Ramble - Hit Locations
I've been on record that I really don't like roll to hit. Something about the idea that a turn can end with "We spent 2 minutes to realize you do nothing" is a very bad feel. But you know what I do love? Lining up frantic headshots in Fortnite or lopping off a tail in Monster Hunter. I like cutting off storm trooper arms in Jedi Knight Academy or disabling Mechas' attacks by going for the weak-spot in Horizon: Zero Dawn. In short: I love hit locations.
THE BACKGROUND
This actually isn't terribly obvious from my design history. Steel Hearts was the first game I made to have any semblance of Hit Location, and in that game you just lose a random Part when you hit a critical state so it doesn't really count. This was mostly because I didn't really think much of Hit Location. Sure it's cool in stuff like Battletech or Mork Borg, but often it either felt too fiddly or too loose to warrant my attention.
That is of course until I played Cyberpunk 2020 (my most loved/hated game of all time). One instance in particular stuck out to me when a player Solo was raiding an underwater facility in my spin on Firestorm. He'd neutralized two operatives and handcuffed the third and my options to retaliate were slim, but then something occurred to me: Headshots deal extra damage. So of course in true 80s fashion I throw everything this operative has into kicking this Solo in the face then running away, and it was kind of magical because it did stun him and buy this operative time. It's a tiny simple thing, that absolutely could be achieved in an FKR environment, but the ways Cyberpunk gave a clear path to Hitting the Spot, was really freaking cool and a huge contributor in what led to that moment.
Fast forward a few weeks later and you get one of my all-time favorite blog posts: Ty's Nested Monster Hit Dice. An article I can't recommend enough and can't do justice in trying to summarize ((but the gist is that different parts of a monster can be targeted and are tied to vitals or different abilities, Monster Hunter / Horizon style)) and you get a newly born Hit Location Believer.
THE PRESENT
Which now brings us to today and the release of the much anticipated mecha game Celestial Bodies (which I highly recommend checking out). Aside from being one of the best looking games to come out this year, it also has some very neat mechanics [*1] and some especially neat Hit Location rules. You can actually read about said rules on the game's official blog, but the gist is this: Depending on your mech's weight you get a grid that lives on another 6x6 gird (with 1x1 as its origin point). This Mech Grid is where you put your thrusters, weapons and other important stuff. [*2] When you're hit (there's no roll to hit, just gotta be in range) you roll 2d6 to determine where. If it's off your grid the attack misses! If it's on it, you take damage accordingly and X out the spot on the grid you were hit (which not only can disable the part once all its squares are Xed out, but also now becomes a spot where you'll be dealt Critical DMG if it's hit). Additionally there's an Evasion/Aim system that lets you nudge those 2d6 accordingly. ((And this is before getting into how all the different weapon types cleverly play into this)).
To say this system is genius is an understatement. It collapses so many cool ideas (Hit Location, Light Frames being harder to Hit, Evasion / Aim, Mechs Slowly Breaking, Criticals) into one unified system that's incredibly easy to teach and equally easy to leverage via outside mechanics. You're only ever rolling 2d6 and then comparing/gently tweaking results. It's brilliant. So as with anything brilliant, let's break it down into wish-list features of what I look for in a Hit Location system, and what makes a good one.
HITTING THE SPOT
First and foremost, you can milk the most from a Hit Location chart if it facilitates interesting decision making. This means there needs to be some system for either calling hits, or better yet adjusting your rolls so that when making a hit it's not about If but Where. This keeps the action flowing and keeps players thinking. What's also cool about Celestial Bodies (and any game that lets you equip gear to specific locations, or take cover in certain ways) is that you are also making interesting Hit Location decisions when you're not attacking. How do you organize your grid? How much shielding will you add? Do you want backups or more guns? It's a very neat risk-reward, which speaking of...
Hit Location changes the circumstances of the battle. Did your thrusters get fried? Did your weapon get destroyed? This can all be tracked by a good Hit Location system, and means the battle is constantly evolving in ways that require adaptability. Battletech is a game I still have mixed feelings about, but the way that you have to pay attention to what's getting hit and how badly it screwed you, is really interesting! (As is shredding into a mech's back on a flanking attack).
Hit Location plays into player builds - Are you going for lots of damage everywhere or one strong hit to a location? Is your weapon best for cutting a tail or breaking armor? A good hit location system leverages the variety of equipment at a players' disposal and vice versa. Celestial Bodies is still interesting if every Frame is the same, and every gun is a pistol, but what makes the system truly sing is that its Hit Location is simple yet flexible enough to accommodate a variety of playstyles interacting with the mechanic in different ways.
