This is part 2 of my system review of the admirable indie heartbreaker Heroes of Adventure. For part 1, please see here.
I’m going to promise not to break out the spreadsheets, here, but I think something that gets very neglected by reviewers is looking at the math core of a TTRPG system. Designers can have every innovative mechanic in the world, but if the math says that 65% of the time your fighting-mans miss trying to stab a goblin, then your fighting mans are going to feel like bumbling chumps. Anything players have a number to; they’ll hold as more important the bigger that number is. Of course, a key OSR insight is also that skill systems will also tend limit creativity…the magic user doesn’t see a skill named “Climb” anywhere in his sheet, so there’s nothing stopping him from trying to climb. So it's important, and Heroes of Adventure has an interesting take. One of the heavily advertised elements of 5E was “Bounded Accuracy”, a response to the huge proliferation of scaling bonuses in Pathfinder and 4E that led to highly specialized munchkins running around killing dragons at apprentice-tier. The designers of 5E carefully limited the bonuses to armor, to-hit, and everywhere else, and as a result optimization got strictly curtailed. Unfortunately, on the design side that meant that the only way to scale monsters became piles and piles of hit points, making combat a rather dull affair “by-the-book”, particularly for the Dungeon Master. There’s something similarly interesting happening here in HoA, where static roll bonuses are verboten (DEF and HLTH do go up, albeit fairly gently). Instead, there are six stats-which do not directly affect combat or magic- and a small number of skills that get invested in to gain a bonus die. This does some interesting things to the system’s bounded math. The first “point” a player invests into a skill is the biggest bonus, going from 0 to a d4, which averages out to +2.5. From then on, each increased die is only +1 on average, going 3.5 (d6), 4.5 (d8), 5.5 (d10), and finally 6.5 (d12). This is a little stronger than 5E’s Proficiency bonus (+2 through +6) and a little weaker than Pathfinder’s class skills (+4 at first up to +23 not counting feats and stats). As a system with advantage/disadvantage, it’s also easy to see when having a skill is more valuable than getting advantage (assume ~+4), that’s the third skill-up going from d6 to d8. Looking at the band of results here, a first-level character with a single skill investment is probably getting 2-24 on his checks, averaging 13 (17 with advantage). A fifth level (or tenth level) character highly specialized in a skill, finagling well for advantage, gets 2-32 on his checks, averaging 17 (21 with advantage). This is a fairly parsimonious increase and given weapon damage is die-only as well (with powerful weapons getting advantage on damage rolls), we’re in a tightly bounded math zone. No multiattack for your heroes, either. Being a d20 system, accomplishing tasks in HoA is rolling a d20+skill/ability and trying to meet or beat a target DC. Most tasks are in the standard 0-30 DC band, with 30 being the nice “nearly impossible”. As a note that means that “difficult” checks at 20 are still too much for a max-level adventurer over half the time. Monster ACs (DEF) reflect that band pretty well, with level 1 creatures averaging around DEF 11, and the top level 10 creatures average DEF 15. There’s better variety within the monsters than 5E, though, which is nice. PCs start with 8 DEF and get +1 every even level, so a wizard starts with 9 DEF in robes and ends with 15 DEF, while a specialized shield-and-armor fighter starts with 13 DEF and will top out around 21 DEF with the shield focus feat ability. That’s some decent differentiation, but before you get excited note that the best monsters get a d20 as their skill die, so even the armor-focused PC will be hit a little over half the time. So the system looks like it is biased toward failure in complex skill tasks, while hitting in combat is easy. Of course absent magic and special abilities (which we’ll get to), the other half of combat is of course damage, and this is even more tightly constrained. Damage is d4 to d12, and players don’t have any way to get more than two attacks (once per encounter, in the case of martial classes). Some monsters do, but not all…which is a good thing for the heroes, because they’re gaining a paltry +2 hit points per level…which means that your level 1’s are starting at 9-16 depending on race and class, and cap out at 27-34. Meanwhile, first-level enemies will be 5 HP on average, but the top threats can crack 150. That’s, uh…yeah, this is not a game that wants you fighting dragons toe-to-toe. Noted. Critical successes, by the way, do double damage while critical failures break your weapons, so there is a little swing to be had. Shield break rules are in effect, so experienced adventurers have a wagon loaded with spare shields used to nullify a single attack’s damage. Spells are interesting, most that have instant effects are a simple difficulty 10 magic check (magic is skill, like melee combat, ranged combat, and athletics)…not too punishing, although there are no spell slots and magic-users cast from hit points, which must be annoying early on. Nastier targeted spells are an opposed check, so you better invest heavily in that magic skill because at your best you’re rolling 1d20+1d12 against the 2d20 of the biggest threats. Despite the lack of formal saves my gut says you’re looking at about the same success rate as a Pathfinder spellcaster dealing with overcoming Spell Resistance plus the target’s save. In the end, it looks to me like Heroes of Adventure’s math expects the players to experience decent success early on, with hits easy even at the endgame but increasing lengths of time in fights. The d20 skill check system looks designed to make checks reasonably challenging throughout the course of the game, with heroes getting mildly better at the skills they focus on but able to broaden their abilities considerably. On a scale of “OSR” to “3.P”, you’re looking at something in the middle of road for PC power, with lower levels more competent than a B/X starting PC but more of an OSR feel by the time the heroes max out at level 10, even weaker than CMI/name level AD&D PCs in certain cases. Interesting as the skill die concept is, it’s not going to make an immense difference in the long run. But we all enjoy rolling more dice, don’t we? On to part 3...
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AuthorWeblog of Ben Gibson, the main writer and publisher of Coldlight Press. Archives
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