How To Play

First off: when you hit Start Game, make sure your on the Introduction page (or hit Start Over) and then hit Reset Game. That will make sure all the variables are reset correctly.

A lot of the mechanics are handled by hiding the "wrong" options, ie if the roll says you hit, then it simply prevents you from seeing the You Miss option. But that means you still have to advance through a lot of chapters that will look fairly repetitive until I get some decent flavor text up. Sorry, but that's the nature of the beast.

A coin flip determines who goes first, you or your opponent. After that you each take turns attacking & defending until someone wins. (Or you get bored and quit I guess.)

For both attack and defense, you'll be asked to choose from 3 different maneuvers; your opponent's moves are chosen randomly.

Attack Maneuvers
Punch - Fist meet face. The easiest to hit with, but does the least damage.
Kick - Boot to the head. Harder to hit, but does more damage.
Knife - Now you're getting serious! Even harder to hit with, but does the most damage.

Defensive Maneuvers
Block - You parry. Take the hit on your arms to reduce the damage you take.
Dodge - Get out of the way. Makes you harder to hit, but doesn't reduce damage if you get hit anyway.
Retreat - Fall back out of reach. Makes you even harder to hit, but you're at a disadvantage on your next attack.

(Note if you retreat too many times you'll find your back is against the wall and retreating will no longer be an option; same for your opponent.)

Combat is resolved by comparing your combat skill against that of your opponent, modified by a Random Number Generator (RNG) to keep it interesting. Damage is reduced by the target's Toughness.

You and your opponent alternate attacks until one of your Heath is reduced to 0.

For this initial beta, both you and your opponent have identical stats.

That's really all you need to know to play. Keep reading if you want to see how the actual mechanics works to help you test if they're working right (or if you're just curious), or else skip down to proceed to the fighting.

Game Mechanics
Each fighter starts with 3 stats: Skill, Toughness and starting Health. For this test I gave both fighters the same stats; we can change it up later

Stat Player Dinah
Skill 6 6
Toughness 8 8
Health 40 40

Each fighter has 3 attack maneuvers and 3 defensive maneuvers. Again for the first version they both have the same ones:

Attack Bonus Damage
Punch +1 4d6
Kick +0 5d6
Knife -2 7d6

Defense Bonus Extra Effect
Block +0 +3 Toughness if the hit still lands
Dodge +1 None — balanced, no-strings option
Retreat +2 Best evasion, but -2 to your next attack

Location: You an your opponent start together at 10, and the room goes from 7-13. (I wanted to do -3 to +3 but that didn't work out. If you retreat, you'll back up towards 7. If you get to 7, you'll find yourself Cornered, with your back against the wall and retreat will no longer show up as an option; same for your opponent if she reaches 13. At the moment there is no other penalty for being Cornered beside not being able to retreat indefinitely. Also currently there is no way to force a fighter backwards, it only happens when they retreat.

To Hit formula:
[Skill] + [3d6] + [attack bonus] - [Opponent's Skill] + [3d6] + [defense bonus] => 10 or better hits; 9 or less misses.

Damage Formula:
[roll damage dice for that maneuver] - [target's Toughness] + [block bonus is any] => subtract from target's Health.

If either player's Health drops to 0 or below, they have lost and the game ends. (Eventually there'll be flavor text and images here.)

Note that you Health is not supposed to go above 40; in some cases that can happen temporarily but the system should filter and catch that at the end of the Round.

Note: I used AI to help build the mechanics and structure, but I'm writing all the flavor text myself. (Which granted is pretty sparse at the moment.)