Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV
and let's face it, D&D style combat rules were all there were, even if they were re-skinned as blasters and ablative armor
|
Not true.
RuneQuest (1978) had attack and parry, damage and HP both general and to the body location, HP by attributes only, and no easy ways to raise attributes. Armor was non-ablative, and reduced damage taken, if present on that location.
T&T (1975) went the other direction - no rolls to hit, only relative damage, winners doing the difference, which was divided over the loser group evenly. Armor was still non-ablative, and reduced your individual damage taken.
Traveller (1977) had Rolls to hit, with armor as a modifier to be hit. And had damage to attributes.
Many did use close variants to D&D, but there were already options - tho' not everyone had access to them.
Dallas (1980) didn't even have physical combat .
While Melee was 1977, RuneQuest was in playtest, and shows that SJ wasn't the only one diverging. There was variation, and it was good.