Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-08-2010, 05:26 AM   #1
LordHelmet
 
LordHelmet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Capital City, Germany
Default [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

For a while now I followed with interest Nymdoks attempts to create a way to balance melee enounters:

[GM] Individual Melee Combat Balance

[GM] At last! A combat Matrix is Born(sort of)

[Balance - Worked Example] Your basic Orc encounter



Finally I dicided to incorporate his works explained on his web page into an easy to use spreadsheet.

Goal is it to supply GM (especially ones with little experience in balancing melee encounters) with a tool that makes it quick and easy to check how dangerous planned encounters will probably be for the PC.


I used Nymdoks basic approach but added two little things that should generate more accurate resuts.

1. Included a factor that reduces the defense probability if you outnumber / or are beeing outnumberd by your foes. This ought to simulate that it is of advantge to outnumber an enemy with a limited number of defenses.

2. Accounted for HT-values. If someone has a high HT value it is more likely that he will successfully pass his HT checks when his HP reach a HP barrier (e.g. 0 HP, -1xHP, -2xHP etc.). Thus he will longer stay in combat which means that you have to inflict more damage to get him to the next HP barrier or until he finally reaches the ultimate -5xHP barrier.



Naturally this can not simulate the complexity of GURPS melee combat nor can it take into account the fast number of possible maneuvers and situations during a melee encounter. It is after all a strong abstraction. But it is still a tool that will help GM to get a feeling for the numbers involved in melee combat and possibly helps to balance future encounters in order to keep the PC alive. (Note: In order to keep PC alive the tool tends to err in favour of the PC.)



Please feel free to use the "GURPS - Combat Balancer v.1.0" and report any bugs as well as comment on this project and give suggestions for improvement.



Format: MS-Excel, GURPS - Combat Balancer v.1.1.xlsx, 54KB
Temporarily you can download the sheet from here. But since I can't constantly use this web space I would ask anyone who is inclined to help this project and has some web-space available to host it - thanks!

Last edited by LordHelmet; 07-15-2010 at 04:36 AM. Reason: update
LordHelmet is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-08-2010, 12:50 PM   #2
thalassogen
 
thalassogen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Ruhrgebiet, Germany
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

I like it! Thanks a lot!
thalassogen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-08-2010, 10:50 PM   #3
Nymdok
 
Nymdok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

Wow! Nice Work! Look forward to trying it out!

Nymdok
Nymdok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2010, 04:46 AM   #4
LordHelmet
 
LordHelmet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Capital City, Germany
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

I updated the Combat Balancer:


v1.1

The Combat Balancer works with average numbers for damage and DR. This lead to the problem that when the average DR was as high or higher than the average damage dealt, there was no possibility to inflict damage, even when the maximal possible damage could penetrate DR.

This has been fixed in the current version.
LordHelmet is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2010, 06:56 AM   #5
Lupo
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Torino, Italy
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

Quote:
Originally Posted by LordHelmet View Post
Format: MS-Excel, GURPS - Combat Balancer v.1.1.xlsx, 54KB
Temporarily you can download the sheet from here. But since I can't constantly use this web space I would ask anyone who is inclined to help this project and has some web-space available to host it - thanks!
You could easily host that excel file on a variety of free hosting services (or in Google Docs), but if you prefer, I can host it on my website (just as I do for the "Collection of GURPS Spells" you see on my signature).
Just send me a PM.
__________________
Lupo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-16-2010, 06:45 PM   #6
Mcoorlim
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Chicago
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

Does anyone have this hosted anywhere?
Mcoorlim is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-22-2022, 07:51 AM   #7
Shayd3000
 
Shayd3000's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Franklin County, PA
Default Re: [GM] Melee Combat Balancer

Is this file still alive somewhere?
Shayd3000 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
balance, combat, melee, spreadsheet

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:23 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.