Rift Walker Foes and Complex Resolution Rules

This week I will go through the rules for facing complex resolution scenarios in Rift Walker. You can see a breakdown of the concept linked here. But I will outline it in terms of the often-used combat encounter in a tabletop roleplaying game.

Foe Rules

Endurance and Will Power Stats

Fighting foes in Rift Walker is based on the reduction of hit points, like many tabletop games. In the game, while Rift Walkers (PCs) have 4 pools of attributes and hit points; Might, Speed, Mind and Social; this is rolled up into 2 grouped pools for foes; Endurance and Will Power. This is simpler and easy to manage for Rift Masters (GMs). RWs using Speed for ranged weapon attacks or Might for melee weapon attacks damage Endurance, which is the physical hit points of a foe. Using Social morale damage or critical Mind tactical hinderance reduces Will Power hit points. Reducing either to 0 ends the creature, either killing it of breaking down its mental fortitude. This of course, could be done earlier if a RM uses a bolt-on OSR style Morale table rule.

Moves, Actions and Protection

If a foe attacks a RW, a RM will roll or choose from a table of options for what a monster would do. This would normally force a RW to make a check of an appropriate pool. If they succeed, they avoid the attack, if they fail, they take an amount of damage to their pool, modified by armour which would be subtracted before damage application. This would of course make future checks in that pool harder for a RW, potentially starting a death spiral. I love that foes have multiple options for abilities, but are all simple, to keep me engaged as an RM. I like having a dice roll if I am mentally fatigued or can pick if I want a narrative moment to be special.

Foes typically have one action each round. This makes game play simple. Boss Foes however, have multiple actions as designated by an additional statistic written on an enemy line. When you combine this with the current version’s narrative turn order system; alternating RW turn, RM turn starting side determined by narrative context; this creates an engaging combat that is fast to resolve but still tactically rich. These multiple action foes will act on multiple different turns, whereas simple foes will act as a group on one turn.

If a foe with multiple actions is targeted by a Condition or Power that they do not want to affect them, if they have a remaining action left in a round, they may spend one of these (not using the action to attack), in order to negate the effect. This makes special monster exciting and dangerous to RWs but at the same time, they are spending a resource that is obvious to them, so that the player does not feel bad about using this resource.

Threat Stat

Foes also have a third statistic called Threat. These wear down thresholds of monster difficulty by reducing the number of (-) dice applied to checks. If you need to make a check to attack or defend against a foe, this amount would be applied to the pool before the check is made. RWs can choose to attack this modifier/pool/stat, by stating how they wish to hinder the foe and then making a check, if successful, they apply damage to the stat, based on their pool damage modifier. Note that foes do not have armour, just extra hit points in specific pools. This is usually reserved for boss monsters, or ones that are meant to be challenging.

Looking at previously designed monsters, I have written a whole blog post on it here. I have also shown the previous math for my game in this post. However, this system for foes is modified by a simple challenge rating to help RMs design foes.

Foe Statistics

• Endurance - 1-6d6 Physical HP

• Will Power - 1-6d6 Morale HP

• Threat - 1-6 (- to checks/HP)

• Moves

  • 1-3 Offensive (attack 1-4 pool types),

  • 4-5 Defensive (movement, armour, buff self 1-4 pool targets),

  • 6 Special (multi target, summon, buff other/debuff or other alternate moves

• Actions - 1-6

This system can be applied to any situation. This is outlined as I had mentioned above. However, in a combat situation, it could be applied to an environmental element or alternate objective. This could range from 3 statistics like said or a dingle d6 if it just needs that much “threshold of hit point removal done to it”. Similar to the idea of John Harper’s ‘clocks’; this could be a countdown that needs to be stopped in d6 rounds, this could be a fiery pillar that explodes fire, unless put out for d6 hit points of damage, or many other things.

Example Encounter

I have also come to learn over the years, like visible turn order or rolling in the open in games like Dungeons and Dragons, visibility of a map can be useful in a complex combat. Theatre of the mind is perfect for light or simple scenarios. I suggest the use of dice on maps to show these statistic totals to all involved. Like in the map below:

In this scene, the PCs (gold priest, warrior, scoundrel and mage) enter the ceremonial cultist room, in order to save the sacrifice of their friend (white heart) to the summoned Elder Beast (white skull). In the room are 3 regular Cultists (yellow numbers) and 2 Elite Cultist Warlocks (purple numbers). You can see that the green dice on the map represent the Endurance of the foes, the blue represent the Will Power, and red represent the Threat level. It keeps the numbers clear and out in the open. The elite and boss foes, have multiple dice, meaning more HP of various types. The mooks, or lower-level foes, have one die per stat, and no Threat level. The boss Elder Beast has multiple actions per turn, as represented by the white dice on their space. The lower left corner, you see that there is a mind blasting well of lost souls that can affect the RWs until taken care of. You will see its challenge represented by the light blue die. I have included the stats of the foes below:

Sample Stats

Cultist

Stats: E 1d6 W 1d6 T 0 A 1

Moves:

• 1-3 Ceremonial Dagger: Might (stab) or Speed (thrown) check to avoid d6 damage

• 4-5 Protect the Lord: Runs over to their leader or Elite and tales hit that they would take in reaction to RW attack

• 6 End Thyself in Their Name: Plunges dagger into themselves, giving remaining END and WP to Elder Beast, (up to max) – remaining can go to Threat level

Elite Cultist Warlock

Stats: E 2d6 W 2d6 T 1d6 (2) A 1

Moves:

• 1-3 Blast of the Unholy: Might (shock) or Speed (blast) check to avoid d6 damage – 2 targets per attack

• 4-5 Beast’s Gift: Provides 1d6 damage barrier to single target

• 6 Summon Cultist: Summons another basic cultist, using stats above

Elder Beast

Stats: E 3d6 18 W 3d6 18 T 1d6 (4) A 3

Moves:

• 1 Visions of Madness: Mind check else d6 damage – three targets

• 2: Rattled to the Core: Social check else 2d6 damage – all RWs

• 3: Smashing Sweep: Uses large tentacle to sweep the squares all around – Might check else pushed back 2 squares and d6 damage

• 4: Unnatural visage: random pool is checked else -2 Check Modifier Condition to PC and it.

• 5: Speed of the Spider: Elder Beast runs up walls and RWs one square away make Speed check else knocked prone, and stuck down (hindered speed condition) until might check to break or otherwise freed

• 6 Takeover: Social check else RW next action is attack nearest ally in whatever way possible

Well of Lost Souls

Stats: 1d6 HP (any) A 1

Moves:

1-6: Souls of the Damned: Mind check else 2d6 damage – all RWs

I hope you like the rules, send me an email if you try it out and have any feedback.