A Roguelike, Tactical Combat TTRPG

Let's define some terms.

Roguelike is a (genre/style/vibe/sub-culture) of video games. There is a lot of argument over the specifics, but basically it's a game that focuses on a style of "run" based gameplay often utilizing large, fixed item inventories, randomized boons/equipables, and standard but rotating enemies/locations¹. The "run" dynamic is made due to a combination of a few things: First is an objective with many obstacles in the path to sucess. This provides a light to race towards and a tunnel to race in. Second the path to this objective is through a Gauntlet. Third all attempts at the Gauntlet begin with little to no resources or upgrades. This hard resetting bringing the player back to the beginning of the gauntlet for another attempt to reach it's end is the essential gameloop created from this.

All games have variations on this basic set up. The final/super objective can change or move to a new location or more could be unlocked through additional runs. The Gauntlet itself as the area for play is rife for changes. Many roguelike games will divide the Gauntlet into separate zones allowing further healing or changes and/or upgrades between these zones once completed. Additionally, games like Hades 2 provide options for multiple different Gauntlets each with their own zones. The final piece of manipulation is the starting resources. It is not uncommon for these games to have permanent upgrades² that can be purchased using currencies collected on the run or made through the trading of items (that are usually also collected during the run).

My initial inspiration that lead to exploring this idea further was my love for the weapons in Dead Cells. I loved that while I was playing and switching weapons that I felt like I was switching fighting styles almost entirely. The weapons had different speeds of attack, range for striking one or multiple enemies, and special conditions that would result in critical hits³. The different crit conditions often lead to me focusing on either my movement or environment more closely to match what was required.

I believe I was originally thinking of figuring out a D&D hack to make this weapon style fighting interest a reality which is why I didn't think to implement crit conditions as they were in Dead Cells. Instead I thought about creating a new game structure/mechanical system called momentum for each weapon. I haven't finalized anything on what momentum really looks like or plays like but I have some ideas. The first is a momentum die that starts at a d6 when gained and each additional trigger of the momentum condition ups the die type by one, akin to Dungeon Crawl Classics die chain. That option is easy to spread across multiple weapons and allows still for specificity in condition trigger for each weapon. On the other end of this spectrum is entirely bespoke; basically momentum looks different for each weapon in trigger, power bonus, or both. This could be a weapon that increases damage dished out and dished to as momentum increass, momentum that unlocks additional weapon features as it increases, or momentum that you can pay off for different attacks(like charges on a staff for spells). The more I discuss the second option the more I feel like that is something better suited to a board game where you could use cards to track major weapon differences. For tactical thinking it would be good to make the conditions based around movement, positioning, status conditions, and environment4. I, as of writing this, just reviewed my notes and saw that my original thought was to have a basic attack, special attack, and momentum. The idea is all weapons would have their standard basic attack (think of a standard attack with standard die in D&D)and a special, from there a weapon would either gain a form of momentum or a new basic attack. This is potentially an interesting middle ground if I wanted to add in many multiple weapon options which feels like it would suit the project.

And now for a unordered list to display a collection of loose thoughts on possible weapons and ideas for their uniqueness through signature abilties/moves or momentum. Some of these thoughts are ideas of mechanics and others are me just trying to break down the essense of what I think the fighting style of each weapon should look like.

• I decided that rapiers should be focused on parrying and keeping distance. I wonder if gaining momentum through striking continuously different foes would encourage a movement based mindset.
• Two sword fighting styles makes me think of whirlwind attacks, high damage to a single target or spread across multiple but without control once attack has begun.
• Katana is used in dead souls as a hyperspeed, though further research has shown me it's more often used in one swift motion often lending a surprise element to the attack.
• I like the idea of a broadsword user being tanky and being able to attack and tank damage from multiple opponents at once.
• Hammers feel like they should be more effective on foes who are unable to move⁵. Maybe a heavier hammer could build momentum via hitting the same opponent again and again.
• A whip that does damage in a line where the end of the line takes max damage and damage is reduced moving backward from tip to stem.
• A hook and chain (or tentacle in reference to Dead Cells) which could potentially work to pull the target closer to the PC or perhaps pull the PC toward the target. Further attacks on target that is pulled could cause momentum increases.
• One weapon in Dead Cells is the heavy boots which gives you Big Kicks™ and I desperately want to add that experience in while also having a normal gauntlet/punching glove that can handle the play style of multiple small but continuous hits. My only thought is to make the boots heavy hitting over quick hitting, maybe this means finding a specific crit condition for it rather than momentum based damage.
• Iron Staff that can parry or block attacks. It seems I felt that blocking and damaging should be equally part of the battle style of this weapon, according to my notes.

Aside from those ideas, my only further elaboration about weapons was that the run should begin with a number of randomized weapons equal to the number of players plus 1. I think weapons could have available slots to select from different upgrade types for rewards during the run. This could be superfluous, as ultimately the fantasy I'm trying to meet with this idea is the randomized damage and status abilities given to weapons in Dead Cells. This specific trend of giving randomized percentage based bonuses for specific conditions is made fun of online (reasonably, I think) but when working within a TTRPG I wonder if the ability to trigger status conditions via attack or gain bonus damage from those conditions is actually assitive especially given multiple party members could work together to synchronize their picks⁶.