Additionally a good Hit Location chart can reward player knowledge. Unfortunately you can't get this in Celestial Bodies without hacking it [*3], so we'll pivot back to Ty's nested hit dice. Making informed decisions is cool, but one of the most exciting parts of Monster Hunter (in my opinion) is poking at a monster's different hit locations and seeing what ticks. Often the important stuff is obviously telegraphed via visuals (break Kirin's horn to reduce the lightning attacks), but it's still cool to keep this knowledge somewhat hidden. Why? It'll mean that players who have fought a monster once will be better prepared to fight it again, and that in a larger campaign Players may be able to trade such information between each other as new monsters are encountered.
I think a last ideal thing to strive for is that Hit Location collapses mechanics. This is where Celestial Bodies really excels. Instead of rolling To-Hit, then Hit-Location, then Critical chance, then if a part broke, this is all perfectly honed down into a single, easy to understand, visually intuitive, and deeply interesting roll. Generally I'm a fan of anything that speeds up gameplay, and collapsing mechanics (along with lower health numbers) are a big part of that.
THE FUTURE
Alright this is the part where I ramble about my own games, so if you just wanted to get inspired and have ideas, go write in your notepad and follow that spark! For everyone else on your break from the never ending work-sleep grind who wants more to read:
I've been thinking a lot about WILD and Roll-To-Hit (in no small part thanks to this amazing blog post)... In many ways WILD was meant to be my challenge to myself to make Roll-To-Hit feel interesting, but more and more the game feels less and less like it needs it. Bliss, Hats and Cover mean Players actually aren't in huge amounts of danger in a straight up gunfight. Meanwhile bonuses and penalties to the actual Roll to Hit are few and far between. Plus having to Roll to Hit, then Hit Location, then DMG is not very Collapsed Mechanics of me. And it's intentional, but I question if it's really worth it for the bit.
I might still keep it as a nod to the Groggy games that inspired it but ehhh... I really like how Celestial Bodies implements its Miss mechanics and wonder what adapting that in a human-to-human conflict looks like. But maybe that's a different task altogether ((insert design exorcism about Knights vs Assassins or something)).
Additionally I've been thinking about boat rules ((because big galleons are the first thing you think of when I say "Reconstruction Era America" am I right?)) - and I like the idea of having a grid where missing means hitting an empty slot, and hitting a slot doesn't immediately mean the part is destroyed if it's big enough. In fact destroying a part in Celestial Bodies is lowkey kind of difficult unless you're building for it or are attacking a smaller unit, which I find really interesting! So who knows maybe there's something there.
Anyways I gotta eat lunch, but in summary: Hit Locations, yeah!
[*1 : So the Missile Rules. It doesn't really fit in too well here to talk about them but if there's one thing I love more than The Grid in this game, it's the Missile Rules. Essentially you spend a turn to deploy missiles then spend another to send them out ((and in between those moments, Enemies can shoot them out of the sky)). This is just so so so so cool and simple to execute. It's just brilliant, marvelous tech. The way they calculate hit location is also neat, but I love that it really captures that mecha missile storm feel. ]
[*2 : A lot of people are comparing it to Mausritter, but unless I missed something, you do have to draw and mark the Grid yourself, so that comparison feels a little off. Not that I'm against some good ol' DIY to make my own of course. However, considering the two creators are looking to expand the game, I can only assume this means somewhere down the line we'll get printable Character Grids and Print-&-Cut styled equipment sheets a la Mausritter, which would be stellar! (But even without those the game is fairly intuitive and not so fiddly as to be inaccessible without that - It gets 3/4 Creatures on my DIY Scale) ]
[*3 : So the game is 100% GMless which, put simply, isn't my wheelhouse. It's not a bad thing, to be clear, it's just not what I look for, and it's a headspace I struggle to get into. Hopefully I've sung this game's praises enough for it to also live rent free in your head regardless of that. And credit where credit is due; a lot of the mechanics are built to interact with the GMless play in interesting ways. Plus stuff like RUNE is growing incredibly popular and of course there's the ongoing GM Crisis. There's clearly a huge rabid audience for this sort of thing, and for those folks I cannot recommend this game enough! But this style of GMless is just really not for me for reasons I struggle to put to words, maybe that'll be another blog post. But first I want to talk more to Jay about GMful games, cause it's an idea that I really really dig. I think I've also just gotta try these in action more to see how they feel, you feel?
It's actually a big part of why I felt the need to write this blog post because there's so much cool about this game that I feel applies to non-GMless games that I couldn't stand the thought of these ideas never leaking outside that sphere - because trust me you should still check out what this game is doing even if you never intend to play it GMless! Also for what it's worth, the game seems dummy easy to hack into a GM vs Players game, so don't let this stop you from playing if it's caught your eye but you're not into GMless ~ ]
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