Mago System of Vonda [MSV]
Dice Guidelines for Personal Combat

The following combat system was designed with the following goals in mind:

· Make "stringing/cheating" more difficult.
· Keep similar balance with standard "2d20-2d25" system between character types.
· Speed up the pace of combats, particularly practice or show spars.
· Allow for all fighters to always roll the same dice, skill defines the interpretation of   these rolls rather than the type of dice used.
· Be easily modifiable for future additions or special SL specific rules.


Basics

· Dice rolling: 1d100 is the die roll that forms the foundation of this system. All or nearly all rolls in combat will involve the roll of 1d100 (“//roll -sides100 -dice1”). Regardless of what combat ‘dice’ or skill your character or NPC has, 1d100 is rolled.

· Combat Skill (CS): A character’s “combat skill” (or CS) determines what numbers are good or bad to roll for that character. The higher your dice rating, the better. On the standard 1d100 roll, anything your roll equal to or below your dice rating is success; conversely, any roll above your ability rating is a failure. You still always roll 1d100 for combat. You never succeed if you roll higher than your dice rating.

· Damage and wounds: A success in combat does varying damage depending upon how high you rolled, the higher the better. Damage is equal to 1/15 the number you rolled, rounded up, with a maximum damage of four.

. If you rolled higher than your dice rating, you do NO damage, ever. This means the higher you roll, while not exceeding the dice rating, the better, and more damage you will do. There is a chart for this:

Roll	1 - 15	16 - 30	31 - 45	46 - to CS rating	over CS rating
Damage	1	2	3	4	0

· CriticalHits/stunning: A successful roll that ends in ‘0’ is a critical hit, which normally means you stun your foe. This allows you an additional, free turn to attack the stunned person. This free attack occurs immediately, before the stunned foe can take any action (other than to describe the results of your stunning attack, “Pa-Kur staggers drunkenly, eyes blinking as he fights for focus”). Note that you may stun your foe consecutively with similar effect, so it is possible to pound a stunned foe to the ground before they can return any attack, with exceptional luck. Note that critical hits may have additional effects, as defined in particular SL’s or further rules for given situations.

· Initiative: To start any combat, all involved roll against their CS for initiative on 1d100. The character with the highest Effect Number/Damage from this initiative acts first. If both fail (roll over their combat skill), or on ties, reroll initiative.

· Conversions: From RRaMC or compatible systems, dice are converted to CS by this formula: (old dice type -20) 5 +50. This converts as follows:

2d20	CS 50 (woman)
2d21	CS 55 (man/weapon-trained woman)
2d22	CS 60 (typical warrior)
2d23	CS 65 (veteran warrior)
2d24	CS 70 (elite warrior)
2d25	CS 75 (legendary warrior)

Comparisons of the 2d20+ system and the 1d100 system of combat

Stats from the old 2d20+ system	2d20	2d21	2d22	2d23	2d24	2d25
% to Hit	51%	56%	59%	63%	66%	69%
Average Damage per Round	0.70	0.84	0.96	1.09	1.20	1.47
Average Rounds to 15 Damage	22	18	15	14	13	10

Stats from the 1d100 system	s50	s55	s60	s65	s70	s75
% to Hit	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%
Average Damage per Round	1.1	1.3	1.5	1.7	1.9	2.1
Average Rounds to 15 Damage	14	12	10	9	8	7

Stats comparing the systems	s50/2d20	s55/2d21	s60/2d22	s65/2d23	s70/2d24	s75/2d25
% to Hit ratio	.98	.98	1.02	1.03	1.06	1.08
Average Damage Ratio	1.57	1.55	1.56	1.56	1.58	1.43

These ratios show that % chance to hit is very close between systems, and that the 1d100 system increases the damage output for a character by about 1.55 rather uniformly. Characters maintain their relative strength in combat in the new system, all do about 50% more damage than in the 2d20+ system. Spars will end more quickly on average as intended.