HeroScape?

[TJByrum]

If you don't know what HeroScape is, it was a table-top miniature war game that had a varied cast of characters to use. There were ninjas, monks, samurai, knights, and WWII soldiers, as well futuristic robots, agents, aliens, elves, dragons, orcs, and so much more. It wasn't as complex as other table-top war games, but the system worked.

Anyway, every character had a card, and there were two types of cards: Heroes, and Squads. Heroes were strong individuals, while Squads were weaker but had 2-4 characters.

Each character has 4 statistics. Heroes had a fifth statistic, and that was their life; they could sustain a certain amount of damage before being defeated, while Squad characters could be killed as soon as there defense was broken through. The other statistics were:
Move - How many spaces this character can move. Water and elevation would play a role in hindering the movement of a character.
Range - How many spaces away this character can attack. Melee characters had a range of 1.
Attack - How much attack dice this character rolls when they attack.
Defense - How much defense dice this character rolls when they are attacked.

But each character also had special abilities. Some could fly, others could buff their allies stats within a certain range., some could unleash devastating attacks, there was an extremely large amount of abilities and each character had roughly 1-4 abilities.

I'd love to bring the idea to the RPG, but I'd also love to keep the system. What do you guys think/suggest?

[TJByrum]

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[Joegreenbeen]

I like this idea! I only have one suggestion, I would put a limit on how many points you can put onto your characters 4/5 stats, so no one does anything unfair.

[TJByrum]

Joegreenbeen said
I like this idea! I only have one suggestion, I would put a limit on how many points you can put onto your characters 4/5 stats, so no one does anything unfair.

I was thinking maybe 18-20 points. Typical HeroScape figures could have as low as 14 points to as high as 28 points. I think the average would have been close to 20, and if not 20 then somewhere in the 17-19 range. I think Squads should have around 15 points to spend and Heroes should have 20. In this sense, a ranged Hero may be:

Life: 4
Move: 5
Range: 6
Attack: 3
Defense: 2

And a ranged squad may have:

Life: 1
Move: 4
Range: 6
Attack: 3
Defense: 2

But there's a lot to consider. It may be better to let the players determine their own values, then let me decide whether or not it's fair.

[TJByrum]

Name:
Description:
Species/Class/Personality/Height:
Life:
Move:
Range:
Attack:
Defense:
Special Abilities
(list)

The Round Starts off by placing Order Markers, but we're not going to worry about those right now. This is the basic, bare-bones structure of a round:
1. Roll the d20 for Initiative. Highest roller goes first, second-highest goes second, and so on; re-roll all ties.
2. Choose Army Card.
3. Move Army Card.
4. Attack with Army Card.

Movement Rules
1. A character may move in any direction equal to the number of his Move value. For example, if a character has 5 Move they may move 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 spaces in any direction.
2. When moving into water, the character MUST stop moving.
3. A character may only move up elevation if it is less than the character's height. A character with 5 Height can climb up elevation that is 1, 2, 3, or 4 levels high, but cannot climb up elevation that is 5 of more levels high.
4. When moving down elevation, if the fall is equal to or greater than the character's height, roll 1 attack die to determine fall damage. If it is 10 or more levels higher, roll 3 attack dice. If it is 20 or more levels higher, roll the d20; if you roll 19 or 20 the character is fine; if you roll anything else the character is destroyed.
5. When climbing up elevation, each level costs 1 movement point. So an elevation of 3 costs 3 points to move there.

Engagement Rules
1. Whenever a character is adjacent to another (opposing) figure it is considered engaged. Engaged characters can only attack the engaged character(s). If this character tries to move, roll 1 attack dice to determine disengagement damage.

Attack Rules

Special Abilities
Flying/Leaping: These characters ignore elevations and water, can fly over figures without becoming engaged, and do not take fall damage.
Counterstrike: When rolling defense, all excess shields count as direct hits to the target's life.
Water Ignore: When moving over water, this figure does not have to stop and may continue moving.

[Joegreenbeen]

So, how will roleplaying be involved?