Reflections on Hammercalled Playtest 6/9

I playtested Hammercalled with a new group in a low-power sci-fi military campaign yesterday, and it showed some elements of the system that I think are worth noting.

First, the low-powered attributes thing is a problem when combined with low-tier gear. One or the other might be okay, but the system doesn't really do well when combat slogs through slowly. We've tried to reduce the number of options that players have to consider in combat, but that just means that the combat feels bland if it goes on too long.

One of the things I want to add to the GM section is a sort of "Guide to power level", and break down how different character creation combinations can reduce the power level of the game. For instance, reducing 2 Gear Points and 1 Talent Point in character creation can make characters who are still generally competent but don't have a whole lot of issues with daily life.

-5 to the attributes from the base starting point is really rough for characters, and it just doesn't seem to make good play. It correlates to a massive drop in damage potential that's invisible to players, and that's just a recipe for problems down the road.

Enemies with armor really showcase some of the issues, so I've already improved the armor-penetrating weapons by combining them into a single quality with one point to remove half armor (rounding down), two points to remove all armor, and a boost to ignore armor qualities. The corrosive quality is also going to be useful, I suspect.

One thing I'm really thinking about doing is changing how Reactions work in combat by removing the melee combat response rule (it's complicated, a pain to deal with, and doesn't really make sense given other boosts I've given to melee attacks), and adding a system called Adrenalin, which lets players assign a +10 boost to any combat roll, both on attack and defense. This would boost damage output a fair deal (and could be used with attacking NPCs if needed; perhaps something minions don't get?).

I also need to add formal horde rules. Right now I'm thinking that the enemy types should basically be:

• Minion (1-hp easy kills)
• Minion Hordes (Bunches of minions, getting some bonuses for numbers, easily targeted with blast and multi-attack weapons: this is just a special handling case for minions, not usually distinct enemies)
• Opponent (regular but not elite enemies with a stamina pool)
• Threat (elite enemies with a stamina pool and Adrenalin)
• Titans (vehicle-rule based enemies; have a high damage threshold and only take "hits" rather than using the stamina/wound system to reflect bosses, vehicles, or really big enemies).