Hi, there’s something I don’t understand about combat. The manual says to roll as many dice as your BODY value, but to consider all of them, not just the highest one. In that case, though, what’s the difference between having a high BODY value and a low one? If you have to consider all the results anyway, there’s no difference between having 1, 3, or 1,000.
Am I missing something here?
I'm not sure if I'm understanding correctly, but taking into account each d4 result definitely changes depending on your BODY score. If you have 1 BODY, you roll 1d4 on the example combat table (pg 8). Let's say you roll a 3, you deal and take 1 damage. If you have 3 BODY, you roll 3d4. If you roll, say, three 1s, you take 6 damage because each d4 resolves individually. If you have 1,000 BODY, you'd roll 1,000d4. If you rolled all 4s, you'd deal 2,000 damage.
However, these are just examples to show you what you can do in your game/how to change the original d4 table to fit your needs. In the example, the combat tables would replace the base CC table. So you wouldn't also label it a "absolute/partial failure/success." But you could do that. You could make it so that each weapon in your game rolls on a different d4 table. For combat in one of my upcoming games, a melee weapon has a different results distribution than a ranged one.
I hope that makes sense and that I answered your question! If not, I can keep trying to clarify. Thanks for checking out CC!
I think my confusion stems from the fact that BODY is described as “Roll to resolve risky physical actions,” so it’s presented as something that helps the player fight if they have a high value. But since 1d4 can roll anything from 1 to 4, rolling the d4 multiple times doesn’t translate to more damage or a higher chance of hitting. In fact, it could be the opposite: I put 3 points into BODY because I want to fight well, and I roll 1, 1, and 1, while a player who puts only 1 point into BODY might roll a 4. So in the second case, that player would perform better in combat than in the first.
Okay I think I understand. Bear with me for one sec lol. The first example I gave has an Expected Value of 0.75. You should expect to deal and receive 0.75 damage on any given roll. Adding more dice means you'll deal more damage but you're at risk of taking more damage in equal measure. I liked that *idea* for the example.
But the fact that I said that BODY resolves risky physical actions gives the impression that a higher BODY stat should always reduce risk instead of widening the distribution. Is that what you're saying? If so, I can see how that's confusing. I'll rewrite the stat descriptions soon to remedy that. I personally like wacky distributions but that's not the issue here. It's more about the math needing to match the description for clarity. Thank you for engaging with the system and considering its ideas seriously. And taking the time to reach out! Time is so valuable and you spent some of it with my art.
