Speedrunning Combat

This one's about using Otherkind Dice in old-school play.

There are two things I love. The first is the aforementioned Otherkind Dice by Meguey & Vincent Baker, without whom this post wouldn't exist*. I think about those dice a lot, maybe once a week. My game design drafts are full of possible ways to use them. 

My second love is combat in old-school roleplaying games. It's dangerous, but it rewards planning, creative item use, etc. Also, compared to modern fantasy games, it's fast. Still, there are things that slow it down, like turns/phases/actions, to-hit rolls, hit points, etc. Some games out there even do away with some of these things to speed it up. I love that, too.

But what if there was something that kept what I like about old-school combat, but was even faster? Like, really fast? What if OSR stood for Otherkind School Revolution? Maybe it would look like this:

Combat
When two forces clash and it is obvious who would win, they do. The GM will say what the consequences for the losing side are.

Otherwise, grab 3d6 and consider the following:
-Do the player characters have tactical advantages (high ground, surprise, superior numbers, etc)?
-Are the player characters using items to bolster their chances (molotovs, caltrops, oil, an optimal weapon, etc)?
-Are the player characters using magic to tip the odds in their favor?

Add a d6 for each advantage, item, or magic the characters employ. Then, answer the same questions for the opposite side. Take away d6 as appropriate.

The players then roll the remaining d6 and assign results to the following tables/index cards:

Characters
Were the player characters injured?
0: They were all killed or captured, at the GM's discretion.
1-2: One of them was killed or captured at the GM's discretion. determine randomly if no one volunteers. The rest were injured.
3-4: Half of them were injured, one gravely so. Determine randomly if no one volunteers.
5: One of them was injured.
6: Miraculously, none of them were.

Resources
Were any of the items or spells they used lost or broken?
0: Yes, all of them.
1-3: Yes, half of them. Determine randomly if no one volunteers.
4-5: Yes, one of them. Determine randomly if no one volunteers.
6: Somehow, not a single one.

Enemies
How did their opponents fair?
0: Completely unscathed.
1-2: They suffered minor injuries.
3-4: Half of them were injured, one gravely so.
5: Half of them dead, captured, or fled—players' choice.
6: Completely routed. they are all dead, captured, or fled—players' choice.

Now, how would I hack this into a pre-existing game like B/X? Perhaps I'd add a d6 for each THAC0 score improvement. Multiple d6 if Turn Undead was used against low-HD opponents, that could probably work. I'd probably just start playing with it and come up with solutions as they arose.

But I'm more interested in what a new game that uses this combat would look like. Would it use Otherkind Dice for everything? I'm of two minds about that. Games that have a single resolution mechanic are usually easier to pick up and play. Grab some d6s and the relevant index cards and you're set. That sounds fun! On the other hand, Otherkind works best when there's at least three result cards in play whenever a roll is called for. It could be a challenge to make a game that includes everything I want to leave to chance while also only rolling when the situation is complicated enough to warrant three result cards. 

And then there's the ritual of it all. This is hardly new territory, but resolution mechanics are rituals we enact while playing make-believe. And even if we can resolve everything in a game by flipping a coin or rolling a d20 and adding a number, there is something fascinating to me about the various parts of a game using different rituals to find out what happens next. 

Anyway, I'm excited to continue tinkering on an old-school game that speedruns combat. I'm sure I will come up with enough of something to play with my friends. I already have a near-complete draft of overland travel on a hex map that uses Otherkind Dice. Maybe you'll see that in a future post. 

*I originally posted about this on Bluesky. I was encouraged by Amanda P to blog about it, so credit to them for this entry as well.