What the fuck is the story/setting of this? Why are the characters of a TTRPG going on "runs"?

So I haven't delved into game design theory much yet because TTRPG game design theory is the fucking worst can of worms I've ever god damn seen. Anyhow shout out to Trying to Be Kind the podcast for being my only medium to hear further conversation about these topics from people who I actually respect the opinions of. Also shout out Collabs Without Permission cause their video about Art, Agency, and Alienation (which you should check out at this link) was what brought me into this side/section of the internet and of TTRPG discussion.

As a basic rundown of my thoughts as they are, I know of the history of viewing a TTRPG system as the entirety of play, making rules through the idea of incentivization or other ABA based ideas. The Forge was huge about radical behaviorism being used to design games. I was struggling with the idea of what a system for a game should be. I didn't have interest in using rules or rule stand-ins (think Principals and Agendas in ROOT: The RPG) to try to create an idea of replicible play but I wasn't sure what else to provide. I think what I decided was good for a game system was to provide any necessary or assistive Game Structures (for further reference here, use this link to Justin Alexander's post on Game Structures) in addition to a setting.

I think that TTRPGs that are trying to be more niche focused need to provide something that assists in giving a push toward the genre/niche it's filling. Some can do this through supplying adventures that show off how someone would prepare for a basic session or scenario, others will provide a setting that can lead to adventure creation or has adventure/inspiration hooks in it. Given that we're aiming for a specific genre that is from a different medium I think both a game structure and setting would be appropriate here. I have written out a setting idea for this but haven't created any specific game structure yet, though I do have some ideas I'll discuss later on.

The overview of the setting pitch is that society currently lives subterrainally in one larger Main City. This is due to a natural disaster that occurred long ago⁷ uptop akin to a mass-extinction event. This has made it so there are still vital resources and bits and pieces of research/knowledge still on the surface out of the reach of those currently living. This would require a job where people are sent up to the surface in protective gear to face the old world and return with these resources. This basic set up provides a hub location(main city), objective(topside goal, easily interchangable), gauntlet(topside), and obstacles(unhabittible environment, inherently dangerous to players) I imagine this system/setting being useful for a West Marches-esque set up with interchanging party members as theoretically a topside run could be as long as a single session. This is basically me spinning the traditional narrative of a dungeon area being an underground area that you travel deeper/lower into.

For further specifics, I imagine that this city is run by some type of agency; I have been generically calling them The Administration for now. These would be the powers of the state and would be those responsible for sending up the players and supplying equipment to prevent immediate death upon reaching the surface. Immediately after making a state apparatus I thought about how it's probably lying to the entire population. This made me wonder if the surface is indeed unlivable or if it could be interesting for there to be living settlements topside. Maybe the claim of topside being biologically dangerous to exist in is untrue. This would mean that the equipment used for the players could potentially be used to support the inhability lie (possibly having equipment be given a timeline until it's no longer effective at preventing harm from surface conditions, but instead the surface causing this harm, it's the injestible or mountable equipment that poisons it's user if not returned in time).

I picture the old, surface world being not just reclaimed by nature but transformed from a preternatural⁸ power. I'm thinking about the ominous stillness and yet everchanging nature represented sometimes by portrayals of the Feywild. I want surface landscapes to be beautiful and unsettling at the same time. The population would call the surface the Preternatural world (maybe that's the like formal name from scientists or historians, seems too much for everyday folk to use all the time) which would make the characters Preternauts which I find to be a very cool title. I think this state of being would cause mutations/adapatations of those who still reside on the surface. This could provide excellent reasoning for introducing hazards like monsters or more fantastical NPCs/social environments.

The job itself I think would be seen as a dirty job. I think it's undervalued and underpaid despite how dangerous it is. The Adminstration would have a vested interest in making the surface seem unstable and uninteresting to maintain it's population of scared/agoraphobic citizens. Death not being uncommon at the job would likely mean only those desparate for funds/nothing else to lose would be the ones who took on the job. I think some NPCs could make requests to characters directly for things from topside rather than going through official channels either because it's expensive to make a request or the items requested are illicit or otherwise require discresion. I think this also allows the PCs access to a large apparatus of their world but from a very honed perspective.

For Game Structure, I am obviously intent on curbbing heavily from the Dungeon Crawl system. I think with how I'm imagining this set up there would need to be a mixture of hex and dungeon crawl methods. Part of the preternatural idea allows for any location to have changed drastically between one visit and the next; mapping to the idea of procedurally, randomly generated Gauntlets from other Roguelikes. Use of a battle map for exploration is intresting for the tactical element of the game, but I wonder if that could negatively impact the hexcrawl elements pulled in. Turns in OSR are also in consideration for use in this game structure as that system is used for exploration of a mapped area with specifics for what can be done in a turn, but again I wonder if this is too in the weeds which might bog down the more open-imagination idea of exploration I was picturing. This area is where I really fall off in terms of inspiration and practice. This is the section you can blame for why this is a blog post and not a fleshed out idea.