Saga Scale

I was looking through an art thread on rpg.net this week about epic heroic characters. A lot of the pics that were posted there made me think, “That would be a really cool Fight! character.” Now, I realize that a lot of these heroic anime-flavored characters with giant weapons (disproportionately disproportionate females, of course) were probably intended as Exalted characters. I don’t play Exalted, but I’ve always been flattered when people say that Fight! can do Exalted just fine. But for me, it’s just that I can’t be bothered to try to learn the details of the world – I don’t know my Solar from my Dragon-Blooded.

But I do think the idea of epic heroic fantasy is very cool. I have a desire to run such a game, complete with the social combat rules from Round 2, so that the PC warrior-philosophers could do war with armies while they engaged in philosophical debate with gods, all for the fate of the universe decided by the edge of a sword. Anyone with me?

So how best to have a Fighter do war against an army? I figured it was all a matter of scale. So I’m proposing a rule idea for anyone who wants to try it out. It is incomplete here, but I hope that I get to work with it more. For now, I’m calling it “Saga Scale Combat,” and it is a modification of the Thug Thrashing rules.

In the normal rules, Thugs gather in groups of up to 10 single individuals. In Saga Scale, each Thug in each Thug Group would represent a greater number: either 10, or 100, or even 1000 if you wanted enormously over the top battle scenes. So in the normal rules, a Thug Group of 10 would be 10 opponents. At Saga Scale 10, for instance, that same group would be 100 opponents. When the Fighter eliminated a Thug, he or she actually took out 10 rabble.

But as at least a token nod to realism, some changes need to made. For each step up the Saga Scale (i.e., 10, 100, 1000), all of the Thug’s Attributes are increased by one point. Thus, a Thug 1 at Saga Scale 10 would have Initiative and Damage of 1d4+1, Accuracy of +1, Defense 4, Life Save 3, and no Qualities. Furthermore, a Fighter’s Thug Thrashing Skill is halved (rounded down, minimum 0) for each step up the Saga Scale. Even a master at facing multiple combatants with Thug Thrashing 10 would only have Thug Thrashing 1 at Saga Scale 1000. Then again, this seems like a small price to pay for regularly defeating one to two thousand opponents per turn.

This is what I have so far. I know I need to change the time scale. Normally, each Time Count is about one second. I’m thinking that it should be 10 seconds at Saga Scale 10, five minutes at 100, and 30 minutes per Time Count at 1000. Thus, a battle against 30,000 opponents might take an experienced Fighter a whole day to defeat. And even these times might still be too quick.

I’m also thinking that using a Special Move means that that is the only attack you can make in a turn, but the Glory is multiplied by your Thug Thrashing +1. This makes Special Moves more special when they are used.

I know there is more that needs to be considered and playtested. But I thought it might be a cool idea. What do you think?

PS – Pretty off-topic, would anyone be interested in having some effects-based system similar to a simplified version of the Special Moves system to define how to use Magic, Psychic, Gadgeteering, and Power? Or are they better as narrative-driven powers?

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