Suggestion Surprise/Assassination Clauses for CRP

[FourthToInfinity]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to bring up something that I think should reasonably be included into the CRP System: Surprise Attacks/Assassination Attempts.

Just as one could do in any real life scenario, it wouldn't be terribly out of the question for some to take a less honorable route and make an attempt to attack someone out of the blue. The current system doesn't really abide that logic as, in no matter what scenario you are in, all parties involved have the same start to the fight, being technically automatically aware of when an unexpected attack is coming. No one is capable of constant 360-degree sight and sound detection, hence, surprise attacks.

I can make a few suggestions here, but I wouldn't want it to be the deciding factor for if this suggestion goes through, so please do keep that in mind.

Idea 1. Advantaged Attack Rolls: When attacking someone suddenly, you can roll advantage for any of the attacks you can take on that first turn.

Idea 2. Increased Damage: When attacking someone suddenly, you can roll advantage for any of the attacks you successfully hit that turn.

Idea 3. Penalties To Surprised Party's Turn: When attacking someone suddenly, your first turn is normal, but the defending party's following turn's attacks are either halved or the damage they do is halved.

Again, these are just ideas, but if better options are thought of, I'd say go for it, now onto Assassination.

Assassination is a rather sensitive topic to most, considering it is indeed an attempt on a target's life. However, if they are to be completely taken by surprise, and the attempt is made without them being able to react in time, there should indeed be dire consequences. I have a suggested solution for this possibility as well.

(1) Start of Attempt: Both the aggressor and defender roll a d100 if all conditions are met. Whoever rolls higher takes the cake. If the aggressor wins, proceed to the next step. If the defender wins, the attempt is foiled and regular combat may ensue.

Conditions for Initiation of Assassination Attempt:
1. Target must have an exposed vital area not covered by armor [Head or Torso]
2. Target must not be able to see the attempt. If they emote looking the other direction
prior to the beginning of the attempt, they cannot look back exclusively to suddenly
witness the attack.
3. Aggressor must be able to carry out the assassination, however, if they are within distance to be stopped in time by others within 1 block, they may roll a contested strength roll. If the aggressor attempting the assassination fails to succeed against however many contested rolls, the attempt it foiled right then and there.

(2) Succeeded Attempt: The aggressor wins the roll and meets all the conditions. They are able to roll a d20, and that will decide how effective the attempt truly is.

1-5: A wound equal to a quarter of the defender's health is dealt, they are not at risk of bleeding out, though.
6-10: A would equal to a third of the defender's health is dealt, they are not at risk of bleeding out, though.
11-15: A wound equal to half the defender's health is dealt, without proper medical attention within the next 7 turns, they bleed out.
16-19: A wound equal to half the defender's health is dealt, without proper medical attention within the next 2 turns, they bleed out.
20: A critical wound equal to the defender's full health is dealt, and there is no saving them.

Just as before, this segment is just a suggested mechanic. If these mechanics are not chosen, that is fine. My hope overall is for something like either of these to be implemented.

 

[sincerely_E]

The predominant issue with this mechanic, especially when adding a one-hit from full health to zero d20(it's a 5% chance, that's extremely high), is that it favours realism instead of the balance of a simple combat system.
Similarly you could start adding things like lethal poison and putting them to people's drinks. It sure as hell creates a logically superior way to kill someone, but it's hard to fit in the balance of roleplay versus say a book where there's only one writer.

Due to the competitive nature of a roleplay server, I think if a system like this would be implemented, it'd become the meta and essentially all fights would be started with the intent to fall into the criteria of assassination.

 

[FourthToInfinity]

The predominant issue with this mechanic, especially when adding a one-hit from full health to zero d20(it's a 5% chance, that's extremely high), is that it favours realism instead of the balance of a simple combat system.
Similarly you could start adding things like lethal poison and putting them to people's drinks. It sure as hell creates a logically superior way to kill someone, but it's hard to fit in the balance of roleplay versus say a book where there's only one writer.

Due to the competitive nature of a roleplay server, I think if a system like this would be implemented, it'd become the meta and essentially all fights would be started with the intent to fall into the criteria of assassination.

That's a 5% chance only after several conditions are met and a roll against the target is already succeeded. All of those things drastically reduce the likelihood of instant kills. And from what I've seen overall? Rolling a natural 20, which would be required for the instant kill, is not something terribly common in combat anyways. It's pretty clear to me that you only read the wounds themselves without reading the conditions for how many ways the attempt can go wrong before it even starts, so I ask that you do that before you come out like this accusing my proposition of being possibly game-breaking or meta-defining when it very pointedly is not.

 

[sincerely_E]

That's a 5% chance only after several conditions are met and a roll against the target is already succeeded. All of those things drastically reduce the likelihood of instant kills. And from what I've seen overall? Rolling a natural 20, which would be required for the instant kill, is not something terribly common in combat anyways. It's pretty clear to me that you only read the wounds themselves without reading the conditions for how many ways the attempt can go wrong before it even starts, so I ask that you do that before you come out like this accusing my proposition of being possibly game-breaking or meta-defining when it very pointedly is not.

I did read over the conditions! My point stands even with them in mind, thus the 'fights would be started with the intent to fall in that criteria'. I think the system could work with good spirit, but as seen from the countless crp arguments over the years, good spirit is sprinkled in little amounts when it comes to the competitiveness of crp and the pertaining goals.

 

[FourthToInfinity]

I did read over the conditions! My point stands even with them in mind, thus the 'fights would be started with the intent to fall in that criteria'. I think the system could work with good spirit, but as seen from the countless crp arguments over the years, good spirit is sprinkled in little amounts when it comes to the competitiveness of crp and the pertaining goals.

This isn't A-Slur or A-Slur 2. People are arguably more civil here, going directly to doubting their intentions is pretty unreasonable. Not to mention that yeah, strategic positioning and actions should be able to gain some benefits. If someone wants to try and position themselves in for this and very narrowly threads the dice needle, they should be able to reap some rewards. You can just as easily keep awareness around yourself from an IC perspective, and get out of those conditions. It could motivate the necessity for hiring bodyguards if you're concerned to go into certain areas, thus driving RP and generation jobs organically.