Basic Combat

[sean]

Perhaps the core gameplay element of any adventure game like Eternal Dungeon is the combat between the heroic players and the dungeon's vile monsters.  Today we'll provide a basic overview of the Eternal Dungeon combat mechanics.

The dungeon map is laid out as a series of 1" squares.  Each square represents a position that can be occupied by either a player or a monster.

A weapon or attack has one of three attack types: short, medium, long, or far.  A short attack is only able to reach enemies that are on squares adjacent to the attacker, but not diagonally.

A medium attack is capable of attacking enemies in adjacent squares and can also attack diagonally.

A long attack can attack diagonally and can also reach any enemy that is two squares away in any of the non-diagonal directions, so long as a wall is not in the way.  A long attack cannot attack enemies in non-diagonal adjacent squares.

A far attack is made using bows, crossbows, or throwing daggers, and can be used against any enemy within line of sight.  A far attack cannot be used if any enemy's are adjacent to the attacker.  An enemy is in line of sight if a straight line can be drawn from the center of the attacker's square to the center of the enemy's square without crossing any walls.

Worry not, the actual instruction manual will include diagrams making all of that a good deal clearer.

Each player and monster has three vital numbers used for combat: his life, his defense, and his attack.  Each of these are determined by the character type of the player; some characters have more attack but less life, while others have more defense but less attack, and so on.  Attack and defense are also modified by any equipment the player has equipped.

The attacker rolls a number of dice equal to his attack number.  Each die roll is compared to the enemy's defense number.  For each die roll that is equal to or greater than the enemy's defense number, the enemy loses one life point.  If the enemy is reduced to zero or less life points, he is dead and is removed from the game board.

And that is about all there is to combat mechanics in Eternal Dungeon.  Short, sweet, and simple, as one would expect of an adventure game.

In general, players will have 4 to 12 life points, while monsters will usually have 1 to 3 life points.  Players will also have, on average, several more points of defense than monsters.  Super strong monsters are not the norm in the Eternal Dungeon, but small war bands are quite common.  Players will be pitted against many times their number in the average game session, so the odds of survival in any particular combat are in the players' favor.

There is some room for advanced rules, especially in regards to special types of monsters or items.  For example, a player may have a weapon called Orc Bane, which has an additional attack point when used to attack orcs.  Likewise, monsters like ghosts might have an extra 4 defense against all non-magical attacks.

Next update: spells and magic.