she isn't pleased
me: she moves to a valley to approach the grasslands, but her velocity isn't high enough to get to the grasslands (never wear high heels to a gunfight!)
me: now it is jim's turn again, and he can't see kate
me: he knows she isn't firing at him, so he runs for a different piece of cover and notices she still isn't firing
me: he doesn't have much movement left, so he uses a power, Create Concealment, where he just uses fire to create a big cloud of smoke
me: he has concealment from all characters, and they have it from him
me: the smoke dissipates at the start of his next turn, though
me: so kate's turn
me: she pops out of the valley and finds nothing but smoke
me: everyone takes minor fire damage, but jim is resistant enough that he isn't hurt
me: the bush obstacles though...
me: they catch on fire
me: grass doesn't; it got lucky
me: so kate is in the valley, bushes are on fire, jim is behind a different rock than the one she last saw him at
me: she enters a new stance
me: FIRE AT WILL
me: and sprays everything everywhere with bullets
me: but jim has cover, and she now doesn't
me: however they both have concealment
me: so jim uses a buff to sense the air using the smoke and now he knows where kate is
me: he tosses his coal grenade and blasts her
me: she sprays everything at random as she goes down, but since jim has cover he gets away unscathed
me: grenades are good!
me: seem easy enough?
me: i like how a two-person battle can take 3 turns, too