1. The primary inspiration for The Way of the Earth’s combat comes from Legend of the Five Rings and the Powered by the Apocalypse games.
If I had to describe The Way of the Earth to an experienced player of role-playing games with a single phrase, I would say that the Way of the Earth is to the Old Testament as the Legend of the Five Rings is to medieval Japan. The Way of the Earth is a fantastical, high action, high drama version of a historical period, in much the same way that The Legend of the Five Rings is. The Way of the Earth revels in the wider mythology and iconic themes of the biblical material, while still taking seriously the histories, cultures, and religions that flourished at that time. Astute readers of the Old Testament will find numerous parallels, mirrored characters, and subtly reimagined events in the Way of the Earth, like astute readers of Japanese history and mythology could for the Legend of the Five Rings. A compelling and sometimes under-appreciated design element of the Legend of the Five Rings is that it listens very earnestly to its source material to inform its game mechanics. The rings and the attributes, the honor and the glory, the swordsmanship schools, void points, and insight based character advancement are all heavily attuned to a fictional setting in mythic Japan. This leads to a profound continuity between setting and mechanics that is absent in many generic role-playing game systems. The Way of the Earth strives to treat its setting and its game mechanics with comparable care and wisdom.
In terms of combat, The Way of the Earth shares the Legend of the Five Rings lethality. While a single blow is unlikely to kill a player character outright, two very well could, and three almost certainly will. Combat is dangerous, and heroism in the face of overwhelming odds should be earned. While the vaishineph player characters in the Way of the Earth are naturally superior to many common foes, and can skillfully dispatch entire groups of foot-soldiers in a single action, there are a wide variety of supernatural antagonists available in The Way of the Earth who will make the player characters fear the game’s lethal system. On top of lethality, The Way of the Earth has feats, granted by a unique set of character classes, which award benefits comparable to the techniques of the Legend of the Five Rings swordsmanship schools. The Way of the Earth also uses a risk vs. reward bidding system, where higher bids can lead to more impressive results, although this system is only used for the casting of spell-like Whispers.
There are also two game mechanic themes in The Way of the Earth that are inspired by the Powered by the Apocalypse system, though modified and dressed in a light layer of fried crunch. The first is the idea of player driven action. In The Way of the Earth, like in several modern role-playing games (Powered by the Apocalypse games among them), the players are the only ones who roll dice to resolve actions. For combat, this means that when a player character attacks a non-player character, the player rolls to attack. When a non-player character attacks a player character, the player rolls to defend. The Powered by the Apocalypse games, especially Dungeon World, moved away from the idea of a “miss” being the only result on a roll. Something should always happen with a roll, good or bad. The Way of the Earth takes this principle to heart. When an attack fails in the Way of the Earth, more often than not, the target of the attack gets to counter attack in some fashion. Counter attacks are rarely as potent as normal attacks, but they still involve character agency and threat in a conflict. These two game mechanic themes combine in The Way of the Earth so that even when it is not the player characters’ turn, they are still rolling and making choices in response to non-player character actions. This means more opportunity for strategic choices and felt drama, and less opportunity for idle boredom.
2. Initiative in The Way of the Earth is narrative driven and sides go back and forth taking turns.
Instead of initiative and action order being determined by dice rolls or attributes, the initial initiative in a combat scene is determined by a narrative claim made by the players. The players position themselves in the environment and explain why they deserve the initiative over their opponents, with the gamemaster having the final say. But initiative only determines which side of a conflict goes first. When it is a side’s turn, the side can choose any of its characters to take one action. Once the chosen character acts, it is the other side’s turn, and the other side can choose any of its characters to act. The initiative then goes back and forth until all the characters on one side have taken an action, keeping in mind that no one character can act twice. When one side has chosen all of its characters to act, the other side can then take consecutive turns to finish off its remaining characters. Once every character has acted once, the players make another narrative claim to initiative, and another round of back and forth actions take place.
The system is simple, cuts down on rolling, and forces the player characters to make interesting compromises and strategic choices. Although it is somewhat beyond the scope of this short write up to discuss, there are also mechanics that allow two player characters to act simultaneously, or for opponent actions to be interrupted, or for large bonuses to be given to players willing to go first.
3. Successful attacks apply one of eight effects, and damage is only one.
An “attack” in The Way of the Earth is any maneuver which attempts to overcome a target opponent’s defenses. Characters do not choose the effects of their attacks until they have rolled them, though certain effects can only be chosen with certain weapons or when in certain situations. A successful attack allows one of eight basic effects (called ends) to be applied to the target. Blocking knocks a target back, deals minor damage, and raises the attacker’s defenses. Chasing corners and taunts a target, forcing them to engage or attempt to escape. Damaging deals a weapon’s full damage. Exploiting penalizes a target’s defenses for their allies. Hiding vanishes from the target’s sight and allows sneak attacks. Pushing manipulates the target into a harmful or compromised position. Snaring deals minor damage and entangles with the target in a grapple, forcing them to fight back or attempt to escape. And unarming deprives a target of one of its weapons or tools. Feats and magical Whispers provide even more strategic options on top of these, allowing players to carefully weigh their choices and produce a wide variety of outcomes from the same attack roll.
4. The math is light and simple, weapons are standardized and fall into easy patterns.
Weapons, mounts, armor, and shields are all classified as light, full, or heavy. All weapons of the same class deal the same damage, all mounts of the same class provide the same advantages, all armor of the same class resists the same amount of damage, and all shields of the same class provide the same defensive benefit. There are small benefits unique to each individual item, but generally speaking, gear sticks to the same patterns of benefits as the other items in its class. Damage also matters a bit less than in other role-playing games. Even a weapon with low damage can be powerful because it can help earn any of the other seven effects or ends described above. A masterwork dagger might not have the heft of a giant spear, but it might tear through an opponent’s defenses or set up sneak attacks with exceptional ferocity.
The classifications used for martial conflicts are mirrored in other types of conflicts too. There are social “weapons,” “shields,” and “armor” as well. They are also classified as light, full, and heavy, and they also provide the same pattern of benefits. Large scale military units and naval vessels also have analogous “weapons,” “shields,” and “armor.” Again, they are also classified as light, full, and heavy, and again, they provide the same pattern of benefits.
And this brings us to the final of the five points.
5. The Way of the Earth’s combat system is also its social conflict system and its large scale battle system and its naval combat system and its chase system and its…
Since an “attack” can be anything that attempts to overcome an opponent’s defenses, and since the effects or ends that a successful attack can apply are generalized and applicable to any kind of conflict, the Way of the Earth’s “combat” system is the same system for resolving any kind of conflict.
To give an example, let me describe three quick scenarios.
An assassin executes an intricate flourish, stripping a guard of their weapon.
A princess tells a slanderous joke, shaming a courtier for her gaudy outfit.
A line of spearmen crash into the side of a cavalry unit, unhorsing and scattering many among them.
In many role-playing games, these three actions and outcomes would use entirely different sets of game mechanics. In the Way of the Earth, all of these are simply successful attacks with unarming ends. All of them are resolved with the same, single roll, using the same conflict system. The only thing that really differs is the narrative drama surrounding them, the role-playing choices that lead to them, and the names of the tools involved. The assassin fights with a small, concealable weapon. But a small, concealable weapon is really just a light class conflict tool with many of the same advantages as other light class conflict tools. A slanderous joke and a spearmen's charge are also light class conflict tools. They deal different types of damage, appropriate to their individual arenas, but numerically, the damage, advantages, and mechanics for resolving the actions with the tools are the same.
Hopefully this gives the interested reader a brief look at some of the things going on under the hood in the Way of the Earth. I am very happy with the way the game’s mechanics are shaping up. With the foundations laid, it will not be much longer until the game is ready for mechanical play testing. Running simple conflict scenarios over and over again in search of bugs and other issues is an important step in the game’s development that I am very much looking forward to.
- ABH
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