I am working on a board game like a Monopoly game. However, I am bringing in some rpg elements in the game. The game is about to be finished, but I need some help for the battle system in the game. I am not a rpg fan and have never play any rpg games like Final Fantasy before, so I would like to hear some ideas from others. First, let me briefly describe the idea and gameplay for this game, I will just keep it simple. In this game, what players do are just like any monopoly game: throw dice -> move character -> "do something" The different things are you not only compete to become the millionaire, but you also compete to rule the region or the game's "world". Which means your goal is to occupy all the lands. At first all lands are unoccupied, so you will be prompted to buy a land when you step on a land without a ruler. If a land is occupied, you will be asked to pay toll when you are on it, if you refuse to pay, then you can fight the opponent. If you win the battle, you dont need to pay, but if you lose, then you need to pay double the toll. Also, you can attack a land when it isnt well defended, if you win you occupy that land. There are also some other rpg elements in the game, where you can gain experience and improve your attack skill, defend skill and etc. There are also some other things you need to manage in the game. For example, when you occupy a land, you need to "govern" it. Each land has its own population, which will determine your army size for that land, the tax you collect, etc. And you can upgrade your land from village to town to city, and upgrade the defense for the land. There are also some special places in the game where you can go (of cause by throwing the dice), like the following: casino: where you can gamble to win gold bank: where you can save your gold for interest market: where you can hire soldiers who fight for gold Now, my question is I need to develop a fun but not too complicated battle system. There are five types of soldiers in the game, I might add more if needed. They are: militia, sword, pike, cavalry, and archer soldiers. Please keep in mind this is not a rpg game but a board game, so I dont want to make it too crazy. Here is my current idea: when in a battle or war, each side choose 3 army of any types to place in 3 slots. Then, each side take turn to attack in 10 rounds. I know it is quite boring, but for a board game I hope it is fair. I will take any suggestions but not too crazy. Now I need to design the equations for the battle system, here is the basic ideas: militia: - weak attack and defend, but cheapest - weakest sword soldiers: - strong attack and overall defend pike soldiers: - strong attack and strong defend - advantage when fight with cavalry cavalry: - strong attack but weak defend - advantage when fight with sword soldiers and militia archer: - strong attack but weak in defend - advantage when use in defending a land Any suggestions for the battle system? I also like to hear some ideas for the equations. Thanks for your time! [Edited by - dannielum on November 23, 2006 4:10:01 PM]

Exactly how complicated you'll make the combat rules depends a bit on how "hardcore" you want to make the board game, but I would certainly make it a lot less complicated than a computer game due to the need for humans to crunch the numbers. For example, even having five unit types might be too much.

A simple battle system that's pretty easy to get working would be the standard technique of comparing an "attack" and "defend" die to see who wins (I wouldn't bother with "hit points" - loser unit is removed from game, winner is unscathed). Different unit types would get a plus or minus modifier to their roll, which could be clearly printed on helper cards to make it clear. Whether or not you want to have multiple units attack at once (like in Risk) would be up to you and what you find works best in playtesting. Personally I wouldn't go overboard with the special rules for the modifiers as it could make things too confusing.

when I say "board game" I mean a computer board game, just like those monopoly computer games that are exactly the same as the board game you play not on the computer. :D

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Original post by dannielum when I say "board game" I mean a computer board game, just like those monopoly computer games that are exactly the same as the board game you play not on the computer. :D

Oh, okay. But now I'm a bit uncertain about exactly what you're intending. Is your game going to be just a computer simulation of a board game, i.e. theoretically you could take exactly the same rules and make a real board game out of them (like computer monopoly). Or is it just that your game uses a "board game like world", like in various turn based strategy games (like the Total War series or Civilization), which resemble a board game but have too complicated a series of rules for it to work as a real one?

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Original post by Trapper Zoid Quote: Original post by dannielum when I say "board game" I mean a computer board game, just like those monopoly computer games that are exactly the same as the board game you play not on the computer. :D Oh, okay. But now I'm a bit uncertain about exactly what you're intending. Is your game going to be just a computer simulation of a board game, i.e. theoretically you could take exactly the same rules and make a real board game out of them (like computer monopoly). Or is it just that your game uses a "board game like world", like in various turn based strategy games (like the Total War series or Civilization), which resemble a board game but have too complicated a series of rules for it to work as a real one?

my game is categorized as the board game because player(s) need to throw dice to decide how many spaces to move. In the original monopoly game, players buy lands and pay toll when step on other players lands, and build houses to own's lands. In my game, players not only buy lands and build houses, but they need to manage the occupied lands, like adjusting tax rate, upgrading lands, defense the lands, etc. Also, you need to build army, the more populations you have the bigger the size of the army in each land. Like monopoly game, player throw dice and move along a path in cycle. Players gain experience in each battle and level up, the higher the level, the more army you can carry with you. I am still working on the battle system, which I haven't implement yet. That's the thing I need suggestions now. Thanks for your time.

You could rip off the axis and allies battle system it is pretty easy to use.
All units of an attack and defense rating of 1 to 4. In combat you roll one die for each unit and need to equal to or under their rating to score a hit. When attacking you use their attack rating and defending their defense rating.
For each hit scored remove one unit, and the battle ends when one side is wiped out or the attack withdraws

So if you attack with a knight a4/d1 and milita a1/d2, and the defender has 3 archers a2/d3

Then the attacker rolls 3 for the knight and the a 2 and 4 for the milita meaning he has scored a hit, while the defender rolls two 2s, and a 3 meaning they have scored 3 hits so the attackers are wiped out and one defending archer is killed.