Hello,
I have finally gotten a chance to do a little playtesting of the game I designed. Or, am designing, I should say.
As I mentioned in my last post, the name of this game is Swords & Shields (or Armor & Axes). I really just had the mechanics written down at the time of the post, combat and magic and skills and that stuff. The basics.
I had no idea about anything game-world related. Where the game took place I hadn’t even considered. I had a good idea of when, because everyone is fighting with, ahem, swords and shields, but even that doesn’t really mean anything. Are we on Earth, or is this a secondary world? If it’s a secondary world, when is basically meaningless. At least in Earth time.
One of the things that hits you pretty hard when you try and write your own game, is just how much there is to think about. You can’t even get started unless you know something about the world you are playing in, which means some form of world building. And when you start world-building, if you are doing fantasy at least, that means trying to create a sense of wonder.
So this is what I decided:
I know it’s been done a million times, but some of my favorite stories, at least fantasy ones, have had something to do with Atlantis. Whether it’s anime, like Escaflowne, or Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which is itself a retelling of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which I read as a kid, or the first Tomb Raider game, or even the world of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, which references Atlantis in important ways, the legend of this lost city always seems to come up. And when it does, it’s never unwelcome. I, like most people I guess, find the legend intriguing.
It makes you wonder.
So that’s where I decided to set the game, on the island of Atlantis. This way, there can be legendary creatures, like minotaurs and dragons, because of the magic and mystery surrounding the island, and also be far enough in the past that people still fought with swords and shields.
The details are hardly all worked out, but I’ve ironed out the basics. I’m just going to relay them as the playtesting goes, though. There’s no real reason to go into everything up front.
So here is the scenario.
We have two characters: Tim and Sandil. They are both on a ship sailing towards Atlantis.
Tim is a young adventurer. Sandil is a young woman searching for a savior foretold in the prophecies of her village. Neither have ever been to Atlantis, nor know anyone who has. It was difficult even to find a captain willing to take them there.
Here are their stats, rolled the usual way:
| Name: Tim | Weapons: Long Sword (D6) |
| Might: 12 (14) +2 | Armor: Studded Leather (D4) |
| Proprioception: 12 (14) +2 | Level: D4 |
| Fortitude: 11 (13) +1 | Shield: Wooden |
| Intelligence: 16 (16) +3 | Shield HP: 100 |
| Knowledge: 14 (14) +2 | HP: 6 |
| Charm: 11 (11) | Spells: |
| Skills: | Heal |
| Conditioning | Ignite |
| Acrobatics | Shock |
| Bushcraft | Cure |
| Purse: 10 silver coins | Sleep |
| Name: Sandil | Weapons: Bow (D20) |
| Might: 11 (11) | Armor: Leather (D2) |
| Proprioception: 10 (10) | Level: D2 |
| Fortitude: 11 (11) | Shield: Leather |
| Intelligence: 12 (14) +2 | Shield HP: 50 |
| Knowledge: 8 (9) -1 | HP: 4 |
| Charm: 12 (12) +1 | Spells: |
| Skills: | Heal |
| Concentrate | |
| Linguist | |
| Cooking | |
| Purse: 20 coppers |
I’m not going to explain everything related to the stat blocks now, it will all come out at some point. I will make a note on the Concentrate and Conditioning skills though. They are the reason some of the basic stats changed. Conditioning increases the base physical stats, and Concentrate enhances the mental.
The number of spells a character can cast is determined by the sum of their Intelligence and Knowledge ability modifiers. There is no other requirement for spellcasting, but that is the only way.
So just as Sandil and Tim’s ship is in sight of Atlantis, they are attacked by none other than a kraken.
I figured you might as well start the story with a bang.
In the bestiary, it says that the kraken automatically sinks your ship if you don’t defeat it in ten rounds. I shortened this to five to reflect the fact that both Tim and Sandil are passengers, and they don’t make their way up onto the deck to see what’s going on until the sixth round.
But they do, and enter combat.
A kraken’s main attack is called “Slap”, and they can do this attack four times per round, to reflect the fact that they have multiple arms. Slaps can be against multiple opponents or multiple slaps against one, or whatever combination thereof.
I figured there would at least be five or six crew members on the deck, which would mean that Sandil and Tim had roughly a 50/50 chance of being targeted per round. So I had them roll a D2 (flip a coin) at the start of each round to see if they were.
On round six, Tim was targeted but not Sandil.
And this is where I had to make my first assumption.
In this game, you have three available defensive maneuvers: you can dodge, you can block (with a shield), or you can parry (with a weapon). All three require a Level Die roll, for both the attacker and defender. Parries also require a Weapon’s Die roll.
The Weapon’s Die is pretty self-explanatory, it’s simply the strength of your weapon.
The Level Die is also pretty self-explanatory, it’s your character’s level. And your character’s level always corresponds to a particular sided die. So there are D4 characters and D6 characters, but no D5 characters, because there’s no such thing as a five sided die. When you level up, you move up to the next largest die.
Here’s the thing, it’s easy to figure out the player character’s Level Die. It’s obviously simply their level, and that can be increased by milestones or XP or treasure or however else you want to do it.
But what about a kraken? What level is that?
What about a zombie? Or a skeleton?
Should these levels be fixed, like a zombie is always a Level D6. Or should there be Level D6 zombies and Level D10 zombies, at the GMs discretion? And their HP would change accordingly as well as potentially their usual Total Damage attack, because their Level Die would be greater, which would also make it harder to dodge or parry their attacks?
I honestly don’t know, but that’s what this playtesting is supposed to help me figure out.
So what I did was make the kraken a Level D10.
So back to Tim, he has to try and dodge the kraken’s Slap attack, because that’s the only defensive maneuver available against it. A block I didn’t think would do anything against this attack, and you can’t parry a tentacle. So in the bestiary it says you can only dodge the Slap attack.
To dodge, you have to roll your Level Die against the attacker’s Level Die, and if you outroll them, you dodge. It’s that simple. Ties go to the dodger. So obviously if the attacker rolls a one on their Level Die, they miss.
The kraken, unfortunately, did not roll a one on its Level Die (D10). It rolled a seven. Which means Tim doesn’t even need to roll, because his Level Die is only a D4 (because his level is D4). So the most he can roll on that die is a four, which obviously doesn’t beat a seven. No need to waste time and roll a die, he simply fails to dodge. (If the kraken had rolled a four or below on its Level Die, then you would roll Tim’s Level Die, to see if he beats it. Unless the kraken rolled a one, in which case it misses automatically.)
Now you roll the Weapon’s Die for the kraken. All attackers in the game have a Weapon’s Die, regardless if they actually have what’s commonly thought of as a weapon. “Weapon” is just used in the broadest terms here. A kraken’s “weapons” are its tentacles. Similarly, its “Armor” (for purposes of Armor Die rolls) is its skin. A tiger’s “weapons” are its fangs and claws. A rhinoceros’ “armor” is its thick skin. These all would have different associated die.
Anyway, the Weapon’s Die for a kraken’s Slap attack is a D16 (2D8). This was a total guess on my part. Never tried it before until now.
It rolls a three on the first D8, and a two on the second D8, for a Total Damage of five.
This does not mean Tim takes five HP damage. He has to now roll his Armor Die and see how much that mitigates the damage. He is wearing Studded Leather armor, which has an Armor Die of D4. So that’s what he rolls.
He rolls a three.
So he subtracts three from the five Total Damage from the kraken’s attack, and receives two HP damage. Which means he now has four HP left.
Sandil is not targeted.
Usually, in this game, the players have the initiative. You don’t usually roll for it unless both parties are surprised. But I thought in this situation they had basically wandered into an ambush, so they go second.
Tim decides to take a gamble and cast Shock, because the kraken is in the water and would therefore take double damage against an electricity spell.
It’s a gamble because in this game the cost of magic is that it also does damage to the caster. The amount is the difference between the caster’s Level Die roll, and their level. This would then be reduced by their Armor Die.
So here, Tim rolls a D4, because that’s his level, and rolls a one. This means he receives three residual damage from his spell (which hasn’t been rolled yet). He would then make an Armor Roll (in this case, another D4 because it’s Studded Leather Armor) and then reduce the residual damage by that number.
He does so and rolls a two. So he only receives one HP damage from casting Shock. Three minus two.
The Spell Die for any spell is always a D20. Unless it is a very special spell and could be more. But it’s always a minimum of a D20. This is the damage die for attack spells.
He rolls a D20 and it’s terrible: a three. He still gets to double that because the kraken is in the water, but that’s only six damage to the kraken’s HP. So it cost him one of his own HP to take down the kraken’s by six. But if he’d rolled a twenty, for example, he could have doubled that to forty, and defeated the kraken right there. So it was a gamble.
Sandil decides to cast Heal on Tim, because his HP is only at three. She does so.
Healing spells work the exact same way as attack spells. The caster still takes damage.
Sandil rolls her Level Die, in this case a D2 (flip a coin). She rolls a one, which means she receives one residual damage. She then rolls another D2 (simply because that’s the Armor Die for Leather Armor, which she is wearing) and comes up with one again. So no damage.
Honestly, you could simply skip that step in this case, because for a level D2 character there is no way they will actually take HP damage from casting any spell because the most residual damage they can possibly take is one. And if they are wearing any armor at all the lowest roll they could make on an Armor Die is also one. So it cancels out in every situation. The only situation it doesn’t, is if they aren’t wearing any armor. Like they are just wearing traveller’s clothes or something.
This makes it easier for lower level character to still cast a spell without using up their limited HP. In this case, Sandil only has four HP total. But a higher level character still has an advantage when casting a spell, even if the Spell Die never changes, because their Level Die roll is added to the attack damage.
Sandil then rolls the Spell Die (you can just roll this at the same time as the Level Die if you want), and comes up with seventeen. So Tim receives eighteen total HP (one more is added because of the Level Die roll of one), which is well above his max. So he is at full health.
End of round six. The rest will go much faster because I don’t have to explain how everything works.
Tim is targeted again, but not Sandil.
Tim fails to dodge. The Slap is five and four (2D8) for nine Total Damage. He rolls a one on his Armor Die. So eight HP damage. He only has six. He’s knocked incapacitated.
Sandil casts Heal again. She rolls a twelve on the Spell Die and a one on the Level Die, so thirteen HP total goes to Tim. He’s back on his feet but can’t attack this round because you lose your turn if you’re incapacitated at the start of your sides’ turn.
End of round seven.
Neither Tim nor Sandil are targeted this round, but two sailors are down.
Sandil is up close, so she decides to take a shot with her bow.
For ranged weapon attacks in this game, you have another die to roll, in addition to your Level Die and Weapon’s Die. And that’s the Distance Die.
The Distance Die corresponds to, (cough), a distance. There is a table in the rules. From one to five squares away the Distance Die is a D2. You have to roll a one on any Distance Die in order to hit your target. So from one to five squares away, you hit your target fifty percent of the time.
The reason for taking this gamble is that you get to do so from five squares away (potentially) and also because the Weapon’s Die for a bow is a D20, making it one of the most powerful weapons in the game. You also add you Level Die roll to the Total Damage.
So Sandil is less than five squares away from a tentacle. She takes aim, rolls the D2 Distance Die…and rolls a two. She misses. And loses an arrow.
Tim decides to cast Shock again. Rolls another one on his Level Die, so three residual shock damage. He rolls a D4 Armor Die (for studded leather armor), and rolls a two. So one damage goes to his HP, which brings it down to five.
The Spell Die roll is another weak one, a six, which doubles to twelve because of the water, so the kraken has received eighteen total HP damage over the course of the battle so far.
End of round eight
Tim is targeted again, Sandil isn’t.
The kraken’s Level Die roll for its Slap attack is a five. Tim can’t dodge it.
The Total Damage for the Slap attack is ten.
Tim’s Armor Die roll is a three, so it reduces the HP damage to seven, but that’s more than he has. So he’s incapacitated again.
Sandil casts Heal again. Tim is revived to full health.
End of round nine.
Both Tim and Sandil are attacked this round.
Tim is hit, again. The Total Damage of the Slap is twelve. He is incapacitated again. Don’t even need to roll anything for him.
The kraken winds up with its tentacle to attack Sandil…and rolls a one on its Level Die! It misses!
Sandil casts Heal on Tim. He gets up.
But this is the end of round ten. If you don’t defeat a kraken in ten rounds, it sinks the ship.
In a terrible shriek of shattering timbers, the ship breaks up.
Tim and Sandil dive into the ocean, grab hold of one of the timbers, and start paddling towards the distant lights of the island…
They wake up washed ashore the beaches of Atlantis. Tim has the Bushcraft skill, so he builds them a shelter and finds them something to eat.
He thanks Sandil for saving his life in the battle with the kraken and pledges to help her find this savior she is looking for as long as she is on Atlantis. She demurs, but he insists. So she agrees and they become partners.
End of the fist adventure.
So what are my thoughts?
Well, first, it sort of worked the way I expected it to in a lot of ways. Tim got flattened every round, but that’s how it should be. Why would a Level D4 character stand much of a chance against a kraken? Part of this playtesting is to try and achieve encounter balance, and I don’t think it’s too far off. But, of course, I’d have to try it out with different level characters. But for D2 and D4 characters against a kraken, it seems about right. They’re going to lose.
I’m not sure about the residual magic damage being reduced by an Armor Die. I’ll have to play many more battles before I’m confident with that mechanic. Maybe the residual magic damage should just go directly to HP loss.
Also, with dodge, I wonder if the Proprioception ability modifier should be added to the dodger’s Level Die. That actually makes a lot of sense. In one of these rounds, the kraken rolled a five on its Level Die. If I added the +1 Proprioception ability modifier that Tim has to his D4 Level Roll, he could potentially dodge that attack. As it was, I didn’t even roll it, because there’s no way to reach five.
This also would make intuitive sense.
Anyway, it seemed to be fun to play, which is the most important thing and brought the most relief from me.
Thanks for reading, and will be back soon with more of the adventure.
Update 10/30/2026:
So I ran the battle with the kraken about twelve times this afternoon, a couple of times with Tim and Sandil at their current levels, and then the rest with them at levels D10 and D8 respectively. I upgraded their weapons and armor appropriately too.
There was some good and some bad with this playtesting.
A few notes though first.
I changed the kraken’s HP from thirty to seventy five. I was way off with my initial estimates.
I also changed the double damage from Shock because of the water. It just does regular damage now.
And the Heal spell residual damage is not mitigated by your Armor Die roll now. That actually doesn’t make much sense. It’s not an attack spell, so what would armor have to do with anything?
Okay, so after about ten battles at levels D10 and D8, Tim and Sandil won all but one. But they were hard won. Sandil died several times and Tim had to fight on alone. But they won most of them.
This would suggest that the kraken is a relatively balanced monster. Because two characters of levels D10 and D8 should be able to best a single monster of level D10. But it shouldn’t be easy. Especially considering that the kraken can attack four times a round. That meant that it targeted both characters twice per round, and sometimes Tim up to four.
It seems like a good way to judge balance. D10 characters should be able to stand up to another D10 adversary. D6 characters should be able to stand up to other D6 adversaries. I’ll have to play those scenarios out, but it might be a good idea to try and balance it towards something like that. It’s intuitive.
In order to come up with Tim and Sandil’s HP at level D10 and D8, I tried two different methods. My first method, and the one I used to create the stat blocks above, is to roll their level die three times and add them up.
But there’s a problem with this, in that it’s obviously possible for a D10 character to roll three ones. It’s not particularly unlikely that you could lose HP when you level up that way. And that won’t do.
So instead, I think you should just roll the next level die up, the one you’re moving to, and add that to your total HP. You would just roll three times at level D2. Then when you move up to level D4, you just roll a D4 and add that total to your HP. Then roll a D6 at the next level-up, and add that total to your HP, etc.
Anyway, some of the bad now.
This fight with the kraken is just a lot of random rolling. It doesn’t feel tactical at all.
I hope this just reflects the fact that the kraken is not a particularly tactical adversary. I mean, how tactical can it get while fighting such a thing on the deck of a rollicking ship? And you can’t even use two of the defensive maneuvers available in the game. All you can do is try and dodge and then cast Shock and shoot some arrows at it. Cast Heal occasionally. In all of the dozen battles, that’s literally all that happened. Just tried to dodge every Slap and then cast Shock and shoot an arrow at it. Rinse and repeat.
This just occurred to me. Maybe Shock shouldn’t do double damage, that’s too much, but maybe the kraken should be weak against it, and so they have disadvantage on their Armor Die roll. I literally just thought of that, but I think that might be a better idea than double damage or nothing at all.
I think that’s it for the kraken battles though. I hope the more normal adversaries are more interesting.
I have an idea for the next encounter, and it concerns pirates